I am in high school, have a 3.48 Unweighted GPA, 4.01 Weighted GPA, 1440 SAT. I am looking to do pre-med in the northeaster region. I am not eligible for financial aid. What are the chances of getting a merit scholarship so that my annual cost comes to 20K or below and do you recommend any schools?
Here is a list of every school’s average merit aid.
Be sure to look at the amount of aid as well as the percentage of students who receive it (i.e. If only 2% of students are getting merit aid, you should assume you won’t be one of them).
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Also, if this is helpful, my daughter got about 40K of merit aid from Sarah Lawrence and Muhlenberg and about 20-25K of merit aid from Brandeis, GWU, and American University.
What state do you live in?
You might consider spending two years at community college then transfer for the last two years with a higher budget.
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Where in the northeast do you want to be?
Have you looked into the public universities in your state? It might be possible to find a school in your state with a lower cost.
So…start with your instate schools. If you can commute from home, it’s very possible that your cost to attend tuition only might be $20,000.
I think merit scholarships for a residential college to get the cost down to $20,000 will be tough…but a lot depends on which colleges you are looking at. York College in PA could come in at that price point.
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Those awards would not bring the COA at those colleges to $20,000 a year. This gives the OP an idea of how hard it might be to get those costs down to $20,000 a year.
An example…if this student was a CT resident, they probably could attend Central Connecticut State University for about $20,000. So…I would suggest checking the smaller public universities in your home state.
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I second @thumper1 suggestion of smaller in state publics being your best bet of getting a merit award that takes total COA to <20k.
We’ve done this process 3 times in the last 6 years. Merit hunting each time. Merit award increases aren’t keeping up with the yearly increasing cost of attendance at most privates (if you aren’t eligible for any need based financial aid).
All three of my children received the highest merit awards possible at the LACs they applied to. D20 had options ranging (COA after merit) from 20k/year - 32k/year. S24 had options ranging from 27k - 33k.
COA rises every year. Even if you get the cost at 20k the first year, you should expect it to be 4-5% higher each year going forward (your merit award will not increase).
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Getting to $20k/year at a residential college in the U.S., particularly in the northeast, using only merit aid is not always the easiest to achieve. If you have any geographic flexibility whatsoever, that would definitely help.
That being said, one option I’d suggest looking into is Slippery Rock in Pennsylvania. There are about 7k undergrads there and it’s primarily a residential campus (91% of first-year students live on-campus). Tuition, room & board is a bit over $25k/year for out-of-state students, but perhaps there’s enough merit aid to bring the price down to an affordable point for you.
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Yes, geographic flexibility will help a lot!
The northeast has plenty of high stats kids. That poses two problems for OP: schools in the northeast have far less incentive to award large merit scholarships; and OP’s stats (while very good) are unfortunately not competitive enough for the large merit awards needed to bring COA under $20k.
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Can you ask your parents if there’s any flexibility? Are you instate for a Northeastern State (it may not be enough to bring costs to 20k but at some universities you may reach something close, like in the 20-25k range, with merit) - what’s “instate” for you?
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Okay, I’ve been doing a little digging to see if I can find any more possibilities for you. None of these would be guaranteed to meet budget, but in looking at the net prices of the schools, I think it might at least be possible to get enough merit aid to bring the school within budget.
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Unity Environmental University in Maine has about 4k undergrads and is primarily a residential campus (97% of first year students live on campus). Looking at the net prices for families with incomes of $110k+ ($21k) makes it seem as though it might be possible to get enough merit aid here to bring the price within or at least close to budget.
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Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey has two campuses, one of which is more residential-based. It might be able to make budget for you.
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McDaniel (MD): About 1800 undergrads at this Colleges That Change Lives school (here’s its profile McDaniel College – Colleges That Change Lives). Looking at the net prices, it’s possible that it might hit budget for you. It’s a residential campus with about 91% of first-year students living on-campus.
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Canisius (NY): About 1800 undergrads at this Jesuit college in Buffalo (the Jesuits are very well-respected academically). Looking at the net prices, this school might be able to come in near your budget.
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Centenary (NU): About 1k undergrads at this residential college (though only about 59% of first year students live on-campus).
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Carlow (PA ): About 1200 undergrads at this Pittsburgh college. It’s classified as a commuter school, but 68% of first year students live on-campus. It’s part of the Pittsburgh consortium that allows students to cross-register at other area schools like Carnegie Mellon and U. of Pittsburgh (source).
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Hood (MD): About 1200 undergrads at this residential college with about 76% of first year students living on-campus.
Seconding the recommendation of York as well.
You may want to investigate the schools that participate in the SUNY Tuition Match program. It matches many northeastern states’ flagship prices, but some of the schools will also offer additional scholarship (and/or housing discounts) as well.
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As @bxgirl said, you should assume you won’t get merit aid at the places who give out relatively little. You could still apply to some of them. If you’re a good fit, maybe you’re the one they want and who they pick for generous aid. I know some places that are quite generous with merit scholarships. RIT was very generous with a friend’s son’s package. Even then, it was still well over $20,000/year. Room and board at most places is $16,000-$19,000 from what I can tell. You may want to round out your search by looking at state schools. You also might want to see if the Tuition Break program applies to you. Tuition Break | New England Board of Higher Education If so, the tuition savings might make some colleges more affordable than you anticipate.
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