<p>* He tossed out schools like BU and Tulane as examples of places that are generous*</p>
<p>Based on what stats? And how much merit is expected??</p>
<p>I think both of those schools are only generous to those with high stats. If your son has high stats (high for those schools), then maybe they will be generous. </p>
<p>I think an ACT 33+ gets a $25k merit scholarship from Tulane (if GPA is high as well). Not “assured”, but it seems that those who apply with the right stats get that merit. don’t know if there is a scholarship deadline. </p>
<p>Don’t know if BU has any particular guideline for merit. </p>
<p>Is your goal to keep costs within the same amount as a SUNY instate? Is the COA about $25k for instate students?</p>
<p>kathiep–I would consider PA to be in the NY area. I would say that any state not contiguous with NY would be “outside” of the area and it’s highly unlikely that anyone outside of the NY, NJ, PA, etc. area has ever heard of that school unless they are on CC.</p>
<p>MomofNEA–what are his stats? Have you looked at the online merit aid guidelines? There are several private schools in the PA area that are pretty generous with merit aid starting with fairly average stats. What is he considering majoring in?</p>
<p>Mom2 and SteveMa, I have to confess that I haven’t done all the homework with regard to how much aid those schools (BU and Tulane) could offer and for what stats. They hadn’t been on our radar and I mentioned them bc those are the ones the GC listed, and was using them as examples of the general concept of pursuing privates with merit instead of going the public route. Not sure that those are the specific schools we would pursue in the end. His stats are fine–4.3 wgpa (our school doesn’t do unweighted and doesn’t do rank). Course load is demanding. SATs could be higher but he is taking again in a few weeks. Right now it’s 650, 650, and 710 w. As for major, if only he knew…</p>
<p>MomofNEA–we recently looked at Seton Hill, Wheeling Jesuit, Lebanon Valley and Robert Morris all in PA. With his stats he would qualify for some nice merit aid at all of those schools and would be academic safeties as well-yet they are all very good schools. What do you think he will end up doing for a job? Is he a science kid, business, etc.?</p>
<p>From our own investigations, the 20 schools our two have applied to this year, 3 of them are state schools and after running the NPC for merit, etc. are coming in for us right around $14,000/year. The 17 private schools are all at or below that cost to varying degrees with the lowest cost one coming in at about $6000 total out of pocket, without loans, for us (after a starting price of around $35,000). These are automatic awards too. Our kids’ stats are similar (ACT conversion works out about the same for DD and DS is a bit higher). Our school doesn’t weight grades so it’s hard to compare that but they are both 3.7’s on a 4.0 scale. I think this is what she is trying to illustrate-state schools for better students often come in at a higher price tag when all is said and done because they just don’t have the money to give for merit aid.</p>
<p>Sounds like the best thing your son could do to improve his chances of merit money and expand his potential college choices would be to STUDY for the SAT and raise his scores above 700 per section. See the Xiggi method.</p>
<p>Be prepared that some kids simply will not do this.</p>
<p>Steve, thanks for the suggestions and the illustration. I do see what you and the GC are saying now. We will have to think more carefully about specific schools. And Consolation, you just consoled me: I’d been feeling guilty about pushing (gently encouraging?) S to take the test one more time. I know it’s a gamble–his scores may not budge–but for him it would be worse not to try.</p>
<p>Your son would need higher scores for merit from Tulane and BU.</p>
<p>Often, only the Math + CR is used for merit consideration, and your son’s is a 1300…not likely high enough for merit at either school. Frankly, unless your son is a URM, he might not even be accepted to Tulane. Non-URMs with less than 1350 M+CR SATs have been getting rejected in recent cycles. </p>
<p>As for merit…even at my own kids’ undergrad (which is famous for its generous merit scholarships) would only give about $3,500 for a 1300 M+CR. He’d have to have at least a 1330 M+CR to qualify for a good-sized award. </p>
<p>To estimate chances for merit, you have to look at where the M+CR falls in the school’s SAT quartiles. The best merit goes to the students whose stats are WELL-WITHIN the upper quartile of the school. Often, you need to be in the top 5-10% of the school to get good sized merit.</p>
<p>Will throw out a few NYS privates as suggestion, maybe you have heard of them, maybe not, but being on CC can make you aware of schools you have never heard of. </p>
<p>St. Lawrence University 50k+
Hobart & William Smith 50k+
Alfred University 40k
Union College 50k+
Skidmore College 50k+</p>
<p>My older son is a Freshman at Binghamton and loves it. We are OOS and had looked at about 10 schools, both urban and rural before he applied and something about the campus clicked for him. We toured w another family and the other mother would stop random students ( not the tour guide) and asked what they thought of the campus. To a person, they all loved it and some even said, " when I’m home, I can’t wait to come back here." The surrounding city is pretty depressing and even was voted most depressing in the country but the students love the environment.
Whatever it was, the cleanliness of the campus, the students, the gym, the programs…Something appealed to him that didn’t at other schools. We are OOS so obviously it helped in the admission process but even so total cost for OOS equals in state at many PA schools like Penn State and Temple…</p>
<p>I can speak to BU - as far as I know, there are no automatic merit awards, although I am sure that they award students merit awards on a case by case basis. Our DD had a 2100 SAT with a lower GPA and was offered nothing in merit. She did, however, get a wonderful surprise at the end of her freshman year in CGS - without application or knowledge, she had been chosen for a leadership award for academics, attitude, and positive role modeling for the program. The $1000 will keep her from needing to get a part time job this year (she may choose to get one, but the pressure is off), and if she gets her grades up will continue next year as well! Yeah for secret scholarships which are apparantly given for kindness and enthusiasm as well as hard work! :)</p>
<p>Oops - I meant “keep” her grades up - to those of you with an ADHD student that you have had to, er, motivate in high school, sometimes they get to college and miraculous events occur. Her GPA was so much higher than high school that I nearly fell off my chair when she showed me her first transcript report. That said, the same thing happened to me 30 years ago - the higher I got educationally, the better my GPA. The classes were simply more motivating and interesting and my compensatory strategies improved markedly each year. Who would have known??? :)</p>