<p>I have nothing against quirky kids or schools that attract them. But, count me as another Marylander who gives Goucher a shrug reaction. Maybe as the smallest of the “Baltimore Schools” (UMBC, JHU, Towson, MICA, etc) it just gets left out and overshadowed. I’m sure it’s a fine institution. But as a local, I say “meh.”</p>
<p>Actually, I live closer to McDaniel than Goucher. That’s another CTCL school that doesn’t have anything “wrong with it,” per se. It’s just there; meh. </p>
<p>I guess I’m just unfairly critical of these schools because they’re here in my backyard. Take my comments with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr Carleton Claremont McKenna College Colorado College
Davidson Dickinson Franklin & Marshall Grinnell Haverford Kenyon
Oberlin Pomona Vassar Washington and Lee </p>
<p>This is a self-selected group, so the designation is not exclusive, but maybe the list is helpful. I found it when I was looking for info about Bryn Mawr for the OP.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo College isn’t isolated. Lots of LACs are isolated (Grinnell, for example, is in the cornfields hours from anywhere that is not a cornfield), but Kalamazoo College is in a small city, two hours west of Detroit, two hours east of Chicago.</p>
<p>The merit aid information on Macalester’s web site might lead you to believe that the limit for most students is only $3K ([financial</a> aid](<a href=“http://www.macalester.edu/financialaid/merit.html]financial”>http://www.macalester.edu/financialaid/merit.html)). However, according to Macalester’s most recent Common Data Set, their average merit grant was $10K for recipients entering in fall 2008. So the information on their site may be incomplete. </p>
<p>Although $5K or $10K may not seem like much compared to the total costs, it can help close the gap between the costs of an in-state public and a private school. You may be able to cover any remaining difference with a reasonable combination of loans, employment, and credit for AP courses. That’s assuming you’d be paying full sticker price for your state school.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo, Michigan is not like Chicago, that’s for sure, and a student who wants a big city atmosphere should look elsewhere. But Kalamazoo College, in a small city, is also different from a school like Middlebury, Kenyon and Grinnell, which are truly isolated and rural. Different students like different locations; the OP should be sure to know the facts about schools, so she can pick ones in the kind of location she prefers.</p>
<p>OP, if your PSAT scores is in the range of your SAT, there are some schools that sweeten the pot for NMFs. USC is a major one; Macalester is another (they give NMFs $5k/year). Carleton also sweetens the NMF pot, though I think at $2500/yr. Be sure to check specific school websites, as some of these deals may be changing in the current FA climate.</p>
<p>Agree with Scripps if you are game for southern Cal. The Claremont Consortium gives you everything you could want.</p>
<p>My Chicago-liking kids considered Reed, Macalester, Carleton, Swat and Mudd among their favorite LACs. (wildly different interests and majors, mind you…) Mudd is the only one that gives really significant merit $$ among those.</p>
<p>OP- I agree with many others that Scripps is a great choice for you, BUT if you want merit, apply by Nov. 1st. THat’s the only way to be considered for their JES scholarships</p>
<p>To enlarge on my last post: The top LACs don’t offer significant merit money. They don’t have to; students will want to go there anyway. As a rule of thumb, though there are exceptions, if a school is listed on CC’s top Liberal Arts Colleges, it won’t grant significant merit money, where significant means $10K or more per year, which is how much the OP will need.</p>
<p>To get that kind of bucks, the OP will have to drop down a level, to schools like Kalamazoo, Beloit and all those LACs in Ohio and Pennsylvania. A student can get a fantastic education at those schools. Prestige, or large merit grants-- pick one.</p>
<p>Of course I am most interested in exceptions, which is why I came to you all.</p>
<p>I would like to emphasize that I can’t really define “significant” for you all. While 10K is CERTAINLY significant, I feel as if 5K/yr is also a significant number (totaling 20K over four years). It’s hard to know where to draw the line, so really if there is a chance at all of getting /some/ kind of merit aid directly from the school, that’s better than nothing. Interesting mention about PSAT scores but unfortunately mine was pretty bad (who knows why, but it wasn’t stellar).</p>
<p>Of course I will NOT be paying full freight for my state uni…another thing my parents might spring on me. Chances are I will probably get a full tuition ride there…but let’s not even get into that for now!</p>
<p>In your original post, you said that your parents would be willing to pay $20,000/yr. or a little bit more. In this case, a merit scholarship of $5,000/yr. or even $10,000/yr. is not significant as you will be left with a typical balance or gap of approx. $38,000-$40,000/yr.
You also need to realize that private colleges increase their costs every year. A yearly increase of $2,000-$3,000 per year is not unheard of and is in fact, relatively common.</p>
<p>If you want smaller LAC in a relatively urban environment with an atmosphere of intellectualism and not too much of a football/frat vibe, I would strongly recommend Occidental in L.A., which others have recommended. Great professors, thoughtful education, access to all of L.A. with a small-school campus. Also the Claremont colleges-- you won’t get money from Pomona, but perhaps Pitzer. </p>
<p>Grinnell is a great school that gives money, but it’s in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>What about Muhlenberg? My D is looking at that. They seem to give a decent amount of merit aid, and it seems like a smart campus.</p>
<p>We had college-earmarked savings to cover the cost of an in-state public school, but not (after the crash) more. The gap between that and the COA of a good Midwestern LAC was about $20K. A grant of even $5K was significant. The remainder (~$15K) could be nearly closed by a small loan (~$5K/yr), employment (~$8K/year), and an outside scholarship (actually a writing prize in our case). In addition, S received nearly a year’s worth of credit from advanced courses so graduation in 3 years is a real possibility (though not an appealing one for every student.)</p>
<p>You’d likely be a good candidate for a Buntrock scholarship ($16K per year) at St. Olaf. St. Olaf is about 30 minutes from Minneapolis, and there is available bus service to the cities. It would be a great place to continue your music studies. Carleton is located in the same town.</p>
<p>awesomesocks, while $5K/year is certainly a nice chunk of change, I don’t understand how a $5K scholarship would work for you, assuming your parents will only contribute $20K or so. Private colleges cost around $45-50K per year, with some even costing more than that. So that leaves you with at least a $20K/year deficit. Where would that money come from? You might be able to borrow it, but loans must be paid back. </p>
<p>Do you really want to leave school owing $80-100K? No, you do not.</p>
<p>Carleton and Macalester only give money to National Merit Scholars. You say you will not be a NMS, so they are out. Swarthmore gives almost no merit aid, so it’s out unless you think you’re at the very top of their admission pool. Haverford and Reed offer no merit aid at all. Pitzer only gives $5K, not enough for you.</p>
<p>Occidental, Kalamazoo, Beloit and Rhodes are some schools that offer generous merit aid to students like you, awesomesocks.</p>
<p>One of the Jesuit colleges my D looked at, University of San Francisco, had a VERY generous merit scholarship guaranteed to applicants with a GPA/test scores above a certain threshhold. I think that might be true of other Jesuit colleges as well–and they tend to be in metro areas.</p>
<p>U. of Richmond has some good merit scholarships. I saw that someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread, but wanted to point out that there is an earlier application deadline, Dec 15, to be considered for merit aid.</p>
<p>Unless policies have changed this year, I don’t think this is quite correct in Macalester’s case (though CardinalFang’s overall point is well taken).</p>
<p>In fact, the Common Data Set information indicates that they do award merit grants higher than $3K, and I know from my son’s experience that they offer grants to students who are not NM Scholars (he was “commended”). But if awesomesock’s parents have a hard limit of $20K, it still may not be enough without burdensome loans.</p>