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</p>
<p>McGill is an Anglophone university, even though it is in Quebec.</p>
<p>Sounds like she’s got a good shot at top schools, i.e. Ivies, UChicago, Stanford, etc. There are many in the top 50 that also offer some full-rides. They’re competitive - but if you get, it’s usually full tuition. Among them: Univ. of Richmond, Washington University-St. Louis, Tulane, Boston University, Northeastern. Others like Univ. of Rochester have nice scholarships for high-achieving students - Depending on how much $$$ is a factor, you might consider identifying and applying for a couple of these. Some require essays - others simply pick you from the general pool. </p>
<p>Since the OP referred to her “state” rather than her “province,” I assumed she is at school in the US.</p>
<p>Check out U Chicago. They used to give good money for female Stem students.</p>
<p>She could qualify for good merit aid at Fordham and might even have a chance to get into the highly selective honors program there.</p>
<p>OP here. Thanks for suggestions.
To clarify - she has dual citizenship, not international.
GPA is 4.0, will be one of the top ranked in her class (very strong, well recognized public school).
Just checked the NMSF qualifying scores and she is well above it, although no official letter yet.
There is an SAT score but it is worse than ACT so she will not be submitting it</p>
<p>Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and Smith are all meets-full-need schools, and the acceptance rate is higher simply because the applicant pool is halved. But if you look at the test scores and GPAs of accepted students, you’ll see they are comparable to the LACs with much lower acceptance rates. I’d really encourage her to visit and not refuse them out-of-hand. Holyoke and Smith are part of the 5-college consortium that includes Amherst College, Hampshire and UMAss Amherst. Students can cross register and there;s a free bus. You said she is looking for STEM within a liberal arts environment, yes? I think she would have a great shot at all 3, and Mount Holyoke does give merit aid (although since they meet full need, in this case probably not an issue.) </p>
<p>I read quickly so not sure if Chemistry is what she’ll be studying…if so, I would recommend Williams LAC in Mass., Swathmore LAC in Penn., and Yale in CT as colleges for her.</p>
<p>Yes, chemistry. Why Yale?</p>
<p>She has visited women’s colleges and is not so keen on going there. Absolutely loved the atmosphere at Amherst !</p>
<p>I have posted this in Parent’s Forum as well, since I know that not all of you check both :)</p>
<p>Hello folks This forum has helped me tremendously when we were finalizing the list of colleges for our firstborn two years ago, so I thought I will give it a try again .</p>
<p>Very smart, outgoing, natural born leader female, interested in majoring in chemistry or something close to. Not sure what she wants to end up doing in life, so PhD programs, Law school, Med school - they are all in the picture. Money is of a huge concern as we are a typical middle class family not qualifying for a huge financial aid.
STATS:
ACT: 35
SAT Chem - 750
SAT Spanish with listening - 800 (she is not Hispanic)
NMSF qualifying score (should find out for sure soon)
National AP Scholar (12 AP classes and tests so far)
IB Program, taking full load of most challenging classes</p>
<p>No major awards.</p>
<p>She is fluent in three languages (including English), able to converse in fourth and actively learning additional two. Language has been her passion for the last six years, eventually in her career she would like to be able to utilize her skills, but definitely does not want to be a teacher.</p>
<p>Her EC (besides foreign language) include violin (13 years + state youth orchestra), piano x 5, Varsity Cross Country (captain x 2 years), DECA (captain this year), Mock Trial - this is huge for her, loves this activity, has been leading her team for a while although the highest they went was second place in State, also a captain here. She has been volunteering on the Peer Court for the past three years, is school rep (or whatever they call it) this year. On schools math team . Girl scout with bronze and silver awards. Church group leader.
Past summer she was awarded a paid scholarship at the Chemistry lab of our state flagship. She loved it so much that she is going to continue to work there through the year.</p>
<p>Looking for schools that she can be awarded most merit money at. Looking for obscure scholarships that nobody knows about. She is going to apply to some top schools that will give us best fin aid based on need, but those schools are a lottery.
She is also Canadian , so will be applying to McGill. After college touring she really fell in love with some top liberal arts colleges.
Any more info I can provide?
Please share your thoughts/suggestions.</p>
<p>Will not be applying anywhere ED due to financial need.</p>
<p>If she is considering Chemical Engineering, do consider UMinn. It is among the top ChemE program in the country. They offer great scholarships to NMF and the oos tuition is low. You may end up paying less than $10k per year after scholarships including all expenses.</p>
<p>For some reason, Mount Holyoke was after my D., they never mentioned any Merit awards. Few others were after her, like Grinnel (I believe it could have been her sport), she never applied to them.
The similarities are getting deeper. Chemistry was my D’s strongest, she did not need to prep. Chem. for the MCAT. She ended up being hired (hand picked by prof., never applied) to be a Supplemental Instructor in class and used to run sessions that sometime reached 40 kids. They loved her instructions.
Well, Miami is out, way too expensive for OOS. But I would still suggest checking Case Western.</p>
<p>My D2 got $25K/year from Mount Holyoke in merit two years ago. I think they give out more merit aid now than they did 5-6 years ago.</p>
<p>We’re on the 3rd page of this thread and no one’s mentioned MIT as a potential school for a high achieving student interested in STEM? Color me shocked. Their financial aid doesn’t match Harvard’s but is none to shabby.</p>
<p>^ Read the last few sentences on OP. Obviously she is going to try those top schools with good need based aids. OP is asking for schools that would give great merit aid with her credential.</p>
<p>^I’m a bit confused by your response. I don’t think anyone would dispute that MIT gives great aid. I readily admit that it is not as good as Harvard’s, but perhaps only Yale, Princeton, and Stanford have equal programs. I still think that FA programs one tier down, as it were, are great and may meet OP’s needs. </p>
<p>When I read OP’s post, my first thoughts went to the FA packages I received from Harvard and MIT not too long ago, since it sounds like my parents’ financial situation was not too different from hers. MIT’s FA was great; Harvard’s was slightly better. My parents decided they could afford either. </p>
<p>Given that top schools are a lottery, as OP said, I hardly think it’s misleading to add another top STEM school with good FA to the list of recommendations. Especially when we’re so readily including Harvard and Yale, who might have slightly better FA but whose STEM programs can be a bit shaky, depending on the exact concentration/major we’re talking about.</p>
<p>If she loved Amherst, I’m not so sure she’d like MIT. (DS liked it on summer tour but didn’t like the intense vibe when he visited during the school year. And he’s a geeky dude that loved his visits to Mudd and Olin.) </p>
<p>If she does considers MIT, she needs to be prepared for the involved app process (5 essays, special teacher recommendations.) </p>
<p>If your daughter’s looked at Amherst, she’s mostly likely considered Williams too. I would give Williams an edge among other academically rigorous LACs for the combination of excellent sciences, wide music performance opportunities for non-majors plus a focus on sports and outdoorsy activities. Need-based aid only, but generous.</p>
<p>If she’s willing to participate in cross country, she should contact the coaches now. They would most likely encourage her to apply ED, though, which would take some deeper financial exploration on your part. You wouldn’t necessarily get less need based aid by applying ED than RD, but you wouldn’t be able to compare offers, especially involving merit aid.</p>
<p>I’d also encourage her to submit a music performance supplement, even if she doesn’t intend to major in music.</p>
<p>For other LACs with good sciences and varying degrees of merit (some already mentioned): Grinnell, Smith, Holyoke, Oberlin, Rhodes, Davidson. LAC merit awards are unpredictable so you have to cast a wide net.</p>
<p>The OP needs to be more clear and specific about a couple of key issues.
- How much can your family afford? Can you cover close to the Expected Family Contribution indicated by the Net Price Calculators for high-interest schools? If not, there is no point pursuing highly selective schools that do not offer merit aid. If your family income is much above ~$200K, you will not get any aid from the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc. (because that will be above the n-b cut-off and they do not offer merit scholarships). Duke is one highly selective university that does offer some large merit scholarships. </p>
<ol>
<li>What is the intended major? If it might be engineering, there is no point considering liberal arts colleges (with a few possible exceptions such as Harvey Mudd and Swarthmore). That also would rule out some selective national universities (such as Georgetown or Chicago).</li>
</ol>
<p>The Kiplinger’s site shows the percentage of students who receive merit aid, and the average amounts, for 100 private LACs and 100 private national universities.
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none</a></p>
<p>If you like LACs and need merit aid, consider Harvey Mudd, Smith (women), Oberlin, Grinnell, Bryn Mawr (women), URichmond, Rhodes, Lawrence, Kenyon. </p>
<p>If you need a very large merit scholarship (full tuition or full ride), not just a ~$15K discount to close the gap, you may need to focus on less selective schools that guarantee those scholarships for students who meet specific qualifications. The University of Alabama may be the best example.</p>