If he gets his ACT to a 33, then he should get about 28k per year from Santa Clara. He should also look at LMU.
SLU also likely has The Classics, but their merit isn’t that great. Fordham tends to be generous to NMFs, but not so generous to non-NMFs.
If he’s a Calif resident and wants med school, then he might consider going OOS where he can get large merit AND he can get a “tie” to another state’s public SOMs
Calif has too many premeds.
That’s a pretty unusual background for a high schooler. Classical languages are typically taught more rigorously and at a faster pace in college than in high school, but nevertheless he should have a pretty good reading knowledge of Greek and Latin by the end of next year. (Put another way, he should be ready to handle Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Catullus, etc. in Latin. In Greek, he should have already read some Plato and will hopefully be prepared to tackle Herodotus or Euripides in Greek.)
For this reason, he should scope out the classics offerings of any school VERY carefully. I can already warn you that he’ll be very dissatisfied with the classics offerings of most LACs and quite a few universities. They simply won’t offer enough upper-level courses on a regular basis. You can find dozens or even hundreds of good programs in biology, history, or English, but the quality of classics programs drops off noticeably outside the dozen or so best programs and then more sharply after another dozen or so programs. This is admittedly not as big a concern for a pre-med as for an aspiring classicist, but it’s still something to consider. I would look for programs that offer at least a MA program in classics, as he should be moving into graduate courses in a year or two.
Tulane has a reasonably good classics program and offers great merit aid.
http://www.tulane.edu/~classics/
Boston U is another possibility, especially if he can get his test scores up.
Several of the southern schools have good classics programs and offer merit scholarships to the best OOS applicants (UGA, UF, and FSU in particular).
http://www.classics.uga.edu
http://classics.ufl.edu
http://classics.fsu.edu
Arizona has a very strong classics program and offers decent merit aid as well.
Villanova and U Dallas are other options.
Among LACs, Oberlin and Trinity (TX) come to mind for classics and merit aid.
@mom2collegekids - It looks like Santa Clara also offers a few full scholarships but anything is better than zero. Our older son was also accepted to Fordham. They offered him $10,000 a year in merit scholarship for 4 years.
I looked at LMU on line. They offer merit based scholarships under their Early Action application with an ACT of 30 plus. I am going to check out UA on line. I need to figure out some colleges to take my son to tour over Easter break.
He attends a Catholic High School. What does SOMs stand for?
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He attends a Catholic High School.
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I guessed as much from the Greek/Latin emphasis, that is why I suggested Jesuit schools. Fordham’s award is ok, but really should be more for an ACT 33. Their NMF award is more generous… . My children went to catholic schools as well.
What does SOMs stand for?
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School of Medicine
@warblersrule - Our sons high school is the only U.S. high school that offers 3 years of Greek and 4 years of Latin. Although several schools teach Latin. Both of our sons chose to do Greek as their elective course.
In Latin so far S2 they have covered literature by Vergil, Horas, Catullus and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. They get into Greek literature in the 3rd year which will be next year for him. S1 enjoyed Greek more than Latin but he excelled in both. He went into USC with 30 units so he can actually be a Junior next year but instead he is double majoring or doing three minors with just 1 major. S2 should also test as well and go into University with 30-32 units. It would be great to find a college that offers decent merit scholarships and accepts AP/IB units.
Thank you for providing the links to Tulane and BU. I will check those out along with U Dallas, Oberlin, Trinity, UGeorgia, UFL and Florida State. Villanova is on his list of schools that he will be applying to.
Thank you for the taking your time and responding. I very much much appreciate it 
It’s a small world…lol
Mary may have felt identified.
I can understand that if you have boys that tend to compete with each other, you don’t want a situation where younger son doesn’t’ get the big USC award and then feel “less” in some way to brother who got the big award.
Please let me know if you have any "lesser" school recommendations that offer merit scholarships. We are certain he will bring his ACT score up to 33-35. He seems to have somewhat of a photographic memory.
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Alabama would give him free tuition if he gets either an ACT 32+ or a 1400+ M+CR on the SAT (he needs to take both the SAT and ACT). The scholarships are ASSURED for stats…no competition…no interview…given for stats…so this could be a safety in his pocket.
http://mlc.ua.edu/classics/
The student that I know that is in The Classics program at Bama loves it. He had a very strong Latin and Greek background (he’s the one with the Harvard PhD parent home-schooling him.) The Classics students are a tight-knit group. Of course there are a number of study abroad offerings but they seem to be drawn to the nationally-offered “Alabama in Greece” prof-led summer program where they and Classics students from other univs spend three weeks in Greece for 6 credits while visiting the most important archaeological and historical sites in Greece… http://studyabroad.ua.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10902
Since your son would be pre-med, attending Alabama would give him a “tie” to the state’s two SOM’s. Since public SOMs are often hard to get into from OOS (and Calif premeds need options outside of their crowded pre-med state…lol) …attending an undergrad where he’d have a tie to more SOMs could be a plus.
I don’t know if you have researched much about US MD med schools. They are all excellent. This country doesn’t have any sub-par MD SOMs. They all must teach the same thing and all med students must pass the same national exams. The education is flat.
Bama is extremely generous with AP credits. It’s not unusual for a student like your son to enter Bama with 40+ AP/IB or dual enrollment credits. Of course, as a premed, he may not want to use his science AP credits, since doing so would require taking “the next higher” level of courses to satisfy SOM req’ts.
You can see Alabama’s AP/IB credit awards here http://courseleaf.ua.edu/introduction/academicpolicies/creditbyexamination/#advancedplacementaptext
click on the appropriate tab to see AP or IB or CLEP or international credits.
alabama has HIGH out-of-state numbers…the school is nearly 50% OOS…over 900 students are from Calif alone.
@warblersrule quote:
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For this reason, he should scope out the classics offerings of any school VERY carefully. I can already warn you that he’ll be very dissatisfied with the classics offerings of most LACs and quite a few universities. They simply won’t offer enough upper-level courses on a regular basis. You can find dozens or even hundreds of good programs in biology, history, or English, but the quality of classics programs drops off noticeably outside the dozen or so best programs and then more sharply after another dozen or so programs. I would look for programs that offer at least a MA program in classics, as he should be moving into graduate courses in a year or two.
** This is admittedly not as big a concern for a pre-med as for an aspiring classicist **, but it’s still something to consider.
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The above in bold is important.
HOWEVER, in regards to grad school level courses …If the goal is med school, AND fitting in ALL of the premed prereqs (which is one reason why the student may not have the time to include grad classes). Typically, a Classics major isn’t having to include 4 semesters of chem (gen chem and orgo), 2 semesters of bio, 2 semesters of physics, biochem, and psych and/or sociology. A Classics premed has to be able to shove 30+ additional credits into his schedule, so fitting in (or even desiring grad classes) may not be an option).
Tulane has a reasonably good classics program and offers great merit aid.
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http://www.tulane.edu/~classics/
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Yes, merit for an ACT 33 would probably be $25k per year at Tulane.
Boston U is another possibility, especially if he can get his test scores up.
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BUs merit can be hit or miss…you can try and see.
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Several of the southern schools have good classics programs and offer merit scholarships to the best OOS applicants (UGA, UF, and FSU in particular).
http://www.classics.uga.edu
http://classics.ufl.edu
http://classics.fsu.edu
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Unless those ^ depts offer merit, I would NOT count on much merit from those schools. UGA and those Florida schools are often lousy with merit because their merit is so strongly tied to their states’ Hope and Bright Futures programs for instate students. They also have very LOW out of state numbers.
Arizona has a very strong classics program and offers decent merit aid as well.
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UArizona is generous with merit.
Villanova and U Dallas are other options.
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Nova is lousy with merit, UDallas seems to have a number of half-tuition awards.
Is there a reason Holy Cross isn’t on the list? They’re much more generous with aid overall than Nova, and they even have a special competitive merit scholarship just for Classics majors: http://academics.holycross.edu/classics/scholarships
Granted Nova has a Master’s program, but Holy Cross has as large a Classics department and offers great research opportunities.
does HC give merit? If not, then it won’t help this situation.
HC can be iffy for premeds. It heavily weeds and decides who will get Committee Letters. That can be risky.
Holy Cross doesn’t offer much in the way of general merit scholarships, but the link in the above post is for a full-tuition merit scholarship for a Classics major. Holy Cross awards two of these each year. I can’t speak to Holy Cross for premed, the Holy Cross grad I know was a Classics major who just defended his classics PhD thesis.
Nova does have some full-ride Presidential scholarships, and a few other merit scholarships, but those are for the entire student population (with some reserved for students with URM status), so you’re competing against a lot more kids than you would be for the Bean scholarship at HC. Nova’s entire attitude towards financial aid turned me off when we toured, and their gapping us $15K/year against our EFC didn’t improve matters. I also felt the way they presented their aid package was confusing about how much was expected to be taken out in loans - other schools did a much better job of breaking everything down. It is a great school though, if you can afford it.
Holy Cross’s full tuition scholarship for Classics majors was due in the mail today. As for the premed concerns, I’ve talked to people on med school admissions staff and they said the fact that HC does not cut any slack for its students is well known and puts them into the upper echelon of undergrad schools when they review applications.
Mom2collegekids - what do you mean by “heavily weeds and decides who will get committee letters.” What is that?
Heavily weeds: All schools weed. But Holy Cross has a rep for being particularly harsh in their weeding, including how they deny Committee Letters to certain students. I think HC also limits who can even declare that they’re premed.
AT ALL SCHOOLS, a huge number of incoming frosh want to be “premed”. Obviously, many/most are either not strong enough to actually make it thru the premed prereqs with med-school-worthy grades or they find out that they really don’t have the interest to become a physician.
The weeding process at ALL SCHOOLS begins frosh year. Premed prereqs and STEM majors are taking the same classes…bio, chem, etc. It is important to schools that the weaker kids NOT be passed along with good grades that they don’t deserve. This is done to encourage those kids to choose majors and career goals that are appropriate to their strengths. This is also done with engineering majors…that is why typically after frosh year, many premeds and eng’g majors suddenly have changed their career goals.
It is safe to say that at any school, about 75% of freshman premeds never apply to med school.
So, those Bio, Chem, etc classes typically strictly limit how many A’s will be awarded. Once a premed starts getting grades that he knows that aren’t med-school worthy, he will typically move on to something else. That is the weeding process.
A number of schools, including Alabama, write Committee Letters to med schools. Each school’s Committee is made up of faculty. These CL’s are written to help the student gain admission. There is first a Committee Interview, and then the Committee takes the LORs and info from the Interview to write the Letter which is sent to AMCAS (the med school app clearing house) and then forwarded to the med schools that the student has applied to.
Having a Committee Letter is a big plus. Your school is “vouching” for you, so to speak. many schools, particularly publics, don’t do this (the UCs do NOT), because it is a time-consuming and expensive process. Most of the top privates do write Committee Letters…check their premed websites to find out.
Anyway, Holy Cross is notorious about strictly limiting who can be premed, who they’ll write CL’s for, and who really has a chance to get into med school. If you don’t get a CL, then you might as well never apply to med school because the med schools will know that your school writes CLs yet they wouldn’t give you one.
Since it sounds like you would like to know more about the premed/med school app process, you can find out more here… http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1609130-premed-at-bama-questions-ask-here-anyone-can-reply-p1.html and in the premed forum here on CC.
To the OP just as an FYI - our public HS offers through Latin V (honors, IB and/or AP) and 3 years of Greek (Greek is in O period and taken by very few students). So yours is not the only HS to offer this.
I would also be surprised if Boston Latin didn’t offer those courses - back in the day my college roommate who attended there had taken 6 years of Latin but I don’t know about Greek.
@momofzag - your HS offers IB Greek and IB Latin? If so, please provide me with the name of the school.
I will PM you with name of the school. But I just checked the course catalog and the HS offers Greek I-IV (III and IV at honors level) and Latin I - V (with IV and V offered either honors, AP or IB). To be fair, Greek is offered by one teacher who is nearing retirement so I don’t know if that offering will continue.
@momofzag - it looks like the difference is that our high school has both IB Latin and IB Greek and also offers Latin and Greek Honors. Hopefully, your HS will keep the classic languages once your teacher retires.
Case Western might also be a possibility as it offers merit aid, a medical school adjacent to campus, and a classics department with at least two upper division Latin/ Greek offerings every semester.
The University of Iowa, another school with a strong classics department, merit aid, and an adjacent medical school with corresponding shadowing opportunities/ biological research, could be another school worth looking into.
Our son received his first merit scholarship offer to SMU. They are offering him $130,000 over four years. Not bad.
Please use old threads only for research.