<p>I wouldn’t rule out religiously-affiliated schools - most of the schools that I know of that are affiliated with religious orders are so because of historical reasons, but that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with life at the school today. My school was technically religiously affiliated, but that really didn’t pervade student life that much. Some places do have closer affiliations with their churches. You really have to investigate to see whether a religious affiliation means you have to go to chapel on Sundays and wear ankle-length skirts or whether it’s in name only.</p>
<p>And, the University of Georgia isn’t really exactly what you described - I think Greek life is pretty big there. It’s fairly liberal as most universities are, but being a traditional university in the South, it’s not as liberal as a place like Brown or something. Nevertheless, They have a scholarship program. You are eligible for their highest scholarship with an unweighted 3.7 GPA and a 1400 CR + M, which you have. It’s an OOS tuition waiver + $15,700 which brings the total cost down to just under $5,000 out of pocket if I’m doing my math right.</p>
<p>Last year my D made the mistake of only trying for the Public OOS schools, she received the maximum scholarships for OOS. and still came us around 11,000 short. We realized too late that we should have been concentrating on some of the smaller private schools where there is more leeway with merit and private scholarships. She turned down Indiana U, Miami U and OSU. too expensive. going to small private in florida with only 3,000 out of pocket and the same annual costs (around $34,000).</p>
<p>*Last year my D made the mistake of only trying for the Public OOS schools, she received the maximum scholarships for OOS. and still came us around 11,000 short. We realized too late that we should have been concentrating on some of the smaller private schools where there is more leeway with merit and private scholarships. She turned down Indiana U, Miami U and OSU. *</p>
<p>The problem wasn’t applying to OOS publics…it was applying to the wrong publics. Indiana U’s largest OOS scholarship is $16k per year at a school that charges $28k for OOS tuition (plus another $12k for room, board, books, etc). Total COA is about $40k.</p>
<p>If you want big merit and you apply to the WRONG publics or the WRONG privates, you won’t get the merit aid you need. It has nothing to do with whether the school is public or private. </p>
<p>The same student who gets a $16k scholarship from IU, might get a free ride at another public. The issue is the school, what they offer, and what their ranking is. A lower ranked national or regional public or private might give a lot more merit than a mid tier national public or private. </p>
<p>*It’s fairly liberal as most universities are, but being a traditional university in the South, it’s not as liberal as a place like Brown or something. *</p>
<p>This is true of many large flagships in the South. They aren’t conservative. They are usually left of center with a mix of everything. They won’t be as liberal as some NE schools are, but they aren’t bastions of conservatives, either. I know that Bama was Obama Country in '08.</p>
<p>FYI: The University of Georgia does not offer guaranteed scholarship programs. The Foundation Fellowship/Ramsey are very competitive. You are eligible to apply with a 1400 M+CR, but realistically those that are offered the scholarship average around 1550 M+R and have over a 4.0 gpa. Alabama offers guaranteed scholarships as M2CK pointed out and South Carolina offers fairly generous OOS tuition waivers as well.</p>
<p>I’d agree that most state flagships are generally provide a liberal environment. You need to decide where you want to be geographically and more importantly what you want to study.</p>
<p>In NY State, you might consider St. Lawrence U. or Hobart and William Smith. Not large schools, but very nice environment and merit scholarships available. SLU in particular has several scholarships at $12,000-30,000 per year. Athletic school, some Greek life, laid-back. Good luck!</p>
<p>With schools like HWS or SLU, you have to realize the COA is around $55,000/year. </p>
<p>HWS’s highest merit award appears to be $20,000/year. </p>
<p>SLU has a few $30,000/year awards for applicants with very high stats & outstanding EC’s. Next highest appears to be $20,000/year. These type of merit awards are like a discount & you must work very hard to keep them all 4 years. </p>
<p>OP has talked about school spirit, etc, but Division III athletics does not usually correspond with Division I athletics & students turning out in large numbers for games.
SLU’s hockey teams are D1 & they do get a lot of attendance & support from their student body. Greek Life at SLU is very minimal, it does not dominate social scene.</p>