Make sure you’re looking at the full cost of attendance, not just tuition. A college with a ~$40k tuition probably has a total cost of attendance of close to ~$52k/year whwn you add in room and board.
^^ Higher than that! The tuition at my daughter’s school is $41k, and her COA is listed at $58k. She doesn’t pay that much as she lives off campus and that’s quite a bit cheaper than living on campus (I think freshman r&b is about $14k), but books are pretty expensive, travel costs, labs costs, etc.
What about Gettysburg? Good history and I’ve known kids who got very generous merit from them. Did you tour Rowan? They are generous for high stats, a walkable campus unlike Rutgers, and an honors college you could apply to.
GWU and American would also give you merit for those stats, but you need about $35-40K to close the gap between what your parents will pay and the cost of attendance. Run the NPC to see if they include an estimate of merit award.
University of Maryland - College Park’s COA is $47K. I think with your stats you would get enough merit aid to make it affordable. This school has a terrific govt. and poli sci department and you can take Metro into DC for internships.
William and Mary (VA public) is excellent for Intl. Relations, but I don’t think your would get enough merit to cover the $55 COA. Their average merit award is $10K and you need $25K, but you have very high stats. It might be affordable with a student loan.
As financial safeties, add maybe university of Alabama, Arizona State, University of Arizona, and your in-state public schools that will give you a stats based guaranteed merit scholarship that would make the school affordable. Add a few schools that you are sure offer competitive large merit scholarships, and make sure you haven’t missed early application deadlines for those scholarships.
Our family was in a similar situation financially, our kids had similarly high grades and test scores, and that was our strategy. Both our kids a have full or near full tuition merit scholarships and our costs for each are around 15-20k per year. Their schools are around the top 100, not top 50 or above. That’s where the big merit money is easiest to find. You and your parents need to carefully read the financial aid pages of your selected colleges so you understand what kinds of aid are available at each school and how it is applied. Some schools offer no merit aid, or don’t allow the combination of merit and need based aid to reduce your efc.
Our EFC is higher than we could ever possibly afford without borrowing, unwisely, insane amounts of money.
Our oldest went to community college for two years, then transferred to our state flagship. After she graduated, she moved across the country to start her life in a new city, new roommates, and a new internship. Now she has a new (paying) job and is so happy!
Our youngest had the test scores to qualify for some of the big merit packages (ASU, U of Arizona, U of Nebraska, U of Alabama, U of Kentucky…) and she didn’t want to go to any of them! Not good enough! But we simply could not afford the more elite selective schools on her list. She had a lot of trouble accepting our budget.
In the end, it was U of Alabama v U Kentucky. We said pick one, or go to community college. She is doing very well in her second year and discovered a pre-health major that would not have been offered at those other elite schools.
You just don’t know, 100%, where the path is going to take you.
NU used to offer $2000 to NMF if it is named top school choice.
'If you’re willing to travel West and go public…" Or Utah, Wyoming, NM (several of the NM schools),
Or ‘go cold’ to South Dakota, Montana.
There is merit aid out there, just hard to come by at the schools you listed.
I would apply to Pitt and Temple to see if you can get full tuition there.
Ohio State has a Nov 1 deadline for merit.
Not sure if you would have enough time to apply if you rush your scores…
Did you look at Grinnell?
Vanderbilt has merit aid - it’s worth trying. My D had fabulous aid when she was there.
Look at Furman University, Wofford College or College of Charleston Honors College in SC. With your stats you’d be very competitive for higher level merit awards. My son attends CofC Honors. Great program. You sound like a great fit for their International Scholars program. Watch your deadlines . Most are late Nov - Early Dec for merit . Feel free to PM with any questions about any of the schools that I mentioned .
Pitt Honors, University of Richmond, University of Minnesota Honors, Charleston Honors, and Maryland Honors are suggestions people have made for my S18 with similar stats. Pitt and MN have rolling admissions and have already sent out acceptances. Merit aid info comes out relatively soon.
American University takes demonstrated interest seriously into consideration. Many top students apply thinking they may be a candidate for merit scholarships and end up waitlisted/rejected. So if you are serious about American, you need to get to their campus and show them some love.
Have you looked at the University of Mississippi’s Croft Institute? With your stats you would qualify for full tuition and would probably be competitive for some of their additional scholarships. You could be looking at less than $10,000/year total cost, which would allow you to save for grad school. U of South Carolina would be another one to look into.
I would also suggest looking into some small LACs that offer good merit. Swarthmore and Denison come to mind, but I know there’s probably a long list of schools I’m just not aware of.
I don’t know what your parents income is, but run the NPC for all the Ivy League schools. When I did it for my DD, I was surprised at what a HUGE range we got. Harvard came out totally affordable, but my DD had no interest in going there and I couldn’t even get her to apply there or Yale, which was another affordable Ivy. She instead chose to apply to an unaffordable Ivy and her acceptance came with an EFC within $2000 of the NPC, which was unaffordable.
It sounds like you are trying to “stack” scholarships, which means you’re hoping to add merit aid to financial aid. Unfortunately, most schools don’t allow this - even if you get merit scholarships from outside sources. It sucks, but it’s a game they all play and you can’t get around the rules. There are some exceptions. My DD won a moderate award from an outside source and her university is allowing her to apply it to summer tuition, which isn’t covered at all by the award from her school. But if she chooses not to take a class this summer, she loses it.
^Swarthmore does NOT offer merit (except for a tiny number of McCabe scholars each year, most of them from the immediate geographic vicinity). Perhaps you meant Skidmore?
What does this mean? Yale doesn’t give a nickel of merit aid to anyone…so if you can’t pay their net cost…cross them off your list.
In the vast majority of cases…merit aid reduces your financial need…and thus reduces your need based aid. In the vast majority of cases, you won’t be getting additional aid.
If your parents can afford $30,000 a year…why aren’t you applying to University of Alabama, where you will get a very generous merit award…and that $30,000 will more than cover the balance.
You might also want to look at some of the SUNY schools…you could get merit there and your net costs could be in the $30,000 a year range. Look at Buffalo, for example.
I agree with the College of Charleston suggestion. Also…U of South Carolina might give you significant aid as well…but get moving on their scholarship…honors college application which is a doozie!
@donnaleighg - One of my DD’s friends got merit at Swarthmore. I don’t know if she’s a McCabe scholar though. ANd definitely not in the immediate geographic vicinity. The way she and my DD talked about it, I didn’t think her merit aid was anything super unusual/special.
Merit is very limited at Swat and highly competitive.
For Swat, 6 domestic McCabe scholars, 4 in the vicinity, 2 national. Other awards are based on need. Maybe the aid at Swat wasn’t merit. Swarthmore is relatively generous with its need-based financial aid, so many students get a larger need-based award from Swat than from other schools. https://www.swarthmore.edu/financial-aid/scholarships-and-grants
@thumper1
I’m perfectly aware that Yale does not give merit aid. I was referring to the cost of private schools, and suggesting that if another private school gave me the same net price, I could afford it with merit aid.
I’m not applying to colleges like University of Alabama because I do not want to be in Alabama, simply put. It’s not exactly my kind of place.
I’m applying to the U of South Carolina Honors College. You’re right, the application is a bit…much. Two 1,000 word essays!