Hi CC. I am looking to apply to school that will give me some form of merit aid. I am unsure of which schools are generous with merit aid and what kind of merit aid I would even receive. The problem is, my ACT score makes me eligible for many scholarship offerings, however, my GPA narrows these opportunities down. I will give you my stats, but let me know if you need more information.
ACT: 32 C
E: 27 M: 33 R: 33 S: 34
GPA: ~3.3 UW
All courses are AP/IB/honors, but my school does not weight GPA or do class rank
I took the SAT as well but did not score well on it. I am still waiting on SAT subject tests (I have taken Bio + Math II) and I expect to score around 700 for both of them.
Any schools that would offer me perhaps half tuition? 33%? Anything?
What state are you in?
What kind of school you are looking for? small private, medium private, big state, smaller regional state…
You have similar stats to my D’s.
She applied to smaller, “regional” state universities and she received merit scholarships at two - half off OOS tuition at one, and half off tuition and fees at an in-state school.
The third school she applied to, is part of a multi-state consortium and she will only pay 1/2 of OOS tuition because she had a 3.0.
There are other regional state universities that give OOS students - not necessary to be part of a consortium - a discount or in-state tuition rates just for having a 3.0 or a certain combination of gpa and test score.
We also looked at smaller liberal arts colleges where she would have been in the top 20-25% of applicants, and while she did not apply, but a couple of her friends who applied and had similar stats to hers, got merit scholarships to those, and they were more or less, 1/2 off tuition.
I will tell you right now, you likely will not receive much, or any, merit at state flagships or more “prestigious” private schools.
Look for the schools where
a) you are in the top 10 - 25% of applicants;
b) that are less popular and considered less prestigious.
These schools should be very happy to have you.
What state are you in? How far do you want to be from home?
If you are in the Midwest, I can maybe suggest some schools.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
University of Central Arkansas, University of Arkansas Monticello, Louisiana Tech, Howard, University of Louisiana-Monroe, and couple more on the list in the link.
What is your weighted GPA
Thanks for the responses. I will provide more information:
- my intended major will probably be psychology
- I do not care about the location or size of the school, however reputation does matter a little bit to me. I plan on going to med school so I need to graduate from somewhere that is somewhat credible, preferably a top 100 university or something close to that
- I am not interested in liberal arts schools
- I do not need a full ride, I just want merit aid of some kind
Let me know if there is anything else you need to know
@BeeDAre Do you mind sharing what some of those school were?
Ohio University in Athens OH.
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale IL.
Both of those schools gave her pretty decent merit, roughly half of the tuition and fees.
We are in IL, and in the Midwest Student Exchange program (with Michigan WI, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana) and if you have a 3.0 or above, Ball State in Indiana offers 1/2 off OOS tuition.
I think the general wisdom on CC is that it does not really matter where you go to undergrad for med school admissions.
Imo, those southern schools offering full tuition for your stats (link posted by nw2this) seem like a very nice deal.
We also found that Missouri and Kansas schools (aside from the flagships) offered fairly generous merit for these stats. (My D did not want to go that far from home, though.)
In what part of the country do you want to attend college? That would help.
Also, how much can you afford to pay?
Some state’s public universities are cheaper than others.
In the Midwest, you might look at:
Iowa State
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin- LaCrosse
Bowling Green State, OH
Illinois State
Truman State, MO (this is smaller, though, like a big LAC)
But basically, check out a given state’s smaller state universities, online, and check their scholarship/financial aid links. Most will have a list of criteria needed for automatic merit award.
Check the flagship, too, just in case. Some, like Alabama, for instance, do give merit awards - if your grades were a little higher, you’d get full tuition at U of Alabama, for instance. I would guess that UA also has a nice merit award for lower GPAs… but Idk, you need to check their website.
Your GPA and MCAT scores will be vastly more important than the name of your undergrad school.
Also, don’t be so quick to dismiss the smaller “liberal arts colleges” (this just means they are all or mostly undergrads and they often don’t offer majors such as Engineering or Computer Science. FYI, Psychology is part of Liberal Arts and Sciences.) These small schools often have a good track record of helping their graduates get into medical and law school.
One of these is Augustana College in Rock Island IL.
Others in the upper Midwest that would likely give you some merit are:
Beloit College
Knox College
Wittenberg University
Earlham College
Ohio Wesleyan University