Schools that offer merit aid that fit my search

Paying for College
1

<p>I applied so far to Indiana University and Valparaiso University. Indiana's tuition since I'm instate and offered at least 3000 a year (have not applied for any other scholarships there yet, but intend to) will be around 11k a year including room and board. I can commute to Valpo and they offered me 11,500 a year so it wouldn't cost much more than IU.</p>

<p>I applied to Notre Dame but they do not offer merit aid, and I don't know how much needs-based I will qualify for, so even if I get in, paying for it might be impossible. I plan on doing some EFC calculators when I get some time to sit down with my parents, but in the meantime, I'm looking for some options in case my EFC will be too high for what we can really afford (my parents do have to save for retirement, I mean, they'll be 60 when I graduate from college!) I'm white, btw, so I won't qualify for any of the minority scholarships. Our income isn't really high or low, in my opinion..62000 between both of my parents, I'm the only dependent. The only problem is when places like Middlebury are 40000+ a year. </p>

<p>Here's the list of colleges I <em>was</em> going to apply to:
Middlebury, Northwestern, Oberlin, Skidmore, Wesleyan, Tufts, Boston College, Colgate, Kenyon, Denison, Hamilton.</p>

<p>I wasn't actually applying to ALL of those, but I haven't made up my mind about size/location/atmosphere or any of that yet.</p>

<p>My very basic stats: 3.9/4.0 unweighted GPA, 2030 SAT (700 writing, 730 verbal, 600 math. That was my 1st time jr year, retook it and will get my scores in 4 days. I think my math will improve.) lots of theatre extracirriculars, plus German club, National Honor Society, and a few others.</p>

<p>I want to double major in theatre (not a conservatory program) and english. I'd love a place that will let me take dance classes and other musical theatre related courses (if I even had the time) even though I'm not a musical theatre major..</p>

<p>That's about it :) </p>

<p>Any advice?</p>

2

<p>If you are looking for merit money, you need to notch down a bit on selectivity and stats in the colleges you choose. You have a 1330 SAT which does not make you a shoo-in at any of those schools you listed. Much less get a juicy scholarship. My neighbor's daughter did get a nice award from Denison, but her stats would make her no surprise to get into an ivy. Her older sister with stats like yours also went to Denison but did not get a dime from them in merit money. I don't think most of those schools even give merit money. For catholic schools, you need to be looking at colleges like Duquesne, John Carroll, Marist, Niagara, Stone Hill, Manhattan, Iona, Xavier, for any significant merit awards, and even then the competition for a substantial award is fierce. With your parents income level where it is, you are likely to get some financial aid (depending on assets) and the schools you list tend to be full aid schools, so you may get money on a need basis, but you need to be working on a merit list as well, if you want to cover that base.</p>

3

<p>My GUESSES on this list regarding merit aid:
None at Middlebury, Oberlin, Skidmore, Wesleyan, Tufts, Boston College, Colgate or Kenyon (and, obviously, Notre Dame).
Maybe at Denison, Hamilton.
No idea at Northwestern.</p>

<p>cptofthehouse:
That's an interesting story regarding Denison merit aid. I wonder if they have cut back on merit aid as of 2006-2007. The percentage looks MUCH lower in US News than I recall from the previous year. (I wish I had printed out last year's because it seems to be gone now.) But, still, my son claims nearly everyone he knows has a scholarship - of course kids don't always distinguish between need-based and merit in casual conversation...</p>

<p>I also agree with your assessment of the Catholic colleges and merit money.</p>

4

<p>My neighbor has a daughter at Denison. She eschewed a more highly selective LAC for Denison because of the generous merit aid offered there. That her sister graduated from there made it a familiar place even though it is a midwest school. The young lady had top stats in highschool, and was accepted to a number of selective schools but really wanted a small environment. The family does not qualify for financial aid. The sister was accepted when the family lived in western PA, and perhaps the geographics made some difference as well in not getting any money, but she was also not the scholar her sister is. I do know a number of people with kids at some local schools who have kids and are paying full freight who have said that it seems like everyone but their kids are getting money. I suspect that some of it are very small scholarships, loans and need based aid. The stats do indicate that the majority of kids going to one school in particular are on some financial aid. Although merit aid is also given, the stats show that it is not much and not for many kids. There are some nice full tuitions scholarships but many $500 awards as well. My son got a $100 "scholarship" at his school some years ago, that was offered to students showing promise of being involved in extracurricular activities. </p>

<p>Kids looking for generous merit awards have to start checking out schools that are below the radar of most students with their academic stats. You also do better if you are not applying to a school in the area where they are not interested in another kid from Local XYZ High.</p>

5

<p>I read somwhere that Northwestern gave a small percentage of students merit aid, but I wasn't able to find anything on their website about merit scholarships. So, I e-mailed them and they confirmed that they offer NO merit scholarships. </p>

<p>The SAT 25:75 range for Hamilton is 1340:1480 and they accept 34% of applicants (this info is a couple of years old and so may be slightly off), so merit there is going to be doubtful. They only give ten half tuition scholarships and the average SAT for those is 1460.</p>