STEM matches and safeties with good financial aid?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m a rising senior and I’ve only been looking at top colleges (with my dream school being MIT), which I know is highly risky. I’m hoping that you guys have some helpful suggestions so I don’t get shut out/face a lack of options come decision day.

To contextualize, some stats:
SAT: 2350 superscored (old test, not taking new one)
ACT: 36 (no writing, not taking again, sophomore test with writing 31 – writing test not the issue, I just improved generally)
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.5+ weighted
Rank: 1/~200
Subject Tests: (none yet, will take in October, have begun prep and will continue until I can consistently get 800s, math II and either physics or chemistry)
APs: Physics 1 (4), World History (4), Chemistry, English Language, Physics 2, Statistics, US History (did better this year, can expect mostly and hopefully all fives)

I have multiple extracurriculars with leadership positions and some (minor: my school does not provide many opportunities for recognition, though I’ve sought some out myself recently) awards, but I’m afraid they don’t really stand out.

I’m a white female from a semi rural public school in the south (likely national merit qualifier) and I hate it. My number one priority is leaving this place to a better state and a better school, so I absolutely do not want to go to my state university. I’d like an urban environment on one of the coasts, preferably east. I would consider international studies, but I doubt they would be feasible considering my financial situation.

Due to having siblings that recently left college (and now provide for themselves and do not “count” in financial aid calculations), my parents have little college savings for me. They act cagey when I try to bring up the subject, but I think they can afford to pay around ~$8,000 a year and not much more. Our family income is around ~$75,000 a year, though, which seems higher than the cutoff for much need based financial aid. Our financial situation is such that their income could be lowered reasonably easily if necessary/if it would provide significant benefit in aid. A good deal of my aim in looking at MIT, the Ivy League, and other top colleges is in the hope that they will provide sufficient need based aid. If not, I would personally rather take on loans than stay in the south any longer/deal with subpar education for four years and feel its effects for the rest of my life. (I’m aware of, for example, the University of Alabama’s generous merit aid package for someone like me, but as I’ve stated I would hate going there.)

I’m interested in STEM, but flexible in most of the acronym (and so would prefer a college that doesn’t require commitment on applying): I enjoy science (particularly chemistry and physics, and more obscurely, entomology), could see myself working with computers or becoming an engineer, and recently really enjoyed my statistics class, much more than I had enjoyed any math (ish) class before. Colleges with good statistics majors or minors separate from mathematics majors or minors would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! … I know I’ve written a lot. And I’m aware that, asking for matches and safeties, some of these preferences might not be fulfilled…

2

$75,000 may be the cutoff at a state school but not for a school you are likely to go to, not even close. Stanford for example waives all tuition at $125,000 and below. You should spend some time on the school calculators for financial aid and really get a clearer picture.

However, some merit (and need) possibilities in the east are University of Rochester and Lehigh. I know one student at Lehigh with stats like yours on full scholarship. My nephew is at Rochester on a very large merit award. Case Western probably has merit. Wash U offers up to full tuition. It sounds like you will find something. Cornell has great need based money. You have a big gender hook for STEM.

3

there are many U’s that will offer you automatic full tuition scholarships, for your ACT scores. In addition, IF you are a NMF there are many colleges that offer large scholarships as well.

CAREFULLY read their websites- MANY have early application deadlines for merit scholarship consideration. Those EARLY deadlines will NOT prevent you from also applying SCEA to colleges, as the early submission is a requirement for scholarship consideration. The SCEA acceptance rate at some of the most Ivys is considerably higher than their overall acceptance rates, however, NONE are anything less than reaches for anyone.

USC[ Southern Calif] offers about 100 full tuition scholarships, BUT they really want to “feel the love” from students who GENUINELY want to go there, not just receive an early application from a top stat student. I would say IF you apply early to USC and really let them know of your genuine interest , they would be a match[ as approx 50% of NMF’s are accepted]

Here are 2 lists complied by CC parents of merit scholarships- some are competitive, some are automatic.

http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

4

@OnTheBubble Thank you! For the suggestions and the compliment. I will look at Rochester and Lehigh. I’ve definitely already been looking at Cornell for a while (their “any person, any study” thing appeals to me a lot with my indecisiveness/I like to call it well roundedness haha), but I’m afraid an Ivy League college has to be considered a reach for everyone, so I’m trying not to fall in love… though I already did with MIT and Cornell might be on its way, whoops. </3

@menloparkmom Thanks. Do NMF awards like those require early decision, too, or is action okay (for what it’s worth, I’m currently planning on nonrestrictive early action to MIT and maybe a few other places)? I’ll know if I qualify as a NMF before I have to submit the application, right?

5

You need to run net price calculators on all the schools you are considering. Although it is another reach on your list, I’d encourage you to look at Harvey Mudd. Your odds are better than their overall acceptance rate because you are female. I have a daughter there if you have questions, PM me. My kid was into entomology in HS, too, it doesn’t seem
unusual to me. :slight_smile: The other suggestions above are good, too.

6

Do NMF awards like those require early decision?
no.
FYI- The tippy top U’s, such as the MIT, the Ivys, DONT sponsor, i.e. support the National Merit Sholarship Foundation or offer school scholarships to NMF’s. nor do they care about national merit status, because a very large % of top students who do apply to them anyway ARE NMF’s .

NMF’s applicants are a dime a dozen at those U’s and colleges and being one does not distinguish oneself there.

The colleges that DO sponsor, i.e. care about NMF status, can be found starting on page 28 of the 2014-2015 ANNUAL REPORT link under “for sponsors” in the middle of this page:

http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/start.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=61&cid=160

You should know if you are a NMSF before you apply, but WHEN you actually apply to colleges is irrelevant to the NMSF scholarship process…
approx 16,000 of the 17,000 semi finalists do advance to finalist status- all you have to do is, not screwup your grades, write the required essay and have your GC submit it and his LOR to National Merit.

What you WILL need to do , in May, is to notify NMSF of your FINAL first choice school, AFTER you have made you final decision where you are going to go to college and it is a college that sponsors NMF’s, i.e.offers them college based scholarships

By then you will know where you have been accepted and will also know what , if any scholarships you have been offered and by what college, so you can make the best decision financially and education wise for you and your family.

7

I think you need to be aware of the financial aid deadlines for most of the nmsf scholarships which can be early.

Although some of them seem like vultures after ivy day, waiting to grab up the ivy rejects and kids who didn’t get enough large enough FA offers from top schools.

8

OP. you CAN change the college that you list as “first choice” numerous times.
HOWEVER, I believe that colleges KNOW this.
So dont try to play the game- WAIT to designate your “first choice” college until you decide where you want to enroll., i.e. in May.
That is when NMSF sends the FINAL first choice lists to colleges, who match lists of who have accepted offers of admission to NMSF lists.

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U of Portland
Clarkson University
Case Western Reserve University
U of Rochester
Saint Louis University
Washington University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The University at Buffalo [SUNY]
Colorado School of Mines
City College of New York (Macaulay Honors)
Washington State University (NMF)
U of Maryland-Baltimore County

No Engineering
Lewis & Clark College
Macalester College
St. Olaf College
Willamette University

10

As OnTheBubble correctly noted, be aware that if your family income is under 75k and they don’t have a lot of assets, the elite colleges are going to give need-based massive aid that makes the college remarkably affordable, or even close to free. There are only about 20-25 schools in this category, and they are extremely hard to get into, but if you do get in, they will make it affordable for you.

11

I just wanted to say that I think entomology is really important…not obscure at all. The Zika crisis is just another reminder about the importance of insects…
for entomology, I would recommend Cornell, which you already looked into. also many of the state schools…UC Davis, Penn State, Ohio State.
good luck to you!

12

^ Not much aid at PSU (or the UCs), would not recommend for OOS.

13

@ThankYouforHelp I would say about 50-60 schools if LAC’s are included.

14

Some of those are not need blind in admissions, though – so if you need aid, your odds of admissions goes down. I know this is Wikipedia, but I like this link – it shows the schools by categories pretty well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission

Categories 1 & 2 will be the best options, and category 3 is good (but you probably want stats to be reasonably high there, as needing aid can lower your chances of admission).

I do agree that if you want to make a career in entomology, Cornell is clearly the place to be. My kid didn’t want to do that, but if she had, Cornell would probably have been very high on her list.

15

For low cost safeties, there is this list:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

However, if you make NMF, your list gets larger:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/

Because most large competitive (as opposed to automatic-for-stats) scholarships are not very transparent on how difficult they are to get beyond any minimum requirements, they should generally be considered as reaches. Here are some (other than in the NMF list which includes both automatic-for-stats and competitive scholarships):
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

If they are unwilling to tell you what their contribution limit is (perhaps due to not wanting to admit having blown the budget on your older siblings), then assume that they will be able to contribute $0 when making your list (particularly with safeties). You can reasonably expect to self-fund at most $5,500 (federal direct loan) plus a few thousand dollars per year of work earnings.

16

You may want to look at Fordham (Rose Hill campus) and Lafayette as well. (For full disclosure I had a kid at each school but you would likely get merit aid at both and both have strong STEM).

17

OP I know this is a hard discussion to have with your parents. I commend you for taking as reasonable an approach as you are taking, figuring out safeties, etc. You do seem to have a good handle on how it works (need-based versus merit, for example, and the fact that your siblings will probably not be included in household size.) But you mention that they are “cagey.” It might be worth it to be sure you are not far off track. Can you mention to your parents, “Mom, Dad, I am looking at financial aid for schools. I think our income is about $75,000, right?” And then, “Is there anything else I should know before I do net price calc’s?”

18

Outstanding stats. You are definitely a candidate for schools with great aid.

In order to craft a great strategy, you will need your parents cooperation in filling out the NPC’s and seeing if the self-help portion is within your family’s means. Without knowing that, you really can’t craft a great strategy.

Basically, the fundamental question is whether your need based financial aid will be enough, or whether you need merit also.

I think the suggestions of Rochester, Lehigh and Case for merit are good ones.

USC, Rice, UChicago, Brandies and Tulane also have merit scholarships of varying amounts.

I think you might consider University of Pittsburgh where you might be able to get full-tuition. It’s not as automatic as Alabama, but if you apply early, you are a great candidate. They have an honors college, etc.

A second fundamental question is whether you think you want science or engineering. Engineering is a professional degree and therefore has many more requirements and a deeper prerequisite graph than science degrees do. To be a scientist, you really need a PhD. There are a few schools (Rochester, Johns Hopkins, Rice, MIT, Stanford) where you don’t have to decide until you get there, but most schools have different admissions processes for engineering vs arts and science. Some colleges have great science, but zero engineering (Brandeis, Chicago are examples).

$8,000 is a quite low to expect to get a college of your caliber, but perhaps you can do it.

Finally, I know you want to leave your state, but your stats suggest that you will likely head to grad school after you finish undergrad. Most PhD programs are funded, so they will pay you tuition plus a stipend. If push comes to shove, please leave your in-state option on the table until you are sure that you have something better.

19

What about Olin, Northeastern, Bowdoin (no engineering but excellent for science), Carleton (no engineering but excellent for science, on the intellectual/nerdy/quirky side; not on a coast but in a liberal State and a liberal college town.)

20

OP we are on a similar search here (tho I don’t think S will have your excellent stats). As ClassicRockerDad points out, deciding whether to pursue need-based or merit or a bit of both – and understanding which schools would be targets – will benefit from input from your parents. The point about engineering and possible science PhDs should inform your search since those might influence your choices. And as MYOS suggests there are many schools, large and small, that could work for you. It would be good to hear from you more about preferences, other than wanting to leave your state. Also, would you consider a women’s college? Keep coming back to continue the thread…