<p>I have mostly looked at smaller schools, because I am very drawn to the idea of smaller class sizes and accessibility to professors, but I am starting to reconsider this.
If you know of good medium sized schools that offer a lot of aid, please post it here!</p>
<p>My stats: Junior at a good public high school
4.0 GPA UW (4.6 weighted)
32 ACT
EC: Student Council, Community Service Club, Psychology Club, SADD
French Honor Society, Cum Laude Honor Society, awards for English and History (not publications, just grade achievements), Badminton Team 2 years and managed this year
I won two scholarships for a 3 week language immersion program in Lyon, France
I'm going to be my teacher's aid next year as well.</p>
<p>I like Emory, but I am worried that I would not much merit-aid because I don’t have ridiculously amazing scores or awards. It seems like many of the people who go there are above me regarding scores and accomplishments.</p>
<p>My family has not yet figured out if we qualify. I am the oldest so I’m not sure when I should be doing what regarding financial aid.</p>
<p>I figure that I have a better chance of getting scholarships/aid/etc. from a less selective/competitive school.</p>
<p>Do both the federal method and institutional. Many privates use the both methods.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that scholarships get applied to need first, so they don’t reduce family contribution unless they’re so big that they exceed need.</p>
<p>Hey, you never know… your GPA is great… are you taking any APs or IB courses? If you can, you should. Take the ACT again if you can or take the SAT… if you do well enough… you could land one of the Emory merit scholarships although they’re extremely difficult to get and people actually turn down HYPS to be Emory Scholars. But, like I said, you could have a shot, given your ECs and essays are really good! This is all merit-based financial aid. Emory also has need-based financial aid for US students… if your family makes less than 50 k, there is a good possiblity that you may get all your expenses covered. I don’t know much about this because I am international but definitely do some more research on Emory… and visit if you can! Good luck!</p>
<p>As far as need-based aid goes, Vanderbilt has very good aid. None of the need-based aid is in the form of loans. They are need-blind for admission and meet 100% of <em>calculated</em> financial aid. </p>
<p>They also offer three named merit scholarships, but a 32 ACT and the ECs you listed will not put you–I think–in the running for those.</p>
<p>As mom2collegekids has already said, until you determine your family’s EFC, it is hard to say whether Vanderbilt’s need-based aid is of any use to you.</p>
<p>this year I am taking 2 AP’s and next year I will be taking 5 AP’s
32 is as good as my ACT will get.
All the schools listed are good, just pretty selective. Are there other schools people would recommend that are less selective, but are known for being generous with aid?</p>
<p>Also, thank you mom2collegekids for the link</p>
<p>Emory and Vandy are great, and they offer great merit scholarships, but as has been noted, the OP isn’t really competitive for those unless he raises scores. More appropriate recommendations would be appreciated, I assume…</p>
<p>Do colleges only look at the most recent year or do they look at the past few years of income? I am asking this because my father supports our family and he and lost his job last year and was jobless for 6 months.</p>
<p>Rice has excellent need-based aid; we’re consistently ranked in the “top 10 best value colleges.” Rice also offers merit aid to 30% of incoming freshmen, but these are difficult to get. However, out of all the top schools, Rice offers the most merit aid.</p>
<p>I also think Emory, Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and the Ivies will offer great aid as well.</p>
<p>*Do colleges only look at the most recent year or do they look at the past few years of income? I am asking this because my father supports our family and he and lost his job last year and was jobless for 6 months. *</p>
<p>If your dad is employed for 2010, that’s the income that will get used when you apply for aid for Fall 2011.</p>
<p>So, when you use the calculators, use what his income will likely be for 2010 based on what his current earnings are.</p>
<p>if you were to try to used 2009’s info, your numbers will be way off since his income dropped.</p>
<p>ladywillow - Have you tried taking the SAT? Sometimes people do better on one than the other. The reason I push that is with your GPA, if you could get a 2250+ SAT you would have a decent chance at the Dean’s Honor Scholarship at Tulane, which is full tuition. You have to apply for that separately though. Other merit scholarships are automatically considered with your regular application, and this year went as high as $25,000.</p>
<p>The total cost of attendance at Tulane is nearly $50K. So, even if you get one of the largest merit scholarships, you are probably still looking at out-of-pocket costs that roughly equal or exceed the costs of your state’s public flagship university. The full COA for an in-state residential student at a public university typically runs about $15K-25K. Costs tend to run a little lower at the “directional” schools. If you commute from home, you can get costs under $10K.</p>
<p>Private schools typically run about $40K-50K. To have a good chance at a merit scholarship that will narrow (probably not close) the private/public gap, look at schools in about the 25-75 zone of the US News rankings (both the LAC and national university lists). Be aware that many private schools in the Northeast (Ivies, NESCAC schools, etc.) do not grant merit scholarships at all.</p>
<p>Or look at the Kiplinger “best value” rankings. Check out private schools with lower numbers for “cost after non-need-based aid”, higher numbers for “% of non-need-based aid”, and lower numbers for “high scorers on SAT” (example: Clark University in Worcester, MASS; DePauw; Furman; Centre College). It may be challenging to optimize all three of those numbers without compromising on some of your other criteria.</p>
<p>The issue with state schools is most of them will have large classes (OP wants small classes). There are some state schools that are “liberal arts” colleges with small classes and no TAs. You could search for those. BTW, New York’s SUNY’s have a low out-of-state tuition rate (about $10,000/year).</p>
<p>For private schools with merit scholarships, there is an entire thread on that topic on CC. If you drop down a tier or 2 from your matches, you can probably get close to full tuition.</p>
<p>Also, Case Western Reserve in Cleveland is a private school, 4,000 undergrads, offers generous merit aid for students with high SAT scores (probably ACT as well), and it is a peer institution to Emory (they are in the same sports conference).</p>
<p>There have been a lot of good schools recommended so far, I’ll add:</p>
<p>Boston College
Wash U St Louis
University of Miami (FL)
University of Southern California (a little bigger than your upper end though)</p>
<p>I’d visit the individual college forums for each of the schools recommended. Look for current and past Fin Aid threads to see how people are doing. Some schools that are allegedly stingy with aid have given out good packages and others supposedly generous have left a few people quite upset.</p>