Another approach to Merit Aid

Parents Forum
21

<p>What about colleges like Tufts or Carleton that offer merit aid? Something besides Case Western, though.</p>

22

<p>If your kid loves engineering at all, check out the F.W. Olin College of Engineering. If you haven't heard about it, you MUST check it out! <a href="http://www.olin.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.olin.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<ul>
<li>and this is coming from a student who was rejected from the Class of 2010!</li>
</ul>

23

<p>But the point of the recommended schools list is that they are cheaper (via merit aid or state tuition) than the first school. So schools like Colgate, Bucknell and BC (almost no merit $) cannot be recommended.</p>

24

<p>If your kid likes Williams, try almost any of the schools on Curmudgeon's LAC Merit list:
15 Wash and Lee*
15 Grinnell
27 Scripps*
34 Sewanee*
39 Bard
41 Centre*
41 Furman*
41 Oxy
45 Rhodes*
49 DePauw*
51 Denison*
55 Agnes Scott
55 Kalamazoo*
55 Wofford*
61 Southwestern*
68 Wooster*
73 Austin*
73 Hendrix*
73 Knox
81 Millsaps*
84 Albion
88 Birmingham Southern*
94 Hanover*
94 Hope
94 Wells*
100 OWU*
100 Presbyterian*
(Mount Holyoke was also added)</p>

25

<p>I second the need for some help with UChicago. I love UChicago, so I should check out:</p>

<p>(Don't tell me UIUC or Northwestern or WUSTL lol)</p>

26

<p>If your kid loves BU check out Northeastern</p>

27

<p>UChicago depends on the major...personally, being interested in science, I found MIT to be somewhat similar, so that list could follow, but I dont know too much about the humanities side of it.</p>

28

<p>MIT is by no means the financial safety compared to University of Chicago (or anything, for that matter).</p>

<p>By "likes UChicago" I mean the general nerdy atmosphere ;-), the high level of nearly every area of academics taught there, the Core Curriculum ... and, yes, she is more interested in humanities (especially music theory and everything language-related).</p>

<p>Are there any financial safeties for that? :-)</p>

29

<p>george washington?</p>

<p>and the georgetown ones are all jesuit schools, how about some non jesuit schools</p>

30

<p>Myau - How about Rice? Would be cheaper because tution is lower, and there is quite a bit of merit aid.</p>

31

<p>If your kid likes Tufts or similar, check out Brandeis or Washington-St. Louis.<br>
If your kid likes MIT, check out Rochester and RPI.
If your kid likes Carnegie-Mellon, check out Pittsburgh and Case-Western Reserve</p>

32

<p>The Collegeboard site gives similar info- i.e. students interested in____________ should look at _______ and _________<em>. For instance, under collegequick finder I typed in Tufts and got this result: <a href="http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/qs"&gt;http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/qs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;likefind.jsp?collegeId=1245&lt;/p>

33

<p>This was an inevitable process for my sons as they looked. The more competitive schools were all need blind but had no merit aid to speak of.The less competitive schools-- all of which shared features liked at the more competitive ones, tended to have merit aid. In each case they had reaches/matches/safeties with big merit aid to choose from. </p>

<p>For the Urban Ivies: GW (honors program has big merit aid), McGill(not merit aid, just a whole lot cheaper)
For the Suburban LAC: Goucher</p>

34

<p>U Chicago: There isn't any really any other place quite like it but look at schools with very exclusive honors programs -- and, of course, Harvard and Yale... (well, if you get IN, you get AID!)</p>

35

<p>As Cornell alum I disagree with some of the comparisons here... but I would say that UVa is a more southern version and a LOT less expensive for in-staters. I don't know Penn State as well, only having visited once, but it does seem similar too</p>

36

<p>My D is interested in BC, but we're looking at Providence - she did better on ACTs and they seem more flexible. And expense is less and size is less. And track/XC are comparable and Providence seems more responsive so far. Will visit both next week and see if they are really comparable.</p>

37

<p>corunnerdad - I agree - PC is a good alternative to BC. D took it down to the wire last year. She couldn't decide between the two - so very similar, yet unique in their own way. H and I loved both also and we knew she would be happy at either. D ended up at BC. Enjoy your visits. Both schools are great.</p>

38

<p>Great thread :)</p>

39

<p>If your child loves U of Chicago, also look at:
Brandeis
Case
Rice
Emory
U of Rochester
Wesleyan
Reed</p>

<p>(mom of a Chicago soon to be second-year)</p>

40

<p>How about some midwestern schools?</p>

<p>If your kid likes University of Michigan check out ____________?</p>

<p>If your kid likes Michigan State, check out ___________________?</p>