NE schools with good merit + financial aid

Parents Forum
21

<p>A rough formula for financial aid safety schools:
1- your test scores put you in the top 25% (at least; better if top 10%)
2- school has history of high average non-need-based aid
3- school has a history of offering non-need-based aid to a greater % of students</p>

<p>Examples:
Franklin and Marshall in PA awarded merit aid to 24% of students and the average was ~$13k = IS a financial aid safety school </p>

<p>Bard in NY provided merit aid to 3% of students and average award was 11k = NOT a financial aid safety school </p>

<p>College Board site has data about average awards (see below)</p>

<p>USN&WR big book has data about % of students receiving merit aid </p>

<p>NE Schools to consider:
Quinnipiac -
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $16,672
Average non-need based aid: $11,141 </p>

<p>Wheaton in MA -
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $29,205
Average non-need based aid: $13,939 </p>

<p>Clark
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $23,789
Average non-need based aid: $13,763 </p>

<p>In talking with Mom, perhaps making the pitch that it might be worth while to apply to one or two schools a bit farther afield just on the chance that they would come through with LARGE scholarship . . . I’m thinking of schools in PA like Pitt and Muhlenberg and Ursinus (they seem keen on attracting high quality students) </p>

<p>Other schools in NY: RPI; U Rochester; Union </p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>

22

<p>“UMass you probably won’t get much FA beyond Adams scholarship (worth 1.7K/yr).”</p>

<p>As I recall, the Adams scholarship is for in-state students. She’s from CT. UMass gives merit aid to OOS students. Check the Admitted Students thread on the UMass forum on CC to see the amounts of awards being given out and stats of the students. This from the UMass Amherst web site:</p>

<p>Chancellor’s, Director’s and Dean’s Scholarships </p>

<p>UMass Amherst Undergraduate Admissions offers scholarships to admitted freshmen whose SAT and GPA profile are especially strong. Other factors are also considered. Please note that UMass Amherst does not use the GPA provided by the high school but instead recalculates a GPA for every applicant, using the same weighting for honors, AP, and college coursework. This recalculation is done in accordance with the standards outlined by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. These scholarships may be combined with tuition waivers.</p>

23

<p>It sounds like you have more schools to research. Our S studied the “Real SAT,” which had I think 10 prior actual SAT exams and refused to take a prep course. He had taken the SAT when he was in 7th & 8th grades, so he was pretty familiar with the format by the time he reached HS. He got great scores except for his essay, which was too short by their standards. </p>

<p>Not all SAT prep courses are the same & just taking one doesn’t necessarily help students–my nieces all took the SAT prep courses & it didn’t help them at all (same scores pre & post prep). My D found the prep course very helpful because she learned some math that she had never been exposed to before in the prep course. She would probably have benefitted from tutoring in just the math portion but enjoyed taking the course over the summer with most of her HS friends, so it worked out OK for her. She has NEVER liked tutors or tutoring, so this format was more palatable & did help her boost her math score (her verbal score was great to begin with).</p>

<p>Self study with the xiggi method & the other methods listed by other posters should be helpful. If you find stuff in the practice exam you don’t know/understand, try to get a teacher to help you. The math should be stuff you’ve already covered but may have forgotten. </p>

<p>Also, be sure to take Math 2 for your subject test, NOT Math 1, especially if you’re interested in math, science, engineering. It covers mostly pre-calc & if you take it in the fall, that is when your class will probably be reviewing the material, which will be helpful. (My S took Math 1 & then found out he should have taken Math 2, so he had to retake in the fall where he did much better & found the concurrent review of the material in both physics BC & calc to be helpful for the math2 exam. He majored in EE.)</p>

24

<p>A lot of good ideas here to research. A couple of things, I want to mention: though you say your mother can contribute $5K a year towards college cost, you might want to run a sample FAFSA using some good estimates of your family situation and income, and also see what a sample instutional methodolgy calculator will yield. That your mother says that is all she can afford, does not mean that the colleges are going to agree. Those schools that meet full need are not going to buy into that if your family contribution comes up to significantly more than your mother can pay. Many of those schools do not have merit awards, so you can find yourself stuck.</p>

<p>When it comes to merit awards, getting a full ride or close to it is not an easy endeavor. I know very, very few kids who got merit awards that cover all but about $5K. When you are talking about awards of that size, it gets very competitive. Really more of a lottery ticket. </p>

<p>It’s wondrerful to check out all of these great schools, and I heartily recommend you doing so, but the most important search of all is to find a financial safety that you know will take you. It can be a program with guaranteed parameters that you meet. It could be the strategy of staying home and commuting. You might want to look at Momfromtexas great thread on full ride scholarships and come up with some ideas that way. But when the dust clears and you have all of your offers in hand, and I do think you will have plenty of choices, there should be a sure thing in there that you can afford. </p>

<p>I’ve seen many talented young students who have terrific stats and some great hook that gets them into any number of schools with some fine awards but because their EFC is a big fat $25K or so, and their college choices have sticker prices of $55K+, even a $30K awrd doesn’t cut it financially.</p>

<p>My son currently in college with very high test scores did get some very nice merit offers and it blew my mind how even a $20-30K award still brought the total cost at some these schools over our amount we could pay.</p>

25

<p>Ditto on post 24. For example, Smith offers merit aid but its most generous merit scholarship is $20,000 a year. And it’s very hard to get.</p>

26

<p>One option that can also help with affordability is doing to years commuting while saving money & transferring for final two years and degree. One of the downsides to this is that MUCH more merit $$$$ is available to freshmen than transfer students. One thing to be careful of is NOT to end up with crushing debt that will take a long time to pay off and limit your options after you get your degree. Since you are enrolled in APs and CC, you should also get clarification from the Us you are considering which ones will give you how much credit for the coursework you have completed by the time you graduate.</p>

27

<p>

</p>

<p>All except Smith. The OP is a URM with a 3.97 unweighted GPA and a class rank in the top 2.5% of her HS class. The weakest spot in her stats is the SAT score, which is on the low side for most of the schools on the above list but right around the median at Smith, a school with a 47% acceptance rate. So I’d rate Smith a “match.” I don’t know about FA at Smith, though.</p>

<p>CPU, I’d suggest you concentrate your test prep on the ACT, both because it’s apparently the next test you have coming up, and because it might be a test better suited to your learning style than the SAT. You sound like a very strong student, earning top grades in all your classes and even taking community college classes. Sometimes students like you find they do better on the ACT, which is traditionally more of a straightforward test of learning achievement, rather than a test of reasoning “aptitude” as the SAT has traditionally viewed itself. Every college on your list will accept the ACT in lieu of the SAT Reasoning Test (SAT I), and some will accept it in lieu of both SAT Reasoning and SAT Subject Tests. If your first ACT score looks promising, you still have plenty of time to retake that test and get an even higher score in the fall of your senior year. If the ACT is not as strong as the SAT, you still have time for several more shots at the SAT.</p>

<p>I agree with cptofthehouse, however, that you need to need to run some EFC calculators to get a good sense of what the colleges will expect you to pay, and then identify a financial safety. Don’t go just by what your mother says she can afford; you need to get a handle on the gap, if any, between your mother’s expectations and the colleges’ expectations. Maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised; maybe your EFC will be lower than you’re thinking, so that any school with good need-based aid will be within reach financially.</p>

<p>Keep in mind, too, that in many cases merit aid is not additional to need-based aid. Colleges will often make the merit award first, then calculate need-based aid, figuring the merit award into your new, downwardly revised COA. So depending on the size of the merit award relative to total COA, you may end up with the same or a similar EFC anyway, with the merit award basically just displacing some fraction of the need-based aid you might otherwise have been awarded. It’s still worth going after because you don’t know how big the merit award will be, and merit aid is typically all grants while at many schools need-based aid includes a mix of grants, loans, and work-study. But merit aid often turns out not to be the magic bullet that people in your situation are hoping for. </p>

<p>Hang in there! We’re cheering for you!</p>

28

<p>When your STATs are on par or below the average admitted student, your chances of getting merit or FAid are much reduced because the school feels no particular need to attract you since they have other students that appear similar to them. You need to find more schools for your list where your STATs make you stand out to attract more merit + FAid. As was suggested, you & your mom need to try some FAid calculators to see what schools will likely expect your family to contribute toward college costs.</p>

29

<p>^^Yes, but as a math/tech oriented female, urm, who is clearly an all around strong student, (and person) don’t underestimate your chances. For instance I’d consider Vassar and Brandeis. And I’d save the $500 and self-study for the next SAT-- use the college board’s big blue book and work through one test after another-- there’s the xiggi method on here, and I’m going to check out silverturtle’s method, now I see it on this thread!</p>

30

<p>I would add geographic diversity to that merit aid list. For instance my Son from CA receive good merit from NEU but that is because they have been trying to diversify with students from outside of new England. since the OP does not have that option definitely need to look at schools where she is in the tippy top of the stats.</p>

31

<p>I forgot to put our estimated EFC and IM in my OP.
EFC ~11k
IM ~5k</p>

<p>also, while i know there are good schools that would offer great aid beyond the paramters in my OP, i cannot leave them. i’d rather not have another “conversation” (arguing, crying, etc) about something like trying to go out farther to school. “Your life/safety is more important than money/bills” (quote from mother.) And being very protective of my little sister, i COMPLETELY understand (although it took some maturing.</p>

<p>PinotNoir-- thank you. i have heard about silverturtle’s guide. i also have the collegeboard blue book for SAT and barron’s. </p>

<p>hudsonvalley-- rutgers was an iffy school because i’m OOS. i also heard that BU is also unpredictable with aid. thank you for your input.</p>

<p>Foo-- i know it’s sort of contradictory, but it’s hard to understand when people aren’t in my situation, even if they’ve been in a similar situation. (i mean no disrespect.) we dont have 500 out of pocket to give, when it’s only my mother. she plans on having me take out the loans from our EFC because she doesn’t want/cannot pay for them either.</p>

<p>amandakayak; thanks for your input, although Pitt is out-of-bounds and also a public school that i’m OOS for.</p>

<p>fendrock- thank you. i have heard of WPI. i guess i am biased against it because my previous math teacher went to RPI, and constantly talked down WPI (like it was really name Wannabe Poltech. Institute, because it wanted to be like RPI, etc) it is in boston, or near it, correct? i’ll look it up and plan a visit when i do another boston area sweep.</p>

<p>Mom24boys-- i have never heard of that website/those scholarships. my mom has been hard-pressing me to look for scholarships, but the ones on fastweb, cappex, etc I am not eligible for. i will bookmark that right now, thank you.</p>

<p>kei-o-lei: i mentioned quinnipiac to my mom, and she laughed. i guess people really do look down on schools in their own state. with my list consisting heavily of reaches of a “high caliber” i’m sure she saw it as a “step down.” will look into it/visit when we have a chance (and if they have the programs i need.) Also, regarding an earlier paragraph (addressed to everyone) she’d rather have to take out larger loans to have me closer to home than far away and out of the ease-of-access zone. thank you!</p>

<p>cptofthehouse-- thank you. also added Fairfield U as a possibility as a financial safety (more of a last resort because it is too close to home for my comfort:))</p>

<p>hornetdad- i do not like how UMass weights all of those classes the same. it’s not fair (but then again, nothing in life ever is.)</p>

<p>megdog- ah, yes. the Zollman (sp?) scholarship. only ~10 students get it a year. i think about 100 (i could be mistaken) students get the STRIDE scholarship, which is 15k/yr and you do research with a professor. thank you for your response.</p>

<p>HImom- i would consider commuting, but we are not in proximity to any schools that would make it feasible to get there and back every single day (plus the costs of taking the train.) closest is ~1.5 hours. unless i get into yale :slight_smile: thank you, commuting has only crossed my mind once before, but if the cost is very outstanding, it may be worth a try.</p>

<p>bclintok- i am hoping to do well on the ACT. i’m the kind of person who likes time to complete tests/quizzes, so the ACT time crunch might be a challenge. i will be reviewing right when i get off of the computer (i have barron’s–very thorough.) Also, i do not like how the need based aid could be recalculated with respect to the merit aid (not to sound selfish.) Thanks for the virtual moral support! (that goes out to all of you wondeful CC parents.)</p>

<p>HImom-- EFC ~11k, IM ~4-5k. i’ll run a collegeboard search to find schools where i am closer to the 75%ile. thanks for your tremendous
help.</p>

<p>Gwen Fairfax-- i’ve heard brandeis being mentioned, i heard it was good (also in MA?) i will check it out. thanks a lot!</p>

<p>ebeeeee-- yes, it’s a disadvantage, but im not too eager to go far away to college either. i’ll do a search for schools aroudn here. thank you.</p>

32

<p>CPU–Have you considered Univ of Rochester? It might be a bit outside the 5 hour rule, depending on where you live in CT. (Hartford to Rochester is about 5 3/4 hours.)</p>

<p>UR has a very strong program in neuroscience and an excellent computer science dept. (It even has a program–Brain & Cognitive Science–that combines both.)</p>

<p>UR is a meets full need school, but also has the Renaissance Scholarship which does not necessarily go to the students with the best stats, but to the students who best embody the school motto of Meliora (Ever Better). The Renaissance Committee looks at achievement, leadership, service and diversity as well as academics. The Renaissance is full tuition for 4 years.</p>

<p>Your SAT is not outside the range of some of the past winners.</p>

<p>If you think you might possibly want to add UR to your list, know that demonstrated interest is very important. An interview with a traveling school rep or an alumni is essential if you want to be considered for the Renaissance. (If you make an account on the school’s admission website, you can see if any admission reps will be coming to your area. You can request & schedule an interview thru the website too.)</p>

33

<p>Read the “schools with great merit” thread - and for what it’s worth, there are many reporting full tuition scholarship for strong/not-perfect SATs from OOS. We were lucky and got 10K merit as OOS which brings it down to IS rates. Rule it out if Mom says geographically too far, but not because of OOS.</p>

34

<p>Sorry, that is about Pitt (geez, am I getting old here)</p>

35

<p>

</p>

<p>I don’t know whose Institutional Method (IM) you’re using, but it seems to me there’s not that big a gap between the $5K your mother says she can contribute and your FAFSA EFC of $11K. So suppose you’re admitted into a school that meets full need and they give you FA for everything but $11K per year. Your mother’s good for $5K per year. That leaves a $6K/year gap. Can you close that a bit by working over the summers between your junior and senior years, and again between HS and your freshman year of college? Savings from the summer before your senior year would count as your assets for FAFSA purposes and therefore affect your EFC, but not that much; they’d expect you to draw down only 1/4 of your own assets for your first year of college. Savings from the summer before you start college would come in too late to affect your EFC for your freshman year. And in any event, EFC includes an expectation that you’ll earn something over the summers; it’s not necessarily what they’re expecting your Mom to contribute.</p>

<p>That might still leave a small gap. But every college student is entitled to borrow non-subsidized federal Stafford loans, up a maximum of (I believe) $5,500 for a freshman, and increasing slightly as you progress through college. This is where carefully comparing the FA packages of various colleges comes in. I don’t think the $20K to $25K you’d accumulate in college loans over 4 years by taking out non-subsidized Stafford loans would create an unreasonable debt burden. But some colleges might make loans (including in your case subsidized Stafford loans) part of their FA package. Then you’d need to be careful not to accumulate too much debt. But if some colleges offer FA packages that are all grants, or even grants + work-study (for term-time on-campus jobs), then taking out the non-subsidized Stafford loans shouldn’t be too heavy a burden.</p>

<p>I guess what I’m saying bottom line is that your EFC is low enough that almost any college that meets full financial need without loans could be considered a financial safety for you if you’re willing to make up the gap between the $5K your mother says she can pay and your full EFC of $11K by working and taking out some modest student loans.</p>

36

<p>

</p>

<p>Fastweb just presents a site that lists multiple scholarships of all kinds. Some are targeted specifically at certain students, but among the hundreds, if not thousands, that they present, something will definitely match up for you. Some are simply nothing more than writing an essay. The reward may be relatively small ($100 to $500) but several of them can add up quickly.</p>