<p>i'm looking for a cheap (outofstate $30000 or less) college/university with a strong hold on liberal arts, especially in english and/or economics. history, too. (actually, i'd prefer a college that's pretty good in whatever falls into the "arts and sciences" category; i plan to go to law school and i want a strong foundation in liberal arts, whatever that may be). i currently plan to major in english.</p>
<p>state universities are ok (i'm actually looking into umich ann arbor) and i don't think i'll be living in the dorms for most of the time so quality of residential halls doesn't really matter. the major issue for me is TUITION, so places w/ tons of scholarship opportunities are great.</p>
<p>any ideas?</p>
<p>(apparently, i am panicking because the prospect of not being able to afford college is hitting me hard. i mean, there are such things called loans and stuff, but if the tuitions were affordable in the first place, i wouldn't be worrying so much.)</p>
<p>======================================================================================================
since somebody just mentioned stats,</p>
<p>sat1: verbal 770 math 770 writing 800
sat2: bio 800 mathlevel2 800 lit 740
aps: microecon 5 macroecon 5 lit 5 calBC 5 usgov&pol 4
gpa: 3.9
ecs: not bad, some personal publications, school magazine, occasional school plays, volunteer work, etc. nothing phenomenal either, though.</p>
<p>Have you considered Denison University? Great merit scholarships, guaranteed for all four years with a 3.0 average. You might be able to attend there for the same price as a public. It's a medium sized (2400) liberal arts school. Beautiful campus. Good mix of kids. Small classes. But it is a residential school - meaning you'll be on campus all four years. Very strong in economics and English.</p>
<p>to add to gellino's point, W&L, rice, Tulane, WUSTL are just a few highly regarded schools that give much more merit aid (per capita) than other schools of their caliber.</p>
<p>Rice gets mentioned a lot, but it's a long way from Michigan, so don't forget to factor in airplane tickets. Their tuition is $20,160 plus $8,980 room and board. According to US News they offer 24% of their incoming freshmen merit aid (that's good) but the average amount is only $5,600 (which isn't too bad considering their tuition is relatively low). Since it is highly selective the odds of you getting better merit aid than that are, of course, not so great. I'm just pointing this out because with the number of times Rice gets recommended on CC you'd think it was practically free. It is a great school however.</p>
<p>A good point about Rice. One reason it probably gets mentioned so much, as was noted on one of these threads, was that until 1964 it was free. Into the 1990's, its tuition was still less than half what the other top private schools were. I guess it's slowly catching up over time.</p>
<p>Look into UVa, and I swear I'd say that even if it wasn't my school. :)</p>
<p>Our out-of-state tuition is approximately $25,000. Plus, we have a real liberal-arts focus and the feel of a much smaller, intimate college, while maintaining all the resources of a large research university. History is one of our strongest subjects--heck, we're part of it!--and our English department is damn fine, too. And economics is our most popular major! Businessweek ranks the McIntire School of Commerce second in the nation, after Wharton. :) </p>
<p>Plus, you sound like you might be a candidate for Echols, which would mean you could be exempt from all core requirements so you could take whatever you wanted.</p>