Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand this post at all.

+1 humble brag disguised as a "help us out" post.

Anonymous wrote:St Joe's
Dayton
St. Mary's College

No, no, no

And gosh you have no idea how lucky you are. She will be totally fine. Look at 30-60% acceptance rate schools

Why the heck would you call this underachieving?? At a loss...

Anonymous wrote:She’s going to get a better education at her state flagship than at the colleges posters are suggesting.

She wants to see what her options might be among schools that are smaller than the state flagship.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Joe's
Dayton
St. Mary's College

Dayton is a hardcore party school, I don’t picture OPs kid there

OMG! I don’t think you understand “hardcore party” if you think Dayton is one.

I have one kid at Lehigh and one at Dayton. They are very similar. Parties every night of the week.

Tulane will almost certainly defer/waitlist her (yield protection) unless she applies ED, and she can't apply ED if she needs competitive merit. So, Tulane is unlikely.

Would mid-size universities be an option or are LACs the limit? Open to Jesuit schools out west? Loyola Chicago, LMU, Gonzaga etc offer merit. How much is the budget?

She’s going to get a better education at her state flagship than at the colleges posters are suggesting.

If she doesn't mind heading west, check out Knox, Lawrence, Wooster,, Denison, Beloit, St.Olaf. St. Olaf in particular has an excellent math program.

Merit scholarships at a lot of these schools top out around 30K,-40 K, but total costs are typically lower than east coast LACs.

Clark in MA also gives good merit aid, with an option to stay for a fifth year masters for free in some majors.

OP, can you specify your budget? 25k would be very different from 35-40k, for example.

Also, is she open to geographic locations that are not the east coast? (Sorry, I may have missed that)

Earlham

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Joe's
Dayton
St. Mary's College

Dayton is a hardcore party school, I don’t picture OPs kid there

OMG! I don’t think you understand “hardcore party” if you think Dayton is one.

Hollins would give her great aid, if she's interested in a women's college.

I was going to suggest Ursinus, but that's on your list already.

Juniata and Muhlenberg are similar and also in PA.

Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan in Ohio

Mary Washington in VA and St Mary's in Md, even if you are out of state for those, as they both give merit.

My kids both wanted smaller schools, so these are the ones we applied to and received merit from.

Also second Mt Holyoke (my kid wouldn't apply there but they give more merit than Smith or Wellesley)

You people are being hard on OP. I think she is looking for schools that will give her child BIG MERIT because she won’t receive financial aid. OP is realistic that her child doesn’t have a 4.7 GPA and has cured cancer ECs and is hoping to receive input on which schools will place her in the high merit pile. TBH, Lafayette might offer her the $20K merit, but considering it is a $70K school, it doesn’t bring her total cost down to in state tuition.

I don’t have advice OP, just trying to clarify your question. Perhaps try college confidential, financial aid forum for more help.