@NROTCgrad I took the next step and contacted the honors college, and within 12 hours I got a response! Very pleased by the speed of the reply and the extent to which it was given. Here’s the reply in case you’re curious:
Hello *****,
Thank you for your inquiry and I will try to answer your question the best that I can being a year away from knowing concrete information.
If you are selected to participate in the Honors Tutorial Program you would be eligible to receive a Premier Scholarship valued at instate tuition (for the current year that would be a little slightly over 11,500) and then eligible for one of the Trustee Awards (my guess would be in the range of 5000-7000). Please know that my response is contingent on what our premier Ohio Signature Scholarship Program looks like today and would recommend that you follow up with our office in October of the 2015 year to see if there are any significant changes to the program. More information about the Signature Award Program can be found at the following link: http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/signature/index.cfm. There are some other endowed scholarship at Ohio University that you will be considered for as your Admission Application also serves as your scholarship application.
Additionally, our continuing student population has opportunities each year to complete an online application for consideration of additional scholarships. The awards are competitive and are not renewable but range between 1,000 and $2,000 on average for students.
With your statement of “help navigating the financial aspect” is somewhat vague and if you have more specific questions I am happy to discuss them with you.
Thank you for considering Ohio University and please don’t hesitate to contact our office with other questions along the way.
Best regards,
Sandi
Put Boston University on your list. Merit aid is competitive there and thus not guaranteed, but it should definitely be one of your competitive aid reach schools. The journalism program is top ranked, and the school of business is very good as well. (though I can tell you it’s not easy to cross-major between COM & SMG… if you want to do JO, the sounded thing to do at BU is to major in COM and see about minoring in SMG. SMG is an intense program). You’d have a shot at merit aid specific for COM JO if your essays were really shiny… I’m fairly certain it was my essays that gave me an edge.
Check out Mizzou too… I don’t know about their business program, but their JO one is top-notch. They offer competitive merit aid, as well.
@proudterrier BU is on my list, believe it or not! I would really like the option to double major though, and if that wasn’t an option I’m not sure how I’d feel.
Another university which is excellent at both business and journalism is Indiana University in Bloomington. The Kelley School of Business is top notch, and so is their journalism program. I have heard that financial aid is good. I know that Illinois is the most represented state besides Indiana itself.
http://www.rtdna.org/article/survey_the_top_20_journalism_schools_2014#.VV05TEbGqgQ
http://www.bloomberg.com/bschools/rankings/undergraduate_mba_profiles/indiana.html
@NROTCgrad haha point taken! Emailed the fin aid rep for the honors college 
@WindyCityKid definitely look into the current situation at BU… when I was there, SMG & COM made it difficult to double major (SMG’s program requirements are numerous and rigid), but that may have changed. I mean, it’s called “Questrom School of Business” now, so who knows (I will call it SMG forever!) It may be possible if you’re really clever about scheduling your classes and maybe overloading some semesters to get it all done. The JO program is certainly worth it–I loved it and have found my degree very useful.
@proudterrier do you think I could get into BU with my stats?
@WindyCityKid I think you’re absolutely competitive for BU–your stats are on the higher end of theirs. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a safety, but I would consider it a match.
how is BU for Engineering? looking for merit aid for my son
^^best to make your own thread or this one will move away from the original question. Either post about BU specifically in the BU forum or make a financial aid or College Search thread for your situation.
OP you could look at USC for business and journalism. It may not be affordable unless you get one of the competitive merit. they do give quite a few but they are highly competitive. However if you find you like it, it could be worth an application if you are prepared to walk away if unaffordable.
re Syracuse there was very recently an article on syracuse.com about S U losing money the last 2-3 years and pending belt tightening which may correlate to modest merit $
@BrownParent would I be able to get my foot in the door for competitive merit aid?