Schools known for good merit aid

[Northstarmom]

"One day this PSAT Merit thing will blow up. At least they should give the thing twice and take an averge..."

Why? I see the system as even fairer than the systems of other countries in which students have basically one chance a year to past tests that determine whether the students will get into college at all in their home countries.

If the test were offered twice, some excellent students would have bad luck that caused low scores on both administrations. As always, some students will get scholarships, some will not.

Meanwhile, however, all of us in the US are lucky enough to be in country in which virtually anyone who wants to go to college can find a way to do so.

[IndigoInk]

This is a great thread. Could anyone tell me how kind Sarah Lawrence is? US News and World report states that their average merit award is around six thousand, but someone else said they don't give merit aid at all. And a friend of mine knows someone who got a full ride there and that person certainly did not get it based solely on need. Confusing.

[sybbie719]

As a highly selective college, we do not offer specific "merit scholarships." We do, however, take each student’s academic and personal merit very much into account when we make our admission decisions. After we decide to admit a student, the College awards financial aid based upon each student’s demonstrated need. We offer financial aid to all students who have demonstrated financial need, and we try to fund those students as fully as possible toward enabling them to study at Sarah Lawrence College.

Scholarship Funds

Unless otherwise specified, the following donor scholarships are awarded to returning students who have financial need and have demonstrated academic achievement:

http://www.slc.edu/index.php?pageID=2596

[mom of four]

Hi all, this is my first post. (I am posting this here and another thread that discussed merit aid)

Our oldest d is a senior this year, so this is the first time we are doing all this college app stuff.

I did the Princeton financial aid survey, and d will not qualify for financial need. D was going to apply to Ivies,among others, but since finding out that the ivies don't do need based aid, than the $43K/year is too steep for us. We do live in California so she will get into a UC school somewhere (will try UCLA and UCSD) but D is also interested in going to college out-of-state at a top notch school, hopefully with merit based scholarships.

Have enjoyed this thread because of getting suggestions for colleges that do merit based aid, that we will now do additional research on (U of Mich and Duke sound promising).

Here are d's "stats", she is top of her class and does esp well in math and science, not sure of her major (probably something in math or science) --any suggestions?

unweighted GPA 4.0, weighted GPA 4.7, was ranked 4 in class of 540 (not ranked 1 or 2, even though she has straight As, because she has taken some dance and theatre classes that are not weighted)
Sat: Verbal 770, writing 770 (subscore:77), Math 720
SAT IIs: literature 790; US History 800; Math level 2 710
Ap scores (so far) Chemistry 4; US History 5, Calc AB 5; Language and Comp 5; Physics B 5
This year is planning to take AP tests in Spanish, English, World History, also taking Calculus BC at the local JC.
just got notified that she is a National Merit semifinalist
Extracurricular: President of Christian Clubat her high school, active in theatre and orchestra, tutors for local library (collectively last year, that tutor program got "Volunteer of the year" from the district), is in her school's dance company, just spent 7 weeks of her summer in Thailand doing construction work and teaching ESL.

Lastly, what are HYPS? Thanks for any suggestions of schools that you think might be a good fit that also gives "merit" aid.

[MotherOfTwo]

There are a lot of excellent schools where a student with your daughter's qualifications would be considered for merit aid. Can you narrow down whether she wants to attend a large university (you mention Michigan) or a smaller college. Does she want to attend a school which focuses on science and engineering or a more general school? Which area of the country, urban or rural, etc.? Or anything else she is specifically looking for in her college? This would help to prompt suggestions, I think.

[mom of four]

Right now, she is more interested in a medium large school, or at least a school that has a "small school" feel (eg she is interested in UCSD because it divided into colleges, she is considering that to be her safety net; she'll also apply to UCLA -- not a safety net but feels that may be too large)).

She doesn't want to "get lost", and like making relationships. She is interested in science and math at this point, but doesn't want to go to a college that specializes in it( like MIT aor Cal Tech, etc), in case she changes her mind. She'd prefer a more conservative school. Probably more rural than urban.

[FloridaToNYC]

try Johns Hopkins. It's as close to IVY as you can get, and still get a bundle of non-need based aid. (Say 25G or so.)

If she wants small & rural go for the 25 G at Franklin&Marhsall. It's in the heart of Mennonite country.

[jenskate1]

Maybe Rice? It's in a city, but the surrounding area is decidedly suburban and the campus in green and has TONS of huge trees.

They don't give a tremendous number of merit scholarships, but they do give some, and if you are lucky enough to get some the school becomes a great deal. Even without merit scholarships Rice is a good 8,000+ cheaper than the ivies, etc.

HYPS refers to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford.

[SBmom]

Wells is a small former women's college, now coed, with a relatively low cost of attendance and wonderful merit aid. Cross registration with Cornell.

[curmudgeon]

I may have some suggestions but I need to get you to define "top-notch" schools first. Top twenty Uni's and Lac's? Broader than that? Also merit in the sense of $10k or half tuition or merit in the sense of full-tuition or full ride? If the latter please understand that the chances of getting one of those even at a second tier school makes HYPS look like open admissions. Not 9% , try 0.5% or 1 for every two hundred scholarship apps.

My daughter has roughly similar stats and she is looking almost exclusively at merit schools. We have found nothing after several hundred hours of searching that approaches a 25% chance at a full ride at a top tier (top 50) school. For financial safeties she has had to drop down to lower second tier, and third tier to provide guarantees of merit aid sufficient to attend.

I'll try to help if you can tell me what your expectations are.

[mom of four]

"top notch" probably means top 50 or so univ, not really looking at LACs since she likes science and math better at this point. I am equating "top notch to mean equivilent in quality to an UC school that she could attend here in Calif.

For merit aid, we would like to receive half scholarship of $10 - $15,000 if possible. That would make attending an out-of -state school the equiv cost as attending a UC school here which is about $20,000/year (incl room and board).

In Calif , the top 3 UC schools ranked in 2004-2005 were UCBerkeley, UCLA and then UC San Diego--of those three, she is more interested in UCLA and UCSD.

[Eagle79]

Mom of four,

Merit aid is available at many schools but as Curmudgeon said, getting a full tuition scholarship would be hard. However, a 1/2 tuition scholarship is quite possible with your daughters stats.

I would suggest the following (though this may be repeating something I said earlier in this thread). First, invest the $15 to buy the online version of USNews. The online version provides more financial aid information than the magazine. Use your daughters stats to find a school where she is in the top 25% of the SAT application pool. Then look at each of the school's financial aid information in USNews to guage her chances for merit aid. There is a section on non-need based aid, average amount and what percentage of the students receive that aid.

To illistrate let me use 2 examples, one you provided, Duke:

25%-75% SAT range: 1330-1530

Non-need-based aid
Avg. merit award (% awarded aid) $28,453 (1%) $22,277 (4%)
Avg. athletic scholarship (% awarded aid) $28,796 (4%) $27,236 (4%)

Your daughter, though a strong candidate for admission with a 1490 on the CR/M section, does not fall within the top 25% of the SAT applicant pool for Duke. Further, Duke's academic merit aid is limited to 1% of the incoming freshman class. BTW, the second figure is for upper classmen.

Let's take a look at another school, Tulane, listed at #43.

25%-75% SAT range: 1248-1435

Non-need-based aid
Avg. merit award (% awarded aid) $18,066 (34%) $17,020 (31%)
Avg. athletic scholarship (% awarded aid) $24,498 (3%) $28,202 (3%)

I believe that your daughter would be a strong candidate for admission and merit aid at Tulane. She is in the top 25% of the SAT applicant pool and they provide merit aid to 34% of the freshman class. Further, at $18K the average amount of aid is over 1/2 tuition. Being from out of region may also help there.

Obviously, my comments are just based upon statistics and the information you provided. Your daughter may have many other hooks that would interest the admissions office and may improve her ability to land one of the coveted merit scholarships. Good luck with your efforts.

[frazzled1]

Case Western meets some of your criteria - top tier school, generous with merit aid (and your d would definitely qualify for some with her stats, possibly even their full tuition scholarship), particularly strong in sciences, mid-sized school as far as undergrad population goes. It is an urban campus (a major city street cuts through campus), but it has a self-contained feel and is a lot greener than you might think - the campus is quite attractive and well-maintained. It's in a neat suburb of Cleveland that contains a symphonic hall, museums, hospitals (great opportunities for volunteering). I'd say it's worth investigating. My oldest d liked it very much - it was her #2 school and she came very close to choosing it because of the attractive merit aid offer.

[MotherOfTwo]

University of Rochester is strong in science and math and gives good merit aid

[jack]

mom of four: I'm sure this has been posted before, but based on the replies you received here, probably worth saying again.

I agree with others here that full ride merit scholarships are definitely not a sure bet; however, the majority of those full-ride (or even half-ride) scholarships are not based solely on a student's SAT scores. While excellent scores/GPA are obviously important and of value, a student's EC's are equally valuable. And I believe that really means following one's passion and true commitment to that passion (whether that be in theatre, dance, sports, politics, etc), as well as commitment and service to one's community, locally or on a more global level. I believe merit scholarship committees look at the whole person, not just the SAT scores. So, I would not discount Duke, or any other schools that you're interested in, that provide merit.

Again, that's not saying that these scholarships are easy to come by, but if you don't apply--then you can definitely rest assured your student will not be eligible for one.