<p>Before you all start posting your recommendations, I do not want to here of all the extremely difficult to get into schools in cities. I am looking for a school in a major cities that gives out good merit aid. I have a 30 act and a 3.9 weighted (out of 4) GPA. My course load is rigorous, thank you!</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh is the only one I can think of- a friend of mine applied last fall with a 35 ACT and got a full tuition scholarship, the merit aid is great and Pittsburgh is definitely a major city. It’s a competitive school, but not Ivy-level, I think you’d have at least a decent shot at admission.</p>
<p>American University (DC)
Boston University
Case Western (Cleveland)
Fordham (NY)
George Washington (DC)
Loyola University MD (Baltimore)
Tulane (New Orleans)
University of Denver
University of Richmond
Villanova (Philadelphia area)</p>
<p>(The University of Pittsburgh is not private, although it might be a good choice.)</p>
<p>Sorry about that- wasn’t sure as I posted but I thought the aid was significant enough to post regardless.</p>
<p>In general, you’ll get more merit aid with your stats as you decrease selectivity in schools. You have to compromise, for the most part, between selectivity and price.</p>
<p>Most of the Jesuit universities are located in or near cities. If these schools might work for you then you can look at the list below and see which locations/selectivity work for you.
[Jesuit</a> Institutions |](<a href=“http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions]Jesuit”>Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities--Jesuit Colleges and Universities)</p>
<p>Some other ideas not already listed include: Temple, Drexel (Phila), Goucher (Baltimore), Northeastern (Boston), American (DC). And I agree that if you want merit aid look towards colleges where your statistics are well above the average for the school.</p>
<p>American in DC and Belmont in Nashville are both great schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you would consider it a major city but Ohio State is in Columbus and gives out good merit aid.</p>
<p>Northeastern (You’ll need a higher act to get merit)</p>
<p>3.9 weighted GPA is from what unweighted GPA? Weighted GPA is often meaningless due to the different weighting methods in use by high schools and colleges.</p>
<p>Howard is a private school in Washington, DC, and may give you a large scholarship.
[Grants</a>, Scholarships & Fellowships - Howard University](<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman]Grants”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman)</p>
<p>@barrk123, I hope Columbus is considered a major city. It’s larger than Boston, DC and Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>U Texas at Dallas had some significant merit aid available.</p>
<p>Boston University. But what is your unweighted GPA? As previous posters have said, weighted GPA means nothing since different schools weight differently. I had a 3.92 weighted GPA and 3.67 unweighted… A significant difference. BU gave me full academic scholarship so… You have a pretty good shot if you have lots of strong extra curricular activities and strong writing skills for essays. Teacher recommendations count for a lot as well, along with desired area of study. Keep these things in mind when applying to any college!</p>
<p>Washington, D.C.
American University
George Washington
Georgetown </p>
<p>Boston, MA
Harvard
MIT
Tufts
Boston College
Northeastern University
Boston University</p>
<p>New York, NY
Columbia
NYU
Fordham</p>
<p>Philadelphia, PA
Penn
Temple
Villanova</p>
<p>Los Angeles, CA
Loyola
USC</p>
<p>“Columbus is considered a major city. It’s larger than Boston, DC and Pittsburgh.”</p>
<p>LOL, wat? Maybe if you go by geographic boundaries of the city proper, which makes no sense. Going by metro size, Columbus is about the size of Indianapolis, which hardly makes it a “major city”. One quick visit to Columbus and you realize very quickly that it is a good sized city, but certainly not a major market or U.S. city.</p>
<p>[List</a> of Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Metropolitan statistical area - Wikipedia”>Metropolitan statistical area - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Philadelphia, PA</p>
<p>If you’re including Villanova, then you may as well include (at least complete the Big Five):
St. Joseph’s
LaSalle</p>
<p>the following three have train stations and are within 30 minutes of Philly
Haverford
Bryn Mawr
Swarthmore</p>
<p>and
Drexel is right next to Penn</p>
<p>@informative, I guess if the OP wanted to attend Mt Washington College in NH and have that count as Boston your definition would work.</p>
<p>University of Puget Sound
University of San Francisco
University of San Diego
Oglethorpe University
Texas Christian University
University of Denver
Trinity University
Lewis & Clark</p>
<p>American
GWU</p>
<p>Boston U
Northeastern</p>
<p>NYU
Fordham</p>
<p>UMiami</p>
<p>SMU (Dallas)</p>
<p>U of San Diego</p>
<p>Loyola U (Baltimore)</p>
<p>Trinity (San Antonio)</p>
<p>Tulane and Loyola in New Orleans are both generous to gifted students. But the same could be said of scores of private schools in or near major cities. It might be helpful first to establish further criteria to narrow down your list.</p>
<p>Holy Cross, Brandeis, Trinity College-all great schools.</p>
<p>TX Schools Known to be Generous to Kids with ~ Your Stats:</p>
<p>TCU
Trinity U
SMU
UTD
Southwestern</p>
<p>Temple is public. Villanova is in a suburb. Holy Cross is in a small city (Worcester, Mass), Brandeis is in a suburb, Trinity College is in a smallish and dumpy city (Hartford, CT). </p>
<p>OP, are you asking about major cities, or is suburban OK?</p>