<p>D was offered close to $20K/year from Mulenberg in merit aid (no need) and over that from American. Also $15K/year from Brandeis which is a small university. This was for 2008.</p>
<p>Since you say you have musical talent, I would research possible merit scholarships tied to music. D rec’d a $15K/year presidential arts scholarship from GW based on singing (by audition and an essay/ interview). She just had to participate in some musical extra curriculars in order to recive the $…she did not have to be a music major. Plus they were going to give her private voice lessons!</p>
<p>My parents have NOT set a strict limit of 20K/yr. Just a strict limit of NOT 40-50K/yr. </p>
<p>Of course, it would be more likely that they’d go for larger scholarships. </p>
<p>But, I haven’t ruled out more expensive options because I have considered many things, such as closing the gap SOMEWHAT by loans (not all of the way), perhaps deferring for a year (if possible) and working full time and putting that 100% towards my education, etc. </p>
<p>At this point I’m still keeping my options pretty open.</p>
<p>I’d look closely at the Claremont Colleges. Claremont McKenna offers some nice merit aid and is extremely generous with Financial Aid. Scripps is a little less selective and with your stats, you might be able to get more $$ there b/c your stats would be rarer there. </p>
<p>The only thing the Claremont Colleges don’t have is the urban environment…even though you’re only 30 minutes from LA, you don’t feel like you’re in LA</p>
<p>I think it’s gotten better…I graduated way back in the dark ages ('94) and lived in the area (Pasadena) for several years before I went to business school. I would post over in the Claremont forums (CMC, Scripps, Pomona) and see what people say. I will say I was an athlete and pretty busy with classes, working, etc. and didn’t make it in to LA that often. We tended to walk into the village (5 min walk, cute funky shops/restaurants) or run over to the mall or close by restaurants with someone who had a car. I would say I only ended up downtown 1-2x per semester. Claremont (like a lot of small liberal arts colleges) is a very “residential campus.” At CMC specifically, very few people ever move off campus…</p>
<p>Edited to Add:
I actually went to business school at Northwestern and had friends at Chicago and if the urban environment is super important, Chicago would probably be a better choice.</p>
<p>“DeWitt Wallace Scholarships are awarded to selected middle-income students who need assistance in order to attend Macalester and whose academic records have shown them to be worthy of recognition”</p>
<p>The caveat here is “middle-income students who need assistance.” Macalester is very generous to students with demonstrated financial need and gives them all of the merit scholarships in addition to grants, work-study and loans. Unless you have at least SOME financial need or are a NMF, you will not get merit money at Macalester. Carleton also has a similar policy on merit scholarships. Grinnell is the only upper tier LAC that offers true merit scholarships–not tied in any way to EFC. </p>
<p>We don’t qualify for any type of financial aid–so no “merit” money from either Carleton or Macalester; DD wouldn’t apply to Grinnell (too rural for even a small-town Minnesotan) or St Olaf (too rigid of a curriculum); she received $9000/yr from Lawrence and $17,000/yr from her safety, Gustavus Adolphus. Family friends have received good merit money from Beloit and Knox (as well as Grinnell and St Olaf).</p>
Not sure what you mean by upper tier LAC here. Kenyon and Oberlin offer merit aid (and are sandwiched right around Macalester). Denison, just a little further down the list, offers excellent merit aid.</p>
<p>^^ Hmm. Maybe I’m confused then about Macalester. Our EFC came back significantly higher than the total cost of attendance for any school on our list, including Macalester. Yet, Mac offered my S a modest merit grant (just under $5K). As I said, he was NM “commended”, not a finalist; a good student with high scores, but not walk-on-water exceptional. Colorado College (a few places higher in the USNWR ranks than Mac, slightly lower than Grinell and Oberlin) also offered him a $5K merit grant. </p>
<p>Maybe apps were down last year and Macalester had some extra money, or they figured that after the crash a little extra discounting was necessary. But according to their 2009 CDS data, 29 students “who had no financial need … received non-need-based scholarship or grant aid.” So our case must not have been a fluke.</p>
<p>“Not sure what you mean by upper tier LAC here”</p>
<p>I’d argue that Claremont McKenna is upper tier (higher ranked than Grinnel by a little) and they definitely offer merit awards (e.g. McKenna Scholars program)</p>
<p>Rice U would be great - size is LAC like (enrollment is going up to 3800 undergrads eventually, plus about 2500 grad students) and it really is a terrific school with a terrific student life on a lovely campus in a very nice area of Houston.</p>
<p>California colleges are populated in great part by Californians and other westerners; therefore a lot of students have cars. If you’re coming from the East Coast, nowhere in LA seems like a city. Even downtown doesn’t feel like downtown Chicago, Boston, etc. But there are lots of big-city things to do there, and because lots of people have cars, you can always get rides. The bus system is quite good in LA County - don’t know about the outlying areas.</p>
<p>We know a freshman at Chapman U. in Orange (Orange County, about 45 minute drive from LA), and it’s well worth your while to look at it. He has merit aid that makes Chapman no more expensive in-state tuition at a UC. He’s in the film school (Dodge), which is extremely time-consuming, so he decided not to enroll in the honors program, but a lot of his friends are honors students. Chapman is big in the performing arts and film, so lots of quirk there, and his honors student friends are as smart and engaging a bunch as you’d find pretty much anywhere. </p>
<p>I also like the Claremont colleges. You can take classes at other colleges, have a minor at another college, even eat lunch at another college. The entire consortium fits into an area smaller than a lot of university campuses.</p>