Where can I get a decent amount of merit aid?

Paying for College
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I am a senior applying to some schools for a biology(pre-med track) major. I don’t want to leave undergrad with a mountain of debt because I already have to pay for medical school anyway. I don’t qualify for any need based aid, but at the same time, my parents cant provide me much. I live in New York, and I could go to a SUNY school, but I want to have more options(and im honestly not that impressed with SUNYs). Im applying to a few oos public schools in the hope i can get a merit scholarship, but are there any other schools that you would recommend that give generous merit aid? Im looking for the coa to be atleast lower than 35k. Here are my stats:

Weighted GPA- 98.8, UW around 96-97,4.0

SAT1 1500/2220(700 R,800 M,720 W), SAT II Bio 730(took freshman year), Chemistry 770, US History 790

Class Rigor: Have taken all APs and honors, school doesn’t offer AP’s until junior year and even then limited

Class Rank- Competitive Private School doesn’t rank, but probably top 5% in a class of 140

AP Classes: AP Chemistry(4), AP US History(4), AP Physics 1(4), AP Calculus, AP US Government and Politics, AP Physics C, AP Biology

ECs: Club Soccer since I was 10(year round), Varsity Soccer, JV Soccer Captain, Mock Trial(won championship), 60 hours of community service in hospital(should get to 100 in next few months), Track and Field,National Honor Society

Awards/Honors: High Honor Roll throughout high school, Cornell Book Award, National Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar

Here are the schools I am thinking about applying to:
SUNY Binghampton
SUNY Geneseo( 8 year program)
SUNY Stony Brook(8 year medical program)
U of Rochester(8 year program)
Northeastern
Case Western
Pitt
UConn
Purdue
Ohio State
U of Delaware
The College of New Jersey
Rutgers
BU
UMD College Park

I am still trying to narrow down the list and add any other schools that will give me merit so I would appreciate any feedback. I would prefer schools in the northeast but any other suggestions are welcome. This is more of a chances for merit thread than a chances thread as I am pretty confident I can get into all these colleges.

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my parents cant provide me much.

Im looking for the coa to be atleast lower than 35k. Here are my stats:


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are your parents saying that they will pay $35k per year? If not, how much will they pay? and then how would the $35k get paid??

YOU can only borrow $5,500 as a frosh, so if you were thinking that you could borrow much of that $35k, you can’t. How much will your parents pay? ask them.

Alabama would give you free tuition for your stats. Very good premed advising, very good sciences, awesome STEM facilities, awesome dorms. Your net cost would be about $15k per year.

also…Alabama med schools do accept OOS students who have a tie to the state (went to undergrad in the state).

You’re right to be concerned about med school costs.

Some on your list don’t give great merit.

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I am a New York State resident, as well, and my daughter had similar stats to yours. You seem to be looking for a good school but not obsessed with prestige, which is great. I wonder why your list is so public school heavy. Is that intentional? Someone with your stats can often do very well at private schools. My D got good money at TCNJ, but she got lots of money, bringing costs well below SUNY at Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Elizabethtown and some other schools. She also did well at Delaware and chose to attend there for a specific program. I am looking at schools for my S who is a senior with much lower stats, and he is looking at some nice money at small privates. There are a lot of schools that would love to have you. I urge you to cast a wider net , particularly to private schools where your stats put you high. If you were my kid, I would have you signed up to visit muhlenberg ASAP. Even if you aren’t interested, they have a very informative explanation of merit aid on the financial aid website that you might find useful.

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@mom2coIIegekids my parents can contribute 20-25k a year, I am hoping that i will be able to take out loans for the rest of the cost if there is any.

@zoosermom My list is public school heavy because they have relatively low oos tuition compared to privates.If i can even get a small scholarship at these colleges the coa would be pretty low. The hardest part is finding privates that will give large amounts of merit aid to me.

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Gladiator, respectfully, you’re wrong. OOS publics generally give very little aid. Privates are where the money is for a stellar candidate like you. I know because I’m on the third time making that search. There are plenty of private schools that will come in much lower in coat that SUNYs for you. I’m looking at this moment at the scholarship brochure for McDaniel and you would be looking at at least $25000 per year in merit there. I suspect that Muhlenberg would love you to the tune of a lot of dollars. My kid went to UD and did well in out of state merit, but the starting cost is high and the amount in real dollars of merit isn’t great. You need to do some research. There are websites that will let you search for schools that meet your criteria. The hour is very late for you.

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@mom2coIIegekids my parents can contribute 20-25k a year, I am hoping that i will be able to take out loans for the rest of the cost if there is any.
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Since you can only borrow $5,500 as a frosh, then you really need to set your goal to be about $25k-30k max…or even lower.

If you’re serious about med school, then you should try not to borrow ANYTHING at all. If you were to borrow the full fed amount for 4 years (which is about $27k), all of it would be UNSUB, which means it would keep growing while in school, while in med school, and while in residency. That $27k be about double by that time…and then added to a huge amount of med school debt.

These are the amounts you can borrow:

frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500

So, you need to reduce your target cost.

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Did you look here?

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

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For merit consideration at Ohio State you need to apply and have everything submitted by Nov 1! So you need to get recommendations, essay done asap, get scores ordered and transcript sent since it can take a few weeks for score report to arrive.

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@mommdc I have all my recommendations and essays lined up for Ohio State and Purdue(also Nov 1st). It’s just a matter of sending it all in.Does it really take a few weeks for electronic info such as score reports?

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What are your financial safety schools? these are the schools that you know FOR SURE will give you a net cost of $20k per year (or less)?

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The SUNYs are ~$20k/year for state residents. One of them might make a good safety.

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@mom2collegekids My financial safeties are basically just the 3 SUNY schools at this point. Other than that, it is hard to say for sure where I will get that much aid. Anything else under 20k would basically be a full tuition scholarship

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I may not have made it clear that this award would be FOR SURE for your stats as long as you apply before the Dec deadline…and the app is VERY easy…takes only 5 minutes…no essays, no LORs.

Alabama would give you free tuition for your stats. Very good premed advising, very good sciences, awesome STEM facilities, awesome dorms. Your net cost would be about $15k per year.

PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR

A first-time freshman student who meets the December 15 scholarship priority deadline, has a 32–36 ACT or 1400–1600 SAT score (critical reading and math scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of tuition or $103,800 over four years ($25,950 per year) to be used towards undergraduate or graduate/law studies.**

And the award is increased if there are any tuition increases.

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You may want to look at U of South Carolina. One of the best public honors colleges in the US, although you will have to apply for admission. Your stats suggest the Cooper scholarship which would bring your total tuition, room, board and fees to just about $20,000 for 1st year (expect small annual increases). Lovely campus and Columbia is a nice little city (when it is not suffering from flooding.) You may even be in the running for a higher value scholarship based on your stats.

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Unless something has changed…the Cooper and McKissick scholarships at U of South Carolina are based on the strength of your application…and do not require a separate application. Both reduce your cost to the instate tuition rate. In addition, the Cooper gives a $4000 a year stipend and the McKissick $2500. Bot are excellent deals if you get them.

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Thanks for the clarification, @thumper1. I meant that you would need to apply separately for the Honors College if you are interested in that. You do not need to apply for or be selected for the Honors College to get significant merit $. The program does have some nice perks, though.

The scholarships, although not automatic, are stats-based and you would be considered for them based on your app for admission to the university. I think the Cooper is likely based on your stats.

Note: The Honors College app is much shorter this year (2 essays vs. 5 or 6 in the past). It requires LORs but you likely have them in progress already for other schools.

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My DD did that South Carolina honors college application in 2006. It was a doozie. She did not get selected for the Honors College, or Capstone scholars…but she did receive a McKissick Scholarship.

She chose to attend college elsewhere…but I have to say…U of South Carolina was a very favorable option financially with that scholarship.

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Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Here is a link to the merit scholarship awards: http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/. Miami also has an Honors College.

If you go to the Miami forum on College Confidential, you should find some threads discussing pre-med studies, and success rates for medical school applications.

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you should find some threads discussing pre-med studies, and success rates for medical school applications.


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This doesn’t really tell a high school senior anything. Only a small % of premed freshman ever apply to med school. Telling a high school senior that BlankU has a XX% acceptance rate means nothing. A high school senior has no idea if he/she will end up with med school worthy stats or may change his/her mind.

Regardless of where the student goes, if he/she has med school worthy stats, and has a thoughtful app list, he/she will have a high acceptance rate to med school.