<p>A skinny 1200 math verbal. He is well rounded kid, outgoing, average athlete, good recs. Any idea where a kid like this might garner some merit aid in the competitive northeast college corridor. His Mom prefers a private ...but no can do without merit. His parents have a relatively high EFC.. but more kids to educate down the road so 40k plus is not an option. Parents to out at 20-22k a year. Likes science, would probably interview well. He has pretty much flat-lined in the ACT/SAT testing. Both taken several times. Wants a school within 3 hours of Boston. Just going into senior year in Sept. ..so time is on his side. Any suggestions, or is public his best (only) option? If so, which ones. Thanks in advance for the input.</p>
<p>1200 is not bad. The average only runs around 1020...</p>
<p>I'm a fan of Arcadia University (in a suburb of Philadelphia). Very generous merit aid for students with a 3.25 gpa + without filling out additional paperwork. Rolling admissions, private, with an interesting variety of academics you don't see everywhere (such as pre-art therapy & scientific illustration). Fabulous study abroad programs (many of the top "elite" schools utilize Arcadia for their study abroad programs). Many science related majors.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.arcadia.edu%5B/url%5D">http://www.arcadia.edu</a></p>
<p>Maybe look at Quinnipiac...i believe they have some good health careers/science majors. Might look at U of Hartford also. Less selective Mass schools could be Stonehill, Merrimack & the like.
Fairfield could also be an option, but I don't know how they are on merit aid.</p>
<p>Which state is he in? Three hours from Boston could be CT, RI, VT, NH, NY. That could make a difference in which public colleges or universities would be a reasonable option.</p>
<p>One other thing - You can do a "Matchmaker" search on College Board by putting in the number of miles from a Boston zip code and putting in his SAT scores. It brings up a LOT of schools though, so you might want to narrow the search based on some other things.</p>
<p>Our family's experience with predicting merit awards is that ... it's very difficult to predict merit awards. What I can suggest is that any school where your nephew's academic record puts him in the top 10-15% would be a prospect for him ESPECIALLY is he intends to major in Math or Science or Engineering.</p>
<p>You might also want to take a look at Colleges That Change Lives (ctcl.com) or the US News & World Report list of A+ Schools for B Students (under Honor Rolls).</p>
<p>re Arcadia--my D did not get in to Arcadia this year with a similar SAT score and a higher than average admit GPA (3.6), 6 AP classes (school only offers 8) lots of EC and active involvement outside of school with an organization working in Africa, Girl Scout Gold Award, Congressional Gold Award etc.. It is a great school to look at though and my D had great choices when all was said and done :) and will be attending one that was higher on her list of schools.</p>
<p>Hmm how are grades? University of Richmond (Va) has decent merit aid from what I've seen, and isn't super selective so it might be worth looking into, but I have no idea what the numbers are like. <a href="http://www.richmond.edu%5B/url%5D">www.richmond.edu</a> is the link I think. Nice school, very small, gorgeous campus, but small. </p>
<p>It really depends on whether he wants to go much farther down than what he could get into. Otherwise the state flagship is probably just as good a deal academically unless it doesn't meet the needs for some reason, since a lot of merit aid won't be a full scholarship. It's kind of hard to say. Do you have any idea of anything else he might be looking for?</p>
<p>Edit: never mind, I just saw the within three hours of Boston. Where is Bucknell, is that up near there? If so I know people who have gotten merit money there, without maybe exceptional statistics, but they had strong leadership stuff. Could be worth looking into, I honestly don't know where it is, I thought it was up north though.</p>
<p>What are his grades like? What type of high school curriculum has he taken (# years of math/science/foreign language, number of AP's/Honors courses). What his is class rank? Someone with a 3.9 GPA and 1200 SAT scores is in a very different position than someone with a 2.5 GPA and 1200 SAT scores.</p>
<p>Depending on his grades and more specifics about what he is looking for, these schools might be worth a look: Wheaton College (MA), Clark University, Providence College, Mass. College of Liberal Arts, Bryant University, Fairfield University, Assumption College, Suffolk University. </p>
<p>Public institutions are not his only option, but understanding how financial aid and merit money works will be the key to making those other options work. So, my main advice would be for the parents to get educated on both ASAP.</p>
<p>Both skinny AND well rounded? I am so confused!! :D</p>
<p>If he's above 1800 for all three parts of the SAT, Marist will give him $8,000 a year (if he has a 3.3 GPA or above). That's a good deal. We visited the college this November. Lovely campus, but student body is not that diverse.</p>
<p>As far as Marist, there is a chart that indicates merit scholarship guidelines, however, it is an alumni committee (not admissions) that determines who gets a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Check out Fairfield University and Hobart William Smith</p>
<p>Limited majors but Salve Regina in Newport RI</p>
<p>This goes back to 2004, but my older son was a 1200 math/verbal himself. Solid "B" student, college prep classes with no honors or AP's. His only real EC was chorus and being in his school's select madrigal singing group for 4 years. He got merit awards from Hartwick College (Oneonta NY), Roger Williams University (Bristol, RI) and Champlain College (Burlington VT). This was because his 1200 placed him in the upper range of their applicant pool. He also got into University of New Hampshire, and University of Vermont (where he now attends- no merit awards there though!). As I recall he got waitlisted at Marist, got a regional campus assignment at UCONN (we live in CT), and turned down by Clark University. </p>
<p>Overall, we were pleased he had some nice choices and even some merit awards offered to him. So, the schools are out there, but pay attention to the average SAT's, class ranks and GPA's of the applicant pool and put some apps in to schools where he ranks in the upper 25%.</p>
<p>Ok, this may be outside the preferred 3 hour radius, but often initial criteria change.
Univ of Scranton, Susquehanna, and I second Marist.
Unlikely to get "merit" aid at Richmond, and definitely not at Bucknell.</p>
<p>Yeah, I figured. the Bucknell scholarships were Posse Leadership ones so it was sort of a special case. Like I said, not amazing "numbers" (though certainly solid), but considerable leadership and diversity. I wasn't sure if it was indicative of some other "niche" type opportunities there, honestly I don't know much about this school other than that I figured it was north of here ;) Richmond falls way out of the radius, but if grades and coursework were exceptional, they give a fair amount so I thought there might be a shot, except of course most of it would only make UR less expensive than it already would be. And I'm sure they're trying to raise their mid-50th SAT numbers with their merit money offers, but from what I know there may be a shot if everything but the SATs are well above average. But I don't think it's necessarily worth it even he did get lucky because it would probably still turn out as expensive as a state school.</p>
<p>From the OP. Just spoke with my sister. My nephews stats are good. He'll finish with about four honors classes and three AP classes, 3.1 GPA unweighted. He does band too. Considering physical therapy as a major. It seems 1250 math verbal is the threshold at many places for merit.. he needs another 50 points. But, as I said, he's just about flat-lined at 1200 (even with prep and tutor) 600M 600V 680 essay part. Maybe a small public?</p>