Hello. My DD asked me to help her research some schools that may be a good fit for her to dig deeper into. She is currently a HS Junior, interested in a medical research career (so Biology or related undergrad degree), and would prefer to stay in the Eastern 1/3 of the country. She is not interested in our state schools. She doesn’t want “too hot” or “too cold” (maybe SC through PA/NJ area). She does not want a religious or all girl school and has good stats but not great. Her GPA is about 3.85 (had kind of a tough Freshman year but has done great since then taking lots of AP and Honors classes). She is in PLTW biomed program and participates in 1 sport. She got a 1400 SAT at the end of her sophomore year, so hoping for approx 1450 (which is about what her practice tests show she should get). She would like to do some research as an undergrad, if possible. If possible, she’d like to go to a school that is known as at least somewhat academically competitive. Those are the only constraints for her.
Unfortunately, we would not quite qualify for financial aid but also can’t afford to pay full cost at a private school unless she gets some merit aid. Not sure though with her stats if she would qualify for much merit aid.
Access to doing research is more common than not- most schools will have that option.
Is that GPA W?
Merit aid comes from places where they want your stats, which for SATs in the 1450 are not going to be the names she is probably hoping for. 1410+ qualifies her for in-state tuition at US.C. and she might qualify for their honors college. You might check Allegheny & Gettysburg. Tulane, but that’s farther south than you want, and you have to show some love.
How carefully have you looked at what you can afford? Does she know what your limit is yet? Before she gets too excited about fill-in-name-here, she should find at least one dead-on affordable safety where she is flat-out guaranteed admission for her stats. And yes, that might turn out to be a home-state public. She should like that true safety well enough to attend if all else goes wrong in the admission cycle.
National LACs in the USNWR #50-#100 range, public LACs, and OOS directional state universities might offer relatively affordable net prices. You might get about $20K - $25K from a school like Centre College or Rhodes. That brings the net cost down to $35K-$40K (or so).
Check the Kiplinger tables for other schools with relatively good merit discounts. Run the online net price calculators, too, for any school that interests you. Some of them account for possible merit grants in the estimates.
@Clover2018 - Check out University of Maryland - Baltimore County. Look at Meyerhoff Scholars Program - focused on students pursuing STEM research path. Meyerhoff Scholars receive four-year scholarships. In-State $5,000 – $15,000 (award range per year) Out-of-State $10,000 – $22,000 (award range per year) https://meyerhoff.umbc.edu/
I think that Ohio is still in the Eastern third, so you might look at Denison, which has good merit and could be a good fit with her stats and interests. Some of the other Ohio LACs like Wooster might be worth a look as well, although I know less about them.
Great advice here! National Liberal Arts Colleges in the 50-100 range on USNWR offer merit for stats like you daughter’s. Check out the net price calculator. You need to check on their website if they do or they don’t offer merit.
In PA alone: Gettysburg, Dickinson, Allegheny, Urisnus, Muhlenberg, Juniata, Susquehanna
If you look in NY: St. Lawrence, Bard, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Hartwick
If you are willing to go to the Midwest, you have many more options.
Ohio: College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Deninson
A good place to start is the book Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope There is a consortium of these schools: https://ctcl.org/. Lots of these schools offer merit. Rhodes and Deninson, which were previously mentioned, are in this consortium. Also see the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_That_Change_Lives
Looking at the more elite Liberal Arts colleges, some offer merit, some a need-based only. Your daughter might have a chance at some of them, though others might be a stretch. A good resource on these are the “Hidden Ivies”. These are mostly Liberal Arts Colleges in the 1-50 range on the National Liberal Arts Colleges rankings in USNWR, with some other well known schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Ivies
My son got excellent Merit Aid at Muhlenberg, Allegheny and Knox College.
Some good public schools offer merit aid, as well.
You’re not interested in your own state schools, but what about other public schools? D19’s GPA was only a bit higher (though her SAT was higher than 1450), and she got offers of merit money from UMN (OOS).
Even though it may be too cold, UVM has good merit money for OOS students, U South Carolina, U Alabama, NJIT, OSU, Miami U Ohio, or perhaps Rutgers, NJ.
I’m surprised that her practice tests are showing a 1450, since a 1400 for the end of sophomore year is pretty high, and usually translates to a higher score than 1450 after taking pre-calc and at least one English AP.
The practice tests she took were actually in Sept/Oct timeframe (prior to PSAT - which she only got a 1390 on so no merit aid there). She is in both PreCalc and AP Lit this year, so maybe her score will end up a little higher. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that.
Also, you might consider some of the more competitive SUNY’s. Out of state costs are pretty low (only 10K higher than in-state). Binghamton, Stony Brook, Geneseo.