We are on the hunt for merit aid!! Unfortunately the NPC isn’t the best tool because of our family situation but I have been trying to use it as “worst case scenario”. It looks like we qualify for very little need based aid. My daughter’s stats are:
GPA: 3.6UW 4.2W
ACT: 29 (retaking in Sept.)
Good but not great ECs: a couple are leadership but very typical stuff
URM
Wants to major in psychology
Her current list is:
Stetson: NPC says 33,000 merit aid
U of Alabama
Eckerd
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign(our state school)
Some of our other state schools
Clark
Although she wants to apply to these schools, she is well aware that if the money doesn’t work there is no chance of her attending and so she applies at her own risk of being disappointed:
Smith
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke
Wellesley
Barnard
I would like to add some more schools to her first list where she could qualify for some good merit aid. She would like to come out of the Midwest and I would like to not have to pay more than what we would end up paying at our state school. Any other school suggestions??? Thanks.
Regardless of what the NPC’s say- have you done a thorough financial analysis of your own to figure out how much you can spend down from savings, how much you can spare from current cash flow, and how much you might be willing to borrow?
Folks here are happy to recommend “good merit aid” but if you can’t pay the remainder, the exercise is only going to frustrate your D. I know a lot of kids who are very aggravated come April that even though they’ve won a nice merit award, the cash just isn’t there for them to attend.
If you can provide us with your “here’s what we can afford for each of four years” budget, we can be more helpful.
@“Erin’s Dad” We really can’t pay that much a year and still eat :)) so we are hoping to get some merit aid from UIUC as well. She isn’t sold on UIUC and prefers a smaller school but if UIUC comes out better financially in the end, that is were she will attend. I was just hoping for her to have some other options that will work for all of us.
@blossom Of course we would like to pay as less as possible so any recommendations based on her stats would be great. Staying under $20K would be good, $10k and under would be awesome, $0k would be worth a kidney.
The only $0k options are the military academies- West Point, Air Force, etc. So eliminate that from your thinking. Even the top merit awards (the so called “free rides” ) are going to involve some cash outlay- books, room and board (not a trivial amount, depending on the part of the country) getting back and forth.
So you are telling us that you can actually come up with 20K per year? 80K total?
Check out Northeastern, GWU, Richmond and UMiami (FL). She will probably need to get the ACT up, so she should take it in September and October. Please note that GWU is now test optional.
In order to have a reasonable chance for merit aid at most colleges, your DD’s stats need to be FAR higher than the 75% of enrolled students.
Have you compared her stats to those reported on the individual Common Data set at the colleges on her list?
@blossom Good to know I can keep my kidneys, but in all seriousness, we would like to stay under 15k/year. @londondad and @flatKansas Thanks for the suggestions, we will take a look at those schools.
@menloparkmom I am not sure she looked at the common data set. I think she focused on the average ACT scores and GPAs. We will check it out.
My friend’s daughter (from CA) will be a freshman at Boise State this coming school year and is getting their GEM scholarship. It looks like that with your daughter’s stats, she may also be eligible for the GEM scholarship. Not including personal expenses/travel/misc., it looks like the GEM scholarship may be able to keep you in the $15,000 range. I know several grads of Boise State, and all have said how much they loved going to school there. Boise is a nice mid-sized city, and the Boise International Airport would make flights home relatively easy. Here’s the website with the scholarship info: https://financialaid.boisestate.edu/scholarships/non-resident-tuition-assistance-programs/
DH and I graduated from Central Michigan University.
OOS kids with at least a high school 2.75 GPA pay Instate rates(you need to maintain a 2.5 GPA in college to keep it.). Also with a 3.25 GPA and a 27 ACT you get an additional $6,000/year(you would need to keep a 3.25 to keep it)
Here are the direct costs: Please make sure and compare the same things between colleges. I just use the tuition & room and board cost because books and other travel and expenses are going to vary by kid.
tuition/room&board Instate 21,556
less extra merit $ 6,000
total 15,556
While CMU may or may not be right for your DD at least it does give you an idea of what kinds of scholarships are out there. Also they now have a medical school so that may interest your DD. I had my DS apply although it’s pretty far from Georgia and so I doubt he will end up there.
To follow up on my previous post about Boise State, I don’t think I was clear that the 15K include housing costs. Also, I’m not sure if this would influence your daughter’s decision, but it looks like Boise State opening up brand new Honors housing August 2017. It might be fun to live in a brand new building! https://housing.boisestate.edu/upper-division-housing-options/
Some of these schools absolutely do NOT give merit aid. If you don’t qualify for need based aid…Wellesley and Barnard will not be forth coming with money as they give need based aid only. Same with Bryn Mawr.
I believe Smith and Mt. Holyoke do give some merit awards…so those possibly could work out.
I agree she needs to retake the ACT. Did she take the SAT?
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we are hoping to get some merit aid from UIUC as well.
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that seems very unlikely since UIUC is stingy with merit AND usually requires higher stats.
I hope your DD also takes the SAT so that she has double chances for higher scores for more merit opportunities.
Which group of URM is she? There are certain schools that need different ethnic groups.
Yes, Smith and MHC give merit. Don’t know if an ACT 29 is high enough. Maybe they have diversity awards as well. That said, getting those costs down to $15k won’t likely happen because it’s doubtful that they’d be giving full tuition awards unless a big score jump.
To get to the goal of about $15k per year net cost, you’ll need a full tuition award.
She had not planned on taking the SAT but I guess it can’t hurt. She did take the PSAT last year and scored a 1210.
She is Black and would like to study psychology with the intentions of being a forensic psychologist- but of course that could change at any moment(her career choice, not her race)
Have you considered HBCUs? If she got her ACT up a few points she’d be more competitive for merit scholarships (although she may qualify for some merit money with her current scores as well). Howard comes to mind (they have some full rides for 32+), but there are many others that are generous with merit.