This thread is getting long so I am not sure if it has been mentioned but Gettysburg College awards 25k a year to top stats kids-you can see the relative benchmarks on their NPC. How about Pitt? Too big? Johns Hopkins has some big merit-S got 75% tuition there., so if your S ends up with the goods to try for the WashU and Vanderbilt merit, he may want to consider JHU as well.
Four other schools to consider that I don’t think have been mentioned on this thread are St. Lawrence, Clark (MA), Dickinson, and Wheaton (MA). I believe all offer the option to apply early action as well.
One more perspective here. D is going to Davidson in the fall with a nice chunk of merit aid. We’re in the same situation as you in that we find it tough to imagine $65k per year for college (plus private school tuition for our HS son) and want to try to avoid emptying retirement savings for undergrad. Her stats were good - perfect GPA, perfect on 2 of the 3 SAT sections rigorous schedule and captain of sports teams and other leadership positions. She was wait listed at the 2 Ivies she applied to, which was expected as she has no hook. Her stats were high enough that a lot of the LACs wanted her, which was wonderful. She cast a wide net from Maine (Colby, Bowdoin) all the way down to Davidson. She also applied to Alabama which gives full scholarship for National Merit Finalists. She got nothing from UVA because we are OOS. The small private LACs varied from $20k merit (Dickinson) down to nothing (Wesleyan).She picked Davidson because she fell in love with it. It’s not overly Southern (compared for example to Vandy and W&L). She also felt that their merit package meant that they liked her a lot and I think that had some influence. I would also advise applying for the scholarships at each school (CV at Vandy, Johnson at W&L, Belk at Davidson etc.) because even if you don’t get the big prize they take a closer look at you and you might some merit aid that way. I have a 2019 son, and I will say the one thing I will do differently is really push him to continue his sport in college. It was heartbreaking to watch hooked kids my D tutored get into Ivies that she didn’t. But Ivies don’t give merit aid, so that’s a trade off.
If Pitt is not too big, you need to apply early in order to be considered for merit. It is not a common app school and the application opens in June. This means doing the application early and getting the guidance counselor to send in the transcripts as soon as school opens in the fall.
Lehigh does give merit to top applicants, however it is very important to show interest as often as possible. If you live near the school you need to visit in person. Attend as many sessions as possible that the school has in your area (Lehigh in your area events). They do give “points” for attending those sessions and they make that very clear. Also- the “Why Lehigh” essay should be very detailed.
I’m like one of @“Erin’s Dad”'s daughters–liked Mac, didn’t fall in love with Carleton. Part of it was the difference in setting. Macalester is right in the thick of things, and Carleton is in a small suburb. (The sign I saw going in to Northfield said something like “Colleges, Cows, and Contentment”) 
I liked what I heard on my tour of Carleton, but the location plus the lack of merit aid took it off my list. @“Erin’s Dad”–no tax on clothes in Minnesota, think how much more expensive the Mall of America could’ve been! Ha!
If Davidson is on your radar, also check into W&L (Johnson scholarship is awarded to about 10% of the class). SMU also has a number of wonderful merit scholarships.
A good number of Midwestern LACs give out merit money like Depauw and Beloit (as well as Denison already mentioned).
Another possibility, if he gets enough AP credits (so high scores on AP tests) is paying for 3 years of schooling (still could be spread out over 4 years). He’d have to know what major and have little room to explore, however, and many on here are proponents of 4 years of college, but say that 3 years at NU end up costing the same as 4 years at Case/Davidson/Beloit.
Would you really take NU as an option off the table?
I am hijacking this thread! @NJFL123, I have empathy for you when you state " It was heartbreaking to watch hooked kids my D tutored get into Ivies that she didn’t." I am starting to notice this for my daughter who will go to college in 2017. I said this on one of the other threads, for top-tier schools, if you happen to be upper middle income (150K) range, it’s almost as if these schools are saying don’t bother to come here unless you are poor or rich enough to pay the full EFC. These hooks have also gone to other extreme, I am noticing most top-10 students from our school district head to local state flagships colleges, while students with hooks land up going to top-tier schools, both because they meet the “need” part of financials and the “urm” part of admissions.
The ‘schools that give merit aid’ discussion has lots of good information.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-for-good-merit-aid-p1.html
It’s very long so you need to wade through it all to find all the info. Take notes!
Some important things I learned. #1 Some application deadlines are early and you have to apply specifically to them. So do research early so you don’t miss deadlines. Some are automatic, meaning kid is automatically considered just by applying. #2 There are many automatic (meaning just test scores) scholarships. #3 Schools seems to vary a lot in how high stats have to be to get some merit $ but everyone seems to agree that to get significant $, stats have to be in about upper 10%. That can be pretty high even if the mean stats for the school are more moderate.
Our D is going to Saint Olaf (same town as Carleton) on a 4yr 1/2 cost merit scholarship (academic + their NMF scholarship). I don’t think St Olaf’s been mentioned yet; on the lists of the ‘Schools that Change Lives’ and ‘Experts Choice: Best value pre-med schools’.
http://wp.stolaf.edu/financialaid/merit-scholarships-2/
D also got full-ride at U of ID (NMF) + 1/2-ride at Montana State (WUE; Western Undergrad Exchange; + automatics for high ACT). Although things worked out great, we should have leveraged her stats into more options for 1/2 and full-rides in case she had not gotten merit at St Olaf. D just aimed for 4 schools: St Olaf, Colorado College (didn’t get the one scholarship she applied for), and the 2 automatics (U of ID and MSU).
Our D really wanted a small LAC in a cold, snowy place (go figure), but I’m hoping our S19 is interested in our flagship which is a great school. However, he’s also an athlete and wouldn’t be able to play his sport at our flagship (because he’s not a that level). I’m pondering basically handing over his college fund to him (in spirit) and saying ‘spend it wisely’. Some is in 529 and some not. Our friend’s kids were in that position via a trust from their grandmother. They choose to go to a good in-state school to save $ for grad/profession school later, to have $ for travel, and to save a ‘nest egg’ to buy a house later. They were not willing to ‘blow’ their trust money on undergrad education that they could get elsewhere for cheaper. BTW, our kids are double-legacies at an Ivy but honestly it could be 300K+ by the time S is going to school.
@OHToCollege And, to add to the hook issue, I think parents where we live actually come up with the hooks and then make their kids stick with them through high school! I think it’s just so important for all kids to have realistic expectations from the get-go. Not worth hi-jacking a student’s high school years to make them play frisbee golf or play some obscure instrument if it’s not their own idea!
You also need to do a cost benefit analysis. How much merit do you need to apply below his stats. Will you turn down a top 10 college in his area of interest for 20k off tuition at a college ranked #50? (using that as an example since I do not want to name specific colleges but not talking about getting a free ride to Vandy).
I know personally NMF and Intel finals (girls in STEM so an advantage there) who did not get the scholarships at Duke, Vandy or WUSTL. If your son gets it great, he will be a candidate who can probably get into a HYPS. Obviously no one knows at this point. By all means apply but that is not where you should be focusing.
What you should be doing is getting him used to the idea of merit. That his goal is not Harvard but a free ride at a place he is comfortable. I made this mistake with my kids.
@SeekingPam totally agree with what you wrote! Especially if kids are in a high-achieving district, I think it is hard sometimes for them to see a big scholarship to Alabama/Pitt/Oklahoma as an achievement. As parents, you’ll need to be the biggest cheerleader.
@homerdog, hooks almost can’t be manufactured (outside of ED to some places). You can’t change your URM or legacy status, and you either are good enough to be an athlete at your desired collegiate level or you aren’t.
Am I the only one concerned that your child does not have a say in the matter? The way you wrote your post you are writing as if he has zero input and that you are choosing where he will apply. Let him use some of the calculators online to find universities and colleges that would fit his interests, size, etc and then help him narrow it down from there.
The more your child has ownership over the process, the better chance of him succeeding. There are many high stats students who failed miserably their first year because they didn’t have much input into the process.
Figuring out ‘top 10’ in area of interest is something I found hard particularly for LACs (which is what D was set on). #51 (on USNEWS) Furman for example is much stronger in Chemistry than many of the top-10 LAC on that list. Since D was interested in STEM, I dug into data like this
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19567186/#Comment_19567186
and this
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19567186/#Comment_19567186
and lists like this
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/
Then that led to a list of schools that were esp strong for STEM and that gave good merit aid. Then D crossed off schools for various reasons, and as I mentioned before, way too many schools were crossed off for bad reasons (too urban). Hmm, what if that school had given you a full-ride? I wonder if ‘too urban’ would have been such a negative then.
@Rdtsmith Of course he will choose where he fits best! He’s only a freshman and I’m just beginning this process a bit because my husband and I decided that we do not want to pay full-ride even though we can afford it. It’s too soon for him to be looking at schools. He will focus on doing well in school for now and college talk can wait for at least another year. I think it’s always good for parents to prepare first and then talk to their children. He will certainly have all kinds of input. It is our goal for him to find his perfect fit within our financial goals.
There are plenty of top students without “hooks” who don’t play a varsity sport in college…who get accepted to the Ivies. But with acceptance rates at under 10% of applicants…all of the qualified applicants cannot be acceoted…and they aren’t.
Anyone applying to the Ivies should be casting a wide net. The reality is even those who continue to play a varsity sport, are Seimens winners or something like that, and who have some other amazing hook…are not guaranteed acceptance at the Ivies or similar schools like S and M.
And if course, the Ivies, M and S do not give a penny of merit aid. So if that is your hunt…getting acceoted to one of these schools isn’t going to help you financially.
@liska21 I don’t know for sure yet, but I don’t think we would choose a school for a particular program. I just read that over half of college freshman change their majors. I think we are more likely to keep that in mind. I’m more afraid of him choosing a school for a particular interest and then wanting to change and finding that his college does not have a well-regarded program for that new major. I guess that’s why, at least at this early stage, I’m prone to prefer schools that have many strong programs and a strong alumni connection for intern experiences, etc. If he starts out in the sciences at a big state school (possibly in some honors program) but then wants to switch to History, that program might not mean a whole lot.
To add to @Rdtsmith, I would lay out the financial parameters and options and let him choose. If that means 3 years at one place instead of 4 years at another (remember that he can borrowed Federal loans as well, and they are fairly limited), so long as he can make it work, that’s his choice.
It isn’t too early to start introducing him to information, though, IMO. For some goals (which may also be in the UK or Canada, though UK unis are quite inflexible when it comes to changing majors/course), it may mean taking AP tests junior or maybe even sophomore year (and of course the PSAT is junior year).
@homerdog I definitely worried about that too. But D was pretty clear about what academic areas and ECs she felt were important to her. Many of her peers are looking for very specific programs; in fact, our D was less specific than most. But my point was that if your kid has specific interests come junior year, then you have to move away from the generic rankings and that can take a bit of research. I didn’t find that part easy. I think if she’d been more interested in big schools, it would have been easier. Not sure.