Clueless about costs

All of the above are excellent posts filled with good information.

I was going to mention Alabama and several other colleges with automatic merit. Often the directional Us offer automatic merit for students and some have great STEM. Huntsville in Alabama will offer her merit.

From a different angle I wanted to offer you a few more tools to help narrow your search.

  1. Has she considered a women’s college? Many offer merit and are top schools and they are reserved just for women. Many women who attend women’s colleges achieve disproportionately higher in their fields compared with those who attended coed schools. Also, women’s colleges produce more STEM women compared with coed schools. One myth is that at women’s colleges you never see men. Some schools have more men than others. Barnard (need-based aid only) and Bryn Mawr see a lot of men as the have co-ed “brother” campuses and Bryn Mawr also has a grad program with some men. Many women’s colleges are parts of consortia which means the students can attend classes at other schools freely (or almost freely). Smith (offers merit money) is in a consortium with UMass Amherst, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke (offers merit money). Bryn Mawr’s (offers merit money) brother school is Haverford and she could also take classes at Swarthmore and University of Pennsylvania. These are all top schools. Wellesley advertises on its website that it offers enough aid for students if they’re accepted to attend. I’ve heard of occasions when they’ve worked with parents and adjusted FA to make that work. Wellesley allows students to take classes at MIT but because of distance those classes would be fewer. Your daughter’s stats seem to be in the range for merit at several of these schools. Smith has a special scholarship she may want to consider.

  2. Has she considered other private colleges and universities that have good STEM? Many offer merit. One way to research how much you’d pay as a family is to do the net price calculator on the websites. STEM-strong LACs include Union in Schenectady, Lehigh, and Lafayette. All of those schools have strong Greek presence FYI. She might also consider Emory, Wake Forest, Rice and there are many others. Private schools often offer merit money.

One general rule if you’re seeking merit is to be in the top 25% of their applicant pool. Also with the COVID issue, many colleges are making additional offers to students this year at least to ensure a full class. What happens next year is anyone’s guess. It may be that they have too many people next year and can’t accept as many students–because many students this year may gap rather than take online courses in the fall. Or it may be that these schools don’t get enough applications because more people are choosing local in-state schools–and these privates may be eager to get out of state people such as your daughter and may offer extra FA as a result. No one knows what they will receive in FA until they get the FA offer after acceptance. Even then there’s a negotiating period with the school, often, wherein you can ask for additional aid. Best wishes!!!