Further afield, the University of Utah has excellent merit scholarships with a similar cohort based full ride program (Eccles) to the NC State Park. The math and CS programs are also pretty strong and the facilities and location are great.
Furman is beautiful…but big on showing interest…so somehow try to get there, or show interest some other way. The kids and staff there seemed super nice, so if that is what your dd wants, it seems to fit that need.
@Twoin18 Utah does look like a good choice. Eccles looks amazing, but like all of those types of programs, hard to get. They also seem to have pretty good merit at lower levels though, that would make it doable.
@sunnyschool I’ll have her read up on Furman and if interested, we may need to take a road trip this summer… Who wouldn’t want to go to school with super nice people?
@VryCnfsd Great, and Greenville is super cute too (though the campus is 7miles from town which is a bummer, would be so nice if it was across the street!)…also the campus, and dorms are super nice. There’s even a golf course free for students/staff.
CWRU offers financial aid, meets full need of all students. Also merit and some full rides
there too, if you don’t have financial need. Do the net price calculator.
https://case.edu/financialaid/for-undergraduates/types-of-financial-assistance-for-undergraduates
GaTech is very supportive of women in STEM and other fields, and offers a strong business program, and international studies and study abroad. However, GaTech offers very few out of state merit scholarships and will cost more than CWRU, or other suggestions on this post. GaTech is collaborative, with many group projects, many hackathons, and clubs that encourage group collaboration. See Grand Challenges dorm also, a freshman collaborative experience at GaTech. However, its going to cost the full price tag for almost all out of state students. GaTech OOS tuition, room and board costs about $80K less over four years, than an equivalent private school full price, and reasonable living expenses in Atlanta.
@Coloradomama thanks for the suggestion. DD will need the full scholarship to be able to attend, which will be tricky, but worth a look.
Re: Georgia Tech, it seems we disagree on the exact reasons why, but both agree it should not be considered further for DD.
Take a look at the 100% need met schools if your can afford your estimated FAFSA EFC.
I wouldn’t classify Cleveland (CWRU) as middle-sized city - it’s a large city with a symphony orchestra (close to CWRU) and other arts and entertainment offered by a major city. But I also think that merit there tops out at 25-30K. A lot of private collegeshave merit to get your COA down to 35Kish but it gets much more difficult to get below that.
OOS merit at NCSU is really unlikely as most merit goes for in-state.
Mt Holyoke is small and in the middle of nowhere.
With no hook and not strong ECs especially leadership those full tuition merits at places like Vandy, Duke, WashU, USC, etc will be really hard to get but someone gets them so you can try.
Fordham has a full tuition scholarship for NMF. It has 2 campuses with the Bronx campus more traditional and the Lincoln Center one a city campus.
Sorry to seem like such a downer but just trying to add perspective. Your D will do great and I’m sure she’ll have a lot of options.
IU and USCar for merit and business majors.
@Dolemite Thanks, I understand that acceptance to those schools is challenging, and getting a full tuition scholarship even moreso. Her admission and affordability safeties are covered, and the goal of this thread was to add reaches with full tuition possibilities, which I think is being accomplished. I’ve also learned about several interesting programs that could be great for her.
Fordham is a good choice. I have added it to her list. Am I right that it would also be more of a safety?
I know that there may not be a reach program/university that her talents and experiences make her perfect for. But, I want to read and learn about as many possibilities as I can, so that if there is one that she would be a great candidate for, then I can find it. If that means she has to make do without some of her wants, e.g. Mt Holyoke, then that’s a problem for another day.
Re: city size, I meant that she wants to go to college in a city or town that has 100K or more people (as a rough guide). So, Cleveland would qualify. Mt Holyoke, no.
Fordham is a safety including the NMF scholarship.
Check out the Princeton ORFE program: https://orfe.princeton.edu/undergraduate
Cornell supposedly has great data science - do the EFC I’m not sure how their FA is though - I found Columbia about 10K a year less than Princeton so Cornell might be in the same ballpark.
University of Rochester is a good STEM school with up to full tuition merit aid.
I don’t think there are many full tuition scholarships awarded at Rochester.
@CT1417 You’re right I think there are maybe 10 Handler Scholars per class, which is their premier full-tuition+ scholarship. And while it is a merit scholarship, it also has a need component built into the wholistic assessment. However, about 1/3 of the students do have non-need merit aid, averaging around $15K and they do meet full-need for almost 100% of the students who enroll.
@havenoidea Thanks! Sounds like it will be hard to get at Rochester, but that’s OK. I’m looking for a big set of ideas.
@Dolemite that OFRE program at Princeton sounds amazing. Hard, but amazing!
Update: Thanks everyone for the help above. D20 visited Nebraska and really liked the Raikes school. So, Nebraska is going on the list. Right now, that means she has the following list. I included the special program at the school that she is interested in, if there is one.
Definitely applying:
USoCal
Nebraska (Raikes)
Alabama (safety, possibly interested in RRS)
Florida
Actively Considering:
UT Dallas (possibly interested in McDermott)
Texas A&M (Brockman)
On the Radar:
Trinity, San Antonio
Saint Louis University
Utah (Eccles)
I would be interested in any further suggestions that are similar in some way to the ones that she has liked so far, especially Raikes and Brockman. As a reminder, she is only considering colleges where there is a possible full tuition merit scholarship, and would like to combine math/stat/CS with business.
You mentioned that running the EFC for Princeton made it doable with need-based aid. Northwestern would be a good fit, so see if the EFC comes out similarly (no merit aid, but generous need-based aid). My son is a freshman who’s going to major in stats and knows plenty of math and CS majors. While there is no undergrad business major
With Case Western, the question is would the need-based aid make up the rest that merit aid doesn’t cover, so if the EFC shows that it does cover what’s left after likely merit, it’s a good option.
Pitt is another one that provides generous merit aid (it’s rolling, and the biggest awards tend to go to the earliest applicants).
Arizona State has Business Data Analytics undergrad program. National Merit scholarship, but not sure how much.
Ohio State has a Data Analytics program that is very technical and being invested heavily in. The University as a whole is well known for being big, yet collaborative across colleges (very good business school). The Eminence scholarship is good, but only 25 given each year. 300 Morrill diversity scholarships, some of which are total cost of attendance.
University of Kentucky is another safety with full ride NMF scholarship.
Many schools let you design your own major, which seems right up your daughter’s alley. So at this point, I wouldn’t limit a search just to schools with the “right” program if there are geographical or financial considerations.
@Genevieve18 thank you for reading the thread and noticing that I had mentioned Princeton might be doable. We have had second thoughts and decided that it is not, and D20 is really looking for full tuition possibilities at this point. If it changes back, then I will definitely have her take a look at Northwestern!
@OhiBro that’s a good point about not getting tied too much to specific programs. D20 did like the cohort structure of Raikes, where there are 35 students per year in the program, and they take a lot of classes together. But, a general program at a big school wouldn’t be much different than just choosing your own classes and/or major! I like Ohio State for her. Eminence would be the biggest reach on the list by a good margin, but the opportunities it would open would be fantastic.