<p>Cornell, like its peers in the Ivy League, doesn’t award merit-based aid. It has some very selective scholarships that a lesser school might deign to vulgarly call merit aid, but they are 1. extremely competitive, and 2. reserved for science and engineering students, if I’m not mistaken.</p>
<p>If your daughter liked Reed and you insist on pursuing merit aid, UChicago is the obvious choice, I think.</p>
<p>I don’t know that much about it, but Carnegie Mellon is very popular here on CC. Pittsburgh is actually a great city and perfect sized for a college town; CMU and Pitt are both in the Oakland area (I think) which is supposed to be a nice neighborhood. Plus, CMU has a strange mix of being very strong in both science/engineering and fine arts. Also, isn’t CMU (like Chicago) known for merit aid for top students? I’m not sure about the music scene, though.</p>
<p>Geekmom42, have you checked out Whitman? Small close-knit community of students who love Walla Walla. Very strong science programs, many musical opportunities and give merit aid.</p>
<p>Lol tsdad yes I know I wrote I don’t know where Oregon is but I meant in relation to northern schools. Like I know where on a map it is but I don’t know like distance/ hour wise. </p>
<p>If your daughter wants to come to new York SUNY schools are a good option. They average about 30k a year. They have a lot of different campuses and a lot of majors and programs</p>
<p>Lol could be a NY thing I figured it was on the west coast and I knew it was somewhere by California, maybe new Yorkers like me (everyone I know) is pretty much oblivious to the west coast, it’s like such a foreign world lol.</p>
<p>4.5 hours on a plane to Chicago, then… Chicago is as far as direct flights go from PDX. Driving to Rochester NY was a week and 3200 miles.</p>
<p>Look at Whitman --think it may be a good fit.</p>
<p>As for NMF scholarships --there is a whole other list of schools and you can find them here on CC under National Merit Scholarships (can’t remember where all the threads are but go to main discussion home and search). Just keep in mind that the majority will not be full ride offers, though there are some, but each school has to be researched as to what they offer NMF. Off the top of my head, U southern CA is one of the best for NMF --1/2 tution, but not guaranteed; determined after acceptance. Brings total cost to 30K. Then there is Denison University (one of my favorites and my son, also a NMF, came very close to taking their full tuition ride offer), there is a separate app. to apply for it, so look for Paschal Carter info --that brings total cost to about 13K (!). U. of Richmond is also a 1/2 tuition for NMF (can’t remember, but seem to recall this one was about 20K total. Then there’s the full rides you already mentioned from AZ, Bama, etc. You will get the full list in the NMF application in the fall, but you can find the list here on CC to get started early. Good luck!</p>