<p>Here's my situation. My parent's income is over $200K so I assume I will not get any financial aid and will have a full EFC wherever I go. Although their income is high, we are middle class with not much to spare given that we live in a high cost area. So paying over $35K a year for college will be difficult for them.</p>
<p>I am wondering how much I can realistically except to receive in merit aid. My GPA(3.8) and test scores (SAT 2300) are high and I am a NM semifinalist. </p>
<p>The private reach schools I am considering are U of Chicago, Rice, Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton.
Target schools are UC Berkeley, some other UCs.</p>
<p>I know I will not likely receive merit aid at any UC.</p>
<p>Do you think I would receive any significant merit aid at my reach schools to the point that they would cost around $35K? </p>
<p>What other schools offer significant merit aid?</p>
<p>Columbia, Princeton, Stanford do not give ANY merit aid, so that is a big fat zero there in that category. If you look on the websites, check out what criterion is used for merit money at UCH, RIce and CMU. Though your stats/academic profile put you into the running for a lot of merit awards, when you are looking at highly selective schools like the ones on your list, the competition is fierce. My one son had stats like yours, for example, and he did get some merit packages, but not from the likes of school like those where even with his profile, gettting accepted was no slam dunk, much less getting significant merit awards. He did not get a dime from Georgia Tech, for example, or anything from Villa Nova, Holy Cross, BC, for example. He did get about what you want from Fordham, and smaller scholarships ranging from $1000-10K from such schools. Getting a huge award is not easy. </p>
<p>My one son went to Pitt where there are a number of generous merit awards, but looking at the current stats for them, there are far fewer than there used to be, and the generous Chancellor’s Award is now highly selective. 15 years ago, it was nearly an automatic for those with 1350 Math/verbal Sats. Now you are under consideration with scores 100 points higher. It’s becoming toughter each year, IMO. </p>
<p>There are any number of schools that would probably give you significant merit aid but at the highly selective ones it’s truly a lottery ticket. Certainly you should give it a go, but be aware that even getting accepted at those school is not an automatic. Make sure that you have some safeties on your list that are safeties in terms of managing the costs as well as getting in. When it comes to getting money, unless the awards are guaranteed by certain gpa/test stats, you cannot be sure of getting them.</p>
<p>*I am wondering how much I can realistically except to receive in merit aid. My GPA(3.8) and test scores (SAT 2300) are high and I am a NM semifinalist. </p>
<p>The private reach schools I am considering are U of Chicago, Rice, Stanford, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton.
Target schools are UC Berkeley, some other UCs.</p>
<p>I know I will not likely receive merit aid at any UC.</p>
<p>Do you think I would receive any significant merit aid at my reach schools to the point that they would cost around $35K? *</p>
<p>Uh…not only will Cal not likely give you much/any merit aid, schools like Stanford, Princeton, etc won’t likely either. Those schools only give need-based aid. </p>
<p>It’s ok to apply to those schools “just to see”, but you also need to include a few schools where your stats will get you huge merit. </p>
<p>They do offer some other competitive merit scholarships which seem to go to students that help with their diversity needs (regional and ethnic). Not saying that you won’t get a good merit scholarship, you never know.</p>
<p>Also 2 more private schools a bit further down the list than you seem to be looking- Northeastern gives automatic full tuition scholarship for NMF. U of Miami is very generous with aid, has $16K, $24K and also a full tuition scholarship, but you have to jump through hoops for that one, attend an invited weekend for finalists for interview.</p>
<p>Check out Northeastern as well. Also colleges like Rhodes, Smith, Manhattan College, and many of the Catholic schools have good merit programs. Look at what they have specifically, how many are given out what the requirements are for them and where you fall in that range. There is a great award given at Wake Forest, for instance, but getting it is super competitive. The same with Duke, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Vanderbilt and a number pf well known schools. Still,you have the numbers to be in the running, so certainly give it a go for some of them. Just make sure you are covered with some sure things too, affordable and will take you.</p>