Read this thread and the links in it. You will find a topic that has colleges that are in the $25,000 a year range. You will find guaranteed merit awards.
You will need to check the college websites to see if this information is accurate now…but it’s a start.
Re #18
Wake Forest should be a reach at best (not a match), since the student needs a big merit scholarship. Admission without enough scholarship is effectively rejection.
Definitely U of Dayton. https://www.udayton.edu/apply/undergraduate/affordability.php
https://www.udayton.edu/apply/undergraduate/cost/index.php
This link is old, but it gives you a feel for which schools use merit and how heavily and how frequently.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/07/08/education/edlife/8edlife_chart.html
you’ll see what people are talking about re Baylor, Denver, Gonzaga, etc (more merit) and Davidson and Wake (less merit). After your initial look, **be sure to run NPC’s for every school/b.
Be sure to look at schools that have lower price tags too - look at the ‘colleges that change lives’. many are cheaper since they’re not the most glamorous brands. But someone earlier gave you really good advice to think long and hard before abandoning the UCs and CSUs. Most OOSers would kill to have those options.
@ucbalumnus I agree with you – Wake is a reach nowadays for many including this student even merit money aside. It seems to me that for some of these merit awards, in addition to good grades, schools look for leadership and initiative. Your son should think of ways to highlight that in his applications. Think outside the student body president box, like summer jobs, etc. The refereeing is good in this respect.
“We don’t qualify for financial aid” - I have a correction here. While you may not qualify for the NEED based FA, your very high caliber student would qualify for the large Merit scholarships at the many colleges, both public and private. While this prospect may not look like valuable alternative to you now, believe me, considering it may pay off later on. Saving couple hundreds of thousand dollars for the family in case of the student who is not picky is a great idea. I understand perfectly the “not picky” side, my D. with the similar stats was exactly the same. These type of kids are simply self-reliant. My kid’s position was: “I will do fine anywhere”. She ended up attending on full tuition Merit scholarship and looking back is still very fond of her college and believes that it was the best possible match for her.
I just saw “University of Dayton is another great school.” and would like to mention that D. attended very close to Dayton - at Miami University (OH). While she was not a business major, Miami actually has a great Business school. But as a California resident, I am not sure what kind of Merit awards your S. would get at Miami. On the other hand, I know a Dayton graduate, who in fact was attending on the great Soccer award. Again, cannot comment on the Dayton’s Business program as this graduate ended up attending the Grad. school program for Physician Assistant. I imagine that Dayton being a private school may have more funds available for various scholarships for OOS than Miami.
Here is a more up-to-date link with the same type of data.
Have you considered Arizona schools? The NPC at ASU puts him at about $25,836. They have a great honors college if he is interested in that sort of thing. U of A will be in the same ballpark. They have their OOS scholarships listed online based on GPA and SAT.
Thanks for the advice everyone! We had not considered Dayton or Miami so will definitely investigate those.
I understand that Wake Forest is a big reach-- he may not even end up applying, but I just gave that as an example of the kind of school he’s interested in.
@TempeMom we have considered some Arizona schools but they are very, very large, which intimidates him… plus if we are going to be in the 25k range at ASU or U of A, I’m inclined to spend 5k more for a UC and get the benefit of local connections. We are keeping them in mind, however. Thanks!