Many schools consider that you get EITHER need OR merit up to EFC, but don’t stack.
If you’re a family of 6 with a 60K income and a gifted daughter (not NMF but close/top stats), apply to meet-need schools that cap equity in the calculations for how much FA you’d get.
For example: UChicago, Princeton, Dickinson, Bucknell, Columbia, Haverford, UVA, Skidmore, Grinnell, Macalester, Muhlenberg, Wake Forest, Middlebury…
@MYOS1634 , Thanks for the tip. Some NPC have indicated merit AND need-based with need-based tacked on after, bring the EFC down to FAFSA EFC levels.
Of your list, I love Princeton with the unbelievable $30 EFC. But what are the chances of that?
I also like Dickinson, though it was a bit higher than what I’m hoping for. But Dickinson gives me the impression of being…personal, so I actually think if I explain certain details of our financial situation, maybe they’d be sympathetic. Or maybe I’m fooling myself. Lol. But I did see Dickinson has some music scholarships.
I don’t think I’ve run the NPC on Muhlenberg yet.
@MACmiracle my husband visited with my older son and fell in love with Carroll college Montana. He wants so badly for one of our kids to go there! They gave my daughter 19k in merit, if she takes out a 5500 student loan that puts us at under 15000 cash a year with room and board, as their tuition is pretty reasonable.
Duquesne and Seton Hall both gave my daughter over 20k all together, one did have 4K room and board in there, but it brings down the cost of attendance quite a bit.
If your daughter is good at music, and you can consider a protestant (mainstream, not evangelical) college, look at St Olaf. It’s Lutheran, with Catholics a very large contingent - and they have music scholarships you can “stack” with academic merit and need-based aid. The music department there is top notch and you don’t need to major in music to compete for the music scholarships.
I have one more to add, I forgot Manhattan College was Catholic. My daughter just got her acceptance and award letter, $22,500 Deans scholarship.
I really like St. Olaf’s!!! I like it so much that I’m afraid to run the NPC and ruin the love!
It seems perfect for D.
And it would be one flight. I’ve looked st some very inexpensive schools but worry that the costs of airfare would cancel out the cost benefit.
@socalmom007 , I’m very sure my DD would get good merit at Seton Hall since they offer a acholarship to bring the tution down to Rutgers level, but I want to look at it to see what the surrounding area is like. I’m keeping it in the list for now.
DD is saying “no urban areas” but some urban areas are more urban than others. When I look at pictures of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul that doesn’t seem urban to me from my perspective, but Manhattan College might be too urban even with such nice merit.
Take look at St. Edward’s University in Austin. With the right stats, they offer some generous scholarships.
https://www.stedwards.edu/admission-financial-aid/undergraduate/new-freshmen/scholarships
Definitely La Salle! I’m a student, and we just lowered our tuition. I don’t know anyone who pays sticker price.
Carroll College definitely isn’t urban, how’s she feel about Montana??? Its beautiful there and the school is excellent.
Let me say this. My wife and I are Duquesne alumni. This is my son’s first choice. Even with what others have told me is Duquesne’s max merit offer we are taking a pass on them. There are higher ranked schools that are more affordable. They are pricing themselves out of the reach of middle class America. Very sad.
I just looked at our Duquesne offer, $17,000 plus $4,000 room and board, so $21,000. Not bad at all as their tuition is less than many schools. I thought their offer was very competitive, especially as my daughter has moderate stats- weighted 4.0, unweighted 3.6 and we went test optional with them.
@socalmom007: isn’t Carroll in the Capital of Montana? Even if Montana’s not urban, surely its capital is not a small town…? or do you mean “not urban” as in “no Business Downtown with skyscrapers, no lightrail/subway, no gritty projects”? (Just curious - I’ve never been, heard good things about the college).
Carroll College is in Helena Montana, but it’s not NYC type of urban.
Your student was offered 17K plus $4k per year towards tuition and R&B? Nice! That’s about 1/2 tuition and about 1/3 off of R&B.
And only based on GPA? No test scores reported? Amazing!
Yes @mom2collegekids, we thought that was a stellar offer for her stats! She does have lots of rigor, amazing EC’s, but no test scores sent to Duquesne since they are TO and her scores aren’t great.
Holy Family near Philadelphia
If you’re open to other faith traditions, Luther Iowa, Concordia Moorhead, Augsburg, all Lutheran, have good financial/merit aid and good music.
Sewanee is Episcopalian and offers good merit/financial aid, strong in the humanities.
@MACmiracle I also second University of Scranton and Siena. D got generous merit scholarships but add R&B and COA is over 25K into the 31K-34K range without factoring in finacial aid. D was also accepted to Marywood with nice merit scholarship that brought tuition down to just under 10K. Did you mean the school was meh or the scholarship? I assume you were referring to the school. D applied Early Action by November 15 to all three and I believe that resulted in higher scholarship offers then if she had waited longer to submit her apps.
@newjerseydad888 , When I visited Marywood years ago, the department my D was looking at was in a time of transition and our visit left me a bit nervous about how stable the program she wanted would be going forward. I remember the merit being in the same range of the other schools D was considering. When I looked at their scholarships now, they didn’t seem quite as high. The students at Marywood seemed very welcoming, more collaborative than competitive, and that appealed to me. On the very personal downside, their campus ministry website seemed to indicate that they might have liturgical dancing, and that’s something D would find distracting…