Great merit aid <300 miles from Harrisburg, PA (top 5% GPA, 1500 SAT), history major

Kid was deferred from closest IVY. Looking for excellent merit aid, bringing total cost of attendance to 20K/yr or less, within a 300 mile radius of Harrisburg area. Any advice, with those stats? Has good extracurriculars and history of overcoming a severe adversity, making for a great essay, great recommendations. Flexible on size and location. Likely to major in history, possibly psychology.

$20k or less means basically full tuition merit award, and those are hard to come by, especially in northeast. Univ Pittsburgh, particularly for instate student might be an option, but the deadlines for merit awards was yesterday. Gettysburg and Dickinson both do merit, but generally top out around $20k, so not enough. Denison does give some full tuition merit awards, but the full tuition kids we met at admitted students day in the spring were choosing between attending Stanford or Columbia as full pay vs full tuition award at Denison.Case Western in Cleveland offers good merit, but probably not enough to bring cost down to $20k, and wants to see demonstrated interest. Wooster also gives good merit, has the independent research requirement, but I don’t know whether they have any full tuition awards. These Ohio schools are a little more than 300 miles from Harrisburg.

Your state flagship will probably be a good option for those stats and constraints. Many seem to like Penn State greatly.

Have a look through these lists:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

@parentologist, a little confused as if kid was hoping to attend an Ivy - in this case Penn, were you expecting merit aid as that would not have been possible.

I thought it was unrealistic, but kid is legacy, and parent was hoping that Ivy would take into consideration certain extenuating circumstances beyond custodial parent’s control when awarding financial aid. I’m telling them to make options that bring cost down. Thanks for the suggestions.

Merit aid at to schools is typically stat dependent, especially SAT/ACT. Top LAC’s that provide $20-30k in merit aid include Grinnell, Kenyon and Oberlin.

There are mid-tier schools that provide greater merit aid as they typically have a greater challenge in getting applicants, so they figure if someone can pay $20k of the $50k total they are happy - I’ve seen that from Susquehanna University.

You have to look at schools farther than 300 miles away.

20k a year. Can the Federal loan and summer earnings be added to that??? Would being you to 28k ish.

by 1500 SAT, I mean 1500/1600, not out of 2400. So kid’s SATs are 99th %. Clearly, Penn State State College in state is safety for kid, hoping for some merit aid. Also may be cheapest option. I’m looking for direction about schools that would offer kid a lot of merit aid because kid’s credentials would boost their stats, thus making it less expensive than Penn State, but also at a decent school that kid would like to go to.

@parentologist We understand that 1500 is the new SAT but they are many high stat kids. This is not a golden ticket. Can federal loans and summer earnings bump the budget to 28k? Kiddo needs to be flexible on location if 20k is a true max.

The University of Arizona would be affordable https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-aid/scholarships/scholarships-0

Part of the problem is that merit deadlines have passed for many schools. What were his matches and safeties?

Son or Daughter? If Daughter look at Mt Holyoke. Consider further away if possible. Look at St Olaf, Case Western, Denison.

Ohio State? Gives merit for OOS. 368 miles, so just a little over your range. Not sure if Pitt would be in your cost range, but worth a look. Both might have deadlines for merit that have passed, but take a look.

^Ohio State was November 1st. Pitt was Dec 15.

Merit hunting is tricky. You’re looking for whopping merit. 40k+ for private and up to 30k for public. Usually to do this you have to apply early such as by Nov. 1 to have a better chance. There are likely a couple of options if kiddo is flexible. There are no shortage of bubble kids looking for large aid and the competition is global.

University of Alabama Huntsville could be also affordable.

A gap year might be another option with a more careful approach next year.

At Temple he probably would get presidential full tuition for those stats.

Penn State UP doesn’t give much merit aid, except for Shreyer Honors and that’s about $4,000.

Some branch campuses like Harrisburg, Altoona or Behrend might give him merit if he wants to do PSU 2+2 plan.

Acceptance by Ivy cannot be counted on. Financial safety where he could get enough merit should have been aplied to early.

Ohio State merit deadline was 11/1.
Pitt’s priority merit deadline was yesterday.

He could still apply to Pitt and hope he gets something, it might be more than what PSU UP would give him.

Also Temple would be an option, but apply soon.

Allegheny, Juniata, Messiah, U Scranton, Duquesne should give him merit. If it comes down to $20k net price would depend on need based aid most likely.

WCU and IUP have honors college and he might get merit there.

The University of Toledo is >300 miles from Harrisburg (~425) but gives excellent merit aid. Costs after scholarships should be <$15,000 for tuition, fees, room, and board. Multiple other Ohio publics also have good merit available for strong out of state students.

Yes, a top-99% 34 ACT / 1540 SAT is a great score, but there are around 25,000 students that achieved that score. Then when you add the top 98% 33 ACT / 1500 SAT that’s around another 45,000 students.

So while CC threads generally focus on 75 schools of the 3,000 4-year schools in the US, these are the same ones that these 70,000 98%+ students are applying to, with many, many applying to the same 40 schools.

As a result, there isn’t a top-20 LAC or university that needs to provide large merit awards to attract the top candidates.

Miami of Ohio gives great merit aid with a straight forward approach and its a good school.

@mommdc The deadline for the Shreyers Honors has passed (Nov 30). Penn State UP is almost 38k instate. Without large merit this will NOT be a financial safety unless kiddo can commute. Run the NPC on Penn State but it really may not be at all affordable. @parentologist