I’m trying to find some schools that would be affordable, so I’m looking for merit scholarships. I’d prefer suggestions for decently reputable schools (say, US News top 50), but I’m open to anything. I’ve got a 2330 SAT superscore, a 3.95 UW gpa, and top 5% class ranking, plus some solid extracurriculars. NMS is unlikely. The dream is USC trustee scholarship, but that doesn’t seem possible. I’ve heard Emory and Tulane have some good scholarships. Thanks for any advice.
Ambition, why not take all that ambition and put it to use searching the hundreds of threads on CC about merit scholarships? And then cross check what you learn with the college’s own website? And THEN come back with specific questions?
And none of us know what you mean by “affordable”. One school may give you 20K for your stats leaving 45k to pay. Is that affordable? How the heck do we know?
Ask your parents to work with you to run a few net price calculators for different schools to get a feel for what colleges are going to expect your family to pay. If your family can afford that- great. If not- find out what they can afford. If you are looking for a modest discount off the sticker price, that’s one set of colleges. If you need free tuition in order to be able to attend college- that’s a different set. If you can commute to a branch of your local state college and live at home- that’s usually most family’s affordable option.
Then come back with specific questions.
That’s my advice and you’re welcome.
@blossom All fair points, I should’ve been a lot more specific. I can afford up to 45k per year, but 30k or lower would be ideal. I suppose I just wondered in general what “good” schools are known for having merit scholarships. I’ve already done a lot of research on cc, and found out that vandy and rice offer them, but I’m not really in contention for either. I was specifically wondering if I was competitive for merit scholarships from Emory, Boston, NYU and Tulane. I’ve visited a lot of college websites on scholarships, each with somewhat fuzzy guidelines about what they look for, but I thought it would be more helpful to ask for anecdotes from other students (or parents of students) with stats similar to mine. To be clear, I highly doubt I would qualify for any kind of financial aid.
What makes you stand out?
Merit is often by single sitting scores, not superstores. What is your best M + CR score from ONE sitting?
At top schools, high scores can be the first filter. After that, it’s what you offer the school. Ethnic diversity? Regional diversity? Amazing standout ECs? What?
NYU often requires need for merit.
Tulane would give you decent merit, probably…but they also look at interest.
@ClarinetDad16 A lot of film awards/accolades, some great internships, curated a museum exhibit, teen youth advisory board for same museum, 4 years on championship varsity sports team etc. I love writing and I really like how my essays turned out (but I’m biased lol), plus think I’ll have some sparkling recs. If you’re asking if I have a hook, I’m basically an anti-hook.
@mom2collegekids My single sitting is 730 math+800 CR. Unfortunately, I’m an over represented ethnicity and from an over represented state. But it’s worth it for Cali’s warm weather 
Are your parents willing to pay more than they can “afford” to send you to the East Coast, or would you attend great schools like Cal or UCLA for far less?
@ClarinetDad16 Ucla and Cal are both amazing schools, but I’d prefer a private school. If I couldn’t get sizeable merit scholarships from any of the privates I’m looking at, I would likely go to ucla/cal instead (assuming I’m lucky enough to get in to one of them).
Keep in mind many of the schools in the top 50 offer no merit scholarships at all.
First, a significant number of top 50 schools do not offer merit aid. Second, signficant amount of merit aids only go to the top few percent of admitted students. Your stat may be near the 75th percentile but not really outstanding among top schools. You either need to aim lower or you need to have something special to get good merit aids.
Your parents can pay put,to $45,000 a year…and you are a CA resident. I find it very hard to believe that you can’t find a UC that is up to your standards.
What makes you think a private school is going to give you a better education than some of the very strong public universities in your state…which are within your price point?
You would need $20,000 or more in merit aid at most private universities.
@thumper1 It’s not that ucla/cal are below my standards. It’s just that a private school would be a lot more ideal for what I need in a school (smaller class sizes, less difficulty getting classes etc). I realize I would need at least $20,000 in merit money to afford a private school, so that’s why I created this thread for suggestions where I might qualify. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll go to a UC.
@noname87 Yes, I realize that. Just gonna hope I find one and keep my head high if I can’t.
@billcsho I agree that my scores aren’t amazing for the very top schools (say, top 20), but I’m not looking for those for scholarships. For some other schools, my scores would be solidly above the 75th percentile, like Tulane (2150), Boston (2130), NYU (2150) and USC (2200). However, I’m aware it takes a lot more than scores to get a scholarship.
are you talking about Boston University? You could apply for,thr Trustee Scholarship…but it is highly competitive.
Tulane is a good option. I would guess you would get good meeti aid there.
I didn’t think Emory gave much merit aid…mostly need based aid.
What about Santa Clara University? You might get merit aid from SCU?
Why the focus on large private schools if you are seeking the benefits of a small school?
Since Tulane went ED this year, things may be somewhat different with how they award automatic scholarships.
You might consider Case Western. Based on last year’s results, you would be a good candidate for a 20-25K scholarship, which would lower COA to your range.
@thumper1 I’ll try for Boston’s Trustee scholarship, thanks for suggesting it. I hadn’t thought of Santa Clara before, but I’ll definitely look into it now.
@VryCnfsd Case Western is a great idea, I hadn’t considered it before. Thanks!
To research a school you might be interested in, look it up on collegedata.com. Search on your school, click on “Money Matters” and find the percentage of students without financial need who were awarded merit scholarships.
You want to be in at least that percentile for stats. (Example: 25% of students getting no-need merit, you want to be in top 25% of applicants to be in contention for that merit.)