<p>I am a Senior from Bellevue, Washington. I am currently searching for good target university that focuses on small, discussion-based liberal arts classes that have a highly competitive admissions criteria. My family is in the income bracket that does not qualify for any financial aid, but we still want to conserve money. Thus, I am wondering if I could get any recommendations for liberal arts school that will likely provide merit aid. If it matters, I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and 2260 superscored SAT. I can provide other details in comments.</p>
<p>There are plenty. Some you might look at include Dickinson, Macalester, Kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell, Lawrence, Mount Holyoke or Smith or Scripps (if you are female), Rhodes, St. Olaf.</p>
<p>You might qualify to be a Marquis scholar at Lafayette College (PA) </p>
<p>And some others (a little less selective) include University of Denver, Westminster College (Utah) Washington College (MD),</p>
<p>Take a look at Warriordaughter’s thread: <a href=“After the Dust Settled: Results for high-stats, merit-seeking kid - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1647834-after-the-dust-settled-results-for-high-stats-merit-seeking-kid-p1.html</a>
The thing to remember is that you are most likely to get merit aid at a school where you fall in the top 25% of GPA and test scores and otherwise stand out from the crowd. Schools that give merit aid do so to lure you away from a more selective school. </p>
<p>Lots of LACs have aid of 15-20K. Will such merit much help?</p>
<p>Are you aware that merit aid usu. goes to pay off need-based aid first, so that it’s of little to no use if you already have 5500 in loans and, say, 10K in grants and work-study?</p>
<p>sorry…I already commented here…</p>
<p>Have a look at the Kiplinger LAC rankings.
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none</a></p>
<p>Click-sort on the “Avg non-need-based aid” and “% of non-need-based aid” columns. </p>
<p>holy cross offers some merit aid and also meets 100% demonstrated financial need.</p>
<p>Any geographic preferences/limitations?</p>
<p>
As a general rule of thumb, the more competitive the admissions criteria the less merit aid will be offered. Highly competitive schools are more likely to meet 100% of demonstrated need, but that is not what you are looking for. As an example, Kenyon College offers some merit money but claims to meet 100% of need. Still, only about half of students get any aid at all from Kenyon.</p>
<p>So, you are working a little at cross purposes, and will need to target well. If you really want merit aid, you might have to lower your sights a little. Ohio Wesleyan gives great merit aid, but is pretty easy to get into.</p>
<p>Regarding the “discussion-based liberal arts classes,” you might want to clarify precisely what you are expecting. St. Johns College in Annapolis has a “Great Books” only curriculum where classes are almost exclusively discussions, based on extensive reading outside of class. Some larger universities such as Notre Dame and Columbia have some optional “Great Books” type programs. Colorado College (not CU-Boulder) appears to have a lot of class discussions. Yet each of these approaches such discussions differently. Make sure that you know what you want.</p>
<p>Whitman. The school is located in Washington and they offer about 25% of their entering class Merit Aid</p>
<p>Look at Occidental College: Lots of merit…top scholarship at 25,000.00/year. As well, Lake Forest College offers great merit scholarships as does University of the Redlands. Although Whitman, does offer merit, I think it is capped at 12 or 15 thousand per year.</p>
<p>Trinity U (TX) is pretty generous with merit aid. Although LAC-sized, it’s somewhat unusual in offering majors like business and engineering in addition to its liberal arts departments. </p>
<p>Tulane might be worth a look as well.</p>