My daughter has narrowed down her school list to the following - Brandeis, Clark, Mount Holyoke, Providence, UCONN, UMASS Amherst and WPI. Any suggestions to round out this list with 2-3 more schools given the following criteria? - She is interested in research path (not premed) in biotech industry or academia. Looking for merit awards to help defray cost (no need based aid forthcoming per calculators.) We are from Massachusetts (west of Boston) - she wants to stay within 2-3 hours drive of home; looking to major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; reserved kid with no interest in the party crowd. Rank: 4th in her class. Weighted GPA of 4.47; Superscored SAT = 1460; ACT =33; AP scores - Composition (5), Chemistry (4). This year she is taking AP Seminar/Research, AP Bio, AP Spanish, AP Calculus AB, Anatomy and Physiology Honors. EC’s - Varsity sport captain, president of Science Honor Society, active member of 2 service oriented clubs; Interned in a college lab this past summer and presented poster at an undergraduate research forum. Thanks for any suggestions!
Not sure what your budget is but she would probably see merit money at RPI.
Clarkson University offers merit based awards. See https://www.clarkson.edu/undergraduate-admissions/first-year-students-applying-financial-aid
Wheaton College, Norton MA offers academic merit scholarships. See https://wheatoncollege.edu/about-wheaton-college/offices-services/student-financial-services/awards-applications/merit-scholarship-programs/
UCONN has a very attractive full tuition STEM Scholar program.
Further away, but U Maine has the flagship match program I think, she could add U Delaware and URI and Ohio State and U Toledo for merit prospects.
For Ohio State she needs to be applying soon!
University of Pittsburgh would be a good option for her major too. She needs top class rank for Pitt, in addition to high GPA and SAT, for a chance at merit.
@mommdc
Great suggestions, including Pitt! Note that University of Pittsburgh publishes their weighted GPA scores (used in their CDS) while many others publish their unweighted scores. This makes it difficult to compare the data when trying to judge admissions. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21713058#Comment_21713058
All great suggestions, but many are too far away for my daughter. She prefers to stay closer to home.
She knows Wheaton well from sports clinics/camps. Ironically, it’s too close and familiar to qualify even with merit.
Again further away than you are looking for but CWRU is good for merit though it would likely not be cheaper than your instate school. Anecdotally, I know two former Case grads that are doing what your D would like to do. One is a Phd student at Scripps studying Neuroscience I believe and the other a Phd student at the University of Texas studying Biochemistry. Both have their tuition covered by the program. I believe they were both Chemistry majors at Case.