Looking to maximize merit aid - looking for microbiology/biochem/biology programs

College Search & Selection
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New to CC, first post and just finished reading all 81 pages of @KevinFromOC thread! So helpful! Kevin’s daughter ended up at a school that was not even in their original list of consideration and I wonder if there are any schools out there we don’t know of yet.

Looking for microbiology/biochem/biology programs and schools that will offer some merit aid (even better, lots of merit aid). Looking to keep COA at under $25K per year. We will not be qualifying for needs-based and will not be taking out any loans.

DD stats:
Class of 2021
Weighted GPA 4.43
UW GPA 3.92
Class rank 50/477
SAT - 1310 (Soph year) will not be retaking due to corona; no ACT
Not NMF
Hispanic
AP’s - 8
EC - 4 years varsity and club volleyball, honors/accolades, 15+ hrs/week, out of state travel, nationally ranked team, etc (academics more important than playing in school, ok with club sports)
Part time jobs as cashier job at grocery store and game ref/official
Other clubs/some volunteer hrs
Strong essay and LoR

Prefers close to a large city on either coast. Does not like “Southern” schools but yes to FL. Size of school doesn’t really matter.

Schools applying to so far: (in state: JMU (safe) and UVA (reach), OOS: ASU, UofA, Cal Poly SLO, U of W Seattle, U of Oregon, Purdue, UCSD, UCSB). She is aware that the CA schools will not give out any aid.

Looking for schools to maximize her chances for merit and that offer microbiology/biochem/biological sciences. Not too picky about these yet. Still trying to hone in.

What other schools are out there that may be a good fit? Thank you in advance for your reply.

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Did she take the PSAT? Her SAT scores gets her near the range fro NHRP. That can possibly get you full tuition at Fordham. Your net cost would be around 20k.

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Why apply to CA schools since SLO will be around $40K/year and the UC’s around $65K/year??

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@Eeyore123 sadly I had no idea about NMF and NHRP until a few days ago. Should’ve paid closer attention to that but she is my oldest and just didn’t know. She did take the PSAT but did not meet the cutoff. Hard worker and good grades but her test taking is not her forte.

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@gumbymom I hear you. We have explained that to her and knows full well what we have saved for college. That’s why I am here trying to research more options for her :slight_smile:

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That doesn’t match the CA schools, nor UW. Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site to get an idea of what you’ll end up paying.

Purdue doesn’t match the locations she is looking for (not on coast and not a city).

Which state are the U of A and ASU? Arizona? Alabama? Arkansas?

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@“Erin’s Dad” UofA and ASU are the University of Arizona and Arizona State University respectively. Both schools offer automatic merit scholarships based on a GPA vs. Test Scores matrix.

@StacysMom24 If your daughter is interested in a smaller school, Liberal Arts Colleges would be a great fit and many of them offer merit scholarships. Some that I applied to are Juniata College, Allegheny College, Trinity University, Southwestern University, and Oberlin College; all of which have no application fee and little to none essays. I think Juniata and Southwestern required official test scores, but I was able to self-report them by having my school send my scores to Juniata, and send a pdf copy of my score report to Southwestern.

Note that at UW, while offering some ~full-tuition scholarships, those are primarily for in-state students, leaving your COA 50K+. A quick google search finds one extremely competitive scholarship for honors students waiving OOS tuition for two years, but don’t count on it as anything but a pleasant surprise.

The University of Oregon offers the extremely competitive Stamps Scholarship program for 5 OOS students every year, which waives tuition completely. I believe UofO and Oregon State University offer some other merit scholarships to OOS, but check the admissions website.

Here on the West Coast, there is the WICHE, a program that makes it cheaper to attend (some) of the OOS schools on the West Coast. A quick google search finds information regarding the Southern Regional Educational Board’s Academic Common Market, so take a look into the participating schools here: https://www.sreb.org/academic-common-market .

I understand that in your original post, it was noted that your daughter didn’t want to apply to any schools in the Southern US, however, I highly recommend applying to Tulane in New Orleans Early Action, as the application is fee and they are extremely generous with ~half-tuition merit scholarships and multiple competitive full-tuition ones. If you do apply, make sure to request an interview, as the school is EXTREMELY fond of demonstrated interest.

Hope this helps! Good luck with admissions!

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The $25k price point is going to be difficult on merit only for anything not an in-state state school. I think that she is going to have to relax some constraints.

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Is playing volleyball in college a possibility? Volleyball is a head count sport for D1, so IF she can get recruited and IF the teams are fully funded, she’d get a full scholarship. Very hard scholarship to come by in the big conferences (PAC 12, SEC, Big 10) but worth looking at some of the smaller D1 schools (Gonzaga, Seattle U, U of Portland).

Might look at some of the private schools on the west coast anyway, as they have good merit.

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@PikachuRocks15 wow that was so extremely helpful. You know, Tulane is one of the schools she has mentioned even though she is not particularly fond of the South. I will encourage her to apply.

Sidenote- I applied to Tulane when I was young and ended up at Purdue because they gave me way more aid (I was a first generation/Cuban immigrant parents). I know it’s not near a big city but we’ve visited campus and she liked it enough to open her eyes about Midwest schools in the middle of nowhere. :wink:

Regarding Juniata-interesting you mention because she has an offer to play there but it is too small and way in the middle of nowhere to get her excited. Heartbreaking because that coach really likes her and it sounds like she could get merit…

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@Eeyore123 don’t you think that with the automatic at UofArizona we are in the ballpark? Maybe I’m reading it wrong?

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@twoinanddone hey yes we have been talking to college coaches for years now. Her D1 options have fizzled. She was close with Bryant but then Corona happened and it has really thrown a wrench into the recruiting process. She has a couple of D3 offers but all very expensive. Currently doing an early read with Stevens to see her chances for merit there. UCSC is another but coaches have zero info on merit for oos and they are a unique Public D3 so I get the impression they don’t have the pull a coach may have at a private D3. Hence looking for options outside of volleyball:)

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Her stats are too low for big merit at Utah, but she would get some merit in year 1 (I’d guess about $10K off the ~$40K OOS cost) and then year 2 onwards would come within your $25K budget at in-state rates. Way better than anything you’ll get at Oregon or in CA and comparable in cost to ASU/Arizona in what I think is a much nicer city (not to mention the surrounding area).

Not on a coast, but you can see salt water from the dorms…

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Purdue is not good with out of state merit. I don’t think you’ll get close to $25k/yr there.

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Is her core GPA above 3.9? I am not an expert on Arizona so don’t know exactly how they calculate their core GPA but it looks like PE doesn’t count.
We just went through a merit hunting season. Most merit was was in the $25k range or half tuition. Getting half tuition at Tulane or USC still leaves a COA approaching $50K. The lower COA’s came from NMF. A friend that got a full tuition at Vandy was a cross admit to H and P.

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@stacysmom21 No problem! My family wasn’t very familiar with the college admissions process in the US either, so CC & Google were extremely helpful in navigating this past year.

If your daughter is interested in pre-med/health professions, Tulane has multiple BS/MD programs for students with their medical school, which is affiliated with some of the city’s major hospitals like the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. The only drawback is that unlike some other schools (and like Brown, where I go,) the medical school campus is not on the undergraduate campus; however, there is a shuttle between the two.

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@PikachuRocks15 her teammate will be attending Brown for vBall! Great school!

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I would have said ASU and U of A for the NHRP, but you said she didn’t make the cutoff. Still, I would imagine that with her excellent stats (GPA and APs), they may still throw money her way. Take a look at both school’s honors colleges.

Also, I would look at Utah, Miami of Ohio (rural area, but 1 hour from Cincinnati), and also Ohio State, which supposedly gives out good amounts of aid. May also want to see if Florida State and UCF give aid.

I would play up the URM hook (Hispanic); it won’t make a difference at UW Seattle, or the California schools, but it will at a lot of other schools. Oregon will likely give aid based on this, but not enough to be less expensive than in state at CA schools.

One other option is the Mercile J. Lee scholarship at Wisconsin for URM. My daughter was NHRP, and she had a 3.7/4.2 GPA and 33 ACT. She got a full tuition ride at ASU Barrett, but did not qualify for Mercile Lee. Your daughter’s GPA is higher, but test scores are lower. Not sure what they value more. Maybe both?
https://cspks.wisc.edu/

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@Twoin18 yes, we actually drove through SLC and campus this Summer - we will add to list of consideration. Quick question - how do they get In state after year 2?

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@Eeyore123 yes that is her unweighted minus PE. There are 2 marketing/bus/finance electives that I wasn’t sure to remove or not. I should and see. But she only has 1 B+ in all of HS and that was an AP class.