Looking for schools with good merit aid

College Search & Selection
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<p>So, as the title states, I'm looking for some school suggestions for places that give good merit aid. My family makes enough money to put us in the upper middle class, so I am afraid I will receive little to no financial aid, but that does not mean they are able to pay the full ticket price for my schooling. My goal is to keep the price that my family has to pay for my undergrad at less than 15k a year. </p>

<p>I'm not looking for any size or type of college/university in particular, I have looked at both small LAC's and large research universities and I see the benefits in both. I believe the time for my decision will be after I receive the admissions decisions. </p>

<p>Now, onto my stats:
102 WGPA/ 96 UW at a public school in NY, we aren't a bad school by any means but we are not know for sending kids to ivies. We had one student this past year go to Brown and one to Cornell. I have taken the most rigorous coursework available.
36 ACT with a 9 essay, 2270 SAT with a 10 essay(800 CR 760 M 710 W). My writing is not bad, but the reason for the relatively low essay scores is my atrocious handwriting.
230 PSAT, which I hope almost guarantees NMSF status
5-AP Chem, 5-AP USH, 5-AP Lit</p>

<p>I don't know how much EC's factor into the equation for merit money, but I'll give a pretty general overview:
Past 3 years a Taekwondo instructor(2nd degree black belt) in charge of instructing both children and adult students.
Same timeframe, part of a leadership group within this organization who conducted fundraisers for local nonprofits. I will go more in depth into this program in my apps, but we raised $2000+ 6 or 7 times for organizations in our community like the ambulance corp and the lions' club. Part of this involved the teaching of basic self defense to underprivileged children in our town.
JV soccer 2 years and Varsity soccer for 2 years, goalkeeper
Travel soccer, 3 years.
Selected for the Rotary Youth leadership award seminar
Nominated for HOBY (a different leadership seminar)
Selected for NY Boys' State, a leadership/government participation seminar run by the Merican Legion and in part by the Marines. I plan to write my common app essay about this experience.
Mu Alpha Theta member
NHS member
Usher at my (Lutheran) church for the past two years
I am currently completing an unpaid internship at Pfizer working with mass spectrometers and analytical chemistry. This is for credit through a program run by SUNY Albany.
Boy Scout for my whole high school career, just finishing up my requirements for Eagle Scout, will have completed this by the time I send out my applications.
Assorted other community service hours for various organizations, including the USO.</p>

<p>I don't know what more information I can give to help you guys give me suggestions for schools I can check out. Schools that I have looked at and liked were northeastern u, Hamilton, SUNY Binghamton, U of Del, Brown, Princeton, and Amherst. I would appreciate any schools that you guys could point out to me that would give me decent merit aid, and if possible give me some chances for the schools I have pointed out. </p>

<p>Thanks for reading through this long post and thanks for any help.</p>

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<p>Take a look at the stickies atop the fin aid forum.</p>

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<p>You will likely qualify for a good bit of merit aid at Fordham. You might also be a candidate for their honors program which is very hard to get into but is supposed to be amazing.</p>

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<p>No merit aid at any Ivy League school- their aid is all need based. I would guess that the statue schools have merit aid, don’t know about the LACs you listed. Best thing would be to go to each schools website and look this up or call them up.</p>

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<p>Thank you, I will definitely check out Fordham. And GolfFather, I’ve scoured these forums for many hours and looked at those scholarships listed in the stickies. However, I was hoping to find some more specific information. Additionally, it is my understanding that many schools don’t advertise their merit aid but upon applying prospective students find they receive aid. I was wondering if anyone who may have been in this situation could lend some insight</p>

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<p>Northeastern - full tuition for National Merit, I believe.</p>

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<p>You should go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the thread listing guaranteed merit awards. </p>

<p>Your stats are very good, but merit aid is offered by schools to the students in the top of their applicant pool. While you may qualify for some small merit awards at the LACs on your list, I am not sure they would be enough to reduce your cost to $15,000 per year. </p>

<p>Look at some of the Southern and Midwestern schools that are similar to the ones on your list. Some of them are more likely to give larger merit for your stats. University of Richmond and University of Alabama come to mind. I believe that Kenyon, Illinois Wesleyan, and Otterbein also have some larger merit awards.</p>

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<p>Nova, that’s one of the things that really attracted me to the school</p>

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<p>Thank you Kat, I’ll look more into those schools and others like them. I have a lack of knowledge about lesser known schools in areas other than the northeast.</p>

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<p>If you’re not married to guaranteed merit aid, there are some competitive awards you could try for. </p>

<p>Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, University of Miami, Vanderbilt, U Rochester, WUSTL, & UVA all come to mind as having competitive free ride merit opportunities and your stats would put you in the running. I’m sure there are more schools too - those are just some I’m thinking about right now partially based on a student from last year who was awarded some of them and got to choose her destination - she also had some guaranteed awards from Northeastern and UAlabama. I was going to put down which one she chose, but nah, you’d need to decide which ones are worth going for based upon your fit - not hers.</p>

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<p>Thanks! Yeah, I’m not specifically looking for guaranteed aid by any means.</p>

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<p>Muhlenberg has merit aid for top applicants. I believe they take demonstrated interest into consideration.</p>

<p>James Madison in VA has competitive merit awards that require an early application.</p>

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<p>What is your major and career goal?</p>

<p>Bama would give you free tuition plus more for your NMF status. The app is online now so you’d have that scholarship in your pocket within a few weeks.</p>

<p>Gorgeous campus, state of the art facilities and labs, etc.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Did you run the net price calculator yet for Brown, Princeton and Amherst?</p>

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<p>I would recommend looking at the NMF list - you should be one with that score - just make sure to do your paperwork, etc. That gives you lots of options. OU, OSU, Tulsa, Alabama are a just a few that come to mind. (Tulsa used to be guaranteed for NMF - and now selective, but I think you would be a strong contender there)</p>

<p>My experience has been if you go to each school’s website and search merit scholarship … you will find the information. It’s not hidden. Just start looking on websites of schools that interest you.</p>

<p>Look for some of those competitive scholarships, like Robertson at Duke and Unc, …etc and try for some of those at schools where you are interested. You are looking for programs that give you full tuition or at least 1/2 tuition to make this work.</p>

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<p>Mom2, I plan on majoring in neuroscience or psych and then going to med school.
BrownParent, I am planning on doing the calculators when I return home after this internship, so I can work with my parents on any specific financial numbers.</p>

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<p>Bump bump bump</p>

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<p>Even more of a reason to keep Pitt, URochester, Vandy, and WUSTL on your “contend for merit aid” application list. They all have really good programs/research w/neuro AND the potential for nice merit aid. Pitt is rolling admission and rolling aid (though their competitive free ride is a competition later on). Apply there fairly quickly and you’ll have a super nice safety that, depending how other things work out for you + fit, could also end up your #1 school.</p>

<p>You probably don’t want a small school with neuro if that’s your end goal (different if you want med school or something). Some small schools have it, but a more seasoned poster who sometimes posts on here (and has extensive neuro thoughts) has often mentioned the pros of good schools with research if heading into neuro as it’s a very competitive field to work in. I wish I could remember that posters name - it’s letters and maybe numbers… I might be able to search for it. Anyone else out there with a better memory than I have?</p>

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<p>Found it. Look at post 9 in this thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1482639-neuroscience-pittsburgh-uva.html#post15753466[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1482639-neuroscience-pittsburgh-uva.html#post15753466&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Then look for other posts by this poster to glean info. NOTE: I am not connected to this person. We just gleaned a bit from him when doing our college search, so am passing on the name (wgmcp101).</p>