Private schools in the upper Atlantic that give merit aid?

As you can see in the title, I’m looking for private schools (not a huge fan of public, although I’m applying to a local city school for the heck of it) in the NY, NJ, Pennsylvania, CT, RI, Massachusetts areas that give merit aid. I live in Long Island, NY and I’m not willing to go too far for a merit aid school besides those areas. I’m looking to major in something in the humanities. Thank you!!

Just FYI, I don’t qualify for FAFSA or financial aid or anything at all, so my only hope would be merit aid at a private school.

This is kind of important to know:

The NE is hard for merit. U Pitt has some but it’s very competitive. Temple. You might look at Denison or Wooster in OH.

Wouldn’t you get some merit at some of the SUNY schools?

Dickinson might give you aid. Agree that Denison and Wooster are good options. Because of where you live, you might do better if you went further - you’d be helping with geographic diversity.

Lots of Catholic schools offer merit: U Scranton, Siena, Fordham, Providence are some examples in those states.

Muhlenberg, Fordham, Loyola Maryland, Providence, Hobart

Another vote for Dickinson.

Lehigh gives merit. You need to show a tremendous amount of interest.

Rochester is in western NY, so it might be out of your geographic comfort zone. But it does give merit aid, and, in the past, students with similar stats have gotten some very attractive offers. Humanities might be a plus for you there, but you do need to show interest.

Ohio University. Ohio State. University of Pittsburgh. Fordham. Syracuse.

I combed through mostly private schools in this area a few months ago and made a giant spreadsheet to answer this question for my D19 (thinking ahead). The best deals for privates I found in the NE were Bennington (best case COA after merit $7k), Clark ($0), Lafayette ($24k), Providence ($14k), U Rochester ($15k), and Ursinus ($27k). We’re also looking at publics SUNY-Binghamton ($26k) and UVM ($27k). All the others I identified were over $30k best-case. We did limit the search to schools with good language departments and decent art classes though, so this list is likely not complete for the northeast. Hope this helps.

Unless you want a smaller school or LAC, with those stats I would think the honors program of a public school might serve you well.

You could look at U Delaware too.

Have you sat down with your parents to dig through their finances to determine exactly how much they can (and are willing) to pay for each of the four years?

You may be wasting a lot of time looking at colleges which will give you a 5K or 12K merit award if your parents cannot bridge the gap between the 65K cost of attendance and the award.

There is nothing wrong with 12K in “free” money. But if you can’t afford the rest- the school is unaffordable to you. If you don’t qualify for need based aid per your original post, you need a comprehensive “financial review” with your folks to figure out how much they are prepared to pay per year before you get too excited about some of these options.

And like many parents-- who could be full pay- they may decide that attending a SUNY at an instate rate is educationally superior to attending a private option with a modest merit award. I am not a NY resident, but would not have agreed to be full freight or modest merit award at a wide range of private colleges if instate Binghamton, Stoneybrook, Macauley, etc. had been possible.

Canisius College and Niagara University (Buffalo, Niagara Falls) would be better bets than Fordham, depending on how much you need.

Fordham will like your act score.
UDel, Pitt, Temple, UMaryland, Ohio University, all the flagships ’ honors colleges.
You can try and see if the rarity of a future liberal arts major would cause Penn State to award you something (apply to Schreyer, low odds of admission but $4,500 scholarship.)
Note that Suny Geneseo is more residential than cuny 's. Macaulay is an option but if you want a residential private experience only list cuny’s with residences (even then, about 97-99% classmates will commute from home).
Muhlenberg, Dickinson, Denison, Skidmore, St Lawrence, Goucher, Loyola Maryland, UScranton
St Mary’s Maryland (state’s honors college).

Thank you all so much!

@blossom my parents have already told me that I have enough in my fund for almost the full four years at $65K a year. So I am applying to schools that I’d pay full price at. But, I think that for undergrad I wouldn’t mind terribly to save the money a bit and go somewhere with merit aid. Thank you!

From your username it looks like you are female; with your stats you qualify for merit at the Seven Sisters schools that give merit: Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke and Smith.