<p>Hello, my daughter is a high school junior. Her first choice is BC. She’s got the grades and EC’s, and we expect SAT’s in the 2250-2350 range. The problem is that we don’t qualify for financial aid and there’s no way we can realistically afford it. We live in Pennsylvania and what we’ve told our daughter is that we will pay up to the cost of Penn State (which we haven’t looked at yet).</p>
<p>So my question is, what are some schools with a BC vibe that will offer her merit money? What schools have those of you who have liked BC also liked?</p>
<p>Our daughter is an open champion Irish Dancer so ideally she’d like to look at schools with decent Irish Dance teams.</p>
<p>I’m new to this forum, I apologize in advance if I’ve placed this thread in the wrong area. Thanks for any insights.</p>
<p>I applied to BC and used Providence College as a safety. That seemed to be a common combination at the time I was applying. Got a ton of merit award from PC with similar scores to your daughter, although I turned it down in the end.</p>
<p>Other Catholic schools with merit money that we have visited are Notre Dame, Fordham, Loyola MD, Fairfield, Villanova and Scranton. Not exactly like BC but have many similarities. I believe all have an Irish Dance Team. Not sure if she will still be competing but there should be a least a few competitive dancers at each school practicing together for the Oireachtas. Villanova is having an intercollegiate Irish Dance competition next weekend, you could check to see what other colleges are competing with Irish Dance Teams.</p>
<p>Other schools that might be worth considering Rochester (different vibe than BC but really smart and nice kids here and has Irish dance team), Lafayette, Richmond and Davidson (smaller than BC and they may not have Irish dance).</p>
<p>Perhaps look into Vanderbilt and Duke for their full tuition merit awards as well. </p>
<p>Note the merit awards may only be $15,000 to $20,000 per year which will still mean tuition payments of $25,000-30,000 per year which is significantly more than your state school. Cast a wide net and apply to many schools if you are looking for merit aid- we found huge differences with the way each school calculated our need.</p>
<p>Thanks, ceiliblue, I had forgotten about the Villanova dance competition! That’s not too far from us - maybe we’ll head over there and watch and get some ideas. Maybe she would even talk to some of the kids. Thank you very much for mentioning it. </p>
<p>I think hoping to get merit money from Vanderbilt or Duke is really a reach. Her stats may or may not be good enough to get into those schools, but to get a discount doesn’t seem realistic and I doubt she’ll even want to tour them since the odds of her being able to afford them are slim and none. And merit money from Notre Dame is sort of like the Presidential from BC, isn’t it? Highly unlikely she’d get scholarship money from either one, although I do think she’ll be applying for it at BC.</p>
<p>Thanks for the list of schools - I’ll check the scholarship policies at all of them. We’ve already ruled out Loyola MD since we learned the most they’ll give her is 20k off the price. The top amount we’d like to pay is around $25k all in. We might be willing to have her borrow up to $10k per year for a school like Duke, but I can’t see that it’d be worth it for a school like Loyola. Not when we know she can go to Penn State (likely the honors college) without any loans at all.</p>
<p>Check out Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth too! With her stats, she may get the full tuition scholarship and admittance to the Honors College. The Honors kids are a subset at TCU and have their own dorm (which looks like a Ritz Carlton). They have their own activities, a Ball, Monday breakfasts, etc. It has 8500 undergraduates, big school spirit and a lovely Christian undertone (although not Catholic). I think you would be quite impressed.</p>
<p>Be prepared to be shocked at what it costs to attend Penn State in state. I’ve been told PSU’s net price calculator isn’t very reliable, but we were quoted an EFC of $34,000 a year in state! Penn State encourages students to take out loans, so be aware of that too. I have neighbors carrying Parent Plus loans for four PSU grads. (Their kids all attended private Catholic high schools and they LOVE Penn State.)</p>
<p>If your daughter’s stats end up being as impressive as you expect, she may very well qualify for some serious merit money at Villanova. I have an old friend whose son is attending their engineering school on a full scholarship. Villanova attracts a lot of kids who were also considering BC. In fact, the young man who led our tour when we visited had a brother who’d just graduated from BC. </p>
<p>Based on your interest in her attending a Roman Catholic school, I would definitely look at Fordham, which gives out some nice merit money. And if you’re looking for a financial safety, I believe the University of San Diego awards big merit dollars to top applicants, which your daughter would be. It’s in a beautiful area!</p>
<p>If you’re looking for options that are going to land you in that ~$25,000 a year range, consider applying to some of the schools that offer automatic merit money based solely on GPA and standardized test scores like the University of Alabama. </p>
<p>My son was just awarded Bama’s Presidential Scholarship, which is the equivalent of four years of free tuition as long as he keeps a 3.0 GPA. Penn State is very stingy with merit money, so we wanted a financial safety. The other thing about Penn State is that their honors college, Schreyer, is extremely competitive. Your daughter likely has a great shot at getting admitted, but keep in mind it’s nearly as selective as the Ivies, so there are no guarantees there. (Bama, on the other hand, has a very inclusive honors program.)</p>
<p>JPM, Yes they attract students from various religious upbringings. The chapel on campus is active and there are many Christian clubs and fraternities including Young Life. The class requirement is one class with a huge list of options to choose from. The school focuses on acceptance and community service vs one religion. Like BC and many of the schools mentioned in this thread, TCU offers a hands-on faculty, small classes, lots of opportunity for community service, a close knit student body, amazing facilities and dorms, a gorgeous Honors House, impeccably manicured grounds, Big 12 football and a staff that preaches family values, high morals and work ethic. The Christmas tree and Campus lights are going up as I type. The students will come back from Thanksgiving to a tree lighting ceremony with the Chancellor. With 8500 undergraduates, the school offers an amazing experience.</p>
<p>I know thus is going to sound weird but if your daughter has SATs that good why not just go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton because those schools are much less expensive due to their exceptional financial aid than Boston College (whose nickname is BC which stands for “Bring Cash”).</p>
<p>My daughter is a senior at BC and my son graduated from Harvard in 2011. They overlapped in college one year (his senior year, her freshman year). Both schools claim to give no merit aid, just need based aid. In the year the kids overlapped the “sticker price” of BC was $4,000 more than Harvard and my family received $20,000 more in financial aid from Harvard (all grants, there are no loans at Harvard) than BC. So it cost $24,000 less to send my son to Harvard during that one year than it cost to send my daughter to “Bring Cash”. And that’s with both school evaluating the same FAFSA.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think too many people are psychologically intimidate by thought of applying to HY or P so they don’t even try but they are the cheapest schools around.
BTW, my family has no connection to Harvard, no legacy, my kids went to an average suburban public high school. With a strong profile like your daughter’s there is a bit of a trick to getting into a super selective school like Harvard but once you get in the financials aspects are very attractive - the usual “sticker price”, excellent financial aid and no loans(all grants).</p>
<p>One other thing…from rereading your original question and the replies i am reminded that “fit” is as important as financial aid so I have to go “on the record” as acknowledging that the feel and culture of BC and Harvard are quite difference and that should be one of the most important factors in picking a college.</p>
<p>You mentioned Irish step dancing, I’m pretty sure BC has that as it is a very Irish Catholic school. Harvard may have it too as they seem to have every possible club, check their web site.</p>
<p>Regarding Christian-ness, as hinted at above, BC is pretty Catholic but not like more evangelical schools. BC Jesuits are sort of intellectual academic liberal Catholic types of folks.</p>
<p>There are some open Christians at Harvard and some Christian student organizations but the predominant religious culture is agnostics/atheists followed by Judaism, then Christianity, then Muslim. My family is regular church going Episcopalian and my kids fitted in fine at both of these schools neither of which lined up with their beliefs. My son knows more Jewish history than our church rector and he can read & write a bit of Arabic. That’s all good and part of growing up and learning to live in the bigger world.</p>
<p>I think I’m learning that the selective Catholic schools (ie BC, Georgetown and Notre Dame) don’t give much in the way of aid… For our family, I’m not sure if it’s worth applying. We won’t qualify for true financial aid and need $20,000 of help beyond the Stafford loans. I’m not sure Wake, USC and Vanderbilt have money for a student like mine either - an A student with a 33 ACT, great ECs and leadership. The Ivies are a stretch but might be a better use of application fees for us. Otherwise this brings me back to private schools like TCU, SMU…</p>
<p>This thread is rightly focused on the “sticker price” and the “net cost” of college after financial aid, merit honors grants, etc. but since the creator of this thread has a daughter with fairly high test scores and qualifications I just want to repeat again that few colleges are less expensive than the top Ivies. At Harvard if your family income is less than $100,000 and the your family doesn’t have “significant assets” it’s practically free. Ivies aren’t right for every child given type type of people there and the pressure packed environment. But the trick in getting accepted is to realize that the eight kids rejected are just as qualified as the one kid accepted so you need to increase your odds by applying to all the Ivies if you want to get into one of them. My son applied to seven super selective schools (along with many “normal” schools), he was rejected by six of the supers electives and only Harvard accepted him-he played the odds and it worked. So he he got a very good education at a well known school at a very reasonable price. I think too many people fail to even try.</p>
<p>It’s not only the Catholic colleges…once you get below HYPSM*, generous need-based aid disappears rapidly, and some/much is replaced by merit money. NYU awards big money to students with high stats, but mostly loans to those with numbers in NYU’s bottom quartile. USC provides excellent need-based aid (yet not even close to HYPS), but ‘SC offers automatic tuition discounts to NMSF’s, i.e., high testers. Wake Forest meets ‘full’-need’ with private loans (which is really not meeting full need in my book).</p>
<p>I haven’t done a full analysis, but I believe that BC is the lowest ranked Uni that is both need-blind and meets full need.</p>
<p>*HYP has an extremely high income level to still qualify for need-based aid ($180k). Stan caps home equity. Most private schools use all of home equity in the asset calc.</p>
<p>Gonzaga is a Catholic school in Washington that has BC-like loyal student body and alumni with strong school spirit. I am not very familiar with their aid but I do know several families whose kids are paying way less than sticker. Check it out.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the great replies. She’s gotten her scores back and yes they are good enough to apply to Ivies, but we still can’t afford them. She’s got a shot at BC’s Presidential Scholarship but we don’t want her to get her heart set on BC because we know the competition for a Presidential Scholarship is Ivy League stiff. We won’t qualify for financial aid and we can’t in good conscience have her or us take on loans when we can afford to send her loan free to Penn State Schreyers or Pitt Honors or any other decent school that’ll give her enough merit money to bring costs into the $30k range. </p>
<p>Thanks again for the tip to go to the Villanova Irish Dance competition. We attended and enjoyed it tremendously. BC’s team clearly had the most depth, however, Catholic U and Dayton, while having uneven levels of dancers, had some tremendous choreography. We’d never even thought of either of those schools so it was great to have two more to put on the list.</p>
<p>Thanks again, we’ll be checking out every school mentioned here!</p>