<p>I know a lot of women's colleges don't give significant merit aid, so I was wondering if anyone knew which ones did give merit aid and how much would be possible for me. Without merit aid I would be forced to go to my state uni (not a good fit - too huge and frat/sports obsessed!), since my parent's EFC is veryyyyyy high but their willingness to pay is veryyyyy low ;). </p>
<p>I'm currently a junior but I've already taken the SATs for a special program (which I decided not to do - hah) so here are my stats:</p>
<p>2280 SAT - 800 V, 720 M, 760 W
4.0 GPA with most rigorous course load (except in math, I'm one behind, just taking AB calc senior yr) so far - currently I'm doing really well and don't see that maintaining that GPA will be difficult at all, maybe I will get one B in math and bring it down to a 3.9 or something, so let's say I have a 3.9 applying to schools
Two 5s on AP exams already from sophomore year and expecting to do well on a few more this year</p>
<p>Good but pretty normal ECs - sports since I was young (not in school - ballet), music since elementary school (really involved trumpet player, love jazz), two years of JV field hockey but didn't make the varsity team, volunteering, blahdeblah so I'm involved but it's fairly normal stuff</p>
<p>I'm really interested in Wellesley and Barnard (like big cities, so Boston a and NYC ftw), but I'm pretty sure - if they even give merit aid - my chances of getting any are slim, so maybe just help me out? Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t understand why you think you’d have trouble getting in with your stats? And taking AB Calc senior year does not really make you one year behind (well, maybe it does at your school, but I know when I was in high school only the super geniuses started AP Calc before senior year). </p>
<p>With the women’s colleges it’s not always that merit aid is non existent it’s just that it’s very hard to come by. </p>
<p>Smith for example has a great merit aid program called STRIDE scholarships, which is a combination of a $15,000 scholarship per year for four years, and a two-year paid position as a research assistant to a professor (pays $2100 per year). So that’s an awesome scholarship. The catch is that it’s only offered to about 50 students every year, and an incoming class is usually between 600-700 students. And way more than 50 students in that class will be straight-A students at their high schools with stellar records, so the competition is incredibly difficult. </p>
<p>There is also the Zollman scholarship at Smith, which is $20,000 per year for four years (practically half tuition), but that is awarded to fewer than ten incoming students. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the other women’s colleges offer, but because merit aid is so hard to come by at these schools, the best thing you can really do is just apply to the schools you love, and then see what happens. You can’t influence your chances of getting merit aid at this point, and you are obviously already pretty meritorious, so you’ve done your best, apply where you can, and just hope that your parents will see the light of hope in your eyes and be willing to give a little more.</p>
<p>Really? Because I’ve never heard that. And the website says that 50 STRIDE scholarships are awarded each year, and 10 Zollman Scholarships are awarded (or fewer in each case). Awarded would indicate to me that those are the number that are offered, for the student to accept or deny as they choose.</p>
<p>The misunderstanding is how “awarded” is understood. It is confusing. </p>
<p>If Smith increased their yield of top-rated students from 10-12 percent to 20-25 percent due to the STRIDE, you can extrapolate ~ 8-15 percent of the 20-25 percent yield of top-rated students is due to STRIDE awards…Smith would have to offer many hundreds of STRIDE awards to achieve 51 STRIDE acceptances. And if Smith was expecting 60 STRIDE students to enroll, that alone indicates many more than 50 are offered.</p>
<p>I’m not worried about getting into a school I want to go to; I’m worried about paying for it! </p>
<p>Unfortunately my parents are not the type to be swayed by “hope in my eyes”, especially to the tune of 40-50K a year.</p>
<p>Smith and Mt. Holyoke seem interesting. I like Smith a lot, actually…and that merit award is huge. But yeah, it does seem quite difficult to get.</p>
<p>OK, so I was a little skeptical when you suggested Mills (never heard of it) and said “be realistic”.</p>
<p>But when I actually explored the webpage I was pretty starstruck. Near Berkeley and San Francisco? You can cross register? That’s awesome. </p>
<p>Buuut I don’t want to be drawn to the school for too superficial reasons…do you know anything about the school in terms of the environment there? What kind of students attend? I am pretty weird (not gonna lie) and wouldn’t fit in well at place that wasn’t quirky. And how are the humanities classes?</p>
<p>I’d be careful on the cross registering, it is pretty limited. However, Mills is a beautiful campus with strong humanities. It has an excellent creative writing program. I’d say it’s pretty quirky too. There is a lot of avant guarde art stuff that goes on there, and a big contingent of “returning students.” Because it’s in the Bay area, they also can take advantage of a very high caliber adjunct faculty pool. It’s worth checking out.</p>
<p>While you are looking into Mills in California you might also check out Scripps College in Claremont. My daughter is a freshman there and loves it. Scripps has a nice merit scholarship program called the James E. Scripps scholarship which is 1/2 tuition for 4 years. You must apply by November 1 of your senior year to be considered for the scholarship program, but you need not apply ED.</p>