Merit aid advice please! 3.75 UW gpa 2330 SAT

<p>Simply put, I am looking for an opportunity to attend a stronger college than my state school or one of equal strength (Umass Amherst) for less money (ECA $24,000.) I will not qualify for financial aid because a large portion of the family's assets are in my name, but an undergraduate education of more than 40k a year would not be affordable. </p>

<p>I don't know a ton about merit aid, so any advice ranging from broad tips to specific schools I should look into would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Are you a sr? Many deadlines for scholarships have passed or are RAPIDLY approaching.</p>

<p>Yes I am a senior. Yeah I’m quite late in the game but any advice for what I should do at this point would be great</p>

<p>Apply TODAY to Alabama. Deadline for big merit is Dec 15. The app is super easy…no essays, no LORs. Takes 5 minutes!!!</p>

<p>You would get free tuition for your stats. Remaining costs would be about $15k</p>

<p>BUT…if you major in Eng’g or CS, you get an additional $2500 per year! Remaining costs $13k.</p>

<p>These are ASSURED awards for stats…apply now and you’ll get the award within a few weeks!!</p>

<p>Lots of kids from the NE are heading to Bama. Half the school is from OOS. 900 kids from Calif…over 900 from Illinois. I’ve got to get the NY and other NE states’ numbers but I know that NY is about #7 in sending kids to Bama. Kids from all 50 states. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ua.edu/”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama;

<p>Here is the tuition award that you’d get:</p>

<p>PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR</p>

<p>A first-time freshman student who meets the December 15 scholarship priority deadline, has a 32–36 ACT or 1400–1600 SAT score (critical reading and math scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of tuition or $99,800 over four years ($24,950 per year) to be used towards undergraduate or graduate studies.**</p>

<p>Edited: I see that you are eng’g. Good. You’ll get the extra 2500 per year.</p>

<p>Bama has very good engineering AND it has a brand new Science and Engineering Complex.</p>

<p>My son was an Chemical Engineering major at Bama. </p>

<p>?? Are you a NMSF??? If so, you’d get MORE money.</p>

<p>I agree with mom2collegekids. Apply to UA today.</p>

<p>There is also a link at the top of the page with affordable options. UA Huntsville might also be a good option. They offer a lot of merit $$, but I don’t know the deadline for theirs. You need to make sure you don’t waste any time, though, b/c your options are going to only shrink.</p>

<p>FWIW, our ds is a freshman at UA (or is classified as a freshman for another week. He will be classified as a jr after this semester.) He was in a similar situation in that budget had a major impact on his decision, but he absolutely loves UA.</p>

<p>I have a student at UA and one at UAB. UA, UAB, and UAH (all under one ‘system’ but each have own President, etc) all have strong awards for high stat kids - however UA offers a great, more comprehensive honors college and due to many OOS students at UA - is a more natural ‘fit’ for OOS high stat kids. UA has a sizable frat/sorority element, but 2/3 of students are not involved in panhellenic. </p>

<p>Find out what you can on-line. Application is easy for all 3. UA is the largest and the most ‘traditional’ campus; UAB is more urban and has medical focus and is mid-sized; UAH is the smallest of the 3 but also has unique features with technical programs thru PhD. All 3 offer honors programs.</p>

<p>Well…a year ago, you were a junior. So I guess that would make you a senior now.</p>

<p>University of Alabama would bring your out of pocket costs to less than UMass.</p>

<p>But I have to say…UMass Amherst is a fine flagship university. We know two very successful engineering majors who recently graduated from UMass. I Guess the grass is always greener someplace else. </p>

<p>U Mass Amherst ranks higher than Alabama, so why would that recommendation make sense for OP, who is seeking “a stronger college than my state school or one of equal strength (Umass Amherst)”? I’d also venture to say that living in the Deep South would be quite an adjustment for a Mass. resident. Here on CC there tends to be a knee jerk recommendation of Alabama for every student seeking merit aid, but surely a large Southern school, heavily sports and Greek oriented, would pose a “fit” issue for many.</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s a knee-jerk recommendation rather than the fact that UA and Temple are one of the few schools who offer guaranteed full tuition for certain stats. If you need a financial safety and the deadlines for lots of schools are near it makes sense to apply there. </p>

<p>I doubt you are going to find better and cheaper elsewhere than your instate it is lucky it is a good one. </p>

<p>@MommaJ‌

He also asked for cheaper than $24,000. For a student who is asking on Dec 7, automatic merit aid is about all that is left as an option (and at UA, anyway, that is only available for another week.) If applications had been done earlier, competitive scholarships could have been applied for. </p>

<p>At this pt, UA would cost I think around $10,000. (I am not sure exactly, but it would be whatever room and board minus $2500 equals. I think those 2 come to around $12,000. The OP would need to check the COA links at UA to confirm.) </p>

<p>FWIW, UA is not the only school recommended. I know that I mentioned the link to the schools at the top of this forum’s page. But, UA gets recommended b/c they are incredibly generous to top students. Families on a tight budget but expected to be able to pay a large percentage of COA pay attention to that. UA allows the stacking of scholarships (unlike many schools). </p>

<p>ETA: UA is over 50% OOS students. The students are not limited to “deep south.”</p>

<p>@dvgbhs‌ Check out Loyola in Maryland; they do offer merit aids for academically strong students (I have seen $20K for a family who didn’t qualify for financial aid). The enrolled freshmen stats are similar to UMass Amherst, and they offer an honor program for the academically stronger students.</p>

<p>Regular Admissions deadline January 2015:
<a href=“First-Year Admission - Application Process - Loyola University Maryland”>http://www.loyola.edu/admission/undergraduate/application-process/first-year&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UMass Amherst Stats:
Qualifications of Enrolled Freshmen
Average GPA 3.73
SAT Math 618 average
570-670 range of middle 50%
SAT Critical Reading 590 average
540-640 range of middle 50%
SAT Writing Not reported</p>

<p>Loyola Stats:
Qualifications of Enrolled Freshmen
Average GPA 3.45
SAT Math 600 average
560-640 range of middle 50%
SAT Critical Reading 584 average
540-628 range of middle 50%
SAT Writing Not reported</p>

<p>Stats Source: College Data</p>

<p>Private colleges that have been known to offer merit around the Northeast are: Babson, Bard (NY), Bentley, Boston College, Emerson, John Hopkins (MD), Lafayette ¶, St Lawrence (NY), and Trinity College (CT).</p>

<p>Hope this helps. Best of luck! : )</p>

<p>But does the merit aid bring the cost down to less than $24,000? (I honestly have no idea. I know that our ds had $30,000 scholarships at several schools which still left our costs at more than $25-30,000. I didn’t mention a few b/c I know our costs even after great merit $$ were still more than $24,000.)</p>

<p><a href=“Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p>This is the thread that has collected the most useful threads from CC and elsewhere. Spend some serious time on the one dedicated to guaranteed merit-based aid. </p>

<p>Last year Lafayette offered offered 25 merit scholarships worth $40,000 putting the COA around 20,000. They have engineering and if you are looking for a smaller school they might be a good fit. I believe you can still apply and be eligible for merit awards. The largest awards require a spring weekend visit. They do seem to look for interest, so if it’s a consideration, I would visit or reach out to an admissions rep ASAP.</p>

<p>@MommaJ‌
<<<
I’d also venture to say that living in the Deep South would be quite an adjustment for a Mass. resident.
<<<</p>

<p>lol…attending UA would not be an adjustment for a Mass resident. Alabama is not “Deep South” school, whatever that implies. I am from California, and I can tell you that there is nothing to “adjust to” at Bama.</p>

<p>Well, maybe it would be an adjustment if the student would find it shocking to be around friendly people, to attend a gorgeous school, and to live in a more moderate climate, but I think the adjustment would take, like, 2 minutes. lol</p>

<p>The student is saying that he won’t get any aid, and needs a less expensive school than UMass. He didn’t say that the school has to be better than UMass…he’s fine with something of equal strength…and when comparing flagships, PARTICULARLY for engineering, most will be rather similar…they’re state schools…we’re not talking about Cal Tech and MIT. Flagships typically have very good engineering…their states have a vested interest in having strong engineering. And Bama has an amazing new Science and Engineering Complex and the state is home to the second largest research park in the nation: Cummings Research Park.</p>

<p>as for being “heavily sports and Greek oriented”…</p>

<p>Sports are an after hours activity that students can choose to participate in…or not. Sports are also just one of 100s activities offered. Sports are not part of the academic life. They’re not part of the classroom. </p>

<p>That said, there are a number of students who come to Bama having no interest at all in sports, that is fine. But, there are students, like my older son who arrived with no sports interests, but attended a game and “caught the fever,” something that I never thought would happen (he’s the quiet, shy, head-always-in-a-book, brainy type). </p>

<p>Most students are not part of the Greek system, and that is even more so in regards to engineering students - especially male engineering students. Frankly, most engineering students either don’t have the time for Greek Life or their personalities are often such that they’re not interested in Greek Life. Neither of my kids participated in Greek LIfe, yet both had active social lives, participating in other activities. Both had challenging majors (Math and ChemE), and didn’t have time for Greek Life, but that’s fine…very few of the other students in their majors were Greek. The vast majority of males in the Greek system are business majors or similar, and the B-school is on the opposite side of campus from the College of Engineering. </p>

<p>I am not saying that any particular school would be a great fit for every student, but this student’s alternative is UMass, which wouldn’t be a fit for all students, either. Again, they’re big state schools… Someone desiring an intimate LAC wouldn’t like either school. </p>

<p>Anyway, assuming that the OP is telling the truth that he’ll get NO AID, and he can’t afford the cost of UMass (which is an acceptable school for him), then Alabama would be a good alternative because his net cost would be less than $15k per year. The net cost could even be significantly less if he chose standard doubles housing. </p>

<p>@mom2collegekids‌ You summed up our ds pretty well. He has zero interest in Greek, is not really a sports enthusiast but enjoys going to the games, grew up all over the place since we transfer a lot, is a gifted student who has found a wonderful group of peers.</p>

<p>You’ll be hard pressed to find a school equivalent to UMass for less than $25K if you don’t qualify for financial aid. If the sole reason for your search is cost, try Providence College, Clark University, University of Scranton. They all offer very substantial merit awards for high SAT and GPA scores. I’m pretty sure they all offer full tuition at some “point”. </p>

<p>Your stats are very high. I would look at the colleges in the Competitive Full Tuition scholarships thread from the top of the forum. Some deadlines have passed but not all.</p>