I absolutely love Santa Clara University, and consider it one of my tops picks;however, I am worried about their merit aid. I will not be able to attend unless I receive a large scholarship, even a half ride may not be enough. So I was hoping to get some advice on similar schools that might offer better merit aid. I’ve been looking at University of Denver, but was confused as their site only lists up to half rides but I’ve seen mention of people getting full rides.
For merit aid reference, I have a 4.0, I’m in the full I.B. Diploma program, and I have a 32 ACT.
Any help with finding a good liberal arts school that offers great merit aid is appreciated!
What is your intended major?
I know a number of students who like Chapman University along with SCU.
We found the intellectual level and climate at Chapman very different than SCU, probably because their science departments are not nearly as strong, but if liberal art major they may be a good match and their scholarships are amazing. You can go to their site and put in your scores/GPA and it will tell you expected scholarship. You are wise to shop around, some find that SCU is not that generous with scholarship money. Check out other privates including Gonzaga, they seem to be pretty giving of merit aid - trying to get folks up to Spokane I suppose, but super similar vibe to SCU. LMU is more like SCU in terms of $. USD seems more religious/catholic, but they give great merit aid as well.
Have you considered Seattle University? It is very comparable to SCU. Great neighborhood. Great city.
Thanks for the advice everyone, haha I’m not very interested in SU because I live in Seattle and would like a change of scenery. I am planning to do a liberal arts major, so I will look more into Chapman!
SCU is quite similar in atmosphere to a lot of Catholic schools on the west coast, such as LMU, USF, or UP. It is less urban than those schools though, being that it’s tucked away in a suburban part of San Jose. I’d agree with the Gonzaga comparison too, barring the cultural differences of Spokane and California. The Merit Aid ranges from ok to really good. It’s not the most generous school, but I’d argue it’s more generous than all of the schools i listed above excluding Gonzaga.
We toured Santa Clara and SU for our older daughter, and live next door to Chapman. Chapman has a stronger and stronger reputation, but/and it is religious in name only. Santa Clara is very tied to its Jesuit roots, meaning that the emphasis is on service to the community as an offshoot of beliefs. The professors are required to provide service to the community as part of their job, and the students are oriented that way as well. We found it very inclusive to many religions, but the community is definitely more spiritually and politically active. Seattle University is also a Jesuit school, but the spirituality side is a lesser piece of the puzzle than SCU. University of San Francisco was the least spiritually oriented of the Jesuit schools that we visited - I would say they are almost averse to religion.
Funny story: we went to visit SU after DD was accepted with a large scholarship, and met with a lovely student friend who got into Princeton, but chose SU because of financial concerns. She was EXTREMELY happy there. The Northwest was not a good fit for our daughter: she wanted a more formal, polished urbanized environment and was very bothered that everyone she saw was wearing Northface jackets and didn’t seem to care about appearance. She did pick up a raft of designer jeans for a song at the thrift store though!