My D25 and one of her close friends had a similar outcome to Meemom’s kid. Last year they were both granted one of the big merit scholarships at Fordham, it was a complete surprise. She ended up choosing a UC school instead and was a little sad to give up the spot at Fordham. Her stats were similar to your daughter’s but fewer ec’s. I think your daughter has a very good chance of getting one of the Fordham scholarships, but I am not an expert on college admissions, I can only provide anecdotes.
My daughter also has a friend who won one of the big scholarships at Vandy. That young woman is exceptional in every way! Your daughter sounds very accomplished, but definitely have her go into this process with realistic expectations.
Good luck to her!
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Yeah, the schools you mentioned are all on her list in the target and safety categories. And yes, Vandy and Wash U will likely be eliminated by her (though it’s possible the allure of their selectivity will override geography for her but who knows). I just added them to the extreme reach category for her to narrow down later.
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I agree about considering University of Richmond. Large endowment.
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I got turned off of Richmond by input from students on Niche about it being very cliquey. I think that’s one of the reasons she’s veering away from small schools.
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I understand why that would be a turn off. But, political science is a big major, and they have some experiential programs.
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This is merit aid in a nutshell. It is used to attract kids with higher grades/scores (or other attributes a school wants) than most other enrolled students. You have to shoot lower not higher when targeting merit aid.
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Exactly.
This is also why many merit hunters often have to put in relatively more apps…merit is so unpredictable at many schools and no one knows what type of student is going to most resonate at a given school in a given year.
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Yes, it is true everywhere.
It is wise to apply to many schools, as one never knows what will happen during any given year.
What about SUNY New Paltz? It should be within your budget, the surrounding area is cute, and students take the train into NYC.
Maybe take a look at Lafayette? I know she ruled out small schools, but it’s worth a look due to the merit awards (they are competitive).
My two cents is that sort of filter is fine. There are still plenty of midsize or larger colleges that offer realistic merit opportunities, and again at a certain point you need to be careful about overloading on applications. So Richmond might be a great fit for some kids, but if she doesn’t see it that way, no need to use up her time and energy that way.
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As another example, my S22 also got the full tuition scholarship at Fordham. His stats were National Merit scholar, very good but not perfect grades, full IB diploma + AP classes, ECs were nothing special other than demonstrating year-round deep commitment in theater tech (which was the major he was applying for.) He also did everything he could to demonstrate interest, and wrote a thoughtful essay for the “optional” essay. His dream school was also NYU, and he got in but at full price so we took it off list. Fordham has been really good for him and I think in many ways a better experience than NYU would have been.
So anyway, his stats were probably similar to those of your student. BUT I think that it’s still really unpredictable because they give these awards to kids who meet institutional priorities (IPs). And one of Fordham’s IPs is to expand their draw from outside of the tristate region. We come from a huge, wealthy, suburban public school in the Midwest. It’s the sort of place that could possibly supply Fordham with paying students if it got on the radar of the community. And actually since my kid enrolled, his high school HAS sent 1-2 paying students per year to Fordham. But who knows for sure what their IPs are?
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That’s really helpful. I think she is very similar from your son being from a wealthy Mountain West school district that they will probably like to draw from. Her HS is oddly categorized as being in a small town despite our populated metro area status, so she gets the Rural and Small Schools award from College Board, which Fordham used to reference in the past when granting full tuition scholarships. But it’s all unpredictable. Someone from her school a couple years ago who was probably also a good student only got 25K in merit from them (and still attended). I’ll encourage her to spend a lot of time on the Fordham supplemental and we’ll cross her fingers.
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What is your home state ?
Colorado. Great in-state options if she gets over her aversion to “dry air.”
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ahhhh - I ask because of WUE - but you started with the creme de la creme. But maybe an Oregon State?
I think schools - and they won’t be academicky - but they won’t be small - like URI, U of SC, James Madison, U Maine, UGA (maybe) and some regional type are her best bet. Schools like Hofstra would hit but are more local. Not sure the major interest but could be others. Lots of LACs would hit but you ruled them out.
Then I mentioned Charleston if she wins a Fellow and she might make the invite weekend, U of SC and Furman - which might be too small. Most SUNYs will work - so for the larger - Bing, Stony Brook, Buffalo but I think New Paltz fits her.
Richmond is a rich kids school - loaded with business students - so it’s student body behavior may not be emblematic of other schools.
You mentioned Honors Colleges are more academicky - not sure that’s true but then St. Mary’s of Maryland is the State Honors College. You also have schools like Mary Washington and Salisbury that are a bit beyond small and will hit budget - but they are going to be heavily local (and not academicky). I noted Rutgers and Temple - then there’s TCNJ. UNH could hit and UMASS will be borderline.
UT Chattanooga is a nice school, nice location right near the action and will hit.
But now we’ve gone to what will hit $45K when you didn’t have that concern - your concern was are home run but hard to get merit worth it. Likely not - but then you have UNC, UVA, W&M - only way you are going is with a long long long shot - whereas a JMU is a very good school and likely hits $45K.
Hope that helps.
Yeah, WUE has great options and she agreed to put Oregon State on her safety list. And she’s applying to UGA, Charleston, USC Honors, FSU, UF as targets. Yes, I’m aware of how hard UF and FSU are to get into though and should maybe be in the reach category, but I think being from outside the northeast (adding some geographic diversity) with high ACT scores make them targets for her. Plus lots of connections to FL because she used to live in Gainesville so I think they’ll understand from her application that it’s her first choice. Anyway, reach vs target doesn’t really matter that much; she has safeties so will end up with somewhere good to go for under 45k.
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I noted this above but Oregon State WUE is quite selective. Do you think she would get merit if she doesn’t get WUE? Regardless I would not put Oregon State in the safety bucket if you need WUE to make it affordable. (2026/27 COA for OOS is $60K)
I believe applicants from OOS are automatically considered for the 12k provost scholarship with her GPA which would bring cost to around 45k to 50k. And then WUE hopefully if not.
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Since she is considering FSU, perhaps you already know about their first year abroad program. It involves doing the first 2 semesters at one of FSU’s 4 international locations: Florence, Panama City, London, or Valencia. If you are an OOS student and do your first year this way, then you get in-state tuition for your remaining 3 years. Obviously, your kid would have to want to do this. Some kids wouldn’t want to, but others would be attracted to the international experience and the smaller cohorts.
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Yes, this is what I’ve been telling her about. It seems like such a great opportunity, almost like taking a gap year. I hope she considers it if it’s an option for her.
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You can figure out her UF/FSU GPA. Take all courses but PE. Add .5 for Honors. 1 for AP. So an A is 4, Hinors A 4.5, AP a = 5.
See her GPA.
Then we can tell but you are right - reach and target aren’t relevant since she has safeties. FSU will hit. UF may go over - they have been discussing substantial OOS tuition increases. UGA would be another - merit isn’t impossible and any would get her under $45k. It’s a sub to UF.