I’m looking for schools that I can look into that give good merit aid in the northeast. I have a 4.0 UW GPA and a 1510 SAT score and most of the schools I’m looking at either offer none or its extremely difficult to get. Thanks!
Are you female? What can you afford per year?
Lafayette College gives merit money. While not north, University of Richmond is east coast and gives many full tuition scholarships - still very competitive.
Pitt gives a lot of merit money to students with high GPA/test scores. And it’s very much up and coming and the town is getting great. Google has an outpost there. Pitt also has guaranteed admit to a number of the grad schools.
1 Like
Franklin Pierce gives a lot of money.
Clark
Lafayette
1 Like
Are you likely to be NMF finalist?
1 Like
@gearmom Yes I’m a female! What I can afford really depends on how much financial aid/merit aid I can get. Probably about 30-40k a year. My mom is a single mother too I don’t know if that means anything.
@TomSrOfBoston Probably not. I’m in New Jersey and despite my pretty high PSAT score, NJ is a super competitive state for that.
1 Like
University of Rochester
Providence
St Michael’s
Hobart
Fairfield
Susquehanna
Very selective colleges in the NE typically offer little or no merit money. They don’t need to in order to attract strong students. So look at less selective colleges or else schools in areas considered (rightly or wrongly) less attractive.
The Kiplinger “best value” lists for private universities and LACs show average merit awards and the percentage of students who get them. Click-sort on the column labeled “% of non-need-based aid”. Schools in the ~NE with relatively high percentages, as well as average awards >$10K, include:
St. Michael’s College
Clarkson
St. John Fisher
RPI
Clark
URochester
RIT
St. John’s College (Annapolis)
St. Lawrence
Houghton
Wheaton (MA)
Marlboro
Muhlenberg
Union
College of the Atlantic
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=prv_univ
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts
Some of these may work for a high-stats student who needs a half-tuition scholarship, more or less.
If you need more, consider schools that offer automatic full tuition (or full ride) scholarships for qualifying stats.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21015126/#Comment_21015126
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
1 Like
Sounds like you need a full ride otherwise how will the remaining costs get covered?
Is your dad alive? If so, then some of the schools you may be looking at will require his info too.
Are you a senior?
Your stats are impressive but merit aid at selective and highly selective schools is incredibly competitive. Perhaps you would get some, perhaps you wouldn’t. The next tier down (as if there really is such a thing) provides far more merit aid to students like you as they want to pick off kids that would have otherwise attended the rung above (or a few rungs).
Someone mentioned Richmond. Great school, great city. Yes, you would be competitive as both an accepted student and in consideration for merit aid. However, their aid is VERY competitive. We applied (I know,an anecdote) last yr and were surprised to not get merit aid. Apparently many were equally surprised so they put something on their website explaining the type of kids who get merit aid. They went to great lengths to explain the difference between the best kid in your high school that year vs. the best kid your high school graduated in the past 20 years. They were looking for amazing stuff way beyond great grades, test scores and typical ECs (my S was a rock star at his school, grades, scores, leadership, mentor, etc.). Same thing at BU.
Not trying to discourage you, just presenting a dose of reality. You may very well get great merit aid from top schools. You may not.
Looking at schools like Syracuse would help you as they are far more generous in merit aid. Not unusual to combine admission aid and department aid for a pretty nice scholarship (25k per yr range).
@hopestobe You only ask about merit aid --forget about Rochester, Lafayette,Syracuse and all other schools where tuition and room and board are approx $65,000-$70,000 per year, because even if you were to get a top merit award in the $25,000 range (and that’s a big IF), your total cost would be upwards of $40,000 per year. Can you afford that? Personally, I am a big fan of large out of state flagships that give large merit aid (including full tuition) to attract high stat students such as yourself, thus making cost of attendance less than or at least comparable to your in-state new jersey flagship (Rutgers, TCNJ). Ohio State, Alabama-Tuscaloosa, Temple, Pitt, Vermont, New Hampshire, UMass, maybe even UConn, come to mind. If you prefer the northeast and private schools then you should look for colleges where your stats are well within the top quarter of the class (think Muehlenberg, Quinnipiac, Hofstra), so that you might be eligible for full tuition. Are you willing to go to a “safety” or lower-ranked college in order to be eligible for the higher merit awards? The big merit awards go to applicants who applied by Early Action deadlines of November 1. Did you apply already? A separate question is whether you qualify for need-based aid. What is your expected family contribution (EFC) under the FAFSA? I ask this because based if your EFC is low, you might get large need-based aid (or combined merit and need-based aid) from target and reach private colleges that could make it affordable to attend.
Rutgers offers free rides in their Honors College. They are competitive but your stats would put you in the running.
University of Maine has a program where students with certain stats can get their own state’s in-state tuition, and it’s automatic, not competitive.
“I have a 4.0 UW GPA and a 1510 SAT”
“I can afford … Probably about 30-40k a year”
Since you are from New Jersey, Rutgers is an obvious very good choice, or maybe NJIT or TCNJ. I am sure that you know them better than I do. I would expect all to be safeties for you but there will be other strong students from NJ at each of them due to the same financial issues that you are running into.
With stats and a budget similar to yours, one daughter ended up in Canada. McGill would be less than 40k per year in US dollars, and other universities in Quebec or east of there would be less than 30k per year (in US dollars).
If you can afford 40k, getting a merit scholarship of 25k puts you in range. However, understand that tuition and fees will likely increase so if that is a max limit and you receive no additional need based aid, a 25k scholarship would ultimately make that school out of reach.
I suggest you have a serious conversation with your folks and find out exactly what their budget is, not kinda sorta 30 - 40k. That’s a big difference and would eliminate a lot of schools even with aid.
I don’t know if this will help in your situation but I have been begging my kids to look at schools north of the border in Canada. McGill, McMasters, Queens, University of Toronto are all fine institutions and are a bargain compared to US schools. Many of these universities also have scholarships available even to US students. The USD is 1.26 to the CAD and the average tuition cost for international students is about 35K CAD which is about 28K US. This site for US students is a good reference for US students. http://future.utoronto.ca/international/welcome-us-students
I hope this helps and good luck.