<p>My parents finally got around to having "the talk" (the one about we don't know how we can pay for you to go to college, not that other talk) and I gotta say it has me a little discouraged. They've essentially said they can't afford to give me much of anything to help pay for college just because of their tremendous debt (of the we bought too many little things variety, not the we bought a Florida Beach House type). My personal info is good enough to give me a fighting chance at most high leveled colleges and I've already picked out my academic safety schools, but now its time to look for the worst case scenarios financially. For the sake of selection I'm looking for schools somewhere in the Northeast with a relatively strong physics/mathematics program that won't have me cringing. After years of public school where most people can't even use the quadratic formula, I was hoping for a little more out of college.</p>
<p>what states specifically define the "northeast" for you? and what are your stats</p>
<p>Go to the financial aid forum and look at the stickies at the top for Schools with the Most Merit Aid</p>
<p>try the University Of Virginia, it's very cheap, very competitive, very smart students go there as a result of its competitive admissions process and has a very strong physics program. My dad, an engineer/professor at Harvard works works with people down at the University Of Virginia physics department and they are very bright people.</p>
<p>I would not call UVA a financial or admissions safety unless you are a top instate student. They do have a decent financial aid policy for low-mid income students. Without aid you are talking around 30,000 per year OOS and you'll need a stellar profile to get accepted.</p>
<p>Top Ten Best Value - Public Colleges
1. New College of Florida
2. Truman State University
3. UNC - Asheville
4. UVa
5. UC Berkeley
6. UCSD
7. UCSC
8. UMinn - Morris
9. UWisc - Madison
10. St. Mary's College of Maryland</p>
<p>Top Ten Best Value - Private Colleges
1. Rice
2. Williams
3. Grinnell
4. Swarthmore
5. Thomas Aquinas College
6. Wabash College
7. Whitman College (I'd go there just for the name of the town... Walla Walla, Washington)
8. Amherst
9. Scripps
10. Harvard</p>
<p>The Princeton Review list may be accurate for need-based aid, but not merit--and you sound like you will be relying on merit. What is more important to you, geographic location or academic strength in physics/math? You will likely have to compromise on one of them for a true financial safety. The first of which should be an in-state public--choose the one that is the least-worst fit. Then start researching merit aid. I won't name the obvious, especially since I don't know a solid $$ limit. But if you look hard and long enough, there are some hidden gems. For instance, if you're looking for an affordable public LAC, University of Minnesota - Morris is ~2k students and charges everyone in-state tuition, plus guarantees a full-tuition scholarship to NMFs. (Are you a National Merit Finalist? A lot of full-rides, albeit at academically lesser schools, are tied to that.)</p>
<p>I took a look at your Chances thread and your current target schools:</p>
<p>"My current top 3 choices are MIT, caltech, and Stanford, followed by some random ivies, NYU, Uchicago, UC Berkley, and one or two local safety schools."</p>
<p>First question, will your family qualify for FA, and if so, what's the ballpark from running the calculators?</p>
<p>Your stats are good, so if you are low or middle and possibly even upper middle income level, and if you get in, schools like S and MIT might give you excellent FA.</p>
<p>Cal is not a particularly good choice financially because as an OOS student, they will not give you good FA, nor do they have merit money for OOS. </p>
<p>NYU also gives relatively poor FA and gaps. They have some merit aid, but I'm not familiar enough with their scholarships to know how much money is possible and what your chances are of receiving one.</p>
<p>In general, for students that are competitive for the most selective privates, there are some very good schools where you may be in the running for anywhere from half tuition to full tuition, R&B merit scholarships. They are listed on the sticky threads on the FA forum and if you do a Search of that forum for "full ride" or something similar, you will get many hits. One school that comes to mind is RPI, strong in math and physics and has merit awards.</p>