Yet another list of colleges with "good" merit aid

Paying for College
1

<p>I just put together a handout to share with parents at my kids' high school about colleges with "good" merit aid. I know this topic has been discussed many times and there are still some sticky posts at the top, but I found it useful to gather the list together and thought someone else might benefit from it.</p>

<p>Like all of these lists, it uses idiosyncratic criteria. Here, "good" means that the average non-need based award is at least $10,000. (A few colleges on this list are just under that.) While $10,000 isn't a lot compared to the entire cost of an expensive private college, it's a nice round number and it seemed like a useful cut-off. There must be many more schools that fit the criteria, but I ran out of steam. Also, this list pretty much doesn't include state universities because it wasn't clear from sources like the College Board and US News how generous they are to out-of-state students. From the stories people tell here, it sounds like some of them are very helpful but you have to find out by talking to them or applying. </p>

<p>So here it is, with the intro I included on the top of the handout.</p>

<hr>

<p>Colleges with Pretty Good Non-Need Based Aid</p>

<p>Note: This list is not complete! These are just a few schools that have a reputation for offering generous amounts of non-need based financial aid. (Generous means average awards from about $10,000 per year to full tuition.) There are more colleges that give non-need based aid, so keep looking. </p>

<p>Non-need based awards may require that candidates submit their college applications before the regular admission deadline, sometimes as early as November 1. Be sure to check these dates!</p>

<p>The selectivity of these colleges ranges from highly selective (10% admit rate) to not highly selective (70-80% admit rate). Students should try to find colleges where they stand out relative to others at the school—but remember that there are a lot of ways to stand out, including academics, athletic or artistic talent, and geographic or ethnic diversity.</p>

<p>Albion College (Albion, Michigan)
Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania)
American University (Washington, D.C.)
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York)
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin)
Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia)
Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Alabama)
Boston College (Boston, Massachusetts)
Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts)
Cal Tech (Pasadena, California)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
Centre College (Danville, Kentucky)
Chapman University (Orange, California)
Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts)
College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York, New York)
Denison University (Granville, Ohio)
Depauw University (Greencastle, Indiana)
Drew University (Madison, New Jersey)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina)
George Washington University (Washington, D.C.)
Goucher College (Baltimore, Maryland)
Hanover College (Hanover, Indiana)
Hendrix College (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Howard University (Washington, D.C.)
Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland)
Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania)
Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio)
Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois)
Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania)
Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin)
Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon)
Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles, California)
Loyola University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Mills College (Oakland, California)
Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi)
Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA)
Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, Ohio)
Olin College of Engineering (Needham, Massachusetts)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, California)
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia)
Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, New York)
Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee)
Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota)
Stonehill College (Easton, Massachusetts)
Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, Virginia)
Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida)
University of Redlands (Redlands, California)
University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee)
University of Southern California (USC) (Los Angeles, California)
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenessee)
Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Indiana)
Washington and Lee University (Lexington, Virginia)
Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia)
Willamette University (Salem, Oregon)
Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio)</p>

2

<p>Thanks, Calreader.</p>

3

<p>Add Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas) - they have a merit scholarship calculator on their website.</p>

4

<p>Thanks, Southwestern looks like a good addition. The average non-need based aid is under $10k, but not by much.</p>

5

<p>Add University of Rochester. I don't know the "average" merit award, but they do have a significant number of awards in the $10,000 to full tuition range.</p>

6

<p>Average non-need award at Rochester is $9k - pretty good, but not quite close enough to my arbitrary $10k cutoff. I'm glad to know about it, though. It's a good one because it meets 100% need and offers reasonable merit aid, which isn't a common combination.</p>

7

<p>Does this list apply to internationals as well?</p>

8

<p>To the international question - no, sorry but I wasn't looking for that, and it's not as easy to find that data in a centralized place like the College Board college profiles. The list above was prepared for kids at a U.S. high school. I've seen some conversations here on CC about merit aid for internationals, and you might be able to find those references by searching the archives. The list you want is probably quite a bit smaller than the one above.</p>

9

<p>Could a school be on this list if it only gave out one or two of these awards?</p>

10

<p>Weenie, I don't think so, because I'm using the average award size. It could be that some students get very large awards and some get none. But it seems to me that more than a handful of students must receive merit awards, or the average wouldn't work out as high as $10k. Or so I hope. I was trying to come up with colleges where students who aren't walk on water types would have some chance of getting merit aid.</p>

11

<p>On second thought, yes of course it could be only a few students, because the average award size is over the students who received awards, not all students. I just checked some Common Data Sets and realized my mistake. On the other hand, many of these schools appear on the US News list of good merit aid colleges, which includes only schools where the percentage of students receiving merit aid is high. Still, some of the schools on the list may not be as good as I thought.</p>

12

<p>Here is another version of the "pretty good merit aid" list of colleges that give an average merit award of at least $10k, annotated with the percentage of students at the school who actually receive merit aid, where that data is available. For the colleges that don't have annotations: (1) less than 22% of students receive merit aid, and (2) comments on CC suggest that more than a few merit scholarships are awarded.</p>

<p>Albion College (Albion, Michigan) (38%)
Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania) (29%)
American University (Washington, D.C.)
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York)
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) (30%)
Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia) (41%)
Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Alabama) (45%)
Boston College (Boston, Massachusetts)
Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts)
Cal Tech (Pasadena, California)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
Centre College (Danville, Kentucky) (36%)
Chapman University (Orange, California)
Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) (39%)
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts)
College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio) (43%)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York, New York) (100%)
Denison University (Granville, Ohio) (51%)
Depauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) (49%)
Drew University (Madison, New Jersey) (32%)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida) (36%)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) (25%)
Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina) (31%)
George Washington University (Washington, D.C.)
Goucher College (Baltimore, Maryland) (31%)
Hanover College (Hanover, Indiana) (34%)
Hendrix College (Little Rock, Arkansas) (41%)
Howard University (Washington, D.C.)
Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland)
Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) (26%)
Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, Michigan) (38%)
Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) (23%)
Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois) (30%)
Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) (15%)
Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) (26%)
Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon) (23%)
Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles, California)
Loyola University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Mills College (Oakland, California)
Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi) (41%)
Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) ("limited")
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) (26%)
Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, Ohio) (42%)
Olin College of Engineering (Needham, Massachusetts) (100%)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, California)
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) (39%)
Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, New York)
Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee) (39%)
Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota) (38%)
Stonehill College (Easton, Massachusetts) (23%)
Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, Virginia) (49%)
Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida)
University of Redlands (Redlands, California)
University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee) (22%)
University of Southern California (USC) (Los Angeles, California)
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenessee)
Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Indiana) (25%)
Washington and Lee University (Lexington, Virginia)
Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) (38%)
Willamette University (Salem, Oregon) (31%)
Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio) (26%)</p>

13

<p>^ Yeah. I think that's a better representation. Where do these numbers come from?</p>

14

<p>Something that applicants should consider is gpa required to keep the scholarship, look at % of those who are getting a merit scholarship after freshman year (might give an idea of the % of students who keep an award), and what happens if you lose a merit award. In other words, look at how much that school will gap, and on average ratio of grants:loans to meet need for upperclassmen.</p>

15

<p>Would you consider this schools as qualifying for your list?
Regis University <a href="http://regis.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://regis.edu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br>
:2006 Freshmen Scholarship Recipients (nearly 80% earned merit awards) Board of Trustee Recipients ($12-14K/yr)= 202; Regis Achievement Award ($10K/yr) Recipients = 112; Science Scholars (full tuition/yr)=6</p>

16

<p>The annotations of % on merit aid come mostly from a list of good merit schools provided by US News. A few of the numbers were gathered from the individual colleges' web sites, but unfortunately most colleges don't seem to report this particular nugget of info.</p>

<p>NEmom - what a good point. Do you find that schools track this info and report it when asked? I'll probably keep this list around and try to refine it over time for use at our high school, so if there are ways I can get more data from the colleges, I can tackle them a few at a time.</p>

<p>Regis needs to go on the list - thanks so much! I've now handed the list out to parents but I can update the online copy on our school web site.</p>

17

<p>Calreader, unfortunately no. I have tried to call a few schools and ask about % of students who lose merit aid and those keep it. I have gotten vague responses. The best information that I have found is using USnews' and comparing the % of freshmen receiving merit aid (with the average dollar amount) and the % of upperclassmen receiving merit aid. They also break down the % of instate and OOS students receiving merit aid with dollar amounts for public Us.</p>

18

<p>Add Saint Louis University-strong payment for good board scores and GPS'a</p>

19

<p>Last version of list of schools with pretty good merit aid is below. It has been updated to add some additional annotations on the % of students receiving merit aid. Also, some colleges on the first version of the list were dropped based on what appeared to be too low % of students receiving merit aid. I don't expect to learn any new data, but if I do I'll update.</p>

<p>Albion College (Albion, Michigan) (38%)
Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania) (29%)
American University (Washington, D.C.) (30%)
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York)
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) (30%)
Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia) (41%)
Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Alabama) (45%)
Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts) (20%)
Cal Tech (Pasadena, California) (varies with funding - probably not a large %)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) (61%)
Centre College (Danville, Kentucky) (36%)
Chapman University (Orange, California)
Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) (39%)
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts)
College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio) (43%)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York, New York) (100%)
Denison University (Granville, Ohio) (51%)
Depauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) (49%)
Drew University (Madison, New Jersey) (32%)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida) (36%)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA) (11%-15%)
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) (25%)
Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina) (31%)
George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) (15%)
Goucher College (Baltimore, Maryland) (31%)
Hanover College (Hanover, Indiana) (34%)
Hendrix College (Little Rock, Arkansas) (41%)
Howard University (Washington, D.C.)
Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York) (20%)
Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) (26%)
Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, Michigan) (38%)
Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) (23%)
Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois) (30%)
Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) (15%)
Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) (26%)
Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon) (23%)
Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles, California) (About 15%)
Loyola University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Mills College (Oakland, California)
Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi) (41%)
Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania) (24%)
Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) (26%)
Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, Ohio) (42%)
Olin College of Engineering (Needham, Massachusetts) (100%)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, California) (about 12%)
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) (39%)
Regis University (Denver, Colorado)
Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, New York) (25% of aid dollars are non-need based - no data on % of students who receive non-need based aid)
Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee) (39%)
Scripps College (Claremont, CA) (18%)
St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota) (38%)
Stonehill College (Easton, Massachusetts) (23%)
Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, Virginia) (49%)
Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana) (about 32%)
University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) (50%)
University of Redlands (Redlands, California)
University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee) (22%)
University of Southern California (USC) (Los Angeles, California) (about 22%)
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Indiana) (25%)
Washington and Lee University (Lexington, Virginia) (10%)
Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) (38%)
Willamette University (Salem, Oregon) (31%)
Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio) (26%)</p>

20

<p>Thanks, Calreader. Nice job.</p>