Hello, I am a Junior who was forming a college list. I was using the net price calculator to see the likely financial situation if I were to go to a school. Recently, I found out that some schools are very generous with merit but their calculator does not always take this into account. With this in mind, could you guys recommend some schools that would possibly be below 30k with merit, as I definitely do not have enough need to justify that much need based aid. While my budget is higher, I would like to know what schools could be cheaper than my current top safety, penn state. Specifically how likely would it be to get money at a school like temple or Pittsburgh and how much would be likely. Thank you in advance for all of your suggestions.
I am a Junior at a PA public high school.
GPA: 4.0
Classes: 14 AP and 7 Honors by graduation
SAT: 1540
Extracurriculars: I contributed to a research paper and was listed as a coauthor for a paper about immunotherapy through computational methods, I did an online internship where I analyzed and found data through different databases with a researcher at the University of Maryland, I co-founded a club centered around volunteering and tutoring to better the community (We are holding a blood drive soon as well), I participated in Math League for 2 yrs, I did robotics for 2 yrs, I won a school level award for robotics, I did an internship for a college task manager website and am starting a second session as well, I taught a brief workshop on java for 10 meetings (I will do this again this yr), I have a number of computer related certifications (Python 3. java, Discrete Math, Linear Algebra, etc), and I have a youtube channel where I discuss a trading card game.
Sounds like you need schools that provide auto-merit, because it is otherwise difficult/impossible to predict merit awards.
Schools like the Alabama and Arizona.
Paging @tsbna44
Pittsburgh is worthy of an app. You’d be competitive for good merit there.
If you like Temple, I think you’re likely to get good aid there, but that’s an iffy one about being liked in my high school, generally due to the neighborhood it’s in.
Not a safety nor anything to get your hopes up high for, but if you look at U Rochester and like it, it’s worth tossing an app in too. They have some really nice merit awards you’d be competitive for, but it is a competition. If you got good aid, I suspect you’d love the school. (Same with Pitt.) For both, if what draws you to Penn St is it’s location, you might not like any of these three. They’re in cities. U Rochester has a traditional campus though.
What is your state of residence? That can play a big factor into tuition cost. Also, are there nearby schools you are able to commute to or do you plan on living on campus?
Oh ok, so there are possibilities of merit at those schools, that is good to know.
As far as the draw of penn state, it honestly has nothing to do with geography. I mostly like penn state because they have well known programs in engineering and cs, they have undergrad reaearch possibilities, and the honors college seems fantastic, although of course that is not a safety.
I had written off rochester as unaffordable after seeing the net price, perhaps I could look at it again.
Temple would probably offer the most merit. For S20 we basically would’ve only paid room and board. Turned it down. The neighborhood is rough. We’ve known several kids that have transferred out of Philly schools. Do your own due diligence.
Pitt could offer you some merit plus you could apply for their full tuition scholarships. You would be competitive. Apply as soon as the application opens for best chances at merit.
Penn State is usually pretty stingy with merit.
Getting COA below $30k at most private schools will be tough unless you win a full tuition scholarship.
Kids at our HS have gotten scholarships to Ohio State and Michigan State which get the costs close to Penn State.
WVU would be very cheap. They have a scholarship matrix. NC State has Park scholarships. After that it would be the Alabama’s of the world. S21 is at FSU. You should get their OOS waiver which makes it very inexpensive. Good luck.
For reference here are the Estimated Total Cost of Attendance, Merit Offered and Net for schools my son applied to this year for Comp Sci. You would likely be offered more merit given your higher GPA, SAT and better ECs.
These amounts are just for auto-merit. Many of these schools have additional scholarships and honors programs where you can get more. For example, Penn State offered application to a full ride but we missed the deadline because we had the wrong date in our calendar. NJIT also has a few honors programs, as do other schools, which offer more.
List is sorted by lowest net for schools that have offered merit so far, then by total cost for those who have not offered a package yet or decisions are pending.
*Accepted to Penn State, NJIT, PITT, Tampa, Rutgers-Camden but pending merit notifications.
*Pending decisions form Rutgers NB, Florida, GIT, TAMU engineering.
Stats are as follows:
GPA: 3.2/4W 5.6/7W
SAT: 1360 super / 1340 best
Honors/AP/Dual Enroll: 11/9/7
AP Credits Accepted: TDB
Dual Enroll Accepted: 4/(13 credits)
Rank: 266 / 507
Residency: NJ
Early Action: Yes
Applied Major: Computer Science
Accepted Major: Computer Science
Applied Term: Fall
Science: Biology H (9th), Chem H/DE (10th), AP Physics 1(11), AP Physics C: Mechanics (12th), AP Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism (12th)
Stem: AP Comp Sci A (DE), AP Comp Sci PR (DE), Robotics, Engineering, Computer Graphics, Apex Technologies
Resume: 3 jobs paid, 1 unpaid internship
ECs: Starting Varsity Wrestler as Freshman, Comp Sci Club, Future Engineers, 4th in Division at World Robotics Championship, Robotics State Semifinalist, Multiple Robotics Awards, Standford U AI Camp multiple sessions, Strong GitHub, Top 2% Rank On TryHackMe, Google IT Support Professional Certified, Github with various applications including personal assistant that uses AI, etc.
Take a look at the full tuition scholarships at USC and Vanderbilt. I believe there are approximately 100 full-tuition scholarships at each of these schools, but my info may be out of date.
If you like Penn State, you will like many of the large public universities. Texas and Utah both provide paths to in state tuition. First year would be $$, but after that, it would be less. We compared four year costs between UCSB four years in state and UT Austin one year OOS and three in state. UT was slightly lower cost. At UT, the Turing program is excellent. If accepted and you are willing to take the steps to gain residency that may be a great option.
That is interesting but I have heard that changing residency is near impossible if one moves for education, at least in states like ca, tx, Michigan, etc
That is very true. Of course nothing is guaranteed, but I am just looking for some safety to high match schools that might be extremely affordable just to open up a few options in case reaches fall through. I may apply to a school like Alabama that guarantees aid just so I have one where I am guaranteed aid.
The Rowan COA seems higher than it actually is for instate, at least. I remember some discussion about that before, maybe they throw everything into it and if you look at direct costs, it’s not that high.
It’s also possible to move off campus after the first year and save money.
My D18 was a higher stat student and her merit scholarship covered tuition. After that year merit scholarships really went down. But this year, D23 got about $7,000, which surprised me in a good way. She is not high stats so I didn’t expect that much. Maybe they are giving more again. It’s worth trying. Rowan is a friendly, student-centered place.
Brother-in-law is a doctor and got his medical degree from Rowan. We were offered $7,650 and not that high stat either and have yet to explore the other scholarships they have.
