<p>I'm a rising high school senior, and I hope to major in computer science or economics (and possibly math.) I'm a white female from the Midwest, and I have a 2370 SAT and 4.0 unweighted GPA. I've taken SAT IIs in Math II (800), Latin (800), US History (800), and Chemistry (790), and I've taken 9 APs and gotten 5's on all (US History, Euro, Chem, Calc BC, Macro, Micro, English Lit, English Lang, and US Gov). I expect to be a National Merit finalist and National AP Scholar, and I've done several leadership extracurriculars and won a national writing award. </p>
<p>Anyway, some of the schools I'm considering Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Rice, University of Michigan (in-state), WashU, Carnegie Mellon, Williams, Harvey Mudd, and Claremont McKenna. But I need some safety schools that will offer good merit aid. </p>
<p>Any suggestions? I'd prefer to a more urban or suburban setting, with plenty of research opportunities. </p>
<p>For your economics major, are you more interested in pre-PhD preparation or pre-professional preparation?</p>
<p>Among the Claremont colleges, you don’t have Pomona, which offers all of your majors, but do have HMC (no economics) and CMC (no computer science).</p>
<p>"“I need some safety schools that will offer good merit aid.”"</p>
<p>Ok…so how much merit do you need? In other words, how much will your family pay towards college in general…and at a safety?</p>
<p>For instance, if your family will only pay $15k per year towards a safety, then you need a full tuition scholarship at least.</p>
<p>Have your parents run the NPCs at your top schools to see how much they’ll be expected to pay? (if your parents are self-employed, independent contractors, or are divorced, then the NPCs wont be accurate.)</p>
<p>Since you are a likely NMF, then there are schools that will offer you more. </p>
<p>UMich in-state should be a safety. Are they a financial safety? What is family income and what can they afford? The schools you listed (besides UMich) are all or mostly fian aid only with little/no merit aid.</p>
<p>^ UMich should be a safety for you, and as long as you apply early, there’s probably a decent chance you’ll earn some form of merit scholarships with your excellent stats and being in state.</p>
<p>A third for UMich as a great safety for you, probably your best bet because it is well regarded in CS. </p>
<p>Also take a look at SUNY Stony Brook which has a very good CS dept and the Provost Out-Of-State Scholarship which can cover up to the entire OOS tuition.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, I am interested in the joint economics-engineering program between CMC and Harvey Mudd. If I received a good scholarship from HMC, I would consider abandoning economics and just doing CS there. I will consider applying to Pomona as well. For the economics major, I am interested in the intersection of econ and CS, for a career at a tech or other company or to start my own business. I’m thinking less and less that I want a PhD in economics. I’m also interested in applied math careers.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, I need to discuss with my parents the amount they’re willing to pay. My father is self-employed - do you know if that means that an NPC will over or under-estimate? I spent the morning filling out NPCs. </p>
<p>PurpleTitan and enigmatic escape, UMich looks like a great school, but it won’t be a financial safety - it won’t offer my family much need-based aid. How hard is it to get merit-based scholarships from UMich? My parents’ adjusted gross income (before taxes) is about 80k, which is low enough to get very good need-based aid from Princeton and Stanford. </p>
<p>ormdad, I’ll check out SUNY Stony Brook and the Provost Scholarship for sure! I’m looking at their website - they also have an intriguing Women in Science and Engineering program that offers scholarships and support.</p>
<p>Michigan’s merit aid is pretty competitive, but there are more opportunities for instate applicants. You seem to be very competitive for the Michigan Regents Scholarship, and there are numerous other scholarships (not grants) for instate students with some financial need.</p>
<p>The Seven Sisters? Smith and Mt. Holyoke will probably give you good merit aid and since they are part of the Five College Consortium, you can take classes at Amherst and UMass Amherst which have pretty good computer science programs.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr gives out merit scholarships as well, and is part of the Tri College Consortium where you can take classes at Haverford and Swarthmore. I haven’t heard good things about their computer science program/I’ve read that a lot of computer science majors take their classes at Haverford there.</p>
<p>Also check out Wellesley (more of a match than a safety); doesn’t give merit aid, but the application is free and it’s is a great school in its own right (with a strong economics and computer science program) and you can cross register for courses with many neighboring schools including MIT.</p>
<p>Also I’ve heard Grinnell gives very good merit aid, especially to NMFs and someone of your stats. I don’t know how strong their computer science program is.</p>
<p>^^ Grinnell’s CS dept is considered very good “for a LAC”. I think the alumni network helps new grads a lot. If you look on linkedin there are lots of Grinnell students with internships at interesting companies such as Amazon. It is a small department though.</p>
<p>The all-female colleges are more willing to give merit aid. Merit aid from Mudd would be tough, but a big merit scholarship from Scripps is likely easier. Can you still double major in CS at Mudd from Scripps?</p>
<p>So how much can your parents pay each year? Can you commute to UMich?
You’ve already racked 31 AP credits at UMich LSA (and you might be able to get more; a 5 in physics B is 10 more credits), so even with zero merit or fin aid from them (which seems unlikely), UMich can be a financial safety.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, with NMF, more options open. Arizona and UT-Dallas would be full-tuition, for instance. @ucbalumnus already listed the sites to look at.</p>
<p>Self-employed people often have deductions that are added back by financial aid offices. They may have have more variable income. You may want to run each NPC twice, once with the numbers as is, and once with the “worst case for financial aid” numbers, where you add back all self-employment related deductions to the income and assume income at the high end of any variable range.</p>
<p>Rochester meets your criteria. Good departments in both econ and CS. They have a website describing how much merit aid you can expect as a function of your stats. It’s a very academic school filled with a lot of serious students. </p>
<p>BTW, while Rice is pretty generous for an elite with merit money and UMich will likely give you some/much as well, many of your schools are fin aid only. With the family business, I’m not sure how much fin aid they will give. Might be worth applying to UChicago as well. Renown in econ, respected in CS, and known to give out a decent amount of merit aid.</p>
<p>BTW, Scripps is likely to give you a lot of merit money. Not sure how easy it would be to do CS at Mudd while there. May be worth checking out.</p>
<p>Go back to reply #1 and look in the linked merit scholarship lists.</p>
<p>With a parent contribution of $10,000 per year, your stretch price limit would be about $20,000 per year if you are willing to take the full direct loan amount (up to $5,500) and save some work earnings during the school year and summer. If you are not willing to commit to both the direct loan and that amount of work earnings, then your price limit is lower.</p>
<p>So, other than the automatic merit scholarship schools with residual amounts under your price limit, a safety must be a school that you are assured of admission, and which the net price calculator gives a net price (list price minus grants only, not loans) less than your price limit.</p>