Schools known for good merit aid

Parents Forum
1221

I’m seeing a lot of mentions of Northeastern. I think DS would be able to get significant aid from them due to NMS status, high SATs (2320) and strong grades. He’s in the top 5% of his class.

But I have a few questions I hope you dear folks can answer:

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Is the big aid from Northeastern available if applying RD or should one apply early?
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Is merit aid from Northeastern for National Merit virtually guaranteed or do only some get it?
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My assumption is that the answers to questions 1 + 2 may be related.

1222

Momfromme - My DS will be a freshman at Northeastern this fall. He is a NMF without the strong grades and class rank your son has. The NMF scholarship is virtually guaranteed (but that could change any yr.)

I would suggest applying early action - you don’t have to commit, but you are first in line when they start giving out NMF scholarships in March. To get the scholarship you have to list NEU as your first choice but you don’t have to do that until spring of senior yr.

Son added NEU to his list last minute and fell in love when he visited during a snow storm.

1223

Thanks, mom24boys.

What did he like about it on his visit?

DS hasn’t visited yet but he is interested. He really wants to be in a city and so his college list possibilities are all in cities.

The co-op part looks cool but DS is a kid who is practical but also likes to explore ideas. I’ve wondered if the pragmatic side of Northeastern comes at the expense of that. But I’d figure there are a variety of students there.

One thing that I noticed about Northeastern is that it is more selective than it used to be and that its freshman retention rate had also improved. A friend whose son graduated from BU three years ago had said that BU had better stats on those when he applied. But then I looked them up and they were close, and NU was slightly better.

1224

Northeastern is not known for its financial aid generosity although it sounds like your son might qualify. There’s a kid who applied to NEU from a neighboring school with very high stats and while he did get some merit aid, wasn’t offered enough to be able to attend. NEU has gotten more selective in recent years and I know families whose kids are there who really love it.

1225

Northeastern doesn’t guarantee they will give scholarship to NMF, hedging with ‘eligible for UP TO full tuition’, but up to now it does seem to be practically automatic. My D applied there but not attending. A couple of things to note- It is just tuition, not the fees part like with some NMF scholarships. Also, when you get accepted, your initial scholarship offer will not be the NMF one. They give a smaller award with the acceptance. The NMF scholarship offer will come after attaining NMF AND designating them as first choice. This is different than many schools which will early on send an initial guarantee that IF you make NMF and designate them, then you will receive such-and-such. It was a bit unnerving not to have that in hand when we were considering them, but I tend to worry overmuch. You could ask them if they plan to change anything for the upcoming application season.

1226

When my older DS applied to Northeastern in 2011 as a NMSF we emailed and were told that all NMFs <em>were guaranteed</em> to be awarded the full tuition scholarship if they named them as their first choice. So we had it in writing. I think we only asked after the finalist announcements came out. He had applied EA so we had the acceptance in hand before the NMF decisions came out.

1227

Illinois’ economy is in as bad or worse shape as California’s, so the public universities in this state tend to have pretty mediocre financial aid. (F.ex., the cutoff date for submitting the FAFSA if one wished to qualify for our state’s MAP Grants this year was 3/1, and may be even earlier next year.) There are a number of local scholarships for graduating seniors of our town’s high school, but they rarely amount to more than textbook money for the coming year.
That said, it’s well worthwhile using the Net Price Calculator for any college your student is considering, as private colleges in my state can often be more affordable than public universities for middle-class families like ours. (Our son attends UIUC, and his financial aid has been mostly loans each year; our daughter qualified for substantial merit & talent-based aid at Monmouth College, however - so her net cost of attendance will be approx. 1/3 or less that of her brother, even though her college’s sticker price is approx. 35%-40% higher than UIUC’s.)

1228

that was really helpful ty

1229

I’ve been reading posts for weeks now and have learned a lot of valuable information. Also, I’m impressed, so many students talked about are extremely strong! If anyone with more wisdom than I can give some advice on schools to look into, it would be appreciated. D wants a good fit and we would both be happy with low college costs from academic merit.

D is going into senior year, SAT 2050 (re-taking) M760, CR690 W600, rank 4 out of 450, GPA 4.17, PLAN 30 (taking ACT in September) lots of EC, taking a summer course at U of Chicago. She was offered 20,000 (not yearly) if accepted. Interested in math, science (chemistry), engineering fields. We live in PA, she may want to stay somewhat close, east coast but still not sure.

1230

EMom, start a new thread to get suggestions specific to your daughter.

1231

^ Temple has some wonderful guaranteed merit with the best being for 1400+/32+ and gpa like 3.7 or so. College of engineering is very actively recruiting women, too.

1232

Washington College on the eastern shore is incredibly good. My older sister and her friend both go there- you get 12,500 dollars off automatically for being in NHS. They also didn’t have to do Common App and had it waived for them, and their merit aid pays for about half their tuition.

1233

I would second the excellent merit aid offered by Tulane. The first year my oldest son attended, he received a $23,000 scholarship in merit aid, and applied for the full tuition scholarship as well (they only awarded 50 that year; he found out later he would have received one if they had awarded 75, darn!). During his first year we moved to Texas and our income went way down; he was then eligible for lots of school based financial need based grants as well. The school was very good to him with aid; they renewed his scholarship each year and he also received additional scholarships as he continued on. Tulane does want its kids to succeed. He ended up staying for Law School and has some scholarship money in that program as well.

1234

My son also received a really nice merit $21K scholarship offer from George Washington in DC, and it was his #2 choice. In Texas, Southwestern, a very good liberal arts college in Georgetown, just outside Austin, offers a full tuition merit based scholarship. UT Houston also has terrific merit based scholarships and a nice honors program, and CUNY has an awesome merit based full scholarship program for NYS Students, the Macaulay Honors Program [William</a> E. Macaulay Honors Program - Scholarships - CUNY](<a href=“http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/macaulay-program.html]William”>http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/macaulay-program.html)

1235

Warning: Sometimes schools with the best merit aid also happen to be the one’s struggling to survive. They live and die by tuition and lure you in with grants. Read this and check out the financial health grades of private not for profit colleges.
[Is</a> Your College Going Broke? - Forbes](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2013/07/24/is-your-college-going-broke/]Is”>Is Your College Going Broke? The Most And Least Financially Fit Schools In America)

1236

University of Southern California—they give half scholarships to National Merit Finalists plus a whole lot of others.
<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1314/uscScholarships1314.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1314/uscScholarships1314.pdf&lt;/a&gt;

1237

UPDATED UAB oos automatic scholarships for this year:

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no change so far for national merit/achievement or hispanic scholars:
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1238

links didnt work so updated UAB oos automatic merit aid

To be eligible for an academic scholarship at UAB, you must be admitted by May 1 of your senior year in high school. Entering freshmen who are admitted by that date are automatically considered for ACT & GPA-based scholarships. Your December test scores from your senior year will be the last scores considered for scholarship purposes. All scholarships are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified students. Scholarships from specific schools and departments may require additional applications, and their deadlines may be earlier than May 1. Visit uab.edu/scholarships for more information.

4-year awards based on ACT composite or SAT (critical reading + math only) score and GPA:

Annual Amount Required Test Score Required GPA
Blazer Elite $15,000 30-36 ACT or 1330-1600 SAT 3.5 GPA or higher

Blazer Gold $12,000 26-29 ACT or 1170-1320 SAT 3.5 GPA or higher

Blazer Pride $10,000 24-25 ACT or 1090-1160 SAT 3.5 GPA or higher

Blazer Distinction $7,500 20-23 ACT or 940-1080 SAT 3.5 GPA or higher

Blazer Pride $10,000 26-36 ACT or 1170-1600 SAT 3.0-3.49 GPA

Blazer Distinction $7,500 24-25 ACT or 1090-1160 SAT 3.0-3.49 GPA

Students receiving UAB merit-based scholarships are required to live on campus for their first year of enrollment.

National merit/achievement/hispanic scholarships:

UAB is a destination for academically talented students, and we love to reward your hard work. We recognize National Merit Finalists, National Achievement Finalists, and National Hispanic Scholars with the following scholarship, which is renewable for four years. The details:

Full tuition, required fees, and housing (up to 15 credit hours per semester) for a total of eight semesters (fall and spring)
A one-time $2,500 stipend to be used for experiential learning (Study Away, internships, co-ops, etc.)

Students receiving UAB merit-based scholarships are required to live on campus for their first year of enrollment.

1239

All Alabama schools have great packages

1240

My Son Just started Providence College as a St. Catherine of Siena Scholar and an additional departmental Scholarship that total over 35K for this year. The St Catherine of Siena is a percentage of tuition so it will keep up with rising costs.