I would suggest a strategy we used with one of my daughters. She knew she wanted a personal environment and we chose a small LAC. We chose a school where she was easily into the honors program. It’s also a school I believe is on the way up, based on hiring an impressive new president and having alumni support. I think too many people believe they are going “down a level” and really aren’t. My daughter is super excited to attend Guilford College next year–it’s a CTCL, the professors are student-focused, and it’s a 4-year residential community. While the overall graduation rate isn’t great, the 4-year graduation rate from the honors college is over 90%. She’s attended classes that were inspirational and has met alumni in our area who were doing interesting work. Her merit awards mean that her attendance is lower than tuition at our state universities. While she doesn’t know if she’s admitted yet to our state flagship, she has realized that classes of 20 students in which she’s regarded as a leader are a better fit for her. We are thrilled that this is a better fit for our finances. Is Guilford prestigious? Nope. Will she get a great education in which she’s supported in achieving her dreams? Yes. She’s also going to get great support in getting into graduate school, which will be her next step in her career aspirations.
I had two kids starting college the same year my job was ending. I hoped to get another job but not so easy. So they chose knowing that there wasn’t much money (and that need based aid wasn’t going to be there at least for the first year as I had earned a good salary for the first 4 months).
They were both fine at the schools they picked. One did chase merit and got it, the other picked an inexpensive school. If my finances would have recovered, they could have studied abroad more, traveled for spring break, etc.
Canadian schools do, at least based on the experience of friends’ kids at U Toronto and McGill (though maybe more $ available for STEM at later). European schools are just much cheaper even when you pay full freight–particularly those on the continent with some programs (I’m thinking of Sciences Po but I’m sure there are others) conducted primarily in English.
I negotiated my own financial aid by phone, but that was many year s ago and it was nobody’s money because there was no money. I was told that now they expect to hear from the parents, maybe prefer it? I was surprised but things change.
Not sure if it has already been mentioned, bc this is a long thread, but there is a decent site called MeritMore that allows you to search for merit aid across universities. I found it helpful.
my son just received an email from the institutional documentation service (IDOC) and said an additional school is requesting that you submit documents to the IDOC. Is this a good sign for acceptance? Thanks!
Usually the financial aid office and the admissions office work independently, so the FA doesn’t know what the AO is doing. The FA office is getting everything in order for when the AO lets it know who is admitted.
Sorry, not a good sign. Not a bad sign either, just the FA office working through the list.
thanks
To be considered for Tulane’s merit scholarships you have to apply ED OR EA. If not you are out of luck. My daughter applied regular decision and got in but got $0
University of Toledo very much follows the model of giving clear guidance on what to expect as an award.
From experience with current admissions cycle where candidate was focused on both top schools that award merit as well as Ivy’s, the harsh reality is that it seems far more people showed up to chase that merit this year than one would expect, and nearly all those schools rejected her. This is student who had perfect ACT, 1590 SAT, ridiculous high GPA, respectable top-10 class rank, and impressive but not exactly coveted EC’s (stuff like 4-year tennis / 2 year captain… music competition wins, etc.) There were no published papers or patents or time spent under a Congressman’s desk as an intern.
Of those places where merit offers were made, Rochester was surprisingly stingy. Given how high their tuition is, and, as well, how dubious their “take a free fifth year on us” program appeared. Rochester NY isn’t Manhatan, and there’s not fathoming why, even after a merit award, it should cost more to attend than some schools in Boston.
Sienna has a program that guarantees sizeable merit aid for anyone who fills out a FAFSA. They took a long time though to actually deliver the merit offer, and afterwards they increased the offer it but it seemed a little sketchy like you might get less if you went in super enthusiastic and accepted right away. In other words, they seemed to be horse trading more than other schools.
OSU gives merit aid, but it seems pretty dubious on what grounds they award it. Being in-state, none of the top kids who were admitted from “D”'s class got anything more than a nominal $2000 award, just enough to match what might be “automatic” for peer schools that have a national merit scholarship. But it’s not a national merit scholarship, so I guess that allows them to only give it when they feel it’s necessary to be competitive. In state, they were competitive. The big scholarship went to a student who must have made a very compelling essay to the scholarship application, because she didn’t particularly have a rigorous transcript nor EC’s. She was an flipped 2-2 tennis player who spent JR and SR year on JV after playing varsity as an underclassman because she didn’t really train and was just there for social tennis (and was, as captain “D” put it, making lots drama by getting the JV players to complain about the varsity players).
Have known may people whose kids went to Case. It’s very tough to get into now, and we haven’t heard many (any actually) stories of generous merit aid. Even kids we know who connected some way to case, for example working as interns or RA there, have been known to be rejected.
There is no comparison to what you get if you can find a school in Florida that is continuing on with “Benequisto” type merit awards. At first you will think, well, the baseline tuition is pretty low anyway, so that award isn’t such a big deal. Frankly the whole award when considered in that light, was in the same ball part of what Rochester awarded to “D”. But taking that off the top of Rochester’s tuition left a somewhat insolvent situation for any grad / post-grad studies. Taking it off the top of an equal number, but more importantly, having it indexed to the actual cost over the time of enrollment made is no comparison. Given the inflationary situation going on all over, and knowing that higher ed usually see price increases that run ABOVE general inflation, it’s important to consider that an award that might be close to 10% of cost today, may become insignificant as the cost of attendance rises each year.
Add South Carolina national University
I just stumbled across this info and thought it might be useful here for any NJ, PA, MA, CT, NH, VT high school seniors desperate for an out of state experience, but on an in-state budget:
https://ww1.oswego.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/flagship-match
So for us Pennsylvania folks, we’d need to pay more than the Oswego out-of-state tuition? Because Penn State in-state tuition is more than the Oswego out-of-state tuition.
yeah, for PA students, that’s the problem with all these flagship match programs - they’re all cheaper than Penn State to start with 
oof! and I thought NJ was bad until I just looked up in-state tuition for Penn State.
Edited to add, I’m sure in that case you’d just pay the Oswego out of state tuition, plus the free meal plan (if your student meets the gpa requirement) - still a better deal than in state in PA.
It might be because they cost so much less and only 3 years required. One can save a lot on tuition plus start earning a salary sooner.
We live in PA. Our S18 graduated from SUNY-ESF this year. It was an easy decision to allow him to go to school there since the OOS tuition at ESF was essentially equal to the in-state tuition at Penn State and Pitt. He took a job in NY after graduation and will probably stay there. I suspect PA loses a fair number of talented students because of the relatively uncompetitive pricing of their flagship schools.
How was your son’s experience at SUNY-ESF?
wondering the same!
He loved it there. He has always been fascinated by science and renewable energy sources since he was a kid, but that definitely put him “out of the mainstream” at his rural western PA public high school. From the first time he visited the school he knew that, for the first time, he had finally found his clan. ESF was the only college he applied to – the only college he wanted to attend – so it’s a good thing he was accepted. (He applied ED to maximize his chances.) He majored in sustainable energy management and minored in environmental biology. It was difficult academically, but he loved almost all of his classes so that made it not just tolerable but enjoyable. He met a girl there that sees the world the way he does. They graduated together and now they share an apartment and hike in the Adirondacks together. He seems much happier now than when he was in high school. We’re very thankful we found ESF, a school we had never even heard of until just after he started his HS senior year.