Schools known for good merit aid

[cfbrooklyn]

I definitely think Brandeis as well as Ohio University have great merit aid.

[mejensen]

Does one of your children go to University of Rochester? My daughter is looking into it and we're from California -- any input? She's focusing on smaller schools (50000), strong academics (she's a great student) and an Equestrian team. What about the area, nearest city/town. Thanks for any first-hand information you can supply. How generous is their financial aid?

[Chedva]

My d is at U of R. She loves it. Merit aid is fairly good; their calculation of need, though, is much higher than mine!

You might get more information in the College Search and Selection forum, or in the University of Rochester forum under the alphabetic lists of colleges.

[M.Rom]

I forget where I read it, but often the aid at a school varies year to year depending on the applicant pool and the current students. Depending on the school, the admissions office might be more likely to accept students who are involved in a certain activity or hail from a certain part of the country in order to maintain diversity. Just thought I would put that out there! Also remember that the aid offered is often proportional to the tuition of the school, provided, of course, that the student has appropriate stats. Also, that rule generally does not apply to the Ivies or Northwestern in IL.

For Florida residents, nearly every school but U of Miami accepts Bright Future's and the Prepaid Plan. In the Midwest, St. Olaf seems to have several different scholarships. I am not sure about full-ride, though.

[hls111]

I've heard that Boston College has very good merit aid.

[DadofTwo]

Boston College has a good reputation for financial aid, but they are not known for merit aid.

[Gaby3]

It's going to be very telling this year. I didn't linger long, but in the supermarket yesterday I heard a mom talking to a father of children in her son's school. She was saying they got a lot of acceptances EA but the aid letters were lacking...she didn't know what they were going to do. He seemed to be a strong student, but he gap between what they should pay and would pay was depressing.

[yeswecan1]

Rice prefers Asians, or is it the other way around?

[ayogimom]

Does anyone know of any selective 4-year liberal arts colleges that offer more than $2,000/year for NM Scholars? Very few sponsor NMS at all, and those that do, seem to limit the amounts.

[fireflyscout]

The "official" amount for a college-sponsored NM scholarship is $2000/year. Colleges may offer additional scholarships in a package to entice NM semifinalists. If your student is NMF, then in most cases (excluding some of the very selective colleges) they will be offered other additional scholarships.

[32578233]

UVa offers full-ride merit scholarships to about 30 undergraduate students a year. The student's school must nominate the student. The website is Jefferson Scholars Foundation.

[Keilexandra]

ayogimom, look at University of Minnesota Morris (full tuition for NMFs, academically respectable public LAC) and Denison University (private LAC, 20-30 competitive full-tuition NMF awards per year).

[rubinoclan]

DePaul in Chicago offers a nice package automatically when applying.

[maenidmom]

Just a note about our merit aid journey. My son was adamant about attending a small school- he wanted to be able to have discussions with his professors. That pretty much pointed to his attending a private school. We have been saving for both children to go to college from the day they were born but even so, I am a "value shopper". We would not qualify for financial aid so we knew we were going to be responsible for the whole package, and it was a daunting amount of money. I wasn't sure if I could stomach that sort of expense (although I know plenty of people do). I told him that if he worked hard in HS and could get merit aid that would make it an easier decision.

Well, that started my merit aid research and it was eye opening. First, not all schools offer it. Those that do vary widely in the amounts and the number of students they distribute it to. I found the financial aid links to provide most info but it was usually vague. Once we got more focused on the schools we were interested in I sent emails to the financial aid staff. If they replied with continued vagueness I emailed right back (eg, How many "Famous Donator" scholarships do you give out per year, how much are they worth and are they a guaranteed award based on a set criteria such as GPA or is it based on the relativity of that year's incoming students?).

Jump forward to today. My S is at the University of Redlands with an award that is nearly half the tuition (4 years). He is an extremely happy person there. The other school in contention was Occidental. They offered half the amount, $7000 and their tuition is $5000 more. Redlands was my son's first choice based on the campus, improving prominance of their math/science departments and the generally friendlier experience we had on both our visits. The two schools illustrate a basic fact- your merit aid is relative to how big a fish you are in that pond. Occidental is harder to get into, they have a much better known school. But for my kid, the fit was best at the other place.

Lastly, I would recommend parents read Lauren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives. It does a great job of making you think about the issues in making these choices.

[Illinois Dad]

Thanks for the valuable tips, maenidmom. My S is a HS junior who's obsessed with the idea of going to a good West Coast school, and Stanford's out of reach so I'm now adding Redlands to his list of places to look into along with Occidental. May I ask what his scores and GPA were to get those offers?

Secondly, I have just ordered Lauren Pope's book from Amazon based on your recommendation and some others I read online. So, nice public service with that post.