Large public university vs. smaller, private university/liberal arts

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, I was hoping for some advice: I have been looking mainly at private universities/liberal arts colleges that are about 3-12K students. But most of these are very expensive and I am planning on Pre-Med, so I would like to find a school for undergraduate that has a more reasonable tuition. I do not qualify for financial aid, so I am wondering which schools either offer good merit scholarships or have a lower tuition. Are there larger public schools that still have smaller class sizes and research opportunities for undergrads? Also, I have been looking into schools like Wesleyan U, Oberlin, Dickinson College, Allegheny College, George Washington U, Northeastern, Tufts, and Wash U in St. Louis, so if anyone knows about how generous these schools are with merit aid that would be great. </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>When you say “very expensive”, are you talking sticker price or have you run the net price calculators? Some of the very expensive colleges also have excellent financial aid even for upper middle class families.</p>

<p>Next: check out Truman State, SUNY Geneseo, New College of Florida, UAlabama’s Honors College.
If you qualify for admission at GWU, NEU, Tufts… then you’d likely get a lot of merit aid at Allegheny and decent merit aid at Dickinson.
Similar to Allegheny: Wooster, Illinois Wesleyan. </p>

3

<p>What about lower cost LACs, such as those in this list?
<a href=“Public LACs Ranked by OOS Tuition - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1606422-public-lacs-ranked-by-oos-tuition.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;