<p>I've tried finding info on this in other posts, but could never get a good feel for it. Are there any Midwest schools that give good merit aid??</p>
<p>Stats: 35 ACT, 4.5 w gpa, looking to major in either biology or neuroscience... I'd REALLY like it if I could keep the tuition around 10k a year, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.</p>
<p>Background: my family moved down South my junior year and I plan to go to college back home, near Chicago. For personal reasons, I'd like to focus on Illinois/Ohio schools, but am open to Indiana/Wisconsin/Minnesota/Michigan.</p>
<p>These are the schools I've heard give decent aid, correct me if I'm wrong:</p>
<p>Loyola (I really want to go here, could someone tell me if my stats are good enough to get full tuition?)</p>
<p>University of Indiana, Bloomington</p>
<p>University of Minnesota (would they give me merit money or did I hear wrong?)</p>
<p>Case Western</p>
<p>Illinois Wesleyan</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh (however, from what I've read, their big scholarships have become much more difficult to get)</p>
<p>Suggestions? Advice? Comments? All are welcome.</p>
<p>I’m responding only to the financial aid portion of the question. I have no idea how good those majors are at the particular schools. My experience as an in-state resident is that financial aid at the public universities (IU/Purdue) is not that good. That was with a 33 ACT and similar GPA. </p>
<p>Would you qualify for need-based aid? If so, Notre Dame’s, IMO, would be the best in the state. They are very score-based and you would be in the competitive ACT/GPA pool. Our experience for best Indiana merit based scholarships was then Wabash (are you male?) and DePauw. Both have some significant merit money and they upped their offers when they knew they were both competing for S1.</p>
<p>You are getting my vote to Case Western. It offeres great Merit packages and is known for pre-med as you are "looking to major in either biology or neuroscience…
. Do not know others…</p>
<p>In contrast to what @sryrstress said, I think in state schools would give you good merit and need based aids. ACT33 is just not high enough for merit aid. What is your uwGPA? ACT35 is around the threshold for the presidential scholarship at Purdue as some got it and some didn’t last year with that score even from out of state.
UMinn does give good merit aids. Are you NMSF? If you are NMF and name UMinn as top school, you would receive near full tuition scholarship. I am not sure if ACT35 alone would do that or not.
For UMich, you are also around the ball park that may get some merit aid. However, with a CoA of $55k for OOS, even if you get a $10k-$20k scholarship would still be very expensive. It is getting more and more competitive at UMich these days that ACT 35 is not really that outstanding anymore. It probably need some additional things to get you qualified for merit aid.
You may forget about UIUC if you need financial aid.</p>
<p>A friend of my daughter’s is a bio major at Case Western. She got a massive merit scholarship that made college possible. Don’t apply ED to maximize your chance for aid, but do apply.</p>
<p>For DS (high stats, interesting EC), Case gave excellent merit aid… putting it in the range of our state flagship costs. That was a few years ago, but I assume still good. At the time, they were sending free-application postcards to students with very high SAT/ACT scores. </p>
<p>D2 has Loyola on her list. My sense is that they would have to offer A LOT of fin aid to keep costs at $10K - COA is somewhere in the ballpark of $52-3K if I remember correctly. It is a reach in terms of fin aid for my D and she is well aware that it is a shot in the dark. Housing alone was in the $13K range.</p>
<p>Ohio Wesleyan has some good merit scholarships opps, but wow, I can’t believe they are at $53 as well ! Crazy! They have neuro and biology I believe. </p>
<p>Miami U (OH) is good for pre-med/bio. With those stats you would get half to full tuition. Probably closer to full-tuition. (A relative of mine is there now from OOS with excellent merit aid.) Apply early for best awards.</p>
<p>You might try Morehead State In eastern Kentucky. They have an excellent record of getting students into life sciences professional programs (medicine, etc.). I think they’d love to have a good student like yourself. Also, though considered largely a commuter school, IPFW in Fort Wayne would be worth a look for merit aid. I believe the bio degree is a Purdue degree. The bio dept, has some good profs. and they also have a med school there (IU has a distributed model of med school education). </p>
<p>Grinnell College, located in Grinnell, Iowa, about 250 miles due west of Chicago, has an excellent academic reputation, including an interdisciplinary concentration in neuroscience, as well as a reputation for providing ample financial aid. It has a strong record of placing graduates into life science as well as other graduate (doctoral) programs. I have no connection to the college, but know some Grinnell alumni, and I encourage you to take a look.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the replies. Helps a lot. Quite a few new schools to consider. UW gpa is 3.9 @sryrstress - no I’m a female, so unfortunately Wabash wouldn’t work
@abasket - my bad, I thought I said 10k for tuition, not COA. So yeah, I’d basically have to get Loyola’s full-tuition scholarship to be 10k or below, but the half-tuition automatic scholarship would make it between 15-20k, which is decent… I dunno.</p>
<p>Are you saying that you need your remaining total costs to be $10k? If so, then you would need an award to be MORE than full tuition. Room, board, books, fees, and personal expenses and travel often cost about 15k+ per year. A half tuition award at many/most privates would leave you with a much larger bill…about 35k per year.</p>
<p>Denison also gives out some big merit scholarships. Your stats are within range where big merit from WashU is possible. With the same stats, big merit from UPitt would be more likely, though.</p>
<p>IIT in Chicago also has some big merit scholarships. However, you may want to read up about that; they’re not among the strongest schools financially. Does anyone know if UIUC gives any of their big merit awards to OOS?</p>
<p>“Miami U (OH) is good for pre-med/bio. With those stats you would get half to full tuition. Probably closer to full-tuition. (A relative of mine is there now from OOS with excellent merit aid.) Apply early for best awards.”
And make sure to file FASFA. D. was on full tuition Merit+ at Miami. But they strongly advised us to file FASFA to get FULL RANGE OF MERIT awards. Her tuition was covered by close to 10 privatley sponsored Merit awards (school awards them, do not need to apply to them). Miami has an amazing alums that are eager to contirubute. D. is planning to do so whe she can afford it. Her experiences as a pre-med at Miami who has wide range of interests were amazing and she believes that it was the best choice for her as a pre-med. Huge advantage of Miami in comparison to many UGs is that ALL classes are tought by profs, no exception, Miami’s focus is on UG students.
Case’s offer was also great. D. was offerred $27k/year out of $33k tuition cost (at the time that she applied).
In comparison, no other schools offerred as much as Miami and Case to my D.</p>
<p>I would second Miami U in Oxford Oh! They give great merit scholarships, and they definitely try to recruit excellent students from out of state to increase diversity. Miami is a state school but it really has the feel of a LAC. They have a great admissions rate to med/grad schools. You definitely are in the range to receive half to full tuiton. They have 3 deadlines: early decision(binding), early action(non binding) and regular. I would strongly suggest the early action deadline. It gives you the best opportunity for the merit money. And yes, definitely fill out the FAFSA. Miami requires continuing students to fill out the FAFSA even if you dont qualify for need based aid, if you want to be considered for future merit scholarships. </p>