Right now im considering the following schools to apply to:
UVA
University of Richmond
UMich
GA Tech
USC
Case Western
Lehigh
University of Rochester
How frequently do these schools give merit aid, and how difficult is it to get these awards?? Could I get a half ride at some of these schools?? I have a 3.9 gpa, 2220 sat, and good ec’s. Thank you!!
Also, could you please suggest other good schools that give a lot of merit aid to top students, but arent too hard to get scholarships from?
p.s. I would like to study science if that changes anything
Are you an instate resident for Michigan, Virginia or Georgia?
UVA and U of Michigan have very few merit awards, and the ones they have are highly competitive.
@thumper1 I am out of state for all of these schools. Should i not apply to UMich and UVA in that case?
That depends - have you asked your parents how much they can pay each year for 4 years?
What is your parents’ income or approximate range?
Do you have siblings?
Any college savings account?
Are you considering University of Alabama?
you don’t have a good list if you’re expecting decent merit.
What is your situation? how much will your parents pay each year?
What is your math plus CR SAT?
USC will expect high SAT scores for merit. I know kids with ACT 35 who got NOTHING from USC.
UVA and GT…no. UMich…no
URoch…maybe $15k pey year…not a lot…still would have to pay $45k or more per year.
Case, some, not sure how much…depends on math plus CR.
Don’t know a lot about the others in regards to merit…
ok…edit…I remember you…
your parents won’t qualify for aid, but can’t pay much. BUT…they (naiviely) suggest loans for undergrad…CRAZY idea.
You’re PREMED. If you’re serious about being premed, then why are you looking at unaffordable schools?
Your list makes NO SENSE for YOUR situation.
look at schools where most of your costs will be covered with merit.
If you need high merit aid and have little to no financial need, you need to completely change your application strategy. My kids live that reality. They are very high-achieving students with stellar academic performances who have little demonstrated need by financial calculators, but live in a reality where we can’t afford to pay anywhere close to what is expected and we refuse to take out loans.
I’ll use my current 2nd yr college student as an example bc he applied to Case and GT hoping for one of their extremely competitive top awards. He had an unweighted GPA of 4.0 (at least 8 of those courses were completed at local 4 yr universities and were 200/300 level math and physics courses), top subject test scores, great LOR from college professors, etc. GT gave zero merit $$, Case gave their highest standard award, but even after that scholarship, our portion was something like $30,000 (I’d have to go back and look, but the scholarship eliminated all need and we were responsible for the balance.)
He had a friend in VA with even higher levels of achievement than he had who was accepted into Stanford, UChicago, Princeton, etc, and as an instate applicant, UVA offered her no merit $$.
If you have to have merit $$, and by that I mean your college attendance is 100% only possible if you receive almost all tuition costs covered by scholarship and maybe enough $$ from your family to help cover room and board, books, and travel, but not enough beyond that for tuition, you really need to spend a lot of time investigating full tuition merit schools. Apply to a handful of schools where you think you might get a rare top award (my kids do this, but they know not to count on it. Those awards are more competitive than admission into tippy top schools) but you need to apply to schools where you know you will get high merit aid so that when the dust settles in the spring, you have real options that are affordable.
Investigate all of the schools in the automatic merit link. That will give you a good place to start. The list is not exhaustive, but once you understand what you are looking for, you can start researching other schools’ websites for similar type info.
I think the problem here is that the student (and maybe parents) think that to get into med school, the student needs to go to a certain type of “top school”…and think that it’s necessary to go into significant debt to do so.
The sad thing is…if this student makes it to med school (a LOT more debt), he’ll find that his classmates are from a wide variety of undergrads, and many of them made smart choices by not taking on undergrad debt.
Avoid debt as an undergrad. Ask your parents if they can help you with med school costs if you keep costs low for undergrad. Yesterday, my MS3 son called me and said that he’s likely going to need a new car (his is 10 years old and is having issues). So, I told him to find a car and let me know how much it will be. Yes, he’s 24 years old and technically should be “on his own,” but as his parents we have to help him get to his goals.
I’ve said this a million times on CC. We paid very little for son’s undergrad. He got free tuition from Alabama plus $4500 per year in merit scholarships, plus a couple of one time awards. He worked hard, got top grades, did well on the MCAT, shined with his profs, did medically related ECs, got great LORs, and had no problems getting into med schools…all with merit offers…not super huge (almost half tuition), but a nice cut in the overall expense.
He’s at a top med school, his first choice, and could’t be happier.
OP what is your home state?
@mom2collegekids (Post #8): I know lots of doctors who not only went to Big State U for undergraduate, but also the Big State U’s Medical College; and they are doing just fine, thank you. One doctor whom I know has said to me, “Once you have the M.D., nobody cares where you went to school.”
For UMich, your GPA and test scores are just within the mid 50. You will not get merit scholarships there. They do offer great merit aids to in state and OOS students but you will need a much better score for that. Around 15 are getting full ride and around a couple hundreds are getting $5-$20k/year at LSA and dozens get $8k-$20k/yr at CoE.
It seems you are interested in engineering. You should try Purdue. They have over 800 Trustees and President scholarship each year.
D2 received a full tuition science scholarship from the University of Richmond with 3.98 U/W GPA, 2230 SAT, NMF. Her ECs were great, with a national level science competition and a paid summer internship in Biomedical Engineering.
UR gives out roughly 12 science full tuition/full ride scholarships each year. They are not easy to get, but definitely would be worth a try. If you are a Richmond Scholar Finalist, but don’t get offered the scholarship, they would then offer you a presidential scholarship of 15K, still leaving 45K to come up with if you are full pay. They do also meet 100% of need based aid if you qualify for any.
Be sure to apply by Dec. 1st to be considered for Richmond Scholars.
Lafayette College in PA is pretty generous with merit and has good science and engineering programs.
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Once you have the M.D., nobody cares where you went to school."
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Yes…because all US med schools are excellent.
I believe the old joke is,
Q: “What do you call a person who ranked last in his class from the worst medical school in America?”
A: “Doctor”