Hi all. So these are my stats:
Objective:
GPA: 4.0UW/4.2W
ACT: 35 (35E/35M/36R/33S)
Class rank: top 2%
I’ve gotten 4 5s and 2 4s on AP tests, my SAT IIs are all 700+ but still kinda bad, but thankfully the schools I’m applying to don’t look at them.
Subjective:
Band (participated in a mentor program, performed well in local competitions that don’t really mean much, pit orchestra)
Debate (super involved, hold officer position, mentor students, won local and regional awards, national leadership committee)
I hold officer positions in two other clubs.
150+ volunteer hours through NHS, Key club, and then some on my own time at a poverty reduction organization where I have an internship and the food bank
I was on a city wide youth council, paged at the senate, and went to girls state (elected to high position)
I also work at a daycare.
I’m interested in very liberal, artsy schools that have relatively easy access to a big city. Schools like Brown and Vassar, but I want a few more affordable options. I’m applying to my state school where I get a full ride because I’ll likely be a NMF, but I’d like to apply places where I’d be competitive for large merit awards as well. Do the schools below fit the criteria? I won’t lie, I picked the first four because they don’t require supplements (L&C have a good debate program), but if you have all have suggestions that you think would fit me better I am very open to hearing them. Also, when I used the NPCs for Harvard and Stanford it was shockingly inexpensive, but I’m not sure if these schools are necessarily for me. Is it worth going through the application process for such selective schools for the money if I’m not in love with them, but obviously wouldn’t be opposed to them?
Colby College
Northeastern University
Trinity College
University of Miami
Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark gave my kid 19k in merit AND Puget Sound gave $22k. She had high stats and good EC’s and received larger scholarships at other LACs. After merit, these were the two most expensive schools on her list. Both Lewis and Clark and Puget Sound offer full tuition scholarships as well, but very few and very very competitive.
This suggests your family income must be low enough to make you eligible for a significant amount of need-based aid. If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t necessarily focus on merit aid (at least not from most of your reach colleges).
The most selective private schools (including Colby) typically offer little or no merit aid. Even if they do, the merit awards typically don’t “stack” on top of the need-based aid. Instead, the merit award displaces a corresponding amount of “need”. So you’d require a very large award for the net price to be lower than it otherwise would have been based on n-b aid alone.
Colby doesn’t give merit aid…need based only, I believe.
Northeastern gives primarily need based aid, and has actually reduced the number of merit awards given this admissions round.
Trinity (CT???) gives mostly need based aid.
You have great stats so you could be in contention for aid at Northeastern…or Teinity…but not guaranteed.
University of Miami and Lewis and Clark both give merit aid.
Stanford and Harvard have VERY generous need based aid policies. Your family could have $150,000 incomes and you would receive need based aid at these schools. It does not mean you are low incime by income by any measure or means @tk21769 Sure…apply…but remember that they accept 5% or so of applicants. But you absolutely could be one of them!
You might have a chance at full tuition (or more) at University of Pittsburgh. The remaining cost for fees, room and board is about $12,000, but you might possibly qualify for need based aid.
Apply soon, the online application is short and then they send you some short essay questions by email after applying.
Have you run the NPC at schools like Carleton, Pomona, Oberlin, Hamilton, Haverford, Wellesley, & Dickinson? Try them.
And don’t be an idiot about the supplements, you could get tens of thousand more in aid at the right colleges, so just write the essays – don’t let senior year ECs or whatever get in the way.
And yay for pit orchestra (my personal favorite EC when I was in HS),
Northeastern gives merit to like the top 5% of admitted students, top 1 % get full boats, I dont know if your in that category, top students apply, and many that get accepted to a top college or ivy will pick northeastern instead for the full ride. You have a chance so id apply and see what they give you.
The University of Richmond in VA gives out 45 full tuition/full ride scholarships to incoming freshman students each year, some are for science/math (required to major in science/math/cs), some for art/music (required to major or minor in arts area), some for leadership/all around strong academics (can major in anything). UR has approx. 3200 undergrads, lots of personal attention, small classes, great professors and advising, a gorgeous campus in the suburbs of Richmond, but only 10 minutes from downtown.
Some students have cars, but there are zip cars on campus and also Uber in the area. UR also provides shuttle service to its “Richmond Downtown” satellite building for service/leadership activities. Richmond is a medium sized city with an artsy vibe, nice parks, fantastic food and restaurants, outdoor activities on the James River. Amtrak’s northeast corridor service has 2 stops in the Richmond area, if your home city is convenient to Amtrak service, it makes getting home for visits pretty painless.
UR does have a supplemental essay, but it was not too lengthy several years ago when my daughters applied, with such a big payoff, it is definitely worth the effort. There is not a separate application for the semi-finalist round of the Richmond Scholars program, and your admissions application will be the basis for selection. Approx 400-450 semi-finalists are selected and invited to apply to up to 2 scholar designations and submit supplemental materials. Finalists are then chosen (not sure what yield is, perhaps 75ish?) and then interviewed via skype.
Your stats and activities would make you competitive for the scholarships. I have one daughter who had a full ride at UR and and had a fantastic 4 years there, she also spent a semester abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, completely paid for by her scholarship (approx. 60% of UR students study abroad). My middle daughter is a rising junior who also attends with a full tuition scholarship. Our family won the college lottery twice!
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Also, when I used the NPCs for Harvard and Stanford it was shockingly inexpensive …
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HYPS give “super aid”…often their formula calculates that the family should pay 10% of their income…so a family that earns $150k might only have to pay $15k per year (if assets are not high).
However, another “full aid” school might calculate that a family with $150k income should have to pay $35k per year.
Northeastern does not have any “full boat” scholarships (full boat/full ride = tuition, room and board). Northeastern did have full tuition scholarships for some, and 10, 15, por. 20K merit for some. Not automatic.
