I know PA state schools have been going through tough times the past few years. Anyone have some recent anecdotes about merit being offered at a PASSHE school? dd is applying to 5 (west chester, bloomsburg, kutztown, east stroudsburg and shippensburg). i am hoping for something, even if it’s not huge. any little bit helps.
she has a weighted 4.4 gpa on a 4.5 scale, 1370 superscore SAT, 3 APs with 2 5s and 1 4 on the tests, takin 4 APs in seniro
year, fair amount of ECs but nothing extraordinary. top 10% (school doesn’t rank other than deciles). we won’t be candidates for FA.
Having gone through the PASSHE process…it is difficult to get money. You are likely to get something…and a definite shot at the honors program. My daughter was a 3.5 from a demanding HS and a 25 ACT. She did not receive much money…IUP offered $2,000 and Bloom $1,000. She is also an athlete so she was offered athletic money. Decided on Cleveland State and is having success. Good luck!!
Yeah, bester is right - maybe $5k tops? So with room and board and all the other little bits, COA would still be around $20k, depending on the school.
You’d be well-served to look at schools in surrounding states. Although there is no reciprocity on in-state tuition, your D’s stats would get her significant merit at public schools in Ohio, WV and NJ that probably would bring the cost down below in-state PA costs. There are several private schools in PA and surrounding states where she would likely get merit - off the top of my head, Otterbein, Baldwin Wallace and Denison in Ohio; Ursinus, Gettysburg, Juniata, Susquehanna in PA.
(We are screwed here in PA, welcome to the nightmare 
Another LAC with good merit aid is Wooster in OH. Your D would also get the equivalent of in-state tuition at the smaller OH public Us. Go to one of their web sites and there is a calculator to let you know what merit aid she’d get (each one has slightly different level cut-offs).
Thanks so much - dd is really a homebody and would like to be within 2 hours or so of home, so that really limits our options. I was trying to encourage her to look at some smaller LACs that offer merit since there are a fair number in PA, but she wants a school with at least 5,000 students, limiting our options even more!
Add a “parent pick” then - you’re the parent and you KNOW that at age 20 what her 16 year old thought about being close to home will have changed. Run the NPC on all colleges listed, plus Elizabethtown, Muhlenberg, Dickinson, Allegheny.
Among passhe add IUP Cook honors and Millersville. millersville and slippery Rock have offered merit in the past I think.
I’m pretty sure she’d get merit at Shepherd, WVU, Ohio University.
YEs, merit would be more available at the smaller privates like Muhlenberg, Elizabethtown, Susquehanna, etc.
What about St. Joe’s? That is a little bigger. Schools of 5-7000 are an unusual size - the PASSHE schools do fit in there but not a lot of privates or publics.
She’s applying to St. Joe’s and Drexel (alma maters for dh and me but she happens to like both). I had high hopes for a visit we made to Ursinus but the trip seemed kind of off for us. There was a huge focus on sports there (at least when we went) and it kind of turned her off since she’s not an athlete (plus the small size of course!)
She’s also applying to Arcadia and Widener (although I think the neighborhood is sketchy), I was also thinking about Albright, but worried about the town of Reading as well in terms of safety.
Did I miss where you told us what she’s interested in studying?
What about NJ publics like Rowan and Stockton? They’re in her enrollment ballpark, she’d be a standout there & because of that, she’d get great merit. I believe Stockton has a pretty useful chart on its website listing stats and merit awarded. I know from talking to them that they allow stacking of outside schollys, too, which is pretty darned sweet, and pretty darned rare.
Hm, Widener err…
What about Montclair state?
Rider? Rowan?Ramapo?
Further away: Ithaca?
If she’s looking at St. Joe’s, isn’t Scranton within two hours of Bucks Cty? Loyola in MD is expensive, but they were generous with some of my son’s friends. Baltimore is a little farther, but fairly accessible by Amtrak.
U Scranton is terrific and generous with merit money.
SUNYs can be a good bargain - check out SUNY Geneseo, Plattsburgh, Albany, Oswego for scholarships.
OP,
I do not push LACs (I am a biased LAC fanboy) on those not interested, but it might not hurt to have your daughter visit one. LACs are sometimes generous with merit money, and the general rule of thumb is that merit will be highest at places where your child is a significant cut above the typical admit. This makes the college drool and see your child as a desirable grab.
It’s too bad because PA is filled with lots of great LACs. I’m a big fan of the ones that fly under the radar (read: not Swarthmore or Bryn Mawr or Bucknell and others that do not offer merit (or offer very little merit)). Ursinus, Lycoming, Juniata, Allegheny. There’s merit money to be found, though you’d need to check out the schools’ scholarships to see what sort of merit awards she’d be in the running for and if those awards would lower overall COA to the same levels as the public schools. Arcadia is a smart choice, as it’s on that borderline in size between LAC and mid-sized U.
Still, others have given you great advice on schools (in NJ and NY) that I’m not aware of. You’ll find a school for your D that works out financially. Alas, so many families are in the position where the issue is not “Where can my child be admitted?” but “What can we afford?” Times have changed.
@buckscountymom my D goes to Ursinus. She does not play a sport but the sports teams are very tight. She absolutely loves the academics. It is small though.
Arcadia is another good one to visit. And we loved Etown and muhlenberg.
We did keep an open mind about Widener but took a campus tour and attended info session yesterday. Surrounding area was sketchier than I thought it would be, but the worst was the smell. : \ Really bad burnt smell everywhere we walked. We think it may be coming from the sewage treatment facilities in the area so this school has come off of our list now.
@buckscountymom I am responding to the PASSHE schools and merit aid.
My youngest DD was awarded the Board of Governor’s Scholarship at West Chester. She had a 1280 SAT and was in the top 10% of class of 400+. She is also going into STEM program. The BOG’s scholarship is for full tuition, so about $7700; the “fees” are high there. She is in a traditional dorm, and at WCU that is a savings of almost $4K per year. I am hoping she can do the same for at least the next year as I think that is a significant savings.
At Honor’s night, every single one of the kids who went to Bloom were awarded academic scholarships, the school does not report the amount. Her one friend said he was awarded $10K, she didn’t believe him though. I had heard it was around 5K. My friend’s son is at Bloom and was not awarded anything, but he also applied very late and made a late decision.
The same student, also applied to East Stroudsburg and was awarded about $3K in scholarships. He is a good student, but didn’t take AP courses in school, and scored 1240 on the SAT.
With your DD’s stats, she should be a candidate for the Board of Governor’s scholarships. At WCU & Bloom with that award and the cheaper dorms, the costs shouldn’t be too high. I would certainly have her apply ASAP and see what is offered.
@laralei thanks so much for your reply - i remember reading your posts on the PASSHE thread last year - so many helpful PA posters on there! i really learned a lot. am taking your advice and will talk to dd a bit more about it later. the whole process is starting to wear on her and think we all need to take a break from talking about it in this house for awhile. : )
Take a break but after she submits her applications!
DD missed an email from Bloom asking for additional information. By the time she saw that and we sent it in, she was accepted but didn’t receive any $ at all in scholarships. So I would think they are offering it to higher stat kids, but there is a limit.
@buckscountymom My son was recently accepted to Ship with a completely unexpected $2k merit scholarship. 
Albright College is in a nice area of town that feels suburban. Downtown Reading is undergoing a bit of revitalization.
With her stats, Youngstown State in Ohio would be very affordable. She would qualify for out of state merit money.