<p>I think Denison would be a great idea. I believe they are still a FAFSA only school so the NPC should be p[retty straight forward in terms of need based aid unless your dad’s 2013 income is completely out of line with what he normally earns. Also, Denison is notoriously generous with merit aid (I do not know if it stacks with merit awards though which would be worth finding out).</p>
<p>My D with similar stats (ACT 32, 3.8 UW / 4.5 W) was offered a $40K per year merit scholarship (for which she did not have to apply separately or interview). We don’t qualify for any need based aid so I don’t know how that would have played with the large merit award but they did offer her federal loans, a school loan and work study even though we don’t have demonstrated need. My D was a completely different kind of candidate from OP in terms of her “story” - theatre/humanities with strong ECs related to theatre/arts and community service and accomplished athlete at an individual sport (that she wouldn’t do in college) but Denison seems to have relatively numerous named scholarships at the $20K and $40K per year level. We did make an effort to demonstrate interest (visited once in Junior year - one of the very first visits we did, again the Fall of senior year when she sat in on classes and interviewed with a student and attended an info session in our home town with the regional AdCom as well). Denison was considered a safety for D by our GC but it ended up being #2 choice among her acceptances. It was really hard to turn down but she really wanted to go someplace a little bigger and a little farther from home.</p>
<p>Also, what about colleges like Wooster (that was on our list at one point as well) or Ohio Wesleyan or Allegheny? I believe they all give pretty good merit aid.</p>
<p>2013 income doesn’t matter. Work from a best estimate of 2014 income.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks SaintFan for the correction, I should have said 2014 income. </p>
<p>@thumper1 You are correct, SMU has a COA of 60k. When DS1 was accepted at UT for EE, he stopped his pursuit of scholarships at SMU. The top students of his graduating class received multiple scholarships, however, including one person we know very well. This person earned a complete full ride. The parents were able to repurpose her college fund.</p>
<p>In addition, I have personally served on a scholarship foundation board that requires applicants to list all other scholarships. We have frequently seen SMU listed with their award amounts. </p>
<p>It’s worth a shot if you have the stats.</p>
<p>"when your D applied to Case for BS/MD and didn’t get in, was she automatically moved to the “regular” applicant pool and considered as if she had only applied to that? "
-You have to be accepted to college to apply to bs/md (the name of bs/md at Case is PPSP). I believe that this is true for all programs that D. applied. She applied to 7, as far as I remember, and got accepted at 3. One of them was U of Toledo. Toledo has actually 2 bs/md programs, but you could apply only to 1 (that was the rule way back). Another one that D. was accepted was NEOMED (accelerated). She was offerred full tuition Merit to attend Toledo, but she basically was not interested. She was debating between Miami, Ohio State and Case. Since she loved Miami the best overall, was offerred the full tuition Merit there and as her most important requirement, was accepted to bs/md there (had only 10 spots, program was cancelled since then), Miami was a clear choice at the end. Looking back it was her best choice. In addition to bs/md, she was in Honors (it was only 200 spots, requirement was top 2%, ACT=31+). These 200 spots were basically filled with valedictorians primarily from private HS, so she was surrounded by the students of her caliber. She actually had to go out of the way to meet some other kind of students to widen her social horizon. She did it thru participation in Sorority and having Music minor, both were some of her best experiences in UG.
At the end, specifically for pre-med, the name of your UG is not important, but it is extremely crucial what you personally do at college. State schools absolutely cherish HS valedictorians, they treat them like royalty, they provied them with opportunities not so readily available to the rest of student body, they know the positive impact of this kids on the rest of students and to the reputation of the school overall. The best jobs, great Research internships, volunteering of your choice and whatever else…</p>
<p>You may want to look at Sewanee. They are a FAFSA, not Profile, school and come close to meeting full need. They give a fair amount of merit and participate in Bonners. Sewanee is also strong in your areas of interest (judging from your ECs): Psychology, Bio, English, French. I believe they have some sort of Psych research internship program with Yale. </p>
<p>@shockwave457 Did you take the PSAT last year? What was your score? If you got 215 + (and possibly as low as 211), you may be in the running. </p>
<p>I didn’t do as well on my psat as on my actual SAT</p>
<p>OP, I don’t believe Franklin and Marshall College offers merit money any longer; it’s now straight need-based FA. It’s a great premed school (and frankly I don’t think it’s a reach for you, more like a “high match”), but run the NPC before you decide whether or not to apply. I’d also take a look at Muhlenberg (also good for premed and offers merit to top students) if the NPC gives you a doable number and Bryn Mawr (if you’re female).</p>
<p>If you’re looking at straight stats-based merit money, give this a peruse: <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions…while looking at my list I will be taking all of the advice into consideration for my match schools…do you feel it is prudent to still include 2 match schools?</p>
<p>I mean 2 REACH schools>?</p>
<p>Why not if you can afford the application fees?</p>
<p>Why not? Every kid should apply to a reach school or two if it’s something he or she desires. Just make sure they’re reach schools YOU’D like to attend. After all, you’re the one going to college, not your dad!</p>
<p>It’s good to have a range of options come next spring. You can do your best to plan and estimate and put your best foot forward with your target schools. Still . . . other than the safeties you won’t know what will come back until it arrives. Every school calculates need and merit a bit differently. You just want to target places where you honestly have a good shot at getting what you will need. You still have time - it’s fine to have a working list of matches that will get narrowed down in the fullness of time over the next couple months.</p>
<p>Did you ever look at Centre? I just heard another story of a kid getting a very large package there. </p>
<p>I looked at Sewanee and Denison…centre? Are they very selective?</p>
<p>"Every kid should apply to a reach school " - ONLY if kid wants to…and not EVERY TOP kid wants to go to these top schools. My D. said : “I will do fine at any place”. Some kids are confident and very self-reliant and they do not want to spend money on UG education and the biggest factor for my kid was that she did not want to be far from home. The 3.5 hours of driving was about as long stretch as she was willing to tolerate.
So, look closely at YOUR criteria list, not your best friend’s, not anybody here, not my D’s. You better match your criteria list as closely as possible to your chosen UG. You will spend 4 most important years of your life there. If you are unhappy, your will not be happy with your results either. This is the only thing that is important, forget what others are saying, forget all kind of ranking, research very carefully, visit multiple times, spend overnights there, talk to current students, walk thru campus, ask everything, food service is also important. Then see where YOU belong.</p>
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<p>Which is exactly what I said if you’d bothered to read the whole sentence:</p>
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<p>So many schools, very decent stats, and nobody is encouraging going the straight need-based financial aid route. Why is the merit route warranted here. The parent is unemployed. </p>
<p>What good is the 79K severance package if you’re unemployed. What am I missing?</p>
<p>OP hasn’t made it clear if the 79k happened this year or last year and came into the discussion with the question of merit aid. People have been trying to suggest schools that meet or almost meet need and offer strong merit aid. </p>
<p>OP - a few questions that would really help to clarify</p>
<p>1) 79k this year or last?
2) male or female?
3) tolerance for basic Stafford and/or Perkins as part of package
4) will you be Pell Grant eligible?</p>