<p>My D is only a jr, so we'll have time to think about this. We won't be qualified for fin aid, but it would be very doable for us, financially, if we had a small tuition scholarship of about 5K per year for a typical private college tuition of ~37K. Assuming that D has the stats/ECs to be admitted to schools that range somewhere between Case Western and UChicago, what private universities would she be reallistically offered such a scholarship? She's not interested in liberal arts colleges and would likely be a science major (but not engineering). Thank you for your responses!</p>
<p>Some of these schools do give merit aid to some students in various amounts. Off the top of my head, I am thinking of Boston College, Brandeis, Rice, Lehigh, Washington University, Emory, RPI, and Case Western. Selection of candidates for merit aid differs from school to school, so I would check the websites. Some require separate applications, while with others it is automatic with the regular application or NMF status.</p>
<p>Also check some honors programs at state schools and privates, which can be excellent and attractive to students who are also admitted to Ivies. </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>You’re going to be hard pressed to find a highly competitive private college for a cost of $37,000/yr. University of Chicago costs around $52,000/yr. Most others cost $45,000/yr.
You need to consider not only the cost of tuition, but the cost of housing/food plans/student fees/etc. You also need to remember that private colleges increase their cost every year.</p>
<p>[Office</a> of College Aid](<a href=“http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/cost.shtml]Office”>http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/cost.shtml)
^example of the current total cost of Univ. of Chicago</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/financial/tuitionandfees.html[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/offices/stserv/financial/tuitionandfees.html</a>
^example of Boston College PER SEMESTER costs</p>
<p><a href=“Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences | Case Western Reserve University”>Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences | Case Western Reserve University;
^Case Western over $50,000/yr</p>
<p>University of Rochester.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Rochester : Paying for College](<a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/undergrads/]University”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/undergrads/)
^Univ. of Rochester $52,000+/yr</p>
<p><a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/facts.shtm[/url]”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/admissions/facts.shtm</a>
^look for individual college statistics like those in the link above and compare your daughter’s statistics to them. This will give you an idea of where she ranks to the other students</p>
<p>OP_
As many here are posting, there are many schools whose <em>tuition</em> is in the range you mention, but tack on the room/board/fees etc and the cost jumps from 37k to 50k prety quickly. If you are truly referring to tuition only, and can handle the ancillary fees, there are lots of schools that fit your bill. Several have been mentioned above. I would second Emory, Rice and throw in Vandy and Tulane. There is a great thread that lists schools that give the most merit based aid. Consider some of the West coast schools like CMC and Pomona as well (if she’ll consider the smaller schools). If she will be a NMF the scholarship doors will open as well.</p>
<p>You can add WPI to the list - they offered my son even more money than RPI. Many of the engineering schools really like to encourage women.</p>
<p>As previously mentioned U of Rochester as well as Tulane and U of Miami. All three are competitive for admissions, and may offer merit $$ for stats and ECs.</p>
<p>Thanks for great responses. I am fully aware of the total cost of attendance. I am seeking for info on tuition scholarship only because I don’t think she can make the full ride at those selective schools. In essence, we can affort to pay out of pocket around 45K/year. We can close to 5-7K gap with loans or with some sort of, to be frankly, tuition discount. Hence the question.</p>
<p>Ah, I think many posters read your post wrong!</p>
<p>Actually, she will probably get $5-7000. almost anywhere. University of Rochester was a good recommendation. Add Carnegie Mellon (not great with financial aid, but may well give that amount), Cornell (need based only, but she may be eligible for a small scholarship- and a financial break in some of their schools if you live in NY), and lots of the LACs already mentioned. </p>
<p>What part of the country does she want to be in? What size of school? What kind of school (LAC, large university, technical institute, etc.)?</p>
<p>Pomona does not offer merit scholarships</p>
<p>If you’re that close to comfortably paying full fare, your D might be better off taking loans at her dream school. But there ought to be some mid-tier schools that offer small merit money as well, though my expertise is with LACs so I can’t help you. If she is willing to consider a small school in a city, Macalester guarantees 5k merit to NMFs.</p>
<p>Many highly selective/competitive schools provide NO merit scholarships, and many others limit merits to the National Merits. (For example, Northwestern made it very clear in their info session that all students who are admitted are of sufficiently high caliber that they all deserve merit, so they provide none and limit their aid to need-based). That said, there are schools (many listed already) that do provide merit scholarships if test scores/credentials are at the top of their admission pool. When we started this process several years ago, I was surprised by how little non-needs based money was provided to top tier kids at the top schools who were short of National Merit. If you are interested/willing to look at a step below the selective/competitive/elite schools, there is quite a bit of merit money available for top students. A lot depends upon where your D stands re: test scores and what tier of school she is aiming for.</p>
<p>If she is a NMF then she automatically qualifies for a 1/2 tuition scholarship at U Southern Calif, if accepted. If she is not a NMF, but applies by no later than Dec 1, she would be eligible for consideration for the Deans 1/4 tuition scholarship all the way to the Trustee full tuition scholarship. [students HAVE to apply by Dec 1 for merit scholarship consideration] USC also has a Honors Science program for qualified Freshman, which feature small classes with top science professors . USC has been very successful during the past 8 years attracting top students and professors to the school, and their current USNWR ranking-25-reflect how much has changed…</p>
<p>Schools like WUSTL, Vanderbilt and Duke have some significant merit scholarships, but they are extremely competitive (basically, they are aimed to lure HYPSM type students). So, although it won’t hurt to apply, don’t count on getting the merit money from them.</p>
<p>Rice has a lower tuition to begin with, so you will end up within your budget even without merit money.
USC has nice scholarships (automatic for NMFs).
Grinnell can be generous if you are looking for LACs.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/776116-great-colleges-under-45k-full-pay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/776116-great-colleges-under-45k-full-pay.html</a></p>
<p>Without more specifics on her stats (which will not be available until the end of this year) and clarification on the definition of “highly competitive,” I think that it is impossible to give any answer that is not rank speculation. My advice would be to wait until the end of junior year, when you will have a better idea of her GPA/class rank and standardized test scores, and revisit the issue at that time.</p>
<p>Correction to Post #2: Boston College does NOT offer any merit aid other than its full-tuition Presidential Scholarships (15-20 per year). In this way, it is similar to WUSTL, Duke, and other top schools that offer just a handful of very big merit scholarships and everything else is need-based aid only .</p>
<p>OP,your best strategy will be to target schools that do offer lots of merit aid (smaller amounts to many students) and where your daughter’s stats put her well within the top 25% of applicants. RPI and U Rochester are examples of two schools that do give merit aid to many of their admittees.</p>
<p>Here you go; our original research list.</p>
<p>First column is name of college
Second column is % of students receiving merit aid
Third column is median merit award</p>
<p>As you can see, the classic “most prestigious of all” colleges tend not to give merit aid.
Moving into "still quite prestigious in anyone’s mind but located in relatively unpopulated parts of America"or into engineering oriented schools (e.g., CMU, which isn’t here because child rejected it) starts getting you some merit aid.</p>
<p>Good luck. Data is from the USN&WR Big Book for 2009</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<hr>
<pre><code> % $
---- —
</code></pre>
<p>U Rochester 33 9
Grinnell 32 10
Muhlenberg 30 11
U Michigan 29 6
Beloit 25 12
Franklin M’lll 24 13
Brandeis 22 20
UVM 19 2
U Wisconsin 17 2
Oberlin 17 10
Hampshire 16 5
Wash U 14 5
U Chicago 11 11
Dickinson 9 10
Carleton 8 3
Colorado 6 10
Macalester 6 5
Bard 3 11
Trinity 2 28
Bucknell 2 12
Swarthmore 1 34 (some kind of DelMarVa scholarship)
Brown 0 0
Bates 0 0
Vassar 0 0
Middlebury 0 0
Columbia 0 0
Connecticut 0 0
Harvard 0 0
Wesleyan (Ct)0 0</p>
<p>Yep, Swarthmore is another big-merit-or-nothing school, but even more limited, since you must live in the Delmarva area to qualify.</p>