<p>We have visited quite a number of schools and will be visiting several more. Our family circumstances are such where we will not receive any Needs based aid. Our daughter will likely apply to approximately 15 schools. Her Academic credentials are quite good, unweighted GPA of 4.0, very high class rank, 33 on the ACT. Her Extra curriculars are excellent.
Some of the schools she will likely apply to are, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, University of Richmond, GWU, American University, Binghamton,Geneseo, Middlebury, Lehigh,Lafayette, Dickinson, and Hobart &William Smith.
I am interested in Identifying schools in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic regions that we should be considering for strong merit aid possibilities. A couple of these schools may fall off and a couple others may be added but this is where we are at right now. Her anticipated field of study is International Relations with the intention of going to Law school after competion of her under graduate degree.
I am completely aware that many of the schools I have mentioned will not be strong at all with merit aid, with several not offering any.</p>
<p>start here</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1486647-financial-aid-faqs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1486647-financial-aid-faqs.html</a></p>
<p>scroll down to the post about scholarships</p>
<p>If you are looking at law school, you may have to pick your battle as to what you will fund and think twice about</p>
<p>Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, Middlebury, as they give need based aid only. Keep in mind at many law schools, you will have to apply for need access where your income and assets as the parent(s) will be used to determine eligibility for financial aid at many top schools (again where they only give need based aid- but very differently from the way it is disbursed in undergrad). So if you think that you are going to be full pay at the undergrad level, you will also most likely be full pay for law school . The only difference is that your D will be able to borrow the full cost of attendance with a GradPlus loan.</p>
<p>With 3 years of law school topping over 200k (not counting barbri, registering for bar, character and fitness, MPRE, etc), you need to think about if you want to exhaust all of your funding on undergrad (of if D will carry a lot of law school debt as even Harvard gives the 18k a year in loans before disbursing any need based aid).</p>
<p>*Some of the schools she will likely apply to are, Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, University of Richmond, GWU, American University, Binghamton,Geneseo, Middlebury, Lehigh,Lafayette, Dickinson, and Hobart &William Smith. *</p>
<p>Since you’re aware that she won’t get merit-based aid at a number of those schools, are you ok with paying full-freight at those schools? </p>
<p>if you need merit aid, why not pare down some of those “no merit” schools and keep a couple “just to see”???</p>
<p>Since her goal is law school (which is also expensive), why doesn’t she just opt for a good undergrad at a good price so that funds can be directed at law school?</p>
<p>how much merit do you want? In other words, how much do you want to pay each year?</p>
<p>How strong does the aid need to be? If you are looking for more than $15,000 a year in merit aid, really no school on your list will guarantee that. And for the privates that do offer $15k, you would still be looking at funding $40k or so yourselves.</p>
<p>The SUNY schools are relatively inexpensive for OOS students and even a better deal if you happen to be instate.</p>
<p>I would suggest you read the thread about guaranteed merit awards started by Bob Wallace. It is excellent and may give you some ideas.</p>
<p>If your own state has a flagship university, you should check to see if they offer merit aid to high achieving instate students. Many do.</p>
<p>If you have not already done so start running the net price calculators on each school’s website. This will give you a general idea of how much the school will cost and any aid you might receive. SUNYs are a great option for OOS students as well as some schools in some other states. You just have to do your research. Also a lot of state schools offer honors programs which has a variety of perks. </p>
<p>Since law school is in the plan (which can be very expensive) it is based to limit the undergraduate debt as much as possible. Others will chime in about what aid might be offered down the road if there is any.</p>
<p>Thank you for the responses. We are NY State residents. I am not aware of our Flagship publics providing merit?
Like many families there are a lot of variables that influence our financial circumstances. There is a possibility that we can handle full pay at any of these schools and there is a possibility that we would need to do some significant things financially to be able to be in a position to cover these expenses.
The SUNY’s we can comfortably handle. The strongest merit aid candidates of the schools I had listed are Hobart & William Smith, American, GWU, The University of Richmond, Lehigh, Lafayette and Dickinson. That represents 7 of the 15 schools that she may be applying to.
I am interested in knowing whether there are other schools in the Northeast or Mid Atlantic that are worthy of merit aid consideration? I have read Bob Wallaces threads and have found them to be interesting. From a regional perspective none of the schools he lists are within our geographic considerations.</p>
<p>I know you do not need merit aid for the SUNYs, but Geneseo gives merit money while Bing does not. The U of Buffalo also gives money and your daughter may make their honors program and Presidential scholarship. This would free up money ( about $80,000) for law school. I hear that the U of Pittsburgh is generous as well. Will your daughter be a senior in September?</p>
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<p>But that is one of the things about merit money; you have to be willing to cast a wide net. One of the biggest challenges that I see everyday with students from NY is that they have the mind set of that there is NY (especially NYC) and there is everywhere else with many not willing to leave the northeast. Believe it or not, there are schools (if you are willing to expand the landscape where a student from NY will add geographic diversity</p>
<p>Those SUNY schools are the best bargain for you as an instate resident. Lucky you that you are instate for them.</p>
<p>Just an FYI…places like GWU have a cost of attendance of over $60,000. Even WITH their merit aid awards, you will be looking at a hefty bill yourselves.</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest that you run the Net Price Calculators for ALL of these colleges. This will give you at least an estimate of the costs and aid at each school. Do each school because YMMV depending on the school. As an FYI, if you are self employed, these calculators are not particularly accurate!</p>
<p>Thank you very much twogirls! Yes she will be a Senior in September.</p>
<p>Sybbie719, there are specific reasons for our geographic parameters that have nothing to do with an attitude of the likes you are making mention of. I appreciate what you are suggesting and we may look at a couple of schools in Ohio. It would not be our preference though.</p>
<p>Thank you Thumper1, I am aware of the expense to attend GWU. I am not sure what benefit there would be to run Net Price Calculators when I know that our EFC will have us be at full pay in every instance. If I am missing something in this regard I am certainly receptive to hearing about it. I have explored these things quite thoroughly previously.</p>
<p>You can also try Northeastern as they give some full scholarships. Boston U also has a full tuition scholarship ( Trustee)- the application is due by Dec. 1 and the rec must come from guidance. UPitt does not need anything other than the commonapp. The Boston scholarships are probably very competitive, I would imagine. My friends daughter had stats like your daughter and she got a lot of merit from the honors program at UDel. UMD- CP is another school to add to the list.</p>
<p>It might be worth paring down that list simply so your D can focus more on the strongest applications. 15 is an awful lot to manage and handle. I would identify 2 financial safeties she’s willing to attend, 2 reaches where you know you might be on the hook for the full price but she loves and then concentrate on a few possibilities for strong financial aid.</p>
<p>Also if her heart is set on International Studies there might be some strong merit contenders with good international studies programs like Macalester and Kalamazoo in the midwest both of which have strong acceptance rates into law schools where the geographic diversity factor will be much more impactful if she can leave the NE.</p>
<p>The Net Price Calculators vary so much from school to school that it would be worth your while to run them.</p>
<p>But if your FAFSA EFC is over $60,000, maybe it’s not worth the time.</p>
<p>You should look on each college website for scholarships offered by the school. As with Boston University, many schools offer a full tuition scholarship of some kind that is HIGHLY competitive and usually requires a separate application process. </p>
<p>I agree…if you want your kiddo to apply to 15 schools AND complete applications for highy competitive scholarships…15 is just too many.</p>
<p>I also believe you are limiting the amount of scholarship aid your kiddo could receive by concentrating applications in the most expensive college areas of the country.</p>
<p>Some of the more detailed NPCs do have adjustments for GPA, etc. and will give estimates for merit. Also, if your income and property situation is complicated, some of the more detailed NPCs do break things down differently from others - in other words if you are not complete gazillionnaires there is the possibility that some colleges/universities will view your numbers more favorably than others.</p>
<p>Are any of the Cathollics ok…like Fordham or Villa Nova? They might be merit sources.</p>
<p>lol…I see you have G’town, so I guess Catholics are ok.</p>
<p>Some SUNYs do give merit.</p>
<p>You might consider figuring out how much you can save with a good-merit school so you can help pay for law school.</p>
<p>Something I have observed is that schools are interested in students with geographic diversity, and they can be willing to increase merit aid in order to attract them.
So while you have reasons to limit her search geographically, she may want to consider dollar wise, how much that limitation is worth.
:)</p>
<p>Whatever you decide your daughter needs you to be truthful about what you are willing to spend. You need to ask yourself if you would be insistent if she were accepted with merit but prefers a school where you will be full pay. That situation is a common theme in the spring on these forums and one you might want to have clear in your head before application season starts. 15 apps is alot. Probably too many. If you are shopping for the ‘best price’ you owe it to your daughter to be honest.</p>
<p>With those stats she would likely be competitive for a Presidential scholarship at Gettysburg. $25000 a year. Currently the cost of attending is about $56000, so still over $30000 a year for you to fund. Is that doable for you? (Also, don’t forget that most merit awards do not increase year to year, but tuition sure does. I’d budget in for several thousands more by the time she is a college senior).</p>