Hi, Im going to be a senior this year and need help finding a college that offers merit aid. I live in NY so closer to NY would be preferable but if its cheap then I do not care. I have a 3.82 unweighted GPA but have mostly honors/APs, I have taken 7 APs and got six 5s and one 4. Im going to be taking six APs and senior year. I have a 34 ACT and a 2190 SAT(780 CR, 800M, 610W). I run xc, indoor track, outdoor track and am a captain for each and a recruited athlete. I do some ECs like model UN and volunteering at Foodlink. Is there any schools that I could go to for less than 30,000 a year combining room and board+tuition? I will not qualify for financial
What events to do you run and what are the times.
I would highly recommend St. Lawrence University. The coach is extremely aggressive and they have merit up to a free ride.
The school also has the nicest indoor track facility I saw out of 15 schools. Brand new, 8 lane facility as well as a phenomenal outdoor facility.
You can also look at Lehigh, Gettysburg and Lafayette.
NY state schools will be <30K a year for an in-state student, even without merit aid. Have you looked at what’s available?
At private schools with $50-60K COA you will need a big merit scholarship to get below 30K, so you will need to be very competitive in the very top x% of admitted students based on stats. Also, many selective privates do not give any merit aid, so if you don’t qualify for any financial aid you will pay full price. Are you sure you don’t qualify? Have you run the NPC at any school of interest? What do you want to study?
If you are willing to go further away, there are large merit awards (full tuition/full ride) at some schools (e.g. Univ Alabama)…you can find other threads that discuss these.
Do you want to run Div 1 or 3? Do you prefer to be at a large school or small; near/in a city or suburban/rural ok?
You will get more help if you can make it clearer what you are looking for.
You may want to search for some related threads on this topic. There are several universities with very generous scholarships for people with your stats. Probably the most talked about here on CC is the University of Alabama. Yes, the home of Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. Between the generous scholarships, the warm weather and great football, no wonder over 60% of the freshman class is from out of state!
The UA program is easy to understand: if your GPA (weighted or un-weighted) is 3.5 or more and you have a 32 or higher on the ACT (or 1400+ SAT CR & M) you get a four year full tuition scholarship - it goes up each year with tuition! If you come in with lots of AP/CLEP credit, you can use the last semester or two for graduate school! Just apply by December 15th. While room and board are not included, the cost of attendance is around $15k for an OOS student with the full tuition scholarship. It can be lower if you opt for a traditional dorm instead of a suite style dorm. If you are an engineering or computer science major, the college of engineering provides an additional stipend each year! You just need to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep the scholarship.
UA isn’t the only school with generous programs. Others also have good programs (Oklahoma, Kentucky, South Carolina) to name a few. Not all programs work the same way, some are not “guaranteed” at a certain level but are “up to” - you need to investigate. Also, the GPA required to maintain the scholarship can vary by school.
You should search for the merit scholarship threads and then look at the UA forum and forum of similar schools for more information.
Good luck!
I think the OP clearly indicated that he or she wanted to remain in the northeast.
^^^OP actually said: “I live in NY so closer to NY would be preferable but if its cheap then I do not care.” To me that sounds like finances take precedence. My guess is that OP’s parents have given him a hard number.
Of course there are hundreds if not thousands of LACs in the Northeast all which offer some type of scholarships. The big however is that at almost all of these schools, the exact amount of any scholarship is not known or guaranteed until after acceptance. So you might need to apply to dozens of schools since the “Big Scholarship” at these smaller schools tend to be limited in number and thus highly competitive. This is why the “guaranteed merit scholarship” schools serve a worthy role as a financial safety.
Don’t forget Yale. Faint heart never won fair maiden! (And they meet full financial need)
Are you holding to your geographical limits? The NE can be limiting for merit.
I’ll second St. Lawrence. You will receive a merit scholarship at SLU, it’s just a question of how much. This could be an excellent choice even if cost were not a factor.
The University of Rochester is a fine, complete university that would also offer you scholarship funding.
You did very nice work in your AP classes.
Regarding Yale, the OP believes need-based aid will not be a factor.
Wow, 1580 SAT (CR+M) is outstanding.
What do you want to study, and what other qualities are you looking for in a college?
Did you score above NY’s cutoff score on the PSAT? If so, as a NMF you will be eligible for 1/2 to full tuition scholarships at many U’s.
Try Northeastern University 
@ggschmitty I assume you don’t want to go to any SUNY, where cost is less than $25,000. Even with your outstanding stats it will be difficult to get total cost under $30,000 for any elite or prestigious private colleges, because even with large merit–like $20,000 to possibly $30,000 from GWU or Northeastern or Tulane (each are known to give that range of amount to tip top applicants who demonstrate interest), you are working off of a $62,000 price tag plus travel costs. You may have more success applying to some out-of-state flagships, which are a tier below the schools that your high stats would get you into but which you can’t afford. Consider schools like U of Maryland, which has the Banneker Key full tuition scholarship and an Honors program. Or assured merit aid like U Alabama (Tuscaloosa) honors college, as mentioned in a post above, or Ohio State, where your stats automatically qualify you for the National Buckeye and maximus scholarships, bringing down your total cost to about $25,000. You can apply to the Honors college there and also apply for full tuition (Eminence or Morill scholarship). My son is attending there this Fall. He faced the same cost concerns as you, but OSU’s merit aid made that school doable for us.
Unfortunately large enough merit aid (to get total cost below $30,000) is not offered at flagships surrounding New York (like Penn State, U Delaware, Rutgers, U Conn, UMass, U Vermont, UVA,). But check out U of Pittsburgh, because it offers a full tuition scholarship you could maybe hope to get. Also, Temple is another state school where your stats automatically qualify you for full tuition, or close enough to bring total cost below your stated cost limit.