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Articles tagged with: Southwestern

16 October 2016

Colleges With Generous Merit Aid

Posted in Your College List, Affordability

Schools offering merit aid to 20% or more of incoming freshmen

moneyIn search of schools with generous merit scholarship programs?

Look no further.  

Here we've compiled a list of competitive 4-year institutions that offer merit aid to 20% or more of undergraduates.  Merit awards are typically not based on financial need but rather on academic performance and other qualities deemed desirable by the institution.  As such, they can make college more affordable for academically gifted students—especially those that are unlikely to qualify for need-based financial aid. 

Most of these schools automatically consider you for merit scholarships when you submit your application.  

11 August 2016

Common App Extra Essay Requirements (2016-17)

Posted in Your College List, Class of 2021

commonapplogoThe Common App for 2016-17 is now live, and we've just wrapped up our analysis of the real number of short answer/essay prompts required for each school.  If you've been through this process before, you know that just because a school lacks a writing supplement doesn't mean there are no additional essays to complete.  Many schools in fact simply embed these prompts in the main application itself.

This post summarizes the prompts required for 200+ Common Application schools in our coverage universe.  Our definition of a prompt is a question that requires more than a one word or one sentence answer.  It's not perfect, but it should help you gauge the amount of writing you'll need to get through over the next few months.  It'll also help you identify schools that you can apply to without the need for extra essays!

Click on Continue Reading for the list.

17 September 2015

Common App Extra Essay Requirements

Posted in Your College List

Update #6

commonapplogoThe Common App for 2015-16 was posted earlier today, and we've just wrapped up our analysis on the real number of short answer/essay prompts required for each school.  If you've been through this process before, you know that just because a school lacks a writing supplement doesn't mean there are no additional essays to complete.  Many schools in fact simply embed these prompts in the main application itself.

This post summarizes the prompts required for 200+ Common Application schools in our coverage universe.  Our definition of a prompt is a question that requires more than a one word or one sentence answer.  It's not perfect, but it should help you gauge the amount of writing you'll need to get through over the next few months.  It'll also help you identify schools that you can apply to without the need for extra essays!

Click on Continue Reading for the list.

11 September 2014

Private Schools that Practice Need-Blind Admission

Posted in Your College List, Affordability

Full consideration without regard to financial need

needblindNeed-blind schools do not take financial aid into consideration when making admissions decisions.  Knowing these schools can be invaluable for making sure you or your teen's application is getting maximum consideration with regard to financial aid.

Here we've compiled a list of private schools that practice need blind admission for full-time, first year, U.S. citizens and permanent residents.  Please note that not all of these schools offer financial aid to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Note also that the list isn't exhaustive—it's meant to cover the more competitive 4 year institutions in the nation.

This list is integrated into the latest update to College Kickstart. 

 

Need-Blind Schools

SchoolSchool
Allegheny College Amherst College
Babson College Bard College
Barnard College Biola University
Boston College Bowdoin College
Brigham Young University - Provo Brown University
Bucknell University California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University Case Western Reserve University
Centre College Chapman University
Claremont McKenna College College of the Holy Cross
College of Wooster Columbia University
Cornell University Dartmouth College
Davidson College Denison University
DePauw University Duke University
Elon University Emory University (Emory)
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Georgetown University
Gonzaga University Grinnell College
Hamilton College Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College Haverford College
Hendrix College Ithaca College
Johns Hopkins University Kalamazoo College
Knox College Lehigh University
Middlebury College Mills College
Millsaps College MIT
New York University Northwestern University
Pepperdine University Pomona College
Princeton University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rhodes College Rice University
Santa Clara University Sewanee: The University of the South
Soka University of America Southern Methodist University
Southwestern University Spelman College
St. Marys College of California Stanford University
Swarthmore College Syracuse University
Tulane University University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame University of Pennsylvania
University of Richmond University of Rochester
University of San Diego University of Southern California
University of the Pacific Vanderbilt University
Vassar College Wellesley College
Willamette University Williams College
Wofford College Yale University

04 September 2014

Common App Schools That Don't Require Additional Essays

Posted in Your College List

Low effort, high quality schools to consider for your list

commonapplogoBy now, most of you are quite familiar with the Common Application ("Common App").  And most of you that are applying to competitive institutions are painfully aware that there are often extra essay or short answer prompts to complete.

The good news is that this isn't always the case.  Recently we introduced a new feature in College Kickstart that identifies Common App schools that don't require additional essay or short answer prompts.

Put another way, these are schools that you can apply to easily once you've completed the core common app.  It's another useful way to narrow down your list choices, or to consider new ones that may be a good fit and don't require extra effort to submit.

Enjoy!

Note: the list isn't exhaustive—it's meant to cover the more competitive 4 year institutions in the nation.

 

The List

SchoolSchool
Allegheny College Bard College
Bucknell University Case Western Reserve University
Centre College Clark University
Colby College College of the Atlantic
College of the Holy Cross College of William and Mary
Colorado State University - Ft. Collins Connecticut College
Cornell University DePauw University
Dickinson College Fordham University
Franklin and Marshall Gettysburg College
Grinnell College Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Ithaca College Kenyon College
Middlebury College Miami University - Oxford
Millsaps College Muhlenberg College
Northeastern University Ohio State University - Columbus
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhodes College
St. Lawrence University Sewanee: The University of the South
Skidmore College Southwestern University
State University of New York - Binghamton Trinity College
Union College University of Delaware
University of Massachusetts - Amherst University of Miami
University of New Hampshire University of Puget Sound
University of Rhode Island University of Tennessee - Knoxville
University of the Pacific University of Vermont
University of Virginia Vanderbilt University
Wabash College Washington and Lee College
Washington University at St. Louis Wesleyan University
Willamette University Williams College
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