Re: the Claremonts - Scripps does offer merit scholarships, up to half tuition, and OP’s stats would put her in the running. Admission and merit decisions are hard to predict (insert adjectives like “holistic” here), but I would be reasonably optimistic based on OP’s profile, but showing “fit” is important. CMC has some scholarships too: Beyond tuition and fees: Expanding opportunities for all CMC students | Claremont McKenna College Pitzer’s merit is pretty limited - it maxed out at 5K/year last time I checked. Pomona, as you say, does not give merit scholarships at all.
In terms of top women’s colleges with merit, Mt. Holyoke is the most generous, and Smith has merit possibilities too, whereas Wellesley and Barnard give need-based aid only as far as I’m aware.
Northeastern could be worth an application. They have a dual major in journalism and poli sci that could be worth a look - lots of great co-op opportunities that could be a help in breaking into the field. And they give guaranteed merit for NMF - it was 30K when I last checked, a year or two ago. USC is also good for NMF merit (half or possibly full tuition) and has strong offerings and a lot of great opportunities in LA.
Agree that the current list has a lot of high-reach schools that will be extremely costly if admitted. It sounds like a serious family budget convo is in order. If law school is the goal, then it’s even more important to keep undergrad within what’s truly affordable for your family.
okay, i will! yes, that is their income; ill fill out fafsa, obviously, but i know that finaid is going to be pennies for me. we’ve been trying to buy for a while; they want to buy as soon as possible, but we’ve been actively looking for homes for about three years. it seems likely that we might buy a house this summer, but we’ve put offers that fell through before, so i truly don’t know; my fear is that theyll buy a house, like, in november of my senior year. i will have a discussion with them about all of this.
chicago does technically offer merit aid, but i highly doubt id receive it :^). but, yes, i completely agree. thats why i asked for good colleges that give good merit aid. most “good colleges” that you find on lists & stuff are made without real regard for the financial aspect, especially for people who may not qualify for need-based finaid.
and by good, i dont mean the prestige caliber of my reaches lol! but it’s hard to sift through the very selectivity-based, prestige-based ranking lists.
but, yes, i will definitely have that discussion with them soon :).
thank you so, so much!!! this is incredibly helpful. i wasnt aware of northeastern’s program!! that sounds really fantastic. ill definitely adjust my list based on all of this :)!!
uiuc is pretty much on my list because it’s in-state; it’s the Good yet achievable college that people apply to. there are things that i dont like about it (large size, college town in the middle of nowhere), but it’s still a contender because my parents prefer me to be in-state.
if i get in, i’m guaranteed discounted tuition because of something related to my parents’ job. it would never be on my list otherwise (wayy too expensive for the quality imo). thats why im considering it a safety!
A reason to post a site might be to support choices already on an OP’s list, such as, in your case, Northwestern, UChicago, Brown, Pomona and UMichigan. If these schools represent financially untenable choices, then it’s not clear why they appear prominently among your own current selections.
If you get in the honors program, it will be a good option. That is what my kids did, rolling admissions in our flagship honors program. They got in before Dec 31, so then they just applied to reaches. So a good strategy is to have a broad list to start with (safeties, matches and reaches) but with some good matches that have EA or rolling admissions. If the early matches pan out, then you can go to a heavy reach list. You could even do UIUC EA and Yale SCEA (Yale SCEA policy allows early application to publics). If the EA schools do not pan out, then you fall back to your original diverse list.