"Lower" Scale Northeast Schools

Just wondering chances for good merit $ from these schools as well as their reputation and post-graduation outcomes/opportunities …open to suggestions as well.
Stats:
ACT: 31
GPA: UW: 95.1, W: 98.6 → all AP/Honors
Tons of extracurriculars.
I want to major in biochemistry, chem, or neuroscience with pre-med.
Thoughts on: Keene State, Plymouth State, Western New England, Stockton, Salve Regina, Salem State, UMass Dartmouth, Rider, Central Connecticut, Southern Connecticut, Wagner, LIU, Iona
Any other suggestions? I know most of these are safeties for me, but just curious based on merit money… thanks!!

Have you run their Net Price Calculators? What’s your budget?

Hofstra, Siena, Sacred Heart, St Lawrence

What’s your home state? If Nj, Stockton will give you about $9k. If not NJ, you get about $7200 as long as you live on campus. They have a very good 5 year PA program.

If you’re considering this list of schools, then you may want to consider St. Lawrence University in extreme upstate New York. Beautiful campus with about 2,450 students. Isolated but easy access (less than a 90 minute drive) to Ottawa, Ontario in Canada as well as to Montreal (longer drive, but easy & enjoyable & well worth the reward).
In many respects, St. Lawrence is a significant step up from your list of small schools.

@NJWrestlingmom I live in New York

@Publisher St Lawrence is a little too far for me

You’d have better luck earning merit from SUNY Geneseo, Albany, Plattsburgh, Oneonta, New Paltz…
UMass Lowell would be a better bet for scholarships (honors program), Salem State and MCLA might have some merit money, as would Plymouth and Keene, but they generally don’t have much merit money. Wagner and Salve Regina offer numerous “drop in the bucket” scholarships - may at most cover room&board but not tuition generally don’t even cover that much.
Look at universities in Maine: Orono, St Michael’s…

You need to target not only universities where your stats are top 10% but also universities that among those actually award significant merit money.

NH, MA, and RI are very stingy with financial aid/merit scholarships, even for their own residents.

@MYOS1634 these sort of schools aren’t within my targets, they’re just random schools to see what happens. I like Keene a lot, Plymouth too. I love Geneseo, but I don’t like the distance. The only other SUNYS I like are Bing & Buffalo (I don’t mind the distance for Buff)

Iona, my guess is at least half tuition. SUNY Buffalo -run NPC- used to be $2500 for your stats but i think they raised the amount. Nothing from Bing. Do you qualify for the NY state Excelsior?

@cptofthehouse Yes, I qualify for Excelsior

“I love Geneseo, but I don’t like the distance.”

Consider an online degree.

That makes the SUNY school costs hard to beat.

If you qualify for the Excelsior your family income is under $125k. How much can your parents pay and how much do you need your net cost to be?

@austinmshauri I want to pay 20 or less a year

Have your parents committed to paying $20k/year or does that figure include the ~$5500/year federal student loan? Colleges aren’t safeties unless they’re affordable. Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the schools on your list?

If you qualify for Excelsior then SUNY school are a great value for you. SUNY is already a great value and then if you are only paying room and board - bingo! There are some great options.

You have a good list. Unlikely to beat the SUNYs with free tuition but give the others a go. Hofstra, Manhattan, any number of Catholic schools are some ideas too. You’ll find some good choices.

@cptofthehouse which catholic schools?

Seems like you have a few options: go to a SUNY or Chase merit. SUNY’s don’t offer merit, just need-based aid. Excelsior will commit you to work in NY State after you finish school. You can still get a great package w/o Excelsior at a SUNY.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Muhlenberg, St. Lawrence, Ithaca College all offer solid merit. They also offer outstanding educations.

If you are open, take a look at the Colleges that Change Lives consortium.

https://ctcl.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_That_Change_Lives

Great grad school admission stats, excellent merit aid.