<p>Thanks for clarifying, @gandalf78, I shouldn’t throw around the term “merit aid” so casually :)</p>
<p>^ I know, it’s frustrating; some friends have a child who is starting at Carleton this Fall, and that made me look at Carleton a little more closely, which I did until I saw the “no merit aid” language on the website. Oh well.</p>
<p>^That is too bad. The Fritch does seem to want to help out the middle income dilemma though- at least offer a little more aid above and beyond need? Maybe? </p>
<p>By the way, Carls grads should be pretty proud of this- second highest salary growth among all colleges: <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/11/where-to-go-to-college-if-you-want-the-highest-starting-salary/?hpid=z4”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/11/where-to-go-to-college-if-you-want-the-highest-starting-salary/?hpid=z4</a></p>
<p>The way I interpret the Fritch is it doesn’t go beyond need but moves some of the meeting of need from loans or work to grants for the student work component and family portion.</p>
<p>I think you’ve hit most of the name schools that have big award and meet your criteria. The fact of the matter, however, is that getting your cost down to under $10k a year from LACs with your DD’s stats is going to be challegning without a major hook. All great schools listed, and some great awards, but when you look at the sheer number of big full tution, full ride awards, not very many at all. I say to still go for them, but I think some small Catholic schools and other lesser known school where the OP’s scores and profile put her truly in the lusterous few up there should be added. Also some school where she is definitely going to be accepted and is affordable., whether that is a local school where she can commute or a school with guaranteed awards laid out (Temple’s Honors College is a good example, though, yes, big city, bigger school–we can’t always be a Goldilocks when we don’t have the gold). Some local privates may have a track record of being good to those grads with good stats from your high school. Make sure you ask the high school counselor for this info. Not a good idea to put ones nose up to these things’ some thing I’ve seen many parents and kids do with a lot of lofty ideas until the table is showing only unaffordable options. </p>
<p>To cut through a lot of trouble, I would out and out ask the Admissions Office of each school in consideration, as to how many of merit awards they offer over $X with that amount being what OP needs for student to go there. An estimate will do just fine,or about how many were offered in the last few years. No sense fishing where the catch is not going to be big enough. And how many 1% chances do you want as your reacfhes? </p>
<p>There are pros and cons to rural LACs and to city schools. One consideration for OP may be the social expenses of a city school. Just speaking for Grinnell (only because i have first-hand knowledge), everything (or virtually all events) on campus is free to attend: parties, movies, concerts, etc. Yes, students can and do go into town for dinner, but the social life is really campus-centric (which can be both good and bad, as it can create the sense of living in a bubble socially speaking.)</p>
<p>I would imagine that most schools offer free or reduced prices for access to school-sponsored events, but if students are finding that the city itself offers more attractions then that has to be factored into the COA. I can see the differences in the ways my kids spend money, in city and rural schools…. </p>
<p>@cptofthehouse, very valid points regarding the importance of financial safeties. In fact, I’ve spent the morning researching schools in that very category! Just found out she made national merit finalist, so that opens up some new merit aid opportunities. Two schools I just researched are University of Minnesota @ Morris and Truman State University in Missouri. U Minn @ Morris is automatic full tuition for NMF and it has a really great environmental studies program, so it looks promising. Truman State is a competitive full ride scholarship opportunity, but D’s stats put her at the high end of the applicant pool so at least not a total reach. Both are in rural areas and both are public liberal arts schools - offer the LAC atmosphere and smaller student body but with a public school price tag. Definitely farther from home than she was hoping to go, but venturing out of her comfort zone is probably a good thing.</p>
<p>Morris is a great school with nice kids. VERY rural. As rural as you can get, basically. Right in the middle of miles and miles of farmland. Looks like a Cenex commercial.</p>
<p>Great visual @ColdinMinny! Had to look up a Cenex commercial (hadn’t ever seen one). </p>
<p>I know rural/isolated is a negative for many, but for D it is definitely a plus. We moved to rural NH 2 years ago after D had spent her childhood growing up in suburban Houston. She has completely blossomed here and has no interest in going back to city life. Hiking, kayaking, star gazing, visits to swimming holes, county fairs, farmers market, etc… are her favorite past times. An occasional trip to somewhere like Portsmouth or Montpelier is enough to keep her connected with civilization. Trips to Boston and NYC (even Montreal) leave her feeling spent and edgy. The one draw of town/city life is the food/coffee house scene - she loves seeking out great bookstores, coffee houses, and vegan restaurants. I think that’s how UNC - Asheville ended up on our list - vegan capital of the south and can’t thrown a stick without hitting a coffee house/bookstore.</p>
<p>“Great school with nice kids” sounds very, very appealing. After touring so many top tier schools on the east coast, down to earth and unpretentious would be a breath of fresh air…</p>
<p>I agree about Morris- really neat kids, smart kids, all of whom are willing to think outside the box or they would not be at Morris…a terrific financial safety!</p>
For the benefit of anyone who may be reading this thread in the future, I wanted to point out that I was incorrect on a couple of the scholarships noted in the original post.
- Ohio Wesleyan no longer does the scholarship competition for up to full ride awards. Their top scholarship is the Schubert which is $28,000 and is awarded automatically based upon GPA and SAT/ACT scores.
- The Bristol Scholar program at Hamilton does not offer a full ride. It promises to meet full demonstrated need without loans (ours came out to us owing our FAFSA EFC amount, no loans or work study). They do offer some nice perks though - a $4000 stipend and personal mentor for research, priority housing, and free music lessons for 4 years.
If I had it to do over again, I would have confirmed merit scholarships with each school directly rather than relying on google searching. A lot of the information out there is outdated.
Best of luck!
It is ALWAYS recommended to go back to the original source (the colleges websites) to confirm the requirements and conditions of the scholarships, as these change yearly. A client of mine was targeting a scholarship that she was a PERFECT fit for, and lo and behold, when the application essay prompts came out this year, they’d changed the scholarship requirements. We are still waiting to hear the results, but it was disappointing to see these requirements change, although it was of course certainly within the school’s right to do so.
Hey all! I wanted to let you know also that if a person is selected for the Alvey or Washington Scholarships at University of Mary Washington, he/she automatically receives a full tuition scholarship. Something I found out when I was selected to interview. Hope that helps someone 
Congratulations @atm28vacations! A full tuition scholarship is quite an accomplishment!