Hello! My daughter is a rising junior, and we are just starting the college search process. She is a good but not amazing student. I have not calculated a GPA because I’m not sure how to do it, but she has received grades in the 90s for mostly honors classes (with one 84). She has taken one AP and plans to take 4 next year. She took the PSAT in the middle of her sophomore year with no preparation and got a 1150. I’m assuming she could get that up significantly with studying. She has work experience and extracurriculars but nothing outstanding.
We are looking for a school in the northeast. She would love a college with a lot of school spirit and enthusiasm around sports. She would also like a beautiful campus. She is undecided on a major.
My priorities are a financially stable school where I can get the COA to around $28K a year. We are residents of New York. Do any of the SUNY schools have school spirit and a beautiful campus? What northeast schools with school spirit do you think would offer a significant amount of merit aid to a student like her? We could go as south as VA/DE.
Your best bet would be in state schools. My NJ merit chasers with 3.95 uwgps’s, 9 AP’s, 33/34 act’s were offered some merit awards at northeast publics to bring costs down to under $40,000. Northeast universities are expensive. Would she consider southern schools with big sports cultures?
I understand the cost is more reasonable, but unfortunately the south wouldn’t be an option.
So for the private schools where she hits the highest quarter of their stats, you don’t think she could get enough merit to get to $28k? That is depressing.
Honestly, this seems like a tough one. Academically the SUNY system has great options, and from what I have seen some of the campuses are nice. But sports-related school spirit is maybe not their strong suit, and as people mentioned, while Buffalo might be the best bet on that dimension, the campus? Eh, not so sure about that.
Then merit that will get you to only $28K in the Northeast is just rare. Big picture, the main merit levels are: lower than market rate private, lower than market rate OOS, and competitive with market rate in-state. The logic behind each of those levels is it will allow the college offering merit to peel off some of the students it wants from their other options without merit.
Then a few colleges sometimes offer merit even below market rate in-state, which is where you are basically looking given her region preference, but it is observably a lot less common. Essentially, it is getting very expensive for a college to offer such aid, so if they do it at all, it might be a very competitive program.
I don’t want to say it is impossible, yet, but in part that will depend on what happens with her junior year grades and with testing. I also agree with others that if she expanded her geographic scope, that could help a lot. Basically, market rates are really high in the Northeast, so even significant discounts off the various market rates are also high. In other regions, though, you might get in the right range without as much of a discount because the market rate started lower to begin with.
My sense of things (which may be off, but based on experience with my D and observation on this site) is that a merit award at a private school will rarely surpass $25k, and almost never surpass $40k. Higher stats or other institutional priorities will yield higher awards, but they’ll still fall in this range. I’m sure there are exceptions, but this is my experience. If tuition+room/board is $80-90k, then you’re not going to get down to $28k. And any private scholarships (not granted by the school) are unlikely to fill the gap – they’re mostly smaller. Now, if you’re eligible for need-based aid (run NPCs) and merit and need aid stacks, then maybe.
I think that given your budget, other posters are right that you should look at SUNYs and OOS publics that give OOS merit. I think that the University of Vermont might check some boxes, at least (though I don’t know how much merit they give).
If by “school spirit” you mean a lot of students who support and enjoy athletic teams :
SUNY Cortland
For a pretty campus: SUNY Geneseo (SUNY honors college, a 90+ GPA is a minimum to have a shot), SUNY New Paltz (?)
Imho St.Bonaventure, Hobart&William Smith fit the bill for both spirit and pretty campus among private colleges, not sure they’d be within budget but both offer merit so run the NPC, as well as St Lawrence (reach).
Thanks for all of this information! It looks like she will have to work very hard next year, but it sounds like even improving her grades might not put her in a better position.
Thanks for this information - that’s pretty sobering. UVM looks like a wonderful school
but I will have to look into the finances more. I think it’s pretty expensive for OOS.
Agreed that she would love Syracuse. I tried running the net price calculator. I don’t think I answered all of the questions right - for example, where do you list 529s? Do I list all of the kids’ 529s? Does each school have their own net price calculator?
Yes, each school has their own net price calculator because each had their own calculation method
Most colleges " don’t meet need".
The NPC only evaluates possible merit if it asks for GPA and test scores.
Improving scores is likely the fastest way to improve merit.
To be honest, you are very fortunate to live in a state where you can choose from more than a dozen state colleges and keep the cost under $28,000. Geneseo’s campus is beautiful. Oswego’s is very scenic and is right near the lake. All have their strengths. You can’t have everything. While they do not have big time sports, they all compete in intercollegiate sports and it can be lots of fun to follow the local teams regardless of the size of the crowds.
