<p>George Washington offers lots of financial aid to top students although I am not certain re: sciences there. However, their medical school is decent/above average; my DH did medical internship/residency there and found the medical staff bright. My son was a Commended student, top 10/400, mid 1400 SATs and they offered him half tuition scholarship.
Good luck.</p>
<p>macnyc - is your daughter a Stuyvesant student? I'm a Stuy graduate and you don't realize until you leave how much Stuyvesant means to college counselors (I am currently working as a tour guide in an admissions office so I talk to counselors a lot) and how far a Stuyvesant GPA goes (and to a lesser extent the other specialized high schools, I'm assuming Stuy from your details including the 7 apps limit). A 92 from Stuyvesant can get you quite far, LACs ranked between 10 and 20 are definitely doable and some of the 1-10 LACs as well as top national universities are within reach as well, don't let her sell herself short - I graduated Stuy with an average just over 92 and only slighty better SAT scores and am now at a top 15 LAC with a full scholarship. I don't know about the other specialized high schools but Stuyvesant offers a feature where you can look up where students from previous years were accepted as well as their GPAs and SATs and that is a great place to start.</p>
<p>Dima, you're very perceptive and yes, my daughter goes to Stuy. I had been wondering about any kind of possible "boost" she might receive by virtue of going to such a tough school. But when I use the online database of last year's college acceptances, which you refer to, I see that the cutoffs are quite high. For Cornell, for instance, only a couple of Stuy kids made it in with anything less than a 95 average. So that's why we have set our sights lower. Also, D is kind of laid back and isn't competitive. She would rather relax with a fantasy novel in her off time than try out for crew. She doesn't want a high-stress environment, such as what appears to exist at Swarthmore, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Cornell, the other Ivies, etc. From reading this site for the past eight months, I do believe it is all about fit, academically and socially.</p>
<p>I appreciate your assessment and will keep it in mind when helping my daughter compile a list. She will need a couple of reaches, after all. Also, the Stuy kids in the class of '06 did really well overall. So when those statistics go up on the site in a couple of weeks, maybe we'll see some more acceptances to top schools. Thanks again for your kind words regarding my daughter's chances.</p>
<p>I second the Delaware suggestion. Although my s turned down their Honors Program, which included half tuition OOS, I was surprisingly impressed. The stats of the Honors Program students, like many Honors Programs, (he chose BU's Honors Program)were about the same as PENN and some other IVYS. It includes 14% of the poulation so thats a robust no. of students and they live in an Honors Dorm that is smack in the middle of the main campus quad area. Its a brick and white campus and quite lovely. The Honors acceptaed students have their own "accepted students" visiting program so you can get a feel for the calibre of the students there.The town of Newark is a quick walk and its about an hr from Phila. Any of the "sure bets" mentioned may very well have an Honors Program (such as NE, PSU) so be sure to check out that aspect when you visit colleges.</p>