Hi-I find this site fascinating to read, thank you!
S beginning his search for schools in NYC/CT/MA for social science
92 uw GPA (W will be high 90’s), 1320 PSAT, taking SAT and ACT this fall
Several Ap classes (7 by graduation) and the rest all honors classes.
Intellectual, social on a small scale, but not shy.
Looking for private school reco’s 2,000-10,000 enrolled
Parent contribution 15k per year, the rest will have to be merit/gift aid and student loans if necessary
I know it is early, but we are clueless of where to start the search bc naviance is overwhelming right now.
He is very humble/realistic and knows he will be looking at options at or below since he needs decent merit $
Thanks!! Forgive me if I am missing anything, I am new
Make sure to look not only at the average amount of non-need-based aid, but also at the percentage of students who receive it. Some schools spread merit money to a large percentage of students, and others offer it to only a handful of students that are of the caliber that would be aggressively recruited by the most elite schools.
Since money is a key constraint, you will should expand your search beyond the Northeast. Midwest schools may be your best bet.
SAT/ACT typically weighs heavily in merit awards. Sizable awards generally start at ~1400 on the old CR+M SAT scale, which is equivalent to 1450 on the new redesigned SAT.
Try the Super Match college search feature on the homepage of this website.
Are you certain your family will not qualify for need-based FA? Try the Net Price Calculator on each college’s website.
I’ll be honest. Getting enough merit aid at a small-medium sized private school, to have only a $15k net contribution, is going to be really, really tough.
Thanks prime meridian! Yes, looking forward to seeing how he does this fall, on both tests, as it could change things if he scores a bit higher. He/we will have to take loans to make up the difference for whatever merit/gift aid doesn’t cover. We did a bunch of the npc and it seems like a decent amount since he looked at or below his current score/gpa. Thanks for the link, there were a few on that list we entered into the npc so it was nice to see on the list.
Hi merc81-Social work or psych - SUNY schools are of course an option or schools not too far upstate. Some had recommended Siena. Open to ideas for his scores/major. Thanks!
Just to clarify 15k plus merit/gift aid and as noted in my initial post- whatever remains will be taken out in loans. Of course the less loans - the better, Thanks!
Happy to hear you say that would be a good option because that is actually one of the npc that gave him one of the highest amounts last night and he loved everything he read online. Thanks
I looked up each school on Wikipedia to see which had the larger endowments. I used endowment per capita as a proxy for ability to give money. Then I checked each school’s Common Data Set to look at merit aid figures.
Clark was on my list of CTCL merit schools. It’s worth looking at.
We have done some calculations to bump up the current savings plan and our annual out of pocket can be around 23k and beyond that would be loans). Trying to expand his list, thank you for any input !
Will you be considering schools that offer need-based financial assistance (but not merit scholarships)? Does your son have wide-ranging academic interests beyond those stated?
My husband just began making much better money so unfortunately we will not qualify for much need based aid, definitely will have to be mostly merit. He feels strongly about his major, but other academic interests? History, literature would be two of his favorites. thanks.
