Advise for best schools for merit aid with my stats

I’m a rising senior trying to compile my list but am worried I may be missing something and should be looking in another direction or what I’m thinking is not a good match. Merit aid will be VERY important to me. I doubt I will get need based aid. I am looking to probably major in business/marketing/entertainment marketing.

Stats:

3.78 weighted (competitive high school)
unsure of unweighted but probably about 3.5/3.6 ish (got a lot of Bs sophomore year, I wouldn’t say I slacked off, just was having a hard time balancing, which I got much better at this year)
SAT I highest sitting 2140 / superscore 2160 (just took again awaiting score but I think it went well)
Math + CR 1430

Some Honors classes
Took AP psych this year, confident I did well on exam
Next year taking AP enviro and AP stat

ECs: Marching band 9,10,11
Fall Play 9, 10
Spring musical 9,10
Varsity Winterguard 11
Class Council 9
National Honor Society 11
Tri-M Music Honor Society 11
In a couple of different school choirs all years
Co-directed childrens’ theater play for Arts Council in our town
Work at a theater camp for elementary/middle school students in the summer
Student directed the middle school musical in our District when I was a Sophomore

Thinking: Fordham
Drexel
Bentley
Boston University
NYU (I know there will be no $, but could I get in?)
American
Any other suggestions and/or are any of these not a match? I live in NJ if that helps.

Hey, NJ parent here. You look like a great candidate but you need to be realistic about merit awards and whether they matter that much in terms of your overall budget. I can’t comment on the schools specifically but I sense your expectations are out of line with the dollar amounts possible.

Since you are a relatively high stat NJ resident, TCNJ should be at the top of your list. COA should be about 18k a year for you or maybe even lower. It is a better school especially for business than several on your list. It is the best program in NJ and in the top three in the whole NY area. The campus is also very nice.

I would also suggest you explore Providence College, St. Lawrence and Muhlenberg.

Good luck!!

With BU, Drexel,and NYU on your list, you’d be crazy not to give Temple a look. You’d be guaranteed a full tuition scholarship. Make sure you specifically tour the honors college. Lots and lots of kids choose the full tuition at Temple over little or no money at NYU and BU. The biggest drawback to Temple is, of course, the neighborhood. However, the area is slowly improving and there’s no question it has that urban feel you’re looking for.

Other than that, I agree that you should be considering Rutgers and TCNJ.

What do you want your net cost to be?

What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay each year??

The schools that you have listed would be iffy for much/any merit. NYU? no merit.

The rest iffy.

None of those listed have assured merit for your stats.

Yes, you are missing something…you’re missing schools with ASSURED merit for your stats. Is your 1430 from ONE sitting? If not, what is your M+CR from ONE sitting?

Since merit is important to you, then you should apply to some schools that will give you LARGE ASSURED merit for your stats. Yes, those exist and you need to apply to some if merit is important.

For instance, Alabama, which has a very good business school, would give you free tuition for your stats (assuming that your M+CR from one sitting is a 1400). This is an assured award for your stats. That could be a safety for you. Gorgeous campus, diverse student body (half the school is from out of state…students from all 50 states), and a very good B-school. http://culverhouse.ua.edu

I second Temple.

If merit aid is truly a must, drop NYU immediately.

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The biggest drawback to Temple is, of course, the neighborhood.


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What is the neighborhood like??

3.5 HS GPA and 1430/2140 SAT should give lots of automatic big merit choices.

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

@mom2collegekids Temple isn’t really in a good part of Philadelphia and has made the news for incidents happening in the immediate area.

Temple is great for merit aid. Stockton University in NJ will give you generous merit too with your stats. They have a good business program and solid academics. Since you’re a NJ resident, the merit will definitely be more helpful than if you were from OOS. You’ll have to cross off NYU since they aren’t known for good FA packages.

May I chime in as a spoiled, preppy, suburban matron, whose spoiled, preppy son attends Temple? I went to Barnard in the mid-70s, when parents were afraid of sending their precious daughters to NYC. Barnard-Columbia bordered some tough neighborhoods, but I felt that the immediate campus area was one of the safest places in the world: well-patrolled, brightly-lit, and active around the clock. Temple’s environs are probably similar to that now. Kids quickly learn where to go, and when. The campus is very safe. There are sketchy blocks nearby, but other blocks are gentrifying rapidly. I recommend that nobody eliminate Temple solely for fear of the neighborhood. It’s a huge, public university, where most students attend without incident, and college students are probably at greater risk driving in rural and suburban areas than they are from urban crimes. Philly is probably the best city for young people right now, because it has a thriving arts and cultural scene, and it’s much, MUCH more affordable than NYC, Boston, LA, or the SF Bay area. Kids can share huge apartments, and even houses, for less than dormitory rooms. You couldn’t find a studio near NYU for what a 4-bedroom duplex costs my son and his friends in Philly.

This one is a little bit off the wall, but it might be worth looking into Case Western.

They definitely will shovel some serious M-money at you, and from what I can tell their B-school is considered to be on the rise lately.

Thanks for all the great replies! I’m going to take a look at TCNJ B-School, it can’t hurt. I honestly just thought of it as an education school because that’s what everyone I know who goes there goes for. The drawback? Twenty minutes from home! @halfemptypockets I did take a look at Temple online tonight along with the honors program and it did seem to have a lot of what I was looking for! The only reason I haven’t considered it before is because people are always talking about how bad the area is, but since I am gravitating towards big cities, that will be everywhere. This is exactly why I posted, I didn’t know I could get so much merit aid there, I did the calculator for an estimate and it was pretty close to full tuition. @mom2collegekids you’re right I’m going to look at Alabama as a safety school, but I’m a northeast girl at heart, living an hour from both New York and Philadelphia. The south might be a big culture shock for me, but my mind is open. Also, my M+CR of 1430 is a combination, my M+CR for one seating is 1410. I hope that doesn’t make a big difference?

Oh yeah, I know I’m never going to be able to afford to go to NYU, I just want to get in!!!

Of the schools with automatic full tuition and full ride scholarships listed in http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ , Temple and Howard are in big cities that are not too far south. But schools with such scholarships do tend to be more common in the south.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html lists competitive full tuition and full ride scholarships that you may also want to apply to (not as safeties, though).

@mom2collegekids - Temple is smack in the middle of North Philadelphia which historically has been the nastiest section of the city. I doubt you could go an entire block in any direction and not see at least a half dozen boarded up homes (and they might actually have people still living in them). Community activists are starting to complain about the gentrification. Long time residents (many of whom don’t work) can no longer find affordable housing in the blocks immediately surrounding Temple. The Temple police have begun to patrol a larger off campus area which is also a source of great consternation to some.

Shootings are fairly common in the area, although I can’t remember the last time it was a student. The most recent murder was in January. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/01/13/police-woman-fatally-shot-near-temple-university-campus/ Here are the crime statistics - I don’t see any murders and I’m not sure why. http://www.temple.edu/safety/core/files/TempleUniversitySecurityandFireSafetyReport_Chart_508.pdf

Here’s an example of an off campus murder that didn’t make the Temple crime stats. http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/MP/20130104/NEWS03/130109801

Despite the scary assault statistics, it’s practically unheard of that students who were minding their own business would get shot. It’s almost always some 2 am raucous off campus party and/or people involved in dealing drugs. If you want to be safe you just have to have common sense. Temple is an urban campus and everything that comes with that and even though my own child wouldn’t consider the school, I can tell you a lot of high stats kids are. No question, it’s a school (and a neighborhood) on the rise.

“but I’m a northeast girl at heart, living an hour from both New York and Philadelphia. The south might be a big culture shock for me, but my mind is open.”

What may shock you is how many northeastern girls and boys are doing exactly that, going to nice schools in the south with great weather and the traditional college experience, many on large merit scholarships. It’s not as big a culture shock as you think. You may even come back home with less rosy views of the NE.

Am I the only one seeing some logic issues with these sentences?

It is what it is.

http://temple-news.com/news/history-tensions-surge-gentrification/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTU41cRD7c

http://axisphilly.org/article/the-dangers-of-gentrification/

p.s. Sorry if that pulled quote wasn’t clear. That comment was heavily edited so as not to provoke. The neighborhood is crappy. However, it’s getting better and safer. Businesses aimed at students and hipsters are moving in and the long time residents don’t like it.

Is it similar to the USC area

Temple’s neighborhood might be comparable to USC’s, but it differs in the way that traditional northern and eastern cities differ from sun-belt cities. Distances are closer there than they are in sprawling LA, and so a half-mile can mean a more dramatic difference among neighborhoods in Philly than in LA. On the other hand, it has its own train station (including a SEPTA suburban rail line), and you can be in other parts of the city within minutes. I think it’s more like upper Manhattan or now-affluent neighborhoods in Brooklyn were a generation ago. As I said, my son is very comfortable there, as are many suburban kids. I suggest that anyone who is concerned should visit. I found the neighborhood pretty sketchy when we first visited. My son did not apply as a freshman, but wound up in Philly and loves the city for all its problems. If time and budget allow, do at least an overnight to get a sense of all the city has to offer. I always liked Temple for offering an interesting blend of attributes. Unlike Northeastern, BU, NYU, et al, it has D1 Basketball and Football teams who play in a competitive conference. It has a Greek presence, but it’s not dominant in the campus social scene. It has some very strong visual and performing arts departments, contributing to an arty, hipster element on campus, but also has good pre-professional schools and a good teaching hospital affiliated with the university. It’s also relatively unusual as a large public university within a big city, and so it has an urban flavor with a lot of local community college transfers. As a NJ kid oriented more toward NYC, my son had snottily dismissed Temple as “The University of Flyers Fans” when first looking at colleges, but he loves it now . . . despite the undeniable omnipresence of Philly sports fans.