<p>@whydoicare: thanks for the info on CMU, it doesn’t sound like my area since I’m more of a bio/chem person.</p>
<p>Look into Providence College - about 3500 students, and offer merit aid. I’m pretty sure they offer up to full tuition. I’ve also heard Clark University in Worcester Mass offers good merit aid. I think enrollment there is about 3,000.</p>
<p>@Highbury Wow, Providence sounds like a great option! Expecially since I absolutely love the city of Providence and a small school atmosphere. Clark also sounds like a good fit I will look into that as well :)</p>
<p>Glad to help!</p>
<p>Roddy Scholarship</p>
<p>Applicants considered for this scholarship, which covers up to tuition, fees, room and board costs, must aspire to a career in the medical profession. Consideration is based on outstanding academic achievement in high school. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.</p>
<p>Here’s the link to Providence’s scholarships.</p>
<p>[Providence</a> College - Institutional Merit-Based](<a href=“http://www.providence.edu/Admission/Undergraduate+Financial+Aid/Grants+and+Scholarships/Institutional+Merit-Based.htm]Providence”>http://www.providence.edu/Admission/Undergraduate+Financial+Aid/Grants+and+Scholarships/Institutional+Merit-Based.htm)</p>
<p>With a COA of about $57k per year, I don’t know if any of their scholarships (other than the Roddy) would get your costs own costs down low enough. </p>
<p>Anyone know how many Roddy schollies are awarded?</p>
<p>Mom2college - right up top on the link you provided it states 10 full tuition scholarships available per year. That’s not a ton, but since PC is the right size student body and in the right geographical location for alwaysleah I think it’s worth consideration.</p>
<p>alwaysleah,</p>
<p>Like others on this thread, I admire you for your efforts, and wish you great success in your college search.</p>
<p>I will add to what my online friend thumper1 wrote regarding Trinity. For the last 2 years they have awarded full tuition scholarships (though I think only a handful), but besides that, they are very generous with other merit awards. Be sure to check their site for these. I believe they are still “stackable”. Also check out the updates on the new science center. It is amazing, and if I recall correctly, portions will be opening next Spring.</p>
<p>Also, TU is about $10,000 less per year than many other comparable privates. My D just graduated from there in May. She was challenged, and turned down many other fine schools for TU. San Antonio is a great city, and there are many opps for research.</p>
<p>Looking into providence, it seems pretty religious. I’m definitely not religious at all, does anyone have any insight as to how religious the students are? Would that be a problem?</p>
<p>@gloworm thanks for the encouragement 
It really helps that as I research more and more of these colleges, I’m finding ones I’m really interested in and could see myself going to. it’s really helping me let go of those ivy dreams :)</p>
<p>As far as trinity goes, I am a little concerned about living in Texas. I went once to visit family, and it wasn’t really my style. But I went to Dallas/Ft. Worth, is San Antonio much different? But I will continue to look into Trinity, the low cost and research opportunities sound like a great combination!</p>
<p>Well, I can’t speak to your style, nor that of Dallas. My D is a minority from the Midwest, and found the kids to be friendly and open. She lived on campus two years, studied abroad one, lived off campus last year. Virtually all FA or merit can be used to go abroad, except in summer. Fell free to PM me.</p>
<p>alwaysleah - yes students are predominantly Catholic at Providence. Many do choose to go to church weekly. Having said that however, I doubt it would be a problem - religion seems to remain a clearly personal choice with alternative views respected. My daughter is very decidedly atheist, and I would have no problem is sending her there. It’s been our experience that even classes in religion cover a broad spectrum of beliefs not pushing Catholicism.</p>
<p>My daughter, who is decidedly not religious, is considering one Jesuit university which has a 50% Catholic student body. Her view: “The Catholics won’t bother me, and I won’t bother them.”</p>
<p>Catholic universities are not the same as Catholic high schools, where (at least at the one my son goes to) students are required to attend Mass on a regular basis and take four years of religion in which the tenets of the Catholic faith are taught.</p>
<p>Mom2college - right up top on the link you provided it states 10 full tuition scholarships available per year.</p>
<p>Yes, I saw that but I wasn’t sure if a student who would be a pre-med science kind of major would qualify. At first glance, I thought it was for a liberal arts major. But, now, looking at it again, it does look like she would. :)</p>
<p>And, yes, maybe being from Calif, if her scores are high enough, she could snag one of the ten full tuition scholarships. I wonder what kind of stats these kids usually have?? Anyone know?</p>
<p>Liberal Arts Honors Program Scholarships range from 40% of tuition up to full-tuition. It is important to note that there are only ten full-tuition scholarships awarded each year. The majority of the scholarships range from 40% - 60% of tuition.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up. :)</p>
<p>And I agree with the posts above. Most Catholic univs are fine for non-religious people. They aren’t at all like Catholic K-12, which my kids attended.</p>
<p>Hey guys :)</p>
<p>Sorry I’ve been MIA lately, my internship and summer AP work have kept me crazy busy!</p>
<p>I would just like to thank everyone again for their opinions, insight, advice, and suggestions. This thread has helped me so much and as soon as I get home I am going to go through each suggestion carefully.</p>
<p>So, I really don’t have any advice about schools for you to look at, but I also just want to say that I am so impressed with your responses to your situation. I am very sorry that you have to deal with the messiness of your parent’s divorce and remarriage. In an ideal world, you should <em>never</em> have had to deal with any of this financial craziness… You have a good head on your shoulders and I have a feeling that you’ll do fine wherever you go to school and in the future!</p>
<p>That said, I’m currently a graduate student at an Ivy League student and I can honestly say that I am so glad that I went to my state school for undergrad. I don’t believe that I got an ‘inferior’ education there and I think it made me a more well-rounded person. So, please don’t think you have to go to an Ivy. Wherever you go, just make sure to do really well there (which it sounds like you can do with your scores, etc) and build up your resume with activities and internships and you’ll be good to go!</p>
<p>@eagles03 thank you so much! And I definitely didn’t handle it like this at first. I was pretty upset. But I guess I just realized that being upset won’t help anything, so I need to figure out how to fix it </p>
<p>Thanks for the story, too. I will definitely build my resume wherever I go, and as I look into more and more schools I’m seeing a lot of lower priced ones that have great oppportunities :)</p>
<p>Alwaysleah, your situation does sound really unfair</p>
<p>Apply for every single scholarship you are eligible for! That is what I most regret… I can’t go to school either because of tuition. Wish God would send me an angel.</p>
<p>There are websites where you can register, post your grades online and invite alumnis or corporations to look at your status and sponsor you if they see that you are woth their investment. You could get couple thousands if you’re lucky. </p>
<p>You could always work part time. It could help later to get a laptop, printer, or textbook and little stuff like that which you need for college.</p>
<p>Do well in your studies. Many IVY schools will WANT you if you’re smart. Many prestigious schools like columbia and harvard will pay whatever amount of money to have you if they see that you will be beneficial to their school’s reputation. A lot of schools nowadays are merit-based rather than need-based.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Well here’s a politically incorrect response… why did you mom marry a guy that has no interest in taking any responsibility for the family he is supposedly joining? People like that infuriate me.</p>
<p>The Ivy’s and other tier 1 schools will not give money based on aid, so you need to have a good selection of colleges in mind where you will stand out and have great opportunities for merit awards. Just because your sister is at a school she doesn’t like does not mean that has to be your story. There are thousands of colleges in this country. I am confident you can find 10 to apply to where you will be happy.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, that’s simply inaccurate. The top schools give need-based aid, not merit-based aid. A full-pay family will be required to pay the full freight at those schools. You’ll need to drop down a level or two for substantial merit aid.</p>
<p>Best of luck on your PSAT, if you make the NMF cutoff this could help you a lot at schools such as ASU’s Barrett Honors College, U of A, Alabama, Indiana, U. of Maryland and other previous mentions.</p>
<p>I would also take a look at Scripps for merit scholarships and some of the Catholic schools such as Seattle University that have full ride scholarships for merit/community service.</p>
<p>I would also like to congratulate the OP for not focusing on what is unfair - this is an extremely mature decision on your part and I have to believe that same maturity and calm determination will come accross in your application/scholarship essays.</p>
<p>Best wishes!</p>
<p>@bostonuuu aww I’m so sorry about how it worked out for you 
also working wise, Im planning to continue teaching piano throughout college because I can make a pretty good amount of money per hour. Also I was considering taking a gap year and spending the first summrer/semester working and then the second training to be an emt, so that I can save up some money and then when I do get to college I can work as an emt. Unfortunately my EFC is too high for ivy leagues or the like to give me enough aid, but I will continue to work hard nevertheless. Thanks for your input :)</p>
<p>@scottaa you can’t even begin to understand the amount of anger I have felt toward my mom and stepdad. it took me years to let go of it, but thankfully I’m through dealing with that now. But yes, I have found a lot of good options, thanks to the amazing input in this thread!</p>
<p>@MisterK Sadly, I know. Oh well.</p>
<p>@bchan1 Thanks And I will look into them. Hopefully me not being religious at all (but still tolerant lol) will not hurt me there. And thanks for saying that :)</p>