@Lindagaf George Washington pretty much only gives large $$ if you qualify for financial aid… not merit 
unfortunately.
East coast LACs that give merit is a small list – the longer list is schools that don’t – all NESCAC schools, so Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Trinity, Hamilton, Connecticut etc. Haverford, Swarthmore, Vassar – do not give merit. Bard’s merit aid seems to be linked to financial need. Skidmore gives some targeted merit, for music and arts, I’m not familiar with how much general merit they give, or how generous it is.
Women’s colleges, such as Bryn Mawr and Mt Holyoke do give merit aid, and OP’s daughter could be eligible, though hard to predict. Bryn Mawr is a beautiful gothic-architecture campus, 20 minutes on the commuter train from Philly.
Dickinson gives up to $20,000 merit, though a 30 might not bring much. St Lawrence in up-up-upstate NY gives merit, and requires test scores to be submitted, even though it is test optional for admission. Denison in Ohio (30 minutes from Columbus) is generous with merit, but again, a 30 probably would not get the higher awards.
Midwest LACs like Lawrence, Kalamazoo, Beloit, etc. will be more predictably generous, and have the advantage of a lower sticker price to start with – we were pleased to realize that tuition and room and board at some of those schools was closer to $48-50k, and not $65k. That means that a 1/2 tuition merit award brings the out of pocket cost to about $25-28k, for some of them.
Hobart may give merit with a 30. Problem is, it’s probably not enough to bring cost down to 20k.
Providence or Loyola MD, may be generous with merit for a 30 ACT
A number of urban Catholic colleges (Scranton, St. Joe’s, Xavier, Loyola MD, DePaul, Dayton, Siena, Duquesne) will likely offer her $15,000-$20,000/yr merit, but you are still looking at tuition, fees, R and B of $30,000-$40,000. Fordham is likely to be well above $40,000 even after merit.
Would predict zero merit at Villanova as it is a tougher admit than those mentioned above.
Maybe Canisius in Buffalo or LaSalle in Philadelphia?
@Booajo --the Pitt merit situation has changed pretty significantly so far. The OP has a 30 ACT and it’s November— I doubt there would be any merit aid at Pitt.
OP-- like everyone else said. Show her the numbers.
DePaul is considered to be a better school for business, while Loyola has more of a focus on health. However, DePaul is stingier with merit aid.
In order to get merit with a 30 ACT, she will have to be in the top 25% or even top 10% of her class. Marquette will likely give some aid, but they reserve their best packages for Wisconsin residents, or so I am told. With a 30 ACT, she will be in the top 25th percentile at Marquette.
Saint Louis University and Creighton might also be options. A 30 ACT will put her at the 25th percentile for test scores, both give out merit aid and are located in major cities. We know families with kids at these schools, and they seem to be very happy with the decision.
She’d probably love UW-Madison if you can get her to visit. I don’t get the impression that it is conservative at all!
We have a friend’s daughter who loved Beloit (mentioned above) but I don’t think it’s in an urban area (?).
Also, UW-Madison and the city itself is on the liberal side by accounts of many UW-Madison alums I’ve known from HS and work.
And it has topnotch academics comparable with the elites in many fields. If you’re in-state for UW-Madison…that’s great!
Thanks for the support. She wants to study biochemistry, hopefully go on to med school. I am a nurse working in organ donation and I know a lot of docs. Pretty much all of the advice I have from them is that it does not matter where you get your undergrad degree as much as academic performance and MCAT score. I work with a cardio thoracic transplant surgeon from the Mayo Clinic that did his first 2 years at a community college and transferred to the U od MN and obviously went on to a successful medical career.
We would not qualify for need based aid because of our income. Our EFC is 39K. I feel that paying 80k toward her education is fairly generous. We have 2 other children that we need to put through college also.
Lake Forest is appealing because of small size and very generous merit aid. It is kind of a compromise because it is close® to a big city and not much more than the University of Minnesota.
I realize Fordham is too expensive as she will not qualify for enough merit aid, but she originally wanted NYU! Talk about sticker shock.
Ultimately she knows we can only afford 25-30K/YR. She is bright but not gifted or anything. The thing she has going for her is she is a hard worker. She has a part time job at Target and she saves most of her pay checks. Although her stats are not outstanding her work ethic is. We all know a hard worker is sometimes just as valuable as a gifted one.
Also, thanks for the recommendedations of other schools to look into. I guess ultimately this was my goal…finding that perfect, off the radar school.
@angstymom if she is serious about pre-med and could see herself at med school in a city like STL or KC then I’d definitely consider Drury and their PreMed scholars program: http://www.drury.edu/pre-health/pre-medical-scholars-programs-eligibility-requirements. Essentially it’s guaranteed admission to med school if you maintain a 3.5 gpa the first two yrs of undergrad and have a 30+ ACT.
We were super impressed with the Dean of Biology. It is really the only school where my D left the visit confident that she could be successful in the pre med program.
If she thinks Wisconsin is conservative because of the election, she should look at the map. All the little blue squares are where the colleges are - Eau Claire, Lacrosse, Milwaukee, Madison, Stevens Point, Superior. She’d probably find the same scatter pattern in Minnesota cities/towns with colleges. Or in any other state for that matter. My daughter attends college in a dark red state, and her town is fun and liberal and ‘college-y’.
As a life-long New Yorker, here’s a little tip. NYU’s academics in her area of academic interests aren’t better than UWisc-Madison’s enough to justify the pricetag.
And I’d say it’s much more the case with Fordham as unless things have drastically changed in the last few years, their sciences aren’t anywhere near as strong as UWisc-Madison’s.
If you were an aunt/uncle asking me for my input regarding choosing between the 3…I’d advise UWisc-Madison hands down…even if finances weren’t a factor. Especially considering NYU’s ginormous full-pay cost is well-above those of other elite/respectable private colleges.
The fact UWisc-Madison is in-state for you and your D is an added bonus.
Some schools give merit for outstanding EC’s but that doesn’t seem to apply here either. (Clark U. is one.) I think working at Target should be honored and more schools are honoring that kind of thing (including Ivies) but still, it seems, overall, that merit aid may be hard for her to get.
I understand more than anyone that income is precarious because anything can happen, but for now, it would seem your finances are pretty good, judging from your EFC.
It sounds like UW-Madison will be her school, based on family desires. I know one East Coast kid who went there and loved it.
I can really understand your daughter’s desire to be in NYC. Every kid I know moves there after graduating, it seems, especially Brooklyn. This may just be a case of her needing to delay gratification.
If she really wants to get out of Dodge, maybe she could defer attendance and do a program like City Year, or some other “gap year” program. Then return to UW.
I don’t know you or your family but I think it is nice to be a dreamer at that age. Maybe she is frustrated by the limits, not obstinate. In any case I hope it all works out in such a way that relationships are positive going forward.
^ that’s a great idea! CityYear NYC is super selective, but provides a stipend and some help finding roommates (as the stipend doesn’t cover NYC level rent). And once she has completed the program she gets a scholarship for college. 
UW OOS parent here again – went to check UW MN reciprocity and wow, $14k a year tuition for MN resident? For a student interested in med school whose top priority therefore must be minimizing debt? What an amazing opportunity! UW’s estimate of additional expenses is rather generous, so I’d predict the total cost is closer to $26k a year than the estimated $29,000.
There are definitely ways to “shrink” the experience of UW, including residential learning communities in the first year dorms (there is always a “women and science” one); the Honors program (not an Honors college, but an a la carte opportunity to take Honors classes and be engaged in other ways); the undergraduate research scholar program etc. There are competitive scholarships for funded research with faculty and many other opportunities to get involved deeply in the academic life of the community.
Students (and family) tend to have strong reactions to one residential “neighborhood” or another. I loved the bucolic feel of Lakeshore, my kid loved the more urban feel of Southeast, with city buses, crowds of students etc. Most students move off campus after freshman year (its can be cheaper than dorms) so your daughter might enjoy the feeling of being independent, in the middle of State Street and all the action – there are “high rise” apartment buildings right around State Street (the Hub is a new one) which feel like having your own (sometimes luxury) apartment in the middle of the city. The fact that UW would not “break the bank” could allow room for more opportunities down the road, in terms of unpaid summer internships, being able to afford slightly nicer apartments etc.
My son heard President Obama speak twice, and this election cycle, Tim Kaine and Joe Biden. Madison is the heart of progressive activism, and there is a lot going on. Plus great restaurants, running and biking trails – and a lake for sailing, skating etc!
I will add (and then I need to get some work done!) – some kids aren’t wild about the 28,000 undergrad thing, but will find their way and flourish. Others, like my younger one, would drown and just could not be successful in that environment under any set of circumstances. If the OP’s daughter is the latter, and needs the small class setting, all seminars, no lectures etc environment, then the LACs offering enough merit to make it affordable are limited. In the midwest, I suggested Lawrence in WI and Kalamazoo in MI, both in smaller cities. For a pre-med student, Rhodes in Memphis might be a possibility, as the urban hospital environment offers good pre-med shadowing and research opportunities. They do give merit, though a 30 may not be a high enough score to pull in enough merit to make it affordable. Dickinson, Gettysburg, St Lawrence, Earlham are not remotely urban so presumably those would not work. St Olaf would likely give more merit than Macalester. The women’s colleges, particularly Bryn Mawr and Mt Holyoke, are decent options for merit. LACs ranked on UW News 40-50 and lower would be the focus for merit.
^ I agree - she seems more like a better fit for an LAC. I wouldn’t push UW if she has no interest in it.
Is your D willing and able to convert from part time at Target to full time, live at home, and bank her salary? Fulltime from June 2017- August 2018, then divide that number by four- she can augment her college budget annually by that amount.
Some kids need to hear a plan which strikes them as so ridiculous “live at home for a year? work at Target 40 hours a week?” to get grounded…
Muhlenberg also has an “early assurance” program with Temple. Muhlenberg is sometimes generous with merit aid.
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/applyingtoacooperativeprogram/
@blossom My step daughter was dragging her feet and also being fairly stubborn. I truly believe she thought her father would just cave and pay for wherever her little heart wanted to go – but not so (only person more stubborn than her is probably him-- if you look up cantankerous his picture might be next to it- lol).
Anyway, she had the grades and class standing to actually to the local CC for free (in NJ they have the STARS program) so he calmly told her to figure out something in our parameters or she could just do that. It lit a fire under her because in her mind it was LUDICROUS that we would think she could go to THAT local college! UGH