Match My Kid... first time doing this & need help. MA resident, high perfomer. Merit seeking. Thanks!

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

US: New England, Boston area

Private high school

White male, middle class

Intended Major(s) - considering:

  • Likely; business, economics; but also slightly up in the air. History Minor.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • 100.33 weighted GPA
  • Per guidance, his school doesn’t do ‘unweighted’ since each college scores differently per guidance.
  • Class rank: 1st out of 5 Quintile. First Quintile GPA range: 98.5 – 106.
  • AP European History, 10th grade: 4 out of 5. 11th grade: pending score release
  • SAT super score: 1390 (640 math/750 english). Will retake in August, working with an SAT tutor, focusing on math. My son’s choice, he wants over 700 on the math.

Coursework

Freshman Year:

Honors: Biology, English, Global Studies, Latin, Academic Scholars.

Others : Geometry, Intro to Computer Science, Theology, Intro to Music Theory

Sophomore Year:

AP: European History.

Honors: Algebra, English, Chemistry, Latin, Academic Scholars.

Others : Theology, Drawing and Illustration

Junior Year:

AP: American History.

Honors: Precalculus, English, Physics, Latin, Academic Scholars.

Dual Enrollment/Stonehill College : Intro to Business/Entrepreneurship.

Others : Theology

Senior Year:

AP: Biology, Calculus, Comparative Government and Politics.

Honors: English; Dystopian Literature. History: Freedom, Justice and Democracy, Academic Scholars.

Others: Theology and American History

Awards

Sophomore Year: National Latin Exam Cum Laude Award

Sophomore Year: 4/5: AP European History Exam

Junior Year:

National Honor Society

National Social Studies Honor Society

First place writing award: ‘Picturing America’; judged by published authors

Junior Year: Scholars Colloquium Awards

Junior Year: College of Holy Cross Book Award

Extracurriculars

  • Peer Ministry
  • Peer Tutoring
  • Community Service Hours: 120 hours by graduation
  • JV & Varsity Football
  • JV & Varsity Lacrosse
  • Club Lacrosse

Cost Constraints / Budget

Budget: 25K/yr. Looking for ‘buyer’, generous merit schools

Schools: uhhhh… very loose list

  • Bentley, Quinnipiac, Lehigh, RPI, Washington & Lee, Amherst College, Christopher Newport University, ???
  • Help! He’s very overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed, and the private high school guidance team is woefully inept. A story for another time…

College Likes

Lacrosse: D2/3 or club teams

New England/east coast preferred, but open to a good fit

3K-7K students

Urban, suburban w/proximity to cities

College Dislikes

He’s all set on Theology…unless it was a school he loved

Intense drinking/partying culture

Dominant Greek life

Too rural

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It’s a fine list for acceptance but tell us your budget. Looking for generous doesn’t say much. For example a $80k school with generous merit might be $55k while another full price is $40k.

Do you qualify for need aid ? I’m assuming not.

Also, it’s not a fine list for his likes.

Please provide a budget and I’ll try to name more schools for you and let you know which I might remove (W&L for example).

Thanks

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Thanks; I edited the post re: budget to 25K/yr. We’ve spent significant savings for private high school to give him the best opporunity. He would have gotten lost in the enormity of our town high school.

And you are correct, we don’t qualify for aid.

The likes… to be honest, I didn’t see many/any in other ‘match me’ posts, so I thought that was a decent list.

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This could be the most difficult issue.

For us, getting the price down to $25,000 / year only happened at in-state public universities, and at universities in Canada. The latter however was because my daughters and I have dual citizenship. We were also mostly considering different schools than you are.

Some NPCs predict merit aid. Some do not. Some schools do not offer merit aid. It might be worth running the NPCs for the schools on your list to see what they predict. If you Google “Net Price Calculator Amherst College” you will for example find one of them.

The University of Maine has been said to offer in-state pricing for some New England students. I am not familiar with the details.

Given your budget you might want to send in an application to at least U.Mass Amherst and possibly also U.Mass Lowell and just see what sort of offer you get from them. Both in-state pricing and merit aid seems likely.

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We could take loans, but are trying not to…

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OK - so $25,000 - but you won’t qualify for aid. So that is very limiting.

I’d first look in state - but a UMASS Lowell for example is $32K unless you live home. UMASS is about $35K. Perhaps they have merit aid.

Now a UMAINE has a flagship match - and- Western Carolina is $20K all in. U of Southern Maine looks to be mid 30s with the NE exchange -but with merit up to $11K - not sure if you can get that much with the exchange - but maybe worth looking into?

So the likes and don’t likes don’t really matter- when you have a $25K budget. $25K matters - so you go public and live home, go to a community college or fight to hit your budget - which is not easy.

So unless they have some sort of full ride or full tuition scholarship I’m not aware of, Bentley, Quinnipiac, Lehigh, RPI, and Amherst don’t work. Note - Amherst - and schools like it - don’t have any merit aid at all, only need aid.

So let me throw out some schools that will work within budget - and these are fine schools - and given the budget, it’s what you have to work with.

Alabama - fine business school (Culverhouse) - is $49188 for tuition, room and board. You get auto merit of $24K - so it’s $25,188 - + travel, etc. You can save when you move off campus and some kids get another $4K by doing the scholarship application. They are over 50% OOS with 2K kids from the NY/NJ/CT area, more than 1,500 from Illinois, more than 1K from TX and California - so you won’t be all alone, etc. There’s 438 from Massachusetts - so it’s a large public and has many who drink, many who are greek…but it also has the opposite (which was my son)…and it hits your cost.

UAH - it’s a more STEM oriented, smaller school in Alabama - about 8-10K kids - known for engineering but has your majors. Huntsville is a very educated city. UAH has a tuition room and board costs of $39K - You’d get $18K off - so you’re $21K -ish.

Mississippi State is smaller than Bama, harder to get to - but another that will work with auto merit. It has a $41K cost - tuition, room and board. Merit will be $21-25K - can’t tell - so let’s say $21K - that’s $20K all in. But yes, it will have drinking - as will Amherst or Bentley, etc. - but yes, to a greater scale.

W Carolina, as noted, has the NC Promise - so tuition is $5K - so $20K-ish all in.

There may be others to look at - Arkansas, Mizzou, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami of Ohio, Maine, some SUNY schools, etc. Florida State could work - if you get an OOS waiver thanks to the 1390 SAT. And there are lesser known, more regional schools like in the Dakotas that could get you there - like a U of South Dakota or South Dakota State. You have Christopher Newport - I see it getting into the mid 30s…but not mid 20s - unless I’m missing something.

There are also colleges with full rides - not easy to get - so you can throw a hail mary but it’s unlikely - you had W&L and they have the Johnson Scholarship and other full tuition ones. SMU has the Presidential. Other colleges have full rides too - but few and far between.

With a $25K budget, you’re going to have to make tradeoffs - or if you’re a full pay family, raise the budget.

Hope that helps some…note I did not take your “likes” into account - given the budget constraint.

But check Maine and W Carolina. Maine has recreational lacross and WCU has club lacrosse.

Hopefully others will have ideas or knowledge outside of what I’ve provided.

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The student only qualifies for $27K in loans over four years - and that’s for good reason. Don’t get in too deep. There are affordable options out there - see my previous post - but you’ll need to be flexible - and hopefully your student can find their crowd at any school - even a large one (where they can be a part of the Honors College, hopefully).

The last thing you want is a student, starting out, strangled by debt. To go over $27K, then the parent is taking on the loan - and now you’ve got too much money going out when you’re just starting out - to pay off said loan.

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Is your son pursuing lacrosse recruiting?

Take Washington and Lee off your list! It’s too small, in a rural area, with no ability to get to a city (unless Charlottesville qualifies) and it has the highest Greek participation in the country! Plus, I am guessing the Johnson isn’t likely, and the school is a reach.

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So with all of ours including S24 we we’re in a similar boat with good stats (yours are better) and trying to find merit. Schools above are all good, primarily-public options.

I know you said no theology but, If you want to look at privates in the northeast, think about the Catholic city schools which are medium sized, not big Greek schools, in or near big cities, and offer serious merit. Most are ‘Catholic-lite’ meaning you can usually stay out of most of the religious stuff. I wouldn’t rule out the Catholic schools. A real benefit to these Catholic schools in the cities is that they’re adjacent to internships for business and Econ and finance and often have decent business schools Plus, they are primarily liberal arts colleges so you get that broadening. Think about it - You would probably attend Georgetown or Fordham if you got in, right ? well they’re just as Catholic. There are also a few other public’s (UDel, Mason) and stray LACs (Marist, Clark)

This was part of our list this year with actual merit awards and resulting cost. We are also full pay. Can’t get to $25k but can get to $30-40k which may be in play with the (mostly) subsidized federal loans. Your stats might get even more aid at Clark Marist and UDel. Clark is on the smaller side of this list 3k students). Rest are larger. Some schools like Seton Hall kept sending us more merit up until May to sweeten the pot so the initial offer was lower and grew.

Manhattan Coll (NY) $39k merit = $30k net
George Mason (VA) $18k merit = $35 net
St Joe’s Univ (PHL) $31 merit = $36k net
Seton Hall Univ (NJ) $30k merit = $38k net
LoyolaMaryland(MD) $34k merit = 41k net
Clark Univers. (MA) $31k merit = $40k net
Marist College (NY) $25k merit = $41k net
Univ Delaware (DE) $12k merit = $43k net

Another place to hunt/conpare merit is Road2College which crowd-sources people’s actual awards and scores for comparison.

I didn’t check LAX club/D3 teams but this area is the hotbed for LAX so I will assume some have options. Many are Div 1 so perhaps club.

This list also spans the spectrum of super liberal (Clark) to more conservative (Loyola, St Joes) and everything in between.

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Schools like Bentley and Quinnapiac do offer merit, but as others have said, not enough to get you to $25K/yr.

Example: Bentley is $80K+ at full pay. My student got an offer with $20K merit per year. Quinnapiac offers more in merit - same student offered $34K merit/year.

Umass Amherst Isenberg business school is fantastic and your son has a great shot to get in. However, merit is unlikely so you are looking at close to $40k/year. Consider increasing your budget to $30k/yr and making up the rest with scholarships that are not need based, student contribution ($5K+/yr from summer and part-time jobs), and small loans.

Umass Lowell is a very different college experience, but could offer merit for sure. I would argue the investment in Isenberg would pay off with post-grad opportunity. (Especially if your student plans to stay in New England).

Keep in mind that going to school in other parts of the country may require $3-5K in travel expenses per year. (hotels for parents, rental cars, flights, summer storage etc)

Good luck and congrats to your son on his great achievements!

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Agree with @green92. As a non-need student, pursue all the local and national scholarships you can.

Another thought is taking as many AP and CLEP exams or co-enrollment courses as feasible to enter with a lot of genEds and close to sophomore status. For majors like business, Econ, history you should be able to cover a lot of genEds.

That way, senior year, you MAY be able to go part time the last 1-2 semesters and cut cost (or graduate a semester early). It’s hard to plan for this, but if you can set up for this, you may be able to take advantage of it later. Both of my older kids could have - or did - take advantage of this and we paid part-time tuition senior year for one of them. And both changed majors/colleges within their Universities and still it was possible. You can’t guarantee/budget for this, but think of it as one way to maybe mitigate the quantity of loans

One community college course might be $1000-$1500 total versus the same course at a university at $1000-2000 per credit. So, taking a few adds up.

CLEP and AP exams are about $100 and can give the same credit as an entire course costing thousands.

Pick a few target schools and look at their policies on prior credit. They usually have a table for CLEP and AP exams and what counts and what doesn’t. They also should have access to a third party database of specific courses at community colleges and which ones are equivalent to their courses at each school.

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Take a look at SUNY Geneseo. Total cost of attendance is just under $35,000 a year for OOS students…before merit.

The school is test optional and scores are not considered for merit. Starting in the fall of 2024 they will be giving merit to OOS students up to $8000 a year.

This award, combined with the small student loan, could get to your price point.

Added: it is rural, but 30 minutes to Rochester. There is a cute college town.

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These schools are not buyer generous. Some actually don’t give merit aid…at all.

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I’m sorry to say that a 25K budget is quite limiting, especially in the New England Area. You may get close with UMAINE-Orono’s flagship match, but as much as I love UMAINE, it will not be nearly as strong for a business type major as UMASS-Amherst. My understanding is that UMASS-Amherst offers more merit aid to out-of-state students, merit awarded to instate students will be less.

I agree with @tsbna44 who I believe suggested moving your budget to 30K, which (with the $5,500 student loan) gets you to the cost of attendance (35k including room & board, but not books or travel) at UMASS-Amherst. Few schools will top that experience or outcome, particularly if he is competitive for an Honors admit.

You can also give the UMASS-Amherst budget to your kid as a guide for other options.

For big merit, I agree with the opportunities at Alabama, etc. possible he’ll get awarded merit at University of South Carolina to match in-but
UMASS-Amherst would still be my pick if affordable.

As a New England Resident, you should familiarize yourself with New England Tuition Break. I think it will be tough to find discounts for business related majors but it’s worth a look.

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Thank you! Appreciate the feedback!

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Thanks for the feedback on the location and Greek life. He won’t like that, lol. Yes, he’s also working with his club team and high school coach. Attending prospect dates and we’ve been at tournaments the last four weeks. His high school coach is brand new, he has a meet & greet my son set up with him this afternoon, he actually has more connections than the outgoing coach, so I’m hoping this helps w/a direction.

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Other than price point, I don’t see how Alabama can be suggested for this student.

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Is he competitive for lacrosse recruiting? Mercyhurst in Erie, PA might be worth a look. They are DII and our HS sends athletes there every year because they can stack athletic and merit awards and because its a Catholic college they are generous with merit to Catholic high schools.

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I noted - I did not take likes into account because the first thing is always budget - and I could think of four definites - Bama, UAH, Miss State, and WCU. There are others - like in the Dakotas or maybe small regional through the New England Exchange and there are some that maybe “could” - and some, like Troy, that would likely work (again south).

But if I went by the likes and tied budget to the likes, I’d have come up with a list of zero.

So it wasn’t a recommendation per say but a school that meets the budget.

UAH would be “more in line” with what was listed as would W Carolina…but still not hit.

Of the four I mentioned, Bama has by far the most reputed b school as it’s got a national reputation.

But it was nothing more, as I noted, than a meeting price point school.

Another option for OP, and I don’t think they’d want to hear it, could be community college and then transfer to UMASS. Not sure how much the CC costs locally but perhaps it would average out with two higher cost years at UMASS to hit budget.

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RPI is D3. Unless you are also getting FA, top merit at RPI will not get you to your budget. If you run the NPC and you might get aid, have your son inform his college counselor that he is interested in being nominated for the RPI medal. Each school can nominate 1 student. The forms are available online for the CC to fill out. If accepted he will get $160,000 in merit over 4 years. Combined with an internship, maybe you can make this work.

Has he connected with the Bentley coach? While Bentley is D2, they do not offer athletic scholarships in all sports. Most of the coaches will be honest with you as to what money they have to spread around. We know kids in a sport that they don’t give scholarships for, but will help you get top merit. Unfortunately, even with top merit, you will not get to your budget.

A D2 school that might come in around your budget is St. Michaels. This is another one that has a book award. It ranges in value from 25,000 to full tuition. With his stats and coming from a Catholic school, I think he can do very well. It’s slightly smaller than what he is looking for (and has theology), but it is in Burlington which is a college town and almost all students live on campus, so no lack of students around. I think it meets enough of his needs that he should definitely give it a look and connect with the coach. We are from MetroWest and know kids attending, so coaches should be familiar with clubs in your area.

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