What colleges might offer merit $$ to an Alabama boy for diversity?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My S (he's white) has a "short list" of colleges to apply to but we were wondering if he should apply to one or two who might especially want him because he comes from a state where they don't get many aps? We've been told that U Mich is a possibility, but don't think they offer much merit $$ (which would be needed to help with OOS costs, etc)</p>

<p>Stats
4.6 GPA
8 AP classes (4's and 5's so far)
32 ACT
2210 SAT
NMSF -- likely NMF
Boys State Delegate
Varsity Tennis
National Honor Society
plus other awards/activities/community service</p>

<p>Interested in medicine or law (goal: supreme court judge), but is also very strong in math and physics (but doesn't want to be an engineer).</p>

<p>Again, would need high merit $$$ to help with costs.</p>

2

<p>Look at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wi. I was just visiting and it is a gem.
<a href="http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/finaid/scholcomp.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/finaid/scholcomp.shtml&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/finaid/examples.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/finaid/examples.shtml&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/2005profile.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/2005profile.shtml&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.lawrence.edu/athletics/mtennis/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lawrence.edu/athletics/mtennis/&lt;/a>
"Lawrence University: The top-rated liberal arts college in Wisconsin, with a nationally renowned music conservatory, Lawrence attracts talented musicians from around the world while also providing a strong liberal arts education. The conservatory enriches the whole school; the theater department is one of the only undergraduate programs in the region that annually puts on full-scale operas. With signature programs in laser, computational and surface physics, the physics department is thriving, and more than half of student majors go on to graduate programs in physics and related fields. Physics Today magazine singled out Lawrence's programs as "an undergraduate physics success story."</p>

3

<p>If your child truly wants to go to the finest law or medical school he needs to go to a top notch college.Will you qualify for need based aid? Schools that offer merit aid do so to increase the number of bright students in their student body. Therefore, the environment may not be as comfortable for your son/daughter if he is extremely bright.However, he/you may be better able to afford his undergraduate degree .
I would suggest he apply to large out of state universities, including state colleges. There he may be able to find more students like himself and be able to participate in the college's honors program as well. Make sure you make a connection with an admissions rep. for a frank assessment of what merit money may be available for him.</p>

4

<p>We wouldn't get much need aid, yet we can't afford anything close to $45K for each year of a college of his choice. </p>

<p>He can get a "full ride" to the flagship in our state (because of Nat'l Merit), which he'll keep as a safety. It has a three honors programs -- one is very elite. </p>

<p>We are just looking for some other suggestions of schools that might be interested in him because they rarely get aps from boys with good stats from our state.</p>

5

<p>If he truly wants to go to a top professional school, he should find the school where he can do his best, not necessarily a "top notch college", unless you define top notch in terms of his needs.</p>

<p>It is most definitely NOT true that to go to the best for law school, you must have gone to the best college. It is much more complicated than that.</p>

6

<p>newmass</p>

<p>I agree. Our son has a good short list. We just thought that he might add one or more that we had not previously considered. Perhaps add a school or two who don't not get many apps from southern boys with our son's interests and stats. We just wanted some specific suggestions from people who might know of such colleges.</p>

7

<p>Jlauer:</p>

<p>It seems to me that most of the schools that offer merit aid are in the Midwest; I don't know how many apps they get from Alabama! Offhand, I would suggest looking into Case Western and Grinnell, and some that Cur and Carolyn identified earlier.</p>

8

<p>marite....</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

<p>Curmy has given me some ideas in the past.... It's just recently that I've wondered if the "southern angle" would be a particular help at any college. I also know that some colleges are getting "girl heavy" and want more boys.</p>

9

<p>You could do some research into northeastern LACs--I suspect not many people from Alabama apply there; but I suspect as well that not many Alabama students apply to schools out of state, so your son should have a good shot at the midwestern schools as well. I recall seeing a thread on CC that most ALA students go to 'Bama, including the wealthiest ones. </p>

<p>Would your southern son be happy in snow country? How about St Olaf and Carleton?</p>

10

<p>USC has been giving a good deal of merit money to students with outstanding numbers. If he's interested in going west, you might want to check it out. Also, while I'm not sure how much merit $ Rice is giving, it's a great school with lower costs than comparable institutions.</p>

11

<p>I like the idea of northeastern colleges who would want a kid from Alabama. If you can find expensive, non-merit schools that don't "gap," consider those as well. (Gapping is defined as not meeting the full demonstrated need.)</p>

<p>Having gone through the law school admissions process, I can tell you that the two most important factors for getting into a top law school are LSAT and GPA. Sure, if your GPA is from Slippery Rock, your 4.0 doesn't look good enough for Yale, but, for any school that the very talented JLauer's Son would go to, excellent grades and a top LSAT score would be enough to secure his admission to excellent law schools.</p>

12

<p>aries</p>

<p>thanks for the advice. S needs to hear such advice. He's scared that if he doesn't go to HYP for undergrad, then he won't be considered for Harvard or Yale Law (both are equal first choices for him for law school since he wants to be a Supreme Court Justice).</p>

13

<p>Nester</p>

<p>My son would love to go to USC since we're originally from CA - have lots of family there.</p>

<p>Marite
My nephew goes to Carleton and loves it, but does say it's VERY COLD there. Son "says" that he won't mind the extreme cold but that's a "Southern Californian now living in even warmer Alabama talking". Who knows what he'd think if he actually had to live in extremely cold weather :) </p>

<p>He does have one Northeastern college on his list and wants to add more. My son always laughs when he hears the name "St. Olaf" since he read the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books when he was younger.</p>

14

<p>Tulane is likely without the need for Alabama diversity ;).
Santa Clara University wants males and geographic distribution and it's in California. Offered merit $$ to my S with strong stats, but lesser SATs, than your S.</p>

<p>If you were to look at Harvard and Yale law matriculations, I think you would find a lot more than HYP undergrads in that pool.</p>

15

<p>U of Rochester is probably just as cold as Carleton and St Olaf. in 1999, it gave $10k to students with a 1200 SAT. It later raised that to 1350; I don't know where things stand now. CT College threw a very small amount of money at S1 (he did not apply for finaid) as an inducement for him to attend. It was not enough to make a dent in the total costs, but would suggest that there is merit money available. Its adcom's fondness for essays written in purple prose notwithstanding, it has a good reputation. I know of a young woman who loved it there. Boston University gave good money to some friends of my S (1/3 tuition), though its total COA remains high.</p>

16

<p>The University of Miami is very generous with merit $ and sends a good proportion of kids on to law school. Their own law school is right on campus. My pre-med undergrad loves to study in the law library. Here is a link to their scholarship guidelines. Cur's D received the full tuition one.
<a href="http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0,1770,29532-1;40341-2;29913-2;29467-3,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0,1770,29532-1;40341-2;29913-2;29467-3,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

17

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<p>I don't think that being from Alabama will get your son money at USC, but being a NMF certainly will. As I recall, Finalists get an automatic 50% tuition scholarship at USC.</p>

18

<p>my-3 and courer:</p>

<p>Thanks. U of Miami was on our list. They've sent a ton of info.</p>

<p>I know about USC's Finalist scholarships. Half is better than nothing.</p>

19

<p>j, Don't overlook an important sidelight to what you know about USC. You know they give "half" for NMF but you also "know", because of that, that they value NMF greatly which may give your high stat a leg up for their full tuition scholarships over other similarly stat-ed kids who were not NMF . </p>

<p>It may not be that hard to get home when you start on second base. ;)</p>

20

<p>How about the other USC....University of South Carolina's Honors College. The McNair Scholarship is a great deal.</p>