Help me make my college list! Merit aid = BIG factor

Parents Forum
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<p>Today was a sad day :(. I had created a list of ~30 colleges and began cutting down by taking finance into account. Pretty much every single one of my top 15 (in terms of desire) was cut out. <em>Sigh</em> So I'm left with a handful of safety colleges that I do kind of want to go to, but no where as much as I wanted the ones I cut from my list...</p>

<p>Basically I need a college that will give me a LOT of merit aid. At least half-tuition or enough to bring down my total COA to under $25,000.
My stats: 3.98 UW; 1500/2290 SAT (740 CR, 760 M, 790 W); top 1% rank
Typical, ordinary ECs (volunteering, violin, etc.) - No leadership or awards.</p>

<p>So taking into account merit aid as a determining factor, what schools:</p>

<h1>1) Are good for business/finance (recruiting, name recognition, etc.) and pre-med (i.e. decent science dept. & no grade deflation); Good professors (doesn't mean famous, just good teachers who care about the students)</h1>

<h1>2) Have a student body similar to Carleton & U Chicago. (I cut both out due to lack of attainable significant merit aid. But Carleton WAS my 1st choice.)</h1>

<p>Sorry, that was a bit longer than intended, but please give me some suggestions based mostly on merit aid and #1. It's okay if the student body is complete opposite of #2 b/c even if I'm unhappy w/ the social aspect of college, it's only four years.</p>

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<p>HI:</p>

<p>I suggest you apply to Lafayette in Easton PA. It is a top 30 lac and a very good liberal arts school. It has about 2000 students. It also has an excellent engineering program.</p>

<p>I applied there for the class 0f 2011 and was accepted and awarded a $16,000 per year four year merit scholarship. It is one of the few top 30 lacs that give significant merit money.</p>

<p>I chose to attend Wesleyan because it was a better fit for me but I thought highly of Lafayette.</p>

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<p>I suggest you search for posts by Curmudgeon. He has researched this question exhaustively and has graciously shared his knowledge on many occasions. Why reinvent the wheel?</p>

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<p>Grinnell offers good merit aid and might be a fit.</p>

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<p>It makes a big difference whether you want business or medicine. For medicine college matters much less and there are lots of places you can get great merit aid with your stats. Just look at the permanent post on merit aid on this board.</p>

<p>For business college matters more and you would look at schools that get recruited by the jobs kids on CC seem to most want, ibanking and consulting. If that's your goal Michigan comes to mind, but I don't know what OOS tuition is. Even though you seem to want an LAC, if business is your goal check out the search feature and see what's listed as the recruited schools. Most unfortunately are the expensive privates but there are a few top publics.</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.ncf.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ncf.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Based on your GPA and SAT score, this #1 public LAC will give you a $11,000 scholarship and bring your annual cost to about $17,000.</p>

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<p>Are a National Merit Finalist?</p>

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<p>Are you sure that you won't be able to get need-based aid....You may have investigated this already, but if not, you should plug some numbers into financial aid calculators and see what you find.</p>

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<p>Did you check the stickied thread at the very top of this board?</p>

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<p>Please consider Ursinus in Collegeville, PA. It's just north of Philadelphia, is very generous with merit aid and has a phenomenonal med school acceptance rate. ~~small LAC; serious student body and great location.
I know a young man who had stats a bit 'lower' than yours who got a great package.</p>

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<p>Holy Cross and Bucknell. Holy Cross has great pre-med and strong business program with very loyal alumni netwok. HC is near Boston while Bucknell is in rural location.</p>

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<p>Bucknell IS a great school, but it offers NO merit aid.</p>

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<p>I would strongly second looking at Grinnell. My son has similar stats and got $15,000 per year merit scholarship from them. It's a great school, turned out to be my son's favorite. There are some other great suggestions here too. With your stats etc. you should be able to find good merit aid. Goucher is another school with great merit money for top students. I think they are strong in sciences, but this is not my son's interest area. I think they have a special program, an extra year for pre-meds there. Lewis & Clark was another really interesting school that gave good merit aid, but Ursinus might be better in pre-med.</p>

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<p>Lafayette is great (my alma mater) - but even with the Marquis scholarship you may be priced out if your limit is $25K. Look at Juniata in Pennsylvania (great aid programs, great pre-med placement) as well as the already-mentioned Ursinus, which has a good early assurance program with one of the med schools in Philly - it escapes me at the moment which one....</p>

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<p>OK, here's my plug for Case Western Reserve University, where my S will be starting in a few weeks ;)</p>

<p>They have a strong business school (undergraduate business program ranked 29 by USNews) and strong hard sciences, many pre-meds, many undergraduate research opportunities, encourage "experiential learning" opportunities (community involvement, interships, coops, etc.). Undergraduate population is about 4500. Has the reputation of hardworking students. USNews ranking of 38 in national universities. </p>

<p>My S ended up picking Case this year for engineering, much to our surprise (and I think his as well). He had been pretty much planning on RPI, but changed his mind after a last-minute visit to Case. He really liked the campus, dorms, classes, and students better. I was pleased because it seemed to have a diverse student body, at least in terms of interests and majors. I don't know how it compares with UChicago or Grinnel's student body, but it seemed more "liberal-artish" than RPI--much more like JHU. To me it seemed like a good choice for someone with strong academics who wasn't exactly sure which direction they wanted to go. </p>

<p>My S had about the same SAT scores as you, strong HS course schedule, but only decent ECs and GPA (about 15th percentile at his school). He got the Case's lowest Merit award (Provost's=$16400/yr). With your GPA, I think a higher award is very possible (President's = $21800, Trustees = $26800). Estimated COA is $44K, so either of these would keep your family contribution below $25K. No application fee if done online (common application with no significant supplement), and non-binding early admisssion! My S had his acceptance and merit award offer before Christmas--a really nice stress reducer! You must apply early to be eligible for scholarships, I believe. My sense is that SAT and GPA really drive the scholarship selection, but I don't know that for a fact. Must maintain a 3.0 to keep scholarship (2.5 freshman). Link to scholarships page:<br>
<a href="http://finaid.case.edu/Finaid.aspxTypes_of_Aid&Option=Scholarships&Level=004-001%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://finaid.case.edu/Finaid.aspxTypes_of_Aid&Option=Scholarships&Level=004-001&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And, no, sometimes life doesn't seem fair. But if you and your family are able to swing $25K per year, I think that there you will have a lot of wonderful options given your excellent academic statistics. It is really a blessing that you understand the financial limits now rather than next April. It's great that you are doing the research now to find schools that are a good fit for you with the possibility of merit aid.</p>

<p>Also read through the "Schools known for merit aid" sticky post at the top of this forum <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52133%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52133&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>
[quote]

Bucknell IS a great school, but it offers NO merit aid.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>bucknell does offer merit aid. however, academic merit aid is only extended to students with demonstrated financial need (or who are close to having demonstrated financial need) and does not equate to half tuition.</p>

<hr>

<p>i did want to second momfrommes post, though. it may very well be that you will not qualify for need-based aid. however, it would be awfully premature to do so if you havent filled out the 'institutional method' efc calculator on the finaid website.</p>

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<p>Another school that you might consider is Drew University in Madison, NJ (about a half hour west of NYC). As I and several others have indicated on previous threads, they have been quite generous with merit aid.</p>

<p>Also, take a look at some of those other threads. One has been going on for a couple of years!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Beloit and Lawrence are 2 in WI that are good and give good merit aid but I don't know a lot about their specific programs.</p>

<p>Looking back at your OP, we thought Grinnell was very similar to Carleton, which we also loved. Can you visit some places?</p>

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<p>You should still check out the U of Chicago if you are interested. They just got a huge donation, I believe it to be $150 million dollars, to be used solely for financial aid. If your family income is under a certain amount, huge scholarships are automatically available for all accepted students. I think the program doesn't begin for another year, but you might get enough aid in the first year to make it worthwhile. Definitely look into it. Never assume that aid of any sort is not available without first checking the school out for all of its financial aid programs.</p>

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<p>Dear LifeIsn'tFair: Three schools I knew that offer merit scholarship. Southern Cal, Boston U and George Washington. Good luck</p>