Can anyone recommend larger (5,000 and up) schools in the Northeast corridor that offer merit aid?
Son has been an average-ish student, has a 2.8 unweighted but a 3.8 weighted GPA. He has some high level math, science, and English (but in 9th and 10th got lots of B’s and a few C’s). He is more motivated now that he’s in 11th and is pulling mostly A’s and a couple B’s.
He took the SAT this fall and surprised us with a combined 1400…700 in each area. Any advice on how the search will pan out for him, with a less stellar GPA but good test scores?
Any suggestions for schools for a kid like this? No clue what he will major in.
Check out some of the Catholic universities (below Georgetown, BC and Villanova) such as Fordham, Loyola MD, Scranton, St Joe’s, Providence, LaSalle, Fairfield and Catholic U.
You are going to have many more options is you are a bit more flexible geographically. Ohio, for example, has a number of really solid schools that might offer Merit aid, such as Wooster and Denison. Search here on CC for “merit aid” and you will find a number of useful threads.
Your S is on the right grade trajectory. Some schools will even throw out 9th grade, which might help. If he has not tried the ACT, he might want to take a practice test to see if he scores higher than on the SAT. Re-taking SAT another consideration to possibly up the score.
The good news is you are starting this process now, not 10 months from now.
Great- thank you. He did check out Denison although so far he seems to prefer a larger school.
@londondad , I’m curious as to why you suggest the Catholic-affiliated schools…do they tend to be more generous with merit aid? Villanova, Fordham, and Fairfield were already on our list.
Encourage your son to get that unweighted GPA above a 3.0 and that will increase his chances.
NE corridor is tough for merit. If you can expand your range to include PA or OH you will have many more options. Denison, OWU, Wooster, Allegheny, Ursinus, Susquehanna, etc. OWU is the largest.
The Colleges that Change Lives - ctcl.org - might have some additional options although they are likely to be smaller LACs.
@STF4717 My nieces went to Villanova a few years back and also had full tuition merit scholarship offers from Catholic U and around 1/2 tuition from Villanova. They also had very generous offers from Loyola in Baltimore. I have also read here on CC about other Catholic universities becoming more generous to grab top students. My son used to receive constant letters from Seton Hall in NJ with potential scholarship offers. Another school that has become more popular is Loyola Chicago, but I think that the maximum merit scholarship is $21,000 per year, so that may not work for you financially. Good luck.
Thank you all- I did read the CTCL book and attended their college fair, which was super interesting. I think my kid is hoping for a bigger school, so we’ll see…
@londondad we are going to visit Villanova and will also visit Loyola since it’s practically in our backyard.
Out of all the Jesuit schools, we liked University of Scranton the best by far (we did not visit the higher ranked BC, Georgetown and Vill). They do have merit awards based on testscores and GPA.
@STF4717 If you are in Philly, you might want to check out LaSalle and St. Joes both of which are getting more popular. I second @NEPatsGirl 's recommendation of Scranton. This school gets high marks from CC posters. I had two high school friends who went there and loved it. Scranton also has some full tuition merit scholarships.
Another school with plentiful merit scholarships is the University of Miami.
In addition to focusing on merit aid, how much can you afford to pay list price and what state do you live in.
Generally speaking, NY state schools are very attractive for OOS. Additionally, with the strength of the US Dollar, Canadian schools can be a good deal right now.
^ that is a very important point, as if you can get by with a $20,000 ish merit scholarship that will give you a whole lot more options than if you need full tuition merit scholarships.
Most colleges recalculate the GPA and many do not include phys.ed, business, music, art, computer, etc. unless at the AP or IB level. Look carefully at your son’s grades and see where the GPA would fall within those parameters. Institutions weight IB, AP and DE courses on different scales. There is a big difference between his UW and W GPA. How many honors and AP courses has he or will be able to take and receive an A or B? Colleges will look at rigor or strength of program and his grades. I don’t know how many colleges will overlook the freshman grades unless he is a top prospect. How strong are his EC’s? Are there any extenuating factors to explain the lower grades? If he has an opportunity to take any CC courses next summer, make sure the transcript is in his file. This will be an indicator to the colleges as to future academic performance.
Congratulations on his SAT scores! Admissions will look at that and review the school profile when they consider his grades. I think it is very important to get his unweighted GPA up to at least 3.2 to guarantee acceptance into the schools listed. Check each school that he is interested in to see what their threshold for merit is based on. Remember that the GPA’s listed will be the recalculated one’s by the school, not the one on the transcript.
Best of luck, it is good that you are researching this and helping him. Cast a wide net. I think extending the geographic area is good advice. Make sure his safety schools will be safety for grades and affordability.