Help me help my son compile a list of possible schools to consider.that provide merit aid

Paying for College
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I am trying to compile a list of possible schools to consider for college for my junior son. He is a junior in high school. At this point he really does not know what he wants to study in college and I don’t think he will have a good idea in the next year - so I think he needs to attend a school with many options for majors. His math abilities are strong and I can imagine him majoring in engineering or business. Last week he started considering pharmacy and his older sister is trying to convince him to study medicine. In the past he wanted a career in professional sports industry or possibly sports journalism (but he doesn’t like to write). This has been a challenge for me because I’m not sure where to guide him to attend.

His father and I have planned to provide $60,000 for his college education. We also will pay for cell phone and transportation expenses during college. He will not qualify for any financial aid. I think he will probably earn around $10,000 in one time scholarships from local sources. He will have saved around $10,000 of his own money before his freshman year and be able to earn more during college. He is very motivated to minimize his loans during college. He sees the advantages of minimizing debt and avoiding it if possible.

He has a 4.0 unweighted GPA and attends a rural public high school in Ohio. He has taken the new SAT with a score of 1350 and will probably take the ACT in the spring. He took the PSAT but his score was not high enough for National Merit. He has some extra curriculars. Hopefully his score will improve a bit but I don’t see any big jumps as he is not that motivated to spend a lot of time studying to improve it. I should also add he will graduate from high school with over 30 college credits and have a bunch of general education requirements done. He could graduate in 3 years but I’m not planning on that.

He has been to camps at a few schools in Ohio and did not like the small ones but loved Ohio University. He came home and said I will go there to college. And right now I think it would be a good fit. But it seems like he should visit and consider some other schools now while we can. He would prefer not to be in an urban setting.

This spring break or summer I would like to take him to visit some schools and expand our list beyond just OU. But I’m not sure what schools we should visit. I posted on this forum because I know this is where the experts are on affordable schools. I don’t want to visit schools that don’t fit in his financial picture.

Thank you so much for any insights.

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automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

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He should be a merit candidate for some LACs in PA like Allegheny, Juniata.

Yes, Ohio University sounds like a good possibility for him.

If he is serious about pharmacy, check into Toledo, Ohio Northern. I think Toledo has a guaranteed pharmacy admission program for high school students with good stats and offers merit. He might get a nice award from ON as well.

Run some net price calculators on college websites.

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I’m a proud Ohio University alum. It’s a great school.

As a resident of Ohio, you have lots of public college options from which to choose.

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http://www.utoledo.edu/pharmacy/prospective/contingent.html

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Is there any areas of the country he is not interested in attending college in?

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https://www.utoledo.edu/pharmacy/prospective/summercamp/index.html

U Toledo offers a pharmacy summer camp he might be interested in.

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@mommdc He isn’t serious about anything right now except that he does want to attend college and major in something

I’m not sure an LAC is the right fit as undecided as he is at the moment. Even though Juanita and Allengheny are LACs those are the types of help I am looking for. I can still show him the websites and see if he has any interest. His dad and I and two of his uncles have engineering degrees so I think that might be a possibility for him. But again he could end up majoring in anything right now.

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@carolinamom2boys I think he is open to anywhere. Though I’m not sure I’m up for taking him for many visits west of the Mississippi. I would only venture that far if he was really excited about the place.

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@mommdc thanks for the camp information. If he is still considering pharmacy in March, I will have him apply.

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I think it’s going to be hard to beat Ohio public colleges in this case.

There are small schools that give lots of merit, but he doesn’t seem to want a small school and even then 20K is a low price point for a small private. Run the NPC at Juniata and see what it says.

Your other choice would be “directional” universities (non flagship public universities). These would give him a larger campus, and they often have more scholarships available than flagship schools. Before shopping these schools, it really helps to know your major. They tend to have a little more uneven offerings. One might be a great teachers college, another campus is great for business, but other majors might be weaker than the flagship school.

I understand the desire for a four year experience, but if he finds a place that accepts his credits and can graduate in three years, that would be a nice bump in his budget and open some more options.

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Beside in state publics, see these lists, since it looks like he needs full tuition merit or nearly that much. But verify on school web sites, since some have changed. Obviously, check for majors of interest and such.

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com

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OP, the Ohio publics seem outside of your budget.

So would you rather he start at a CC and then transfer to a 4 year public?

Or find an option at a lower tier school where he qualifies for a full tuition scholarship?

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Look at U of Alabama and UT Dallas. Both schools are good and provide full tuition with 1470 SAT or 32 ACT.

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Consider Pitt - it is in Pittsburgh but not technically a “big” city. Strong in engineering and business. Has automatic merit awards based on scores - but he may need to get his a little higher to be eligible. Also look at St. Joe’s in Philadelphia suburbs. Give large merit awards/tuition discounts to high stat kids and some of their business programs have good internship and job placement in Philadelphia.

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Miami University of Ohio has some nice merit aid.

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Pitt doesn’t have any automatic scholarships. They are all competitive and unpredictable.

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@Heiditree The most generous merit aid is given for a combination of high GPA and test scores. Your son should strive to be in the upper 25% of a university’s applicant pool as depicted by GPA and ACT/SAT scores. One easy way to check the data for each school is to google the school name and “common data set”. The common data set report is something each school files every year. It is a wonderful report as the same data is captured for each school and is depicted in largely the same manner. I would start by looking up the various schools and seeing what their stats are for the incoming students. You’ll need to scroll through the common data set report to find the correct pages for GPA and ACT/SAT data (beware it is a long report - you’ll skip many pages). Then you’ll be better able to assess your son’s viability for merit aid at that particular university.

I’d then go to the school’s web page and look-up the merit scholarship information. You’ll want to understand if the merit aid is automatic based upon GPA and scores or if it is competitive (meaning an applicant is eligible to apply for the scholarship based upon scores, but dependent upon an essay, resume, interview, etc.). Some schools offer one or the other, some offer a combination – it varies. I’d also encourage you to run a school’s net price calculator – although a word of caution - the accuracy varies widely amongst schools.

Lastly, I would use the information you find to have an open and honest discussion with your son about his aspirations. If he wants to attend a particular school, or a particular type of school and hopes to minimize debt – then he may have to do more standardized test studying to boost his SAT score or focus upon the ACT studying. His current score of 1350 isn’t likely to provide him with substantial merit aid.

We had a similar discussion with our daughter during her sophomore year. She had a strong GPA with AP classes, but would need a strong standardized test score to capture the best possible merit aid at her targeted schools (state flag ships both in and out of state). She successfully moved her ACT score from a 28 (mid-sophomore year) to a 33 with studying. She took the test a total of 4 times (28, 30, 31, and 33).

She did an ACT review course at school (deemed “worthless” by her) and a few of sessions with a high school math teacher (not an ACT tutor) to help understand her math errors on the math section of practice tests. Her score improvement came from self-study using the ACT Prep Black book by Mike Barrett, the ACT Red book by ACT, and the ACT Critical Reader by Erica Meltzer PLUS lots of real, retired ACT tests found on the website, ■■■■■■■■.com. My daughter swears by careful reading of the black book and erica meltzer book she was able to understand test strategies and question tips that she then applied over and over again as she took practice tests. The key is using real test questions (thus the retired tests). Her strengths are english and reading so she needed to maximize those scores, as well as improve on science. Math is her weakest area and wasn’t a strong focus after the first two tests. After she read the books - she spent time taking the retired tests as practice. She always strictly timed herself, put a note on the door saying she was testing so no one in the family inadvertently interrupted her, and then analyzed why she got an answer wrong so that she could correct the mistake for the next practice session. Because study time is always a problem - particularly for juniors…she often did just a section of a test in the evening rather than a whole 3 hour test. Towards the end - she only did reading and science sections as she achieved consistent high scores in english and couldn’t budge the math score so she budgeted her time on the sections where she felt there was still room to grow.

This is a really long answer, but hopefully it helps you and your son. My daughter wanted to go out of state to a flag ship school and that was going to take merit. She has been accepted into the honors programs at University of Missouri, Ohio State University, University of Iowa, University of Alabama, Michigan State University and University of Kentucky. She has been awarded nice merit packages at all schools (with the exception of OSU - no merit comes out until late Jan or early Feb).

Best of luck!

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@123field Thank you for that post. I shared it with my son. My husband and I are trying to get him to study for the ACT. My son is convinced he will ace it. We forced him to take a practice test and he got a 31 composite. His weakness is English and Reading so we are trying to get him to study that. I am pretty confident that he can get his score up if he tries. Getting him to do it is the hard part.

Also thank you for sharing the information about “common data set”. That is helpful.

Congratulations to your daughter. It is wonderful that she will have so many choices.

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If English and reading are his weaknesses, then buy him the Erica Meltzer books - ACT English and ACT reading. Good luck with the process!