Hi, I am a junior in high school and have been looking into colleges for a while. My biggest problem is finding a really good school that is extremely cheap and will give me academic scholarships. I live in New York and would like to stay in the northeast but I feel like I do not have many choices. My gpa is a 95.8 and my SAT scores are writing:740 math:730 and CR:620. I am involved in three clubs (I am an officer in two of them), have volunteered at a preschool camp for the last 4 years, had an internship at LIU , went to two summer camp at the DNALC for two summers, and sing in my church choir every Sunday. I have looked at schools like Boston College and the University of Scranton and while I believe that I have a chance of getting accepted, it doesn’t look like a have a chance at getting a decent amount of money. The only school that fits all of my criteria right now is Binghamton which I love but I really would like some more options. Does anybody know of any schools that would fit this criteria so that I can expand my list of colleges? Also, how much merit based aid will Binghamton give me with my grades and extra curriculars?
BC does not give out much merit. But look into Dickinson, Skidmore and Muhlenberg as they do
Thanks!
If you like BC because of the Jesuit/RC connection, look at Holy Cross (Worcester), Trinity and Fairfield (both Connecticut)- check on merit awards there. I second the Pennsylvania schools listed in post #1 too. But maybe you want a larger university setting, not a LAC?
Trinity Connecticut is not a Catholic school.
You need to define "really good’ and “extremely cheap”. They tend to be mutually exclusive.
Are you majoring in STEM, isn’t there a special program in NYS where if you attend a SUNY you get free tuition?
Unless something has changed, it is not true that Skidmore gives out merit aid. They give out a very small handful (5?) of science scholarships and a comparable number of music scholarships, and that’s it.
Do you need a lot of merit aid, or a school that gives generous need-based aid? They’re two fundamentally different questions that depend on your family’s expected financial contribution, according to the calculators available on college web sites.
Once you nail that part down, if you could be a bit more specific about what you’re looking for in a college, we could offer better advice. Your scores and grades are good enough to get generous merit aid at a whole lot of schools.
Temple
Ok, I stand corrected, Trinity is/was Episcopalian.
Providence is RC (Dominican), and Villanova is RC (Augustinian).
Learned something new today.
LACs like Allegheny and Juniata might give you merit.
If price is a concern, there are a number of excellent schools that are not “big name” schools that will want you and be willing to offer merit aid. Consider what you are looking for in a school, ignore the list prices, and convince a few schools that you are unique and offer something if they can get you. This will be difficult in north east schools, as they have plenty of applicants who look like you. There are excellent schools in other places though where you would stand out. Consider if a diversity of students or different area of the country would actually broaden your perspective. Consider what type of environment you want to be in. My daughters ended up at Earlham in the midwest. At a school like that, you would stand out as an applicant, but also look at their outcomes. It would be hard to find a school that provides a better education. The trend now is to look at schools in major cities. If you are willing to see the benefits of being contrarian and look at schools outside of the north east and outside of major cities, you might find that you can get better value for the money.
St. Lawrence University, Muhlenberg College, Fairfield University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Clark University. If you plan being a STEM major, consider Worcester Polytechnic Institute as well.
University of Rochester is a higher-tier school that gives good merit aid, but getting it would be much more competitive than at some of the other schools. I think you’d have a better shot if you raised your CR score.
If you expanded your geographic boundary to the midwest, there’d be many more options.
There are several other SUNY and CUNY options as well. A smaller and just as good (if not better) alternative to Binghamton is Geneseo. If you want REALLY cheap, look into Macaulay Honors at CUNY.
Did you take the PSAT?
Undergraduate major?
Pre-med/Medical School - Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education (CCNY)
Macaulay Honors at CUNY (Hunter, Baruch, CCNY) - Free Tuition, 1 or 2 years free Dorm, etc.
Be sure to visit the schools-even your safeties.
Yes I recieved a 1360 on the new SAT
By really good I mean a school that has an acceptance rate under 50% where I can be approximately 10,000 or less a year.
Temple is close to that number if you have mid 1400s and solid GPA