Check out University of Tulsa.
If you need significant merit aid and want a LAC in the south, you should consider Birminghman-Southern College. By far the best merit aid from southern LACs in our search. The merit aid chart on this URL uses weighted gpa: http://www.bsc.edu/admission/scholarships.cfm
The University of Richmond, already mentioned several times on this thread, is a highly ranked LAC and offers approx. 45 full-ride/full tuition scholarships each year. D1 had similar stats and good research experience in high school and was offered a full ride science scholarship to UR. She loves the school and is thriving there. She started research in a lab freshman year, has had paid summer research internships, and is currently enjoying a semester abroad(fully paid for by her scholarship) at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
UR has an excellent medical school placement record and excellent pre-med advising. It also has lots of opportunities for continuing musical interests as well. The campus is very beautiful and is in suburban Richmond, not far from downtown. We have all fallen in love with the Richmond area and always look forward to visits, lots of great restaurants, shopping, parks and outdoor activities, too. D2 was also offered a full tuition scholarship and attends UR. She is also very happy with her choice.
They are not LACs, but Tulane and USC are generous with merit and both are excellent pre-med. For LACs, Oberlin, Grinnell, Macalester, Whitman, along with others mentioned here. Also, depending on gender: Scripps or Claremont McKenna, Bryn Marr or Haverford.
Haverford isn’t going to provide merit aid, and I doubt any would be available from Claremont McKenna, either.
Look at the Kiplinger’s “best value” colleges (cited by gandalf in post #14).
Selective LACs with relatively generous merit aid include:
Grinnell
Oberlin
Kenyon
Davidson
Washington & Lee
Lawrence University
University of Richmond
Rhodes
Beloit
Over 4 years, Grinnell with average merit aid could cost about $80K more than a typical public university at OOS rates. If the OP’s family earns enough not to qualify for any need-based aid, they may consider that an acceptable premium to pay. The OP may get better-than-average merit aid from some of these schools.
It’s certainly true, one doesn’t need to attend a prestigious college to get into med school. Nevertheless, a high-stats student who is already publishing a significant research paper in HS (and who is drawn to Reed College) may be happier at a selective LAC than at an average state university. Grinnell/Oberlin/Davidson is likely to offer smaller classes; it may also offer better facilities, or more opportunities to work closely with good undergraduate-focused professors (and other excellent students) on significant research projects. Not that you couldn’t also find good opportunities elsewhere, at lower cost. A lot depends on the family’s budget and what that extra ~$80K would mean to them (especially if they’re staring at big med school expenses down the road.) Apply to a mix of public/private safety-match-reach schools (where “reach” covers cost as well as admission), then compare offers.
With your Stas, you pretty much have a wide array of options and I agree that a State University Honors College would be a good choice. Florida Atlantic University, Wilkes Honors College fits the bill. You can get a full ride (Merit Based) and it is a small LAC-type Institution with close proximity (pretty much right on campus) to The Scripps Research Institute (many Wilkes Students do medical research alongside Scripps Researchers).
http://www.scripps.edu/florida/education/graduate/md-phd.html
http://www.fau.edu/honors/financial.php
http://www.fau.edu/honors/admissions_med.php
I also second New College of Florida or University of Miami.
Greatkid had a lot of good suggestions. Univ. of Richmond has been mentioned several times and would be an excellent choice. You might also look into Univ. of Rochester - while not a LAC, it’s not a huge university and has a top-notch reputation when it comes to sciences, etc. They can be generous with financial aid. Lafayette, also previously mentioned, is another good option. Check out Dickinson College and Gettysburg College in PA, too - really nice small LAC schools w/ some merit scholarships in the $20K - $25K range. You’ve got excellent stats and should have plenty of options.
Denison U offers good merit aid, Lewis and Clark has a number of (competitive) full tuition scholarships
Denison is a beautiful school that is very generous with Merit aid. SUNY Geneseo is a public with a real LAC feel and it is a good value for an out of state student.
Our family visited 21 colleges, most of which were in the Notheast and Mid Atlantic regions.
With your stats, if the rest of your application submission is comparable you will have many very good schools providing significant merit aid to you.
The higher the ranking of the school the more competitive the process will be. I believe merit aid will begin to become close to non existent when you are looking at top 20 LAC’s, but in the mid 20’s and above (like Richmond) a lot should open up.
Our family loved Richmond, great academics, beautiful school, D1 athletics. Our daughter received merit aid there but didn’t choose to attend because of a variety of reasons, such as other acceptances and distance.
Hobart &William Smith has a guaranteed acceptance to Medical School program that may be worth looking in to.
Hendrix has a few full ride scholarships. It’s competitive to get them though.
I second that. My son is at Hendrix and loves it. Lots of merit aid available, and lots of graduates head to med school.
I thought Amherst College was a LAC that offered generous merit aid.
No. Amherst offers generous NEED BASED aid. Don’t think they probably offer any merit at all. They are the #2 ranked LAC in the country, they don’t need to tempt students to attend with merit…
NO merit aid at Amherst. Only FA.
Financial aid is based on need (if your child is one of the very few who got in, they can attend, and the financial aid package depends on how much you make; the less you make, the bigger the financial aid package, including without loans.)
Merit aid depends on the child’s results, relative to the rest of the applicant pool. Your income does not factor in at all. So, a family who makes 280k may get more aid than a family who makes 50k.
Therefore, it’s good to know your EFC as the financial strategy is different depending on whether you make less than 75k or more than 150k.
In addition to LACs like Oberlin, Wooster, and Ohio Wesleyan (all with good merit aid), take a look at CWRU. It’s not a LAC, but has a comparatively small undergraduate population with lots of focus on pre-meds (some of the social sciences and humanities departments focus on the medical humanities) and good merit aid. They also have a “Pre-Professional Scholars” program that offers conditional direct admission to their medical school for some of the top undergrad pre-med applicants.