Anonymous wrote:Has he done SAT prep? It might be worth spending a little on that to bring up the SAT scores as that tends to be what drives merit aid. Some schools use aid to bring in higher scoring students to up the average. A low to average SAT may not do it.

Take a look at Hobart in NY. They are pretty generous with aid and it might be a good fit.

Anonymous wrote:Would he go south? I had a wonderful time at Tulane and they give lots of merit aid. He seems to have the stats for it.

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Would he go south? I had a wonderful time at Tulane and they give lots of merit aid. He seems to have the stats for it.


Yep. He's open to pretty much anywhere. I was under the impression that Tulane's pretty selective though..


Looks like it's VERY Greek though. That could be an issue for him..

Anonymous wrote:DS is a junior and we're getting into the thick of college searching. He's a good student, but not a superstar (3.8 GPA, 1860 GPA, will have 7 AP classes by graduation, typical extracurriculars - school clubs, a varsity sport, leadership position in one club, volunteers at a hospital) and is from a MoCo HS that is one of the stronger ones outside the Ws. He wants urban. So far, we've seen Fordham, UMCP, American, and on a whim, toured Loyola in Chicago while we were visiting his grandparents.

He's liked them all, with Fordham and Loyola being his favorites. We are "Christmas and Easter" Catholics but the Jesuit model of education (focus on service and human justice, educate the whole person, etc.) seemed to really appeal to him. Problem, we cannot afford anything beyond UMCP, so he'd have to get merit aid at those places and realistically I don't think he'll get enough to bring the costs down to UMCP - he's firmly in the average of admitted students. UMCP is an option, but I think he'd do better in a smaller environment where it's more difficult to get lost in the crowd and you're not regularly sitting in classes with 50+ kids. He's not particularly shy, but he does have a tendency to get lost in the shuffle sometimes/blend in.

So does anyone have suggestions for colleges that are small but not too small (probably between 3000 and 18000), that are urban, and offer good merit aid to students with his GPA/SAT? I've looked at non-selective urban schools, but it seems the problem with those is that they have sooo many commuter students and the campus is be dead on the weekends. A non-commuter school is important.

He's looking to major in journalism or something business related.

Thanks.