@MACmiracle - well that’s not a surprise I guess. We will qualify for need based aid if they have any - I obviously haven’t researched. It’s a safety with NYC access.
Truman State is a public LAC (although on the large side) that is low cost and has some automatic-for-stats scholarships: http://www.truman.edu/admission-cost/net-price-calculator/step-2/
Here are some more scholarship lists (but check college web sites since some have changed):
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
I’m not sure where you are located, but have you considered TCNJ in New Jersey. Campus is lovely, science programs are strong and out of state merit should bring it within range for your D. I know it’s not as well known nationally but within NJ it’s well recognized for academics and student life seems vibrant. They have an Honors program that I believe your daughter would qualify for. Just another college to check out. Best of luck…her stats are overall excellent!
My 2nd child just graduated from U of Dayton 2 weeks ago. She loved it there. She had a uw 3.7 gpa with a 30 ACT and got great merit money (it ended up being cheaper than our in state university). U of Dayton does combine the best of the LAC and University settings. Her classes were not too big, easy to get research opportunities, and the student community is wonderful! I noticed between my first four kids what a difference a point or two on the ACT makes in the merit scholarship amounts at each school they attended. The kid that got higher than a 32 on the ACT hit the merit scholarship jackpot at the schools that offered merit. I’m sure your daughter will increase her score this time around especially with such wonderful grades.
The DD above was premed until her last year of college (she did great in school, shadowed, and had a job in the hospital) until she took a pharmacology/chemistry elective and realized pharmaceutical research was her calling,so off to graduate school she goes, not med school. My husband started off in graduate school for Biochemistry and got his Master’s degree and then went to medical school instead. Just make sure there are a couple strong programs of interest at the school she will be attending in case she chooses something different.
You might want to consider (as a safety strategy) having your D commute for 2 years to a community college then transfer to an in-state public university. Unless you’re willing to consider a directional state university in the south or west (which would be quite different from the LACs listed in the original post), you may find that the minimum for full tuition (let alone full ride) merit scholarships is a 1400 SAT (or 32 ACT).
Look at the total costs and average merit awards for some of the private schools on your list such as Wooster, Muhlenberg, St. Lawrence, and Beloit. You can find this information in each school’s Common Data Set (section H) or on the Kiplinger site:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts Unless your D’s stats are at the upper end for enrolled students, the net price is likely to be far above your $20K limit (although you might get lucky at a school that does not emphasize scores.)
@AmyBeth68 , TCNJ does not seem to give merit without higher scores, but it might be worth trying since I think I read here not that long ago of an exception to that.
I hate to be so negative and coming here just to shoot down suggestions, but we are also in NJ with slightly higher stats and on similar merit hunt so I’ve checked through many of the same schools.
Maybe check York College of PA. Low price and automatic merit. I don’t know much otherwise.
I’ve had some nice alternatives given to me that I’m sorting through but with traveling expenses, prices start to rise. It’s tricky.
@2018mom2018 Having just gone through a similar search with our own daughter, I am offering some information that I hope you will find helpful.
The first is that merit aid and need-based aid do not stack. What I mean by this is let’s assume the target school costs 60K per year and your EFC is 30K. If your daughter received a merit award for 30K, you would not receive additional need-based grants to bring the cost down to 20K. Merit would substitute for financial aid.
Your comment also suggests that what you can pay out of pocket might be more like 10K per year, if both you and your daughter would need to assume loans to get to that 20K. If med school is in her future, keeping loans to a minimum is very important.
Based on our search, 20K for a LAC is going to be tough. Typically, merit awards max out at 30K for the top applicants, and 25K is more typical. For us, the lowest cost options were Wooster and St Olaf, both of which offered a maximum of 50% of the total cost of admission, 30K and 28K respectively. There are other options listed upthread where you might get to 30K, but 20K is not realistic unless your daughter can get a full tuition award. Few LACs offer full tuition awards - Denison, Muhlenberg, and Centre College do and they are very competitive. Grinnell also might offer some larger awards - check.
Also as mentioned earlier, in order to get those top awards, her test scores would need to be higher - 1400+ on the SAT or 30+ on the ACT (ideally 32+). So prepping over the summer and retaking in the fall is probably the single best thing she could do to improve her chances.
BTW, I don’t believe that Wooster is an admissions reach for your child and I believe that she would have a decent chance for merit money, but it wouldn’t be enough to get you to your target 20K. Take a look at this wonderful thread started by @eandesmom that documents the amount of merit that B/B+ students for the HS class of 2017 received. Many of the schools represented there are ones that you have already identified as possible matches for your daughter.
Finally, given your budget constraints, you should also consider larger schools where she might be eligible for substantial merit. Public universities with honors programs can provide something of the LAC feel within a larger school. Murray State (KY) and Ohio University, for example, are pretty campuses in smaller towns that offer merit scholarships (not sure on the amount) to OOS students and have honors programs, that would provide a more intimate experience. Neither is huge (between 10-15K students, I believe).
Best of luck!
^ oops error, in fourth paragraph I meant Rhodes (TN), not Centre. Too late to edit. Rhodes has a single full tuition award and other merit scholarships that would bring the cost close to your 20K goal.
Many, many pre-med students to go their state flagship. If yours is commutable, I’d even consider having her commute the last two years. You said your 20k included Max Stafford and a loan from you and a dip into savings. Really I would choose the absolute least expensive even if it is like @tk21769 suggested. A favorite “college experience” won’t be more important than minimizing debt and maximizing GPA.
I can’t determine from your posts what the home state of the OP is, but I also believe (with a prior poster or two) that you may be focusing way too much on the expensive, private LAC route over your state flagship. If your daughter is the diligent student her grades say she is, then she will succeed wherever she goes, and hamstringing her with massive loans and financial worries is a horrible mistake, especially if she intends medical school.
People get far too caught up in the marketing of the “intimate atmosphere” of the obscure LAC experience, and turn up their noses to state schools, when good students like these will never see a large lecture course anyway because of AP credit. The kid will get into medical school if her grades and MCAT are good, and going $100k-plus into debt to attend an LAC no one has heard of will not necessarily enhance her chances at all, and will certainly hamstring her future life choices. The LAC experience may be great, but it is not worth the debt many kids incur.
@MACmiracle you might be right…both of my daughters decided TCNJ was not for them (we are in NJ but the campus was too rural for their tastes)…so I will admit I’m unsure how strong their merit aid is. I feel like TCNJ might be trying to recuit more OOS students which is why it might be worth checking out w/ her current stats. But agreed…as ISS to receive merit aid, her stats would need to be a stronger in ref to test scores particularly. It’s such a crazy/frustrating game.
@AmyBeth68 I admit to being afraid to visit TCNJ in case D likes it too much and we can’t afford it.
I just rationalize my feeling with the comments I’ve heard about the intensity and lack of fun.
@MACmiracle…where else is your D looking? My D is looking at Northeastern, Boston University, Pitt, Rutgers (we saw a lot of schools but those are tops). I’m scared that she will not get any $$$ at NEU or BU :(. It’s SO nerve wracking. I will say that in reference to TCNJ I loved the campus…I truly thought it was beautiful and all the students we met were really friendly and seemed very happy. With that said, it just wasn’t a fit for my girls. Have you checked out Rowan? I know a lot of kids who are very happy there.
@AmyBeth68 Very unexpectedly, she liked Rowan and Stockton best of all after visiting a few different schools.
I made what I thought were great lists based on neuroscience and merit possibilities. But when I re-ran some NPCs, the results weren’t the same and I got frustrated and felt like giving up. I’m such a wimp!
I have a notebook with lists of schools but it’s not in front of me.
Reaches: Hamilton, Colby, Davidson
Matches: Gettysburg, Wooster, Sewanee
State safeties: Rowan, Stockton
Catholic safeties with options for competitive merit (can’t remember them all but includes DeSales, Immaculata, St. Vincent College)
Pennsylvania safeties with neuroscience and good merit but maybe still not affordable: Allegheny, Ursinus, Susquehanna, Lycoming
Maybe will consider Elizabethtown and Lebanon Valley even without neuroscience
Can you tell I’ve got a thing about Pennsylvania LACs? Central PA is so pretty, not far from opportunities but beautiful countryside.
And then there’s the automatic merit options with Universities of Alabama Birmingham and Huntsville.
We really have to get out and visit places but it’s so hard working around her commitments and the needs of my younger kids.
She doesn’t want too big or too urban. She’d rather be a big fish in a small pond. I agree because she doesn’t do well physically if isn’t able to keep a balanced life with down time.
Oh, and music ensembles are important, too.
Sorry, I don’t mean to hijack this thread, so you can pm suggestions. 
Muhl should give decent aid, I knew someone with similar stats who currently attends and got enough aid to matriculate.
I don’t think Wooster is a reach with her stats. A match, imo.
I like LACs but would agree that for a pre-med student it’s hard to justify a big price premium over an in-state public school, especially if it means taking on debt.
If you were pursuing only need-based aid and could cover the EFC for these schools, then the situation might be different. However, if you need a very large merit scholarship to make up for an EFC you can’t cover, then even an SAT score of 1400 might not be enough to get what you need from one of the LACs mentioned above. The average merit awards at Davidson, Rhodes, Wooster, St. Lawrence, Beloit, and Denison are about $20K. That gets you down to a net price of about $40K or more. To get a much bigger award from one of these LACs, presumably you need qualifications that are much better than average for enrolled students at that school. So you might need SAT-M+CR scores well above 1400.
@2018mom2018 Open up the checkbook and get some serious test prep. That should be your number one priority over the whole summer. It will be money well spent if she can boost those scores. Merit aid is typically a function of GPA and scores. Your daughter only has half the equation right now.
Denison does have full tuition merit awards, but the kids we met who received them had been admitted to Stanford, Columbia etc., and were choosing between full pay there and full tuition award at Denison. They were kids who would have an immediate impact on the community by being involved in all kinds of activities and leadership. Some of them chose Denison, some chose Stanford etc.
We are in Pennsylvania, so in state is not a good option. Penn State is way too expensive, she hates Pitt, and the PASSHE schools are rocky right now. We are going to look at West Chester and Temple.
I agree that LACs are probably not going to be affordable, but I am going to let her apply to a couple in hopes we get some miracle aid.
She is taking ACT again this June with some serious studying over next two weeks. If she doesn’t hit 32, we will look into summer prep class and retake in September.
Thanks for all of the input! I have been tweaking our list and will update later on some we have found that might be good.