Hi,
I’m a rising senior making my list of schools. I’m on that part of the financial aid spectrum where I’m probably not getting much (if any) financial aid but I can’t afford most private schools full price. I understand that there are a lot of small LACs that would give me a fair amount of merit aid but I’m looking more for medium sized (4,000-13,000) schools preferably in an urban area. I would prefer schools in the northeast but am not opposed to schools in other parts of the country. I am looking for schools strong in the humanities (particularly history and writing) but I’m considering minoring in math.
My stats:
ACT: 33 (taking again hoping for 34+)
GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.35 W
Extracurriculars: Not bad, not great (don’t want to list them all)
6 or 7 honors classes, 9ish APs (4s and 5s so far), dual enrollment at a fairly prestigious school
White, female, pretty uncommon area
Thanks in advance! Sorry if I left out any information.
How much can your parents pay? Will you have siblings in college at the same time? We don’t know what the final cost per year needs to be. If you give us this information we can help you.
Not all schools give out large amounts of merit aid. “Larger school in urban area of the northeast” just doesn’t fit the profile for big merit schools. You’re going to have to be flexible.
Schools like Fordham may have some merit (10 to 15K perhaps) but the cost of attendance is 70K, so the overall price is still very high. If you need lots of merit, schools like Beloit in rural Wisconsin or your in state flagship honors program will have much better prices.
Case Western, U of Rochester, Ithaca College might be what you’re looking for. Check Syracuse - not sure if they have merit or not. If you’re willing to expand your geographic range, maybe look at Rice, Wash U, Carnegie Mellon. The latter are going to be reaches for everyone, even more so if seeking merit aid. But worth a try.
Merit scholarships typically come in at the 20-25K range, sometimes as high as 30. That will still leave 40K or more to pay, so be mindful of that as you move forward.
You should also apply to your state flagship, especially if it has an honors program.
You need to be able to state an actual budget, the same stuff comes up over and over, but even if you were admitted to say CWRU, what does a 30K scholarship do for you if the COA is 65K? Same goes for lots of schools that have high COAs and sweetener carrots. Merit matters not a jot, if you can’t afford the balance. Merit for tippy top students at great schools are uncommon, you are in the nice spot of good stats but not top stats. That means merit comes from schools where your stats shine, they are unlikely to be nice urban northeastern reach schools.
A lot of the catholic schools are in the 5000-8000 student range, and some give merit. Dayton, Scranton, Loyola.