It’s really important for me to graduate with little debt. I want to go into the medical field/medical research. My intended major is biological sciences. I live in Oregon, so I qualify for the WUE. I don’t mind if the college is far away or not. Are my stats good enough to get decent merit aid at a semi respectable university? I am applying now to Uni of Idaho, Hendrix, South Dakota school of mines, Hiram, and uni of Portland. Are my stats competitive enough for decent colleges that would give me merit aid? Please add suggestions.
ACT: 34E, 32R, 27M, 24S
ACT superscore:30
Rank is 34/220 weighted
Gpa Unweighted is 3.8, weighted 4.1
EC: National Honors Society, theater involvement, work experience, some community service, camp counselor, etc.
I have taken rigorous course work, mainly advanced, ap, or honors courses.
St. Lawrence, for example, would be likely to offer you a combination of merit scholarships, need based aid (if you are eligible), work-study and a reasonable amount of loans. Financing an education entirely on merit scholarships can be done (as shown in post 1), but will limit your choices to a slim fraction of the country’s colleges. (However, if one of those choices works well for you, that is all you need.) SLU, not incidentally, has a great campus in a beautiful setting.
Is it too late to sign up for the Dec ACT and try for a 30 w/o a superscore?
Many schools do NOT use superscores for merit.
With a 29, you’d get a half tuition at Alabama (about $13k per year), but if you retest in Dec and get a 30, you’d get 2/3 tuition award.
Alabama has beautiful and state of the art new STEM buildings. What area of the medical field interests you? There are prehealth clubs and a prehealth advising office.
This award is assured for your stats, but you’d need to apply by the Dec scholarship deadline…and if you did retest and get the 30, then your award would increase.
I would look at UAH too. Think they will up your scholarship if you get your ACT/SAT up, all the way through August 1 of your entering year (one test sitting, not a super score).