@insanedreamer @kobeman2000 As far as USC goes, whether the financial aid is interesting or not might depend on your family situation. For families who might not get full need-based aid USC has some good merit aid that could help (but it’s sticker price is quite high.) Tulane also reportedly has decent merit aid and a good pre-med program. Kobeman might be attractive to a place like that.
Once you run the financial aid calculators for a few full need schools, you’ll have some sense of whether you need/want merit aid to help close the gap.
Thanks so much! I removed and added like you suggested. Do schools that you listed as safeties give good merit scholarships, as well as meet financial aid?
@kobeman2000 here’s a list of schools that meet full need:
http://blog.prep sch olar.com/colleges-that-offer-complete-financial-aid
(remove spaces when pasting in browser - it’s just that CC will redact the link otherwise).
Merit scholarships will depend a lot on your stats - a lower ranked private will likely give merit in order to attract students with higher stats. High ranked schools won’t give much if any merit but will meet financial need.
"Do schools that you listed as safeties give good merit scholarships, as well as meet financial aid? "
MOST colleges do not “stack” merit aid on top of what ever FA they award. Merit aid is used to REPLACE loans or grants, as part of the total financial aid package. So run the NPC’s carefully and see if you CAN afford go to any of the colleges on your list WITHOUT merit aid.
I hope you were not expecting/ hoping to get BOTH merit $$ and a good FA package so you end up with few net costs.
My recommendation is to apply to and go to UA if you are awarded a full tuition scholarship.
No one can know HOW much Med school is going to cost 5 years from now- it may be completely un-affordable for you by then if you had to take out loans to go to a UG college- something which should be avoided AT ALL COSTS.
You need to ask your parents how much they will pay and are they willing to pay more for certain schools (i.e. Penn, Duke over a state school). Room and board tends to be around $12,500 at most schools so even full tuition leaves a fair amount.
You don’t need to post your parents budget here but have the discussion and confirm that 1. You know what it is and 2. You have run NPC’s with real numbers on your parents’ finances.
Just to balance out the other comments - you don’t know exactly what you’ll get from a school in terms of FA or merit aid, so don’t be scared away from applying to a school you want to go to if the NPC numbers are a bit high. For example, my D received a FA + Merit package that covered her full tuition plus more from a school that isn’t known for giving tons of aid or that meets full need. You can’t know for sure until you apply.
That’s relieving to hear. Are you allowed to give the college name? I would love to know!
@kobeman2000 to add to @insanedreamer post, it is also possible to negotiate a bit with some schools, especially if they give merit aid and you know you are at or, even better, well above their 75% numbers. You will not always, or even often, get more aid, but schools do have discretion. As with any negotiation, you will be most successful if you have more than one choice and are willing to walk away.
Unfortunately, the financial side of college attendance is not very transparent, and you will have to go through the exercise of applying, being accepted, seeing the FA package, having your parents (or you) “negotiate” with the school and then making the hard decision how much debt/summer jobs etc. you will be able to live with.
You already have it on your list, but Rutgers is a very affordable school for in state kids with a good reputation. At the end of the day, if cost is a major concern, it will probably be hard to beat Rutgers for the price. And as others have noted, if you are going to med school, you want to be smart with your UG expenses.
I would lastly suggest being realistic about travel costs if you go to a “fly-away” school. I have seen more than one family not factor in the extra cost of plane travel for the kids and parents, the cost of buying stuff that become prohibitive to ship etc… Do you want to put your money into a few extra plane tickets a year, or would you rather be able to drive and put that 2 - 3000 dollars toward tuition?
@kobeman2000 Sure, it was RPI. Great school for engineering but not your best choice for premed.
Also, to build on @CaliDad2020 's point, by “negotiation” means that after you receive your FA offer once accepted, you can write asking for more money. My D did this and the school gave her an additional 3K per year. Depends on how much they want you, so you’re in a stronger position with a school where you score above the average because they know you could likely get into a higher ranked school instead (and it works, my D picked RPI over CMU simply because RPI offered more money; her stats were about the same as yours - she applied to some of the same reach schools as you and didn’t get in, but getting into to the school of engineering is usually harder than say biology).
Typically, merit aid doesn’t “stack”, since it decreases your financial need - and therefore you financial aid.
Your financial need depends on your parents’ income and assets, but not all universities “meet need”. So, your parents may be willing to pay $10,000, but your EFC may be $16,000, and the university may cost $24,000 after financial aid…
Merit depends on your stats.
OOS flagships rarely offer financial aid. When they do, they don’t also offer merit aid - and vic versa.
How much can your parents afford?
What’s your EFC?
Have you run the NPC on all these colleges?