<p>* I guess I’m hoping to bring the net cost for him into the $20,000-$30,000 range. </p>
<p>Oldest has merit that brings her COA to a little over $20,000. And I guess I hope we could maintain a similar outflow. *</p>
<p>For a private, that means about Half Tuition or more for a private. That’s going to be tough. </p>
<p>St. Michael’s seems to be very generous. </p>
<p>What kind of stats did your older D have? GPA and test scores?</p>
<p>Saint Michael’s doesn’t cost $50,000, so the merit made a bigger dent. She had much better grades.</p>
<p>StMike’s is exactly $46860 for the 2012-2013 academic year. Not quite $50,000</p>
<p>My son looked at St. Mike’s too. I can’t remember what their offer was, but it was pretty good. Champlain actually gave us more then we thought they would but it was not the lowest priced school. Isn’t Burlington great?! I’m looking forward to stopping at the Vermont Country store on my way up next week to get my son. </p>
<p>The lowest priced colleges often seemed to be in the south. They start at a lower price and many of the small privates offered generous merit aid. Even very popular Elon is well priced. I know several people that choose the less popular UNC colleges because they are well priced, even for OOS. Guilford is very well priced.</p>
<p>chochipcookie, Are you recommending Towson because the OP is in Md? My son (#2 child) got zip from them and the cost was more then our in-state publics so it was off the table pretty quick. Agree with University of Hartford.</p>
<p>Hi Kathiep :)</p>
<p>I mentioned Towson because it is well known for B students, the tuition fee is much less than other colleges and my girlfriend’s D got in with merit and FA combined. I just wanted to give the OP three choices that she may not have thought of. My girlfriend’s D is OOS and it was much more reasonable for her to attend than many other choices.</p>
<p>I have a list of colleges that accept at least 50% of students and have at least a 50% graduation rate. Not all of these schools would give merit scholarships for a 3.1 but it could be a good place to start. [50-50</a> College Listing](<a href=“http://diycollegerankings.com/50-50-college-listing-intro/]50-50”>50-50 College List)</p>
<p>Champlain offered a nice merit aid package to my DD this year.</p>
<p>Thanks to all!</p>
<p>Towson was pretty expensive for OOS, when one of our sons applied.</p>
<p>You might try looking here, as this is a rolling school, beautiful school in a nice area with lots of new buildings, and lists the merit aid scholarships and sticker price is between 35-36k.</p>
<p>[Queens</a> Scholarships | Queens University of Charlotte | Charlotte, North Carolina](<a href=“Admissions and Aid | Queens University of Charlotte”>Admissions and Aid | Queens University of Charlotte)</p>
<p>Also, my kids got merit aid nearly all of their private school options (mostly match, low match, and safeties. S2 got a smaller amount of merit aid at reach school too).</p>
<p>Also, you might look at Juniata. We loved the small school. Has a strong theater program (not sure about technical theater) I think and 2 years ago the sticker I believe was about 40,000. The merit aid for our child was pretty good (considering the sticker price). </p>
<p>You would need to research the majors, as we were not looking into these majors.</p>
<p>Thanks. Yes, My oldest applied to Juniata and got a nice scholarship. That’s pretty much the idea, schools with a lower price that offer merit.</p>
<p>You’re welcome. That was my thinking as well. For us, the sticker price absolutely did matter!!! Some college guide type of books that I read when we fist began looking for our oldest advised not to consider sticker price. For us, that would have been bad advice.</p>
<p>All I can add to this discussion is that my D was over 4.0 gpa, NHS and state scholar and was offered zero merit. The kids that were offered merit that we knew of were the ones with super high test scores with no financial need. Fortunately the school met our EFC - wasn’t expecting that at all!</p>
<p>It just depends where you apply. My oldest got merit everywhere she was accepted because she only applied to schools where that looked likely. She had a 3.6 and so-so test scores, but she wasn’t applying to reach or even high match schools. And she fell in love with one of those schools and is finishing her sophomore year now.</p>
<p>Does he happen to be an Eagle Scout? If so, try University of Evansville. Evansville gives pretty good merit money, even to non-Eagles.</p>
<p>[Freshmen</a> Merit Scholarships for Fall 2012 - University of Evansville](<a href=“http://www.evansville.edu/scholarships/]Freshmen”>Scholarships Overview - Student Financial Services - University of Evansville)</p>
<p>missypie, is the scouting scholarship stacked on top of merit or does the scouting scholarship mean a bit larger merit award?</p>
<p>Thanks, missypie, not an Eagle Scout!</p>
<p>Roanoke and Lynchburg Colleges offer merit aid to a 3.0 (if he gets near those approx. test scores -exactly the same as my D#2 btw :)). Use their online calculators to get a good idea of how much merit they’d offer him (his test scores are going to help him at these two schools --he’s well above the avg.). </p>
<p>Mom2twocollegekids has made a good point --do your EFC estimator (with all three kids added) if you haven’t already. There’s a good chance that you may be approved for more additional loans/grants than you are anticipating. </p>
<p>Another school off the top of my head is Hiram College (used to have a 10K scholarship for a 3.0 and above, but not sure they still offer it --again, use their online calculator to find out). For publics, you might want to check out some of the SUNYs (good OOS tution), U of Mary Washington (has a good shot as a male), Longwood U., and Ohio U. (OU offers some talent scholarships so read through merit page).</p>
<p>Any talents? Sports? I can point you in the right direction for numerous art, music, or theater scholarships :).</p>
<p>We are in NY, so I am actually hoping he falls in love with New Paltz or Buffalo, both of which seem to have decent (or better) theater programs. Not at all a sure thing that he’d get in, but not impossible. Possibly interested in technical theater, studying that in high school.</p>
<p>Being in NY, will give him several good options! I started this thread a while back and think you might find some schools to look into (many of the schools that offer the art scholarships also offer a theater scholarship, so go to each site and search their scholarships pages):</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1238113-colleges-offer-merit-based-art-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visual-arts-film-majors/1238113-colleges-offer-merit-based-art-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Wooster’s:
<a href=“http://www.wooster.edu/Admissions-and-Financial-Aid/Merit-Scholarships/Performing-Arts-Scholarship/theatre[/url]”>http://www.wooster.edu/Admissions-and-Financial-Aid/Merit-Scholarships/Performing-Arts-Scholarship/theatre</a></p>
<p>I wanted to suggest what may seem like an off-the-wall idea for a kid who is looking at Northeastern colleges. Is he interested in small schools? Consider the University of Minnesota Morris, the public liberal arts college of Minnesota. An small LAC with 1932 undergrads. 62% admission rate. They may offer him a scholarship but even without one, a year of tuition, room, and board is $18,600 whether you are in state or out of state or international; they want more out of state and international kids. (They are generous with need-based aid as well.) A neat thing about UMM is that if he applies and is accepted, because he lives over 350 miles away, they will pay his expenses (well, up to $500) for him to visit. This might be one to put on his list that is guaranteed to be inexpensive and is available in case he wants to go a little further away. </p>
<p>If he is interested in a theater major, he could start a bit of an email conversation with one of the profs in their Theater Arts department, describe his interests, and see if it seems like a fit for him. Among the freshman theater majors, he may be a big fish in a small pond there if he is coming in with a good background in technical theater. [University</a> of Minnesota Morris](<a href=“http://www.morris.umn.edu/]University”>http://www.morris.umn.edu/) This is a place where he could have great experiences in tech theater without being a theater major.</p>
<p>5700 tuition per semester
1700 dorm room per semester</p>
<h2>1900 dining per semester</h2>
<p>9300 per semester (Sorry - I had to add it up. I didn’t see the sum on line)
Currently about 80% in state, 10% oos, 10% international</p>
<p>The flagship U of MN in the Twin Cities is geographically easier to get to than UMM, offers more technical theater classes than UMM because of the theater design and technology MFA they offer <a href=“https://theatre.umn.edu/theatre/mfa[/url]”>https://theatre.umn.edu/theatre/mfa</a> and would fit your $20 to $30K price, I think. I am not sure if a 3.0 student would be admitted, though.</p>