We are planning a family vacation to LA/San Diego this summer. I’d like to take my D16 and S18 to look at schools, but we need merit-heavy options. D has 4.0 unweighted (her school does not weight or rank–but she is in top 5% were they to rank), ACT 34. Will not be NMSF–did strangely poorly on PSAT compared to her other tests. I’d like to keep cost under 30K–anticipate no need-based aid.
The only schools I’ve found in the area that might give enough aid are USC and Whittier. Are there any I’m missing? I think Scripps would be awesome for her, but I think they are going to be unaffordable.
You might want to look at University of the Pacific, University of San Francisco, Chapman University and University of Redlands. UOP and USF are not in the LA area but may be worth checking out at least on-line to see if the NPC works for you.
What is your daughter wanting to major in? In terms of privates who give merit based scholarships look at USD in San Diego, Point Loma in San Diego, Chapman in Orange County, Loyola Marymount in LA.
Then the west coast isn’t typically happy hunting grounds.
I doubt an ACT 34 would get merit from USC. USC gets too many apps with ACT 35/36 and SAT equivalents.
An ACT 34 is at the bottom of the upper quartile at USC. USC is a bit of a score-whore, so they really chase high stats.
$30k net cost? Then look elsewhere.
Schools like USF, LMU and USD will give merit, but very doubtful that net cost would be $30k. USD’s net cost after its largest merit seems to be about $35k-40k per year.
The Calif publics are lousy with merit, particularly with OOS students.
Whittier gives nice merit, but would she like it? It’s tiny and (if I remember correctly) lopsided gender.
UCs will be about $50,000 to $55,000 per year for out-of-state students; there are a few big merit scholarships, but they should be considered super-reach (and some of those are for specific majors).
CSUs will be about $32,000 to $37,000 per year for out-of-state students. Some campuses do offer WUE discounted tuition for students whose residency is in the WUE region, though a 4.0 HS GPA / 34 ACT student may not find much of an academically comparable peer group at those campuses, if that is a concern.
The better known privates like Stanford, USC, Caltech, and the Claremont schools either offer no merit scholarships, or the few that they have are super-reach.
She has no idea what she wants to study (either bioscience or quantitative social science is my guess).
Disappointing that 34 is “too low” for USC money. We will still check it out I think.
I know very little about Whittier, just what I’ve found online. Not a school that gets a lot of talk here.
She has options elsewhere, just wanted to see if there was anywhere I was missing for this trip. UCs are out (too pricey OOS). Stanford would be a super-reach. CSUs bigger than what she wants. I’ve already checked most of the others mentioned, and they still top our goals for price. Guess it will just be vacation trip.
Friend’s son got 50% merit at Redlands with lower stats. Also check out Cal Lutheran. They are very generous with merit aid. You may want to check Pepperdine. I know their admitted stats are significantly lower, but I am not sure how much merit aid is available.
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Disappointing that 34 is “too low” for USC money. We will still check it out I think.
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I don’t know if it’s because UCLA and UCB have become so hard to get into, and/or because the UCs focus more on GPA, but USC has become so test score focused. My friend’s D (who just graduated from MIT) had an ACT 35, she was Val of her class, and got ZERO merit from USC. The family was shocked…and this was four years ago.
My son was admitted to both UCLA and USC last year and was a NMF and winner. USC Only gave ½ tuition which would still leave $40k for us to pay. The California schools are attractive to a multitude of OOS because there is an unrealistic image of California being the place to be. That image costs big money.
USC has been successful at upgrading its image to that of a highly desirable school for high academic achievers. So it no longer needs to give a lot of merit scholarships to attract many such students like it used to, although it can offer a few to try to attract the top-of-the-top students.
Actually, my son applied to LMU and was given an opportunity to interview for a full ride scholarship, so it’s definitely possible to get it below $30k.
Also add Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks and Concordia in Irvine to schools with large merit aid (up to full-tuition). Her stats would definitely give her an excellent chance at those schools as well as LMU.
You are probably right about Scripps though, if you don’t anticipate need based aid, the merit alone wouldn’t get you below the 30k mark.
Academically Whittier College would not be a good fit. Not too selective and pricey for what you get. Pepperdine is an excellent school but very conservative and religious. LMU is a great option. Occidental is also a school to consider but not sure about merit aid. Good Luck on your search.
Thanks to all. She’s probably going to wind up in midwest or south for undergrad I guess. Spouse and I both have California grad degrees, so she can always do that. We are quite familiar with the Bay Area schools, but less attuned to SoCal.
USD does give 25k scholarships, I don’t know how many but I know a student who got one. Very attractive campus. Quality Jesuit education. I also know someone who got the Presidential at Chapman 25k IB program and good scores but not super high as your dd.
For USC, you could browse the forum to see what the students who got the Trustee and Presidential looked like. There should be a thread with results and ‘stats’. Although I too know high stats kids that didn’t get any of that, or invited for the interview, but did get need aid, it may not be only stats, it is likely strong stats but something in the overall student profile. So just because you have 34 doesn’t rule you out. If there is something special maybe that is what they are looking for. A mover and shaker type, a special talent etc.
Cal Lutheran (in Thousand Oaks) will match the in-state COA for applicants who also get admitted to at least one of a specific set of UC campuses, even if the students are from out-of-state. I think the campuses were UCLA, UCSB, Berkeley, UC Davis and UCSD. They have some larger scholarships as well, but this match deal is rather unusual, and guaranteed.
Chapman is getting harder to get the big scholarship money compared to a few years ago.