<p>The average Villanova Scholarship offers $5,069? Why do they bother?</p>
<p>It’s definitely not alot.</p>
<p>That’s why D is not at Villanova. They offered her a $7k grant. No way could we come up with the difference…</p>
<p>And yet Villanova supposedly gives way more merit scholarships than BC, right? Does anyone have any better numbers?</p>
<p>Villanova and BC are both schools that give almost all of their aid based on need (with the exception of Presidential Scholars and maybe a couple of other elite merit scholarships). That’s why I wasn’t crazy about D applying to either, as she was a strong candidate for admission, but not Presidential level at these schools. We’re one of those middle-class families with a fairly high EFC that we couldn’t pay unless we sold our house and cars 
And Villanova, on our tour, made it clear that they don’t meet full need for most students who do have high need. D did apply to Villanova, but received much better scholarship offers dropping down a tier of schools to those where she was an Honors or Presidential level student. You either need to be Presidential, be high-need and lucky enough to get full need met, or able to pay full freight to attend these schools.</p>
<p>InigoMontoya - could you share the schools where she applied that were a tier down? Curious for our D2 in a couple of years, as were are similar middle class family Thanks!</p>
<p>Ditto Ingio. Would love to hear what Tier 2 schools you found of interest! I’m very familiar with SMU, TCU, Tulane and UMiami but my D is interested in the mid Atlantic and northeast.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents, we have one D who has graduated from BC and one who currently attends. They applied to schools that we considered a tier down such as Fordham and Fairfield. They did get significant money from both Fordham and Fairfield in the form of Merit scholarships as we were not eligible for need based aid. However, their hearts were set on BC and we were fortunate enough to be able to give them the choice.</p>
<p>As far as other schools …if you want Jesuit I would also consider Scranton and Loyola and St. Joseph and possibly Spring Hill.</p>
<p>Other schools you may want to consider because we have or know other who have received considerable amounts of Merit Scholarships, Muhlenberg, Gettysburg, Marist, Lehigh, Lafayette.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I’m thankful that D decided BC wasn’t the right fit after a visit, and didn’t have her heart set on Villanova. We’ve worked hard to provide a good education for our kids (living in a area with weak public schools), and we’ve saved towards college, but $200K for a bachelors is still way more than we could swing. We figured we could come up with about half the costs of a private LAC. The other schools we looked at included Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, Fordham, St. Anselms, Mt. St. Marys MD, Fairfield, and D applied to Catholic, Loyola MD, Stonehill, and Providence as well as Villanova. If you’re looking at schools where your child will be at the highest percentage academically, take a good look at what the schools offer for Honors programs. A strong Honors program that challenges the top students can help keep high achievers motivated. </p>
<p>S isn’t as tied to the East Coast, so we may look at some Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana schools for him.</p>