Opinions on son's college list ?

What was your son’s PSAT score? Is there any chance for National Merit?

@scholarme , yes my two older ones will be Juniors when youngest is a freshman.

@BatesParents2019 , I know he stands a snowball’s chance in a TN summer to get into the Ivies/Stanford, but I’m not going to stop him from applying. Stranger things have happened. Will check out W&L, thanks !

@albert69 , unfortunately he scored a little below our state’s cut-off on the PSAT. (TN schools concentrate on ACT prep, not SAT)

I see, well, just wanted to check. At any rate, here is a list of colleges that have automatic full rides or full tuition for various stats - if your son’s ACT stays a 34, he should be able to find some great deals in here: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

What does your son want to study in college?

Keep in mind that the FA award offered will drop (disappear?) when the two Juniors graduate. I imagine you know this since you started your post looking for merit aid.

I second the Tulane and Rochester suggestions if looking for merit aid. Lafayette perhaps for their Marquis Scholarship?

I am sure you know that Cornell does not offer merit aid. There are a handful of ‘named’ scholarships that award small dollar amounts.

@albert69 , he wants to go into the medical research field, most likely genetics, so we’re looking for strong Biology programs.

@BatesParents2019 , do you really think there’s a chance he won’t get into UA Huntsville or UT Knoxville ? I actually thought those would be good safety schools.

Considering that UA Huntsville will give an automatic full tuition merit scholarship for a 3.5-3.99 HS GPA and 30-36 ACT, the student in question with a 3.9 HS GPA and 34 ACT seems pretty safe there if the remaining cost is affordable.

http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships

I was referring to the schools listed on top. The others were so obviously safety schools.

Depending on what he liked about Rhodes, he might also like Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. He would get some nice merit money there. I think it is slightly smaller than Rhodes. No Greek life unlike Rhodes. Excellent in the natural sciences - many are pre-med. He would qualify to compete for a Hays Scholarship as well, but they are extremely competitive.

My ds had similar stats. I think it can be hard to find match schools. My ds either wanted to “come big or stay at home,” so to speak. He felt like if he didn’t get into a “dream school,” he would have been happiest just going to a Big State U that was free or close to it. Many of the match-type school will offer your ds $20,000 - $25,000 in merit money, but for privates, your cost is still relatively high if you don’t qualify for aid.

You might have a look at Rice as well.

He may want to add U Southern Calif - they offer quite a few 1/2 tuition merit scholarships to students they really want. BUT he needs to get his application in BEFORE Dec to even be be considered. They also highly value genuine interest in their school, so he should go on their website and look around. see if an admissions officer is coming to town during a college fair and make contact with him/ her. Not too many students go to USC from Tenn so he may have a good chance at acceptance and $$.

Yes, With stats like that he MUST demonstrate interest. You’ll see that many top students were wait listed or denied with high stats because schools don’t like to be safeties. While your financial situation is different from our situation (we only have one in college) my thread had a bunch of useful merit aid info and results. D ended up going to Emory with 20,000 in merit. Good luck!

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1661738-dd-got-2300-we-had-no-idea-p1.html

Look into ASU Barrett Honors college.

I second Tulane, Emory and USC. My D’s friends with similar stats did very well there in terms of merit aid. Her guidance counselor also suggested Trinity Univ as an option for high stat kids looking for merit aid.

Part will depend on where other two in college are attending and how much you are paying versus grants etc. We have two in and each college asked for verification of “package” from the other college. We did find two at once “helped.”

Tulane is good suggestion. Quite a few (competitive) 100% tuition. If open to smaller schools maybe Lafayette (strong engineering) RPI or WPI. I’m a big Rocheshter fan…we just didn’t get quite enough $$ from them. Take a look at case western and univ. Wash st. Louis too. Good luck.

Should add that tulane full tuition require extra application essays etc. Due by dec. 1st I believe.

My daughter’s stats are similar, and I am looking for “a sure thing” merit aid. She is interested in Biomedical or Chemical Engineering. I have Temple, University of Utah, Florida International University, and University of New Mexico on our radar. They all have Honors Colleges to help with the issue of academic peers. If you Google search by the school name and “out of state scholarships” you can get all the details.

Private universities that might have a combination of merit/need aid for our situation and maybe yours too: USC, Union College, Stevens Institute of Technolgy, George Washington, and Santa Clara.

Good luck!

Sewanee – The University of the South: they have good pre-professional programs generally (I know a couple of doctors and dentists who attended Sewanee), and you get the benefit of the TN Hope scholarship.

Transylvania University in Lexington, KY: back in the day they had a reputation for sending lots of people to medical school (don’t know how it is now).

Centre College in Danville, KY: good undergraduate programs, good merit aid, they may also recognize the TN Hope scholarship (I think that I read that somewhere).

Denison University in Granville, OH: good merit aid, good academics

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio: one of the traditional “public Ivies”; it used to have pretty good merit aid (even for OOS students) and may still; they have an honors college; there is a poster on CC whose daughter went there and thence to medical school and who is a big booster of the school (check out the school’s forum on CC)

Here is a thread on southern LACs that might give you some ideas; there are some discussions on merit aid at the various schools mentioned: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1671635-southern-lacs-p1.html

Thank you for all of your suggestions and input. It’s definitely helping us in expanding the list a bit. Funny thing is that Rhodes wasn’t even on our radar, but we went to a college fair and they were just wonderful. Out of the many schools we talked to, they and University of Alabama Huntsville were by far the most impressive. They really took their time to answer questions and seemed genuinely enthusiastic in getting my son into their school. The more we hear about Rhodes, the more I’m starting to like it. Since my son wants to go into medical research, opportunities at St Jude would be fantastic. I’m not sure how I feel about Memphis, not the safest city in our state.
He isn’t too crazy about Emory, mostly because he went to Atlanta last year and absolutely hated the city.

Sewanee is another good suggestion, yes, staying in state and getting the Hope scholarship would be nice.

Public universities with great honors programs often provide a lot of merit based aid. Looking into to Emory and Tulane is a good idea. Also consider if he has any idea if he leans towards and M.D., Ph.D., or combination. Many universities offer 2&2 programs or 6 year med programs that may fit better. For research only, a Ph.D. is probably a must. In which case, a prestigious expensive undergrad may not be most important but being able to get involved in undergraduate research is necessary. You have many reach schools listed. Another great reach is Rice University. Does your school use Naviance or another website that can show you where students have applied in the past? Southern options: UNC, Wake Forest & UVA. Northern: BU, Boston College, North Eastern (gives great scholarships).