<p>cptofthehouse, thanks for your reply. D refuses to even consider women’s colleges, though I know there are some good ones that offer merit out there. </p>
<p>I do understand how the “merit aid” system works and will be targeting the upper 75% zone once her scores are in. One of the perils of researching ahead of the data has been getting attached to some top science schools before knowing what her test scores will be. But I’ve assumed that there would be no merit from schools like Mac and Whitman if she got in, and I guess I’m going to have to decide if it’s even worth letting her apply to the “Reach” schools. </p>
<p>This process . . . it’s easy to get attached to certain schools and programs that aren’t all that practical. I felt perfectly happy with Beloit and Kalamazoo before looking into Mac and Whitman. lol Anyway, these replies have given me several more schools to investigate. Thanks for all the ideas.</p>
<p>If you have a “max budget” as to how much you’ll spend each year, then it usually helps to make that clear to a child well in advance. </p>
<p>It sounds like you also have int’l travel costs to consider…plane trip and shuttles back and forth can easily add $2500 per year. A student from Hawaii (obviously domestic travel…lol) pays over $2000 for one way travel in the fall, RT at Christmas, and one way in the spring. </p>
<p>So, if you feel that you can spend - say $40k towards COA and $3k towards annual int’l travel - then let your D know that now. LACs can cost $60k per year. So, in this example, your D would have to get at least $20k in merit to meet the family budget.</p>
<p>I don’t have a good sense of her personality but if she likes Wooster and Pitzer she may like New College of Florida, great school academically, and gives good merit aid, and possibly even more than is listed on the web site.</p>
<p>I just would like to add that my D is pretty much in the same boat. My guess is there are quite a large number of great kids, Macalester wannabes, who are ending up at Wooster, Lawrence, etc, and that she will be in the company of many other promising students. And at those schools I would guess there are perhaps fewer children of privilege, which to me is a plus (no offense, rich kids can be wonderful, too, but sometimes seeing too many kids with too much money can have a negative effect).</p>
<p>Consider the women’s colleges. Bryn Mawr has merit aid and is near a big city. It’s strong in the sciences as well. Mt. Holyoke also has good merit aid.</p>
<p>I know several kids who got very generous merit aid from Muhlenberg College as well.</p>
<p>I know she’s not into women’s schools but Scripps has some great merit awards for the best students, and it’s of course part of the Claremont schools. She can take classes at and even major at Pitzer.</p>
<p>My D with a 30 ACT, 3.9 unweighted, no hooks, got merit at Dickinson & Oberlin 15K, Denison and Wooster and Juniata 20K last year. But that still left around 25K for Juniata up to 40K for Oberlin. Can you pay 25K a year?</p>
<p>I would recommend dropping Juniatta if location is a high priority - It really feels extremely remote.</p>
<p>I would look at
Ursinus
Rhodes</p>
<p>After seeing my son’s results, I recommend really make a lot of contact with Rhodes. I think his merit was not as high as it could have been if he consistently kept contact during the process. Even with his limited contact, he receive nice merit.</p>
<p>Perhaps see if some with low list prices are within affordability range:</p>
<p>Truman State ($25,000 per year OOS, automatic merit for high stats)
University of Minnesota - Morris ($24,000 per year IS or OOS)
University of North Carolina - Asheville ($36,000 per year OOS)
SUNY - Geneseo ($30,000 per year OOS)</p>
<p>Have you taken a look at the automatic and guaranteed merit aid threads in the Financial Aid Forum? Granted, most of those offers are at Big State Us rather than cozy little LACs, but one or more of them could serve as the dead-on admissions and finance safety that every applicant needs.</p>
<p>overseas, merit aid can vary widely based on how much the college wants the student. Depending on where you live, your daughter’s international experience could be a big plus in admissions. </p>
<p>How much merit aid are you looking for? If it’s more than $25K a year, then I think your daughter needs to loosen her restrictions. Smith College offers excellent merit aid, especially for women in the sciences. Because of its consortium with Amherst and UMass among others, there is ample interaction with the opposite sex. </p>
<p>I would second Rhodes as well.</p>
<p>Students at our international school have done well with merit packages from Grinnell and Macalester. Again, it may that their experience living in an underdeveloped country appealed to the college’s diversity focus.</p>
<p>It is difficult to find small schools in cities. I third the mention of Rhodes in Memphis, and out west in San Antonio is Trinity U. There are ~2500 UG students, a beautiful campus, newly opened Center for Science and innovation. It will get hot, but every place on campus has A/C.</p>
<p>momrath–D is an American citizen, so not “international,” but was born and has lived all her life in Japan, so not an underdeveloped country. I’ve had mixed messages about how interesting that will be to colleges. She attends an international high school that gets pretty good results with admissions numbers.</p>
<p>D would choose a small LAC in the sticks before a big state college. I think priorities are 1)LAC, 2)strong science program, 3)merit aid and 4)mid-sized town or city. Because we’re overseas, we haven’t been able to visit any schools aside from the Claremonts, but I think she would like Kalamazoo and hoping she will like Beloit as well, though I’ve heard the city is fairly depressing.</p>
<p>As far as budget, I would like to get the COA down to about 30-35K a year. She is planning to be in school for a long time, and I’d like to be able to continue to help her, not blow all our savings on her first four years.</p>
<p>As far as personality, she swims in HS but otherwise not interested in sports. Serious, organized student who likes her teachers and classes, but not a huge reader, doesn’t consider herself an intellectual. We looked at Harvey Mudd because of the whole girls in STEM advantage, but she doesn’t want to take tons of required math. Will give Rhodes a look.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus–As far as major, she hasn’t decided yet, but is looking at Biology, Chemistry and Neuroscience. So far not med school, but is considering dental school, which is also expensive.</p>
<p>I’m also an overseas born and raised American citizen from Australia. I’m on a similiar search for merit money (preferably big merit money) I’m African American, I’m in the IB diploma programme and I haven’t taken the ACT tests but based on practices I’m thinking maybe a 34. suggestions would be great! (not to hack your thread overseasMama, this stuff seems to overlap anyway) although I know I want to major in IR, also prefer cities! and northeast, southeast or CA</p>
<p>I would suggest Eckerd (florida) for merit money but for the weather! Goucher in Maryland could be good (in a city) and Randolph in Virginia has some good scholarships (and about 600 undergrads)</p>
<p>Biology and chemistry do not have very good job prospects (in the US, anyway), so it is a good idea to pay attention to avoiding a lot of student loan debt.</p>
<p>redpoint, thanks, I think you make a good point. A friend who was a valedictorian, straight-A student, went to Kalamazoo and found herself surrounded by similar high performers. Said it was a bit of a shock. These days, with competition for funds so fierce, you don’t have to attend a “name” school or the most selective schools to find plenty of bright students. Plus I think certain majors tend to attract the more serious students. If she’s surrounded by pre-meds and kids going on to grad schools, I think she’ll do fine. </p>
<p>One reason she likes the Claremont colleges is the integrated accelerated science program, but I don’t think she’ll get money there unless she tries Scripps, and so far she’s opposed to a women’s college.</p>