Safety/match suggestions w/chance for merit aid for undecided major/4.0 GPA/2340 SAT

College Search & Selection
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jkeil, can you please elaborate? I’m a believer that if it’s not listed on the CDS then the colleges don’t consider it. I’m interested if that’s not the case.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1584338-dishonest-not-tell-college-about-every-other-college-b-c-d-etc.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1584338-dishonest-not-tell-college-about-every-other-college-b-c-d-etc.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1570250-using-fafsa-against-students.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1570250-using-fafsa-against-students.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Note: you can check whether a college uses “level of applicant’s interest” in its common data set, section C7, or its admissions tab in its entry on [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) .</p>

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<p>You might consider the Oxford Scholars program at Emory’s Oxford College. The competition for significant merit aid would be far less than that at Emory’s Atlanta campus (and would be for four years, including at the Atlanta campus) without the need to look at schools as low ranked as many as have been mentioned on this thread.</p>

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<p>For excellent academics, notably in the sciences, plus good to great merit aid, I’d look at Grinnell, Rhodes, Emory, Davidson and Smith. </p>

<p>If she loves Pomona (and you can make it work financially) she should also consider Williams. Lots of overlap with Pomona academically and culturally, but unfortunately no merit.</p>

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<p>However, Pomona and Williams are not likely to be safety or match for anyone.</p>

<p>Some of the public liberal arts colleges may be safety or match at a lower (even for out of state) cost: [COPLAC</a> | Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges](<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/members/]COPLAC”>Members – COPLAC)</p>

<p>For example, Truman State’s out-of-state cost is quite low, and has automatic merit scholarships for high stats applicants. University of Minnesota - Morris is another low cost public LAC.</p>

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<p>We definitely recognize that Pomona is a reach. Stanford, Pomona, Claremont McKenna are all on her reach list. Like I said at the beginning of the thread, it’s not hard to come up with a long list of reach schools. I feel pretty confident she will get into ASU Barrett. I want to help her find alternatives to Barrett if she strikes out on her reaches. And I’d like to have some options with strong merit aid to consider even if she gets into one of her reaches.</p>

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<p>Unlike many other highly-ranked LACs, Smith does offer some Merit aid, and also has a STRIDE program for outstanding students to work with professors: [Smith</a> College: Student Financial Services](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/sfs/aid_merit.php]Smith”>Merit Aid | Smith College).</p>