Our daughter has worked very hard in school. She has a 4.4 GPA and a 33 ACT right now (going to take it again), NHS, Student Council every year, holding office etc. A well rounded hard working kid in general.
We live in IL. She is not a fan of the public universities we’ve seen in IL. So, we are looking private since it is our understanding that public out of state seems so pricey and few offer scholarships.
I know Univ. of Alabama does offer very generous merit scholarships for kids like my daughter. However, I would love to know of some others I may not have thought about.
She’d like: Medium to large size campus…Near a town/city that you can walk to…or easy transportation to a city. Other than that, she is pretty open. She’d prefer to stay within 2 flight hours of Chicago, so not looking as far as California…but also would like possible better weather than midwest.
If you know of any schools that we may want to consider adding to our “list” we would love to hear about them!
University of Utah. Especially good merit if she has 4.0UW and anyone can get instate tuition after the first year. Great for kids who love the outdoors and convenient travel with a decently sized airport. Very close to downtown SLC but also an attractive well defined campus.
Hi @SSimecek Consider TCU! If she applies early action, she could potentially be a candidate for the full tuition Chancellor’s Scholarship. I have quite a bit of info about it if you look through my previous threads. TCU is in Fort Worth, only a 5-10 minute drive to downtown. For best chances on the scholarship side, it is advisable to apply EA (Nov 1 Deadline). If you have questions about any majors or culture of the school, ask away!
During my search, some good merit schools that came up:
University of Kentucky
UCF/USF/FSU (Florida publics)
Miami OH
Fordham (for NMF)
Mississippi
UT Dallas
SMU? Right size, warm weather, right next to Dallas, great job placement, and merit awards. However, although my son had a phenomenal experience there, from what I’ve seen I’m not sure I’d recommend it for every girl, for some it will be a good fit, for others, not.
We did Midwest merit-hunting for DD’19 but we were okay with directionals (which tended to be the only ones with her major anyway). Not sure what level you are looking at, or price range. Have you checked Iowa State? Missouri State? (At MSU her stats would give her in-state tuition and auto merit for a COA around $12K.) SE Missouri has excellent auto merit. NW Missouri State is good and she would be competitive for their almost-full tuition. Good deals can be found in Arkansas, South Dakota, Nebraska. Note: Many of the ones offering these good deals are not necessarily close to an airport, etc. Something to consider.
Basically I started with a Wikipedia list of every college in a particular state and started checking out all the websites for auto merit, for all the states that were close enough to consider.
Most of the privates in Iowa came out to around $20-25K for DD with lower stats than your daughter’s. Is that affordable?
She is likely heading pre-med, (possible chiropractic) but she is not 100% sure. It looks like undergrad in biology related major is the path she’s thinking right now.
Yeah…once we determined we’re likely looking “private” due to cost to go public out of state she then stated she’d rather get out of this weather then. So, trying to look south of us somewhat.
Well, I’d like to keep it to 40K or below, for undergrad. Our thinking is she’s chosen a path that requires grad school. We’d like to keep undergrad to be reasonable so she can spend a bit more on graduate school.
That said, if she absolutely falls in love with a school and they offer her something for her work and the program/school is a perfect fit, I’m sure we’d consider more.
Not sure how much merit you’re looking for - my daughter had a higher ACT, but received good merit at these schools which are within or close 2 hour flight from Illinois:
Case Western (30K)
University of Richmond (Richmond Scholar invite -potential for full COA - but pulled because of ED)
University of South Carolina (21K min, invited for Top Scholars, pulled app)
University of Denver (30K)
Vanderbilt is definitely on the list. It would be a “reach” school but that distance from home is perfect and easy access for us. I have not looked into the other two, but I will do that…thank you.
THANK YOU!! I WILL LOOK AT THESE. University of Denver is already on the list but I will look into University of South Carolina and University of Richmond. Case Western didn’t appeal to her through virtual tour(can’t remember why)
You have not mentioned your budget. If your daughter is interested in medical school, then graduating debt free from her undergraduate university is critical as there are few scholarships to medical school. I am a lawyer and my wife is a pediatrician. The only educational debt we have is from professional school (law school and medical school, respectively). We locked in a low rate to repay that eighteen years ago. We still have twelve years to finish paying that debt. Your daughter should consider whether she wants to include undergraduate debt in her educational debt as it will impact her opportunities once she starts her career.
That being said, let me comment on some of the universities mentioned and offer some suggestions.
I am an SMU alumnus. The total cost of attendance at SMU these days is pushing $75K. While it offers merit scholarships, even with those scholarships it is still expensive. SMU is also VERY greek…which is fine is you are pro-greek (which is an added cost, of course). My kids will not be applying to SMU. It served me well, it is just too expensive.
Vanderbilt. Yes, it does offer some merit scholarships. But they are not automatic. The competition is fierce. By all means, compete, but be realistic about your chances. Also, the scholarship only covers tuition. Nashville is not a cheap place to live.
Automatic merit scholarship universities:
'Bama – already mentioned
Utah – already mentioned (note, she can qualify for in-state tuition after a year)
New Mexico – already mentioned
Arizona – already mentioned
Baylor (I believe has automatic merit)
Alabama-Huntsville
Arizona State
Texas Tech
Iowa State
Mississippi State
With your daughter’s ACT and GPA she would qualify for substantial automatic merit at each of these public universities. She would also likely qualify for the honors program at each.
Consider TCU! If she applies early action, she could potentially be a candidate for the full tuition Chancellor’s Scholarship. I have quite a bit of info about it if you look through my previous threads. TCU is in Fort Worth, only a 5-10 minute drive to downtown. For best chances on the scholarship side, it is advisable to apply EA (Nov 1 Deadline). If you have questions about any majors or culture of the school, ask away!