Good Schools w/ Merit Aid
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Anonymous
Yes - I understand - and I appreciate your feedback. But what I am looking for is a list of the top schools on that list. "Many SLACs" tells me nothing concrete to consider. I was able to pull a list from this thread so far of top schools that are respectable - but are there others not mentioned yet? (For example - Thanks to PP for highlighting CMU). We are fortunate that we don't have to worry about merit aid - but I'd like DS to think of the value tradeoff here as he considers where to visit and where to apply. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
On the whole, top schools (meaning ranked ~1-25 or 30 by USNWR) do not award merit scholarship aid, or if they do, it goes to a very small fraction of incoming students. I am not familiar with what Emory, Tulane, and W&M do for high-performers, but I can tell you what my high-performing DC got for merit aid last year: Stats: 1600 SAT, 4.0 UW/4.83 Weighted GPA at an MCPS magnet. Three subject-matter SAT tests, scored 800 on all three. Ten AP classes, nine grades of five and one grade of four. 500 service hours. Tutored for Aristotle Circle. Played an unusual sport and a musical instrument at a high level (won awards including at a national level). Results: UMD-CP: Admitted, $5K merit/year Pitt: Admitted, $15K merit/year, not admitted to the Honors College UMBC: Admitted with a full ride WashU: Admitted, no merit money URochester: Admitted, $12K merit/year Grinnell: Admitted, $25K merit/year Case Western: Admitted, $32K merit/year Rice: Admitted, no merit money Davidson: Admitted, no merit money Oberlin: Admitted, $32K merit/year Brandeis: Admitted, $15K merit/year If you are chasing a name-brand, you need to pay or qualify for need-based aid. |
Anonymous
| So for the above schools, anyone not above 1500 SAT get merit? Say, mid to high 1400s? Or is it 1500+ or forget about merit? |
Anonymous
Super helpful, thanks for sharing your experience. |
Anonymous
These aren’t state schools. This isn’t like Mizzou where they provide a helpful chart for GPA/SAT and you see what you’ll get in merit. If you are talking selective schools, they are more holistic and you aren’t going to find a chart with thresholds. For instance, my class of 2021 student didn’t have stats/ECs nearly as impressive as the PP’s kid (wow!) but did great on the ACT and still was offered $10K in merit aid from Brandeis (vs. $15K for PP’s kid). Short version, as others have told you, you can’t count on or expect any merit money from the better schools. It’s a crap shoot. |
Anonymous
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I mean typically if you are looking for merit aid, you need to go down a level from what your kid will likely get into. You are not going to get into a reach school with merit aid.
My kids both got significant merit aid to their safeties, both SLAC, both over $35K per year. But again, they were safeties. They did not get anything for the top schools and they did not expect anything other than to potentially simply get in. |
Anonymous
| W&M has a 1693 scholarship that only a handful of kids get each year (need to be in the top 1% of class, +1500 SAT I think to really be considered typically) that I offers substantial financial aid (as well as impressive research opportunities/faculty partnerships). |
Anonymous
Congratulations. Super impressive. That's among the highest stats I've seen. Best of luck in college. |
Anonymous
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Mean to continue post above.
Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt and UChicago offer merit but as I understand it, only a handful, through a few named scholarships. |
Anonymous
And in med school! 
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Anonymous
NP here. Johns Hopkins also has a handful of merit scholarships. When I attended, it covered 60% tuition for all 4 years, provided you kept a 3.0 GPA. No additional application needed. |
Anonymous
This. If you want merit, the only options at the highly ranked schools is competing for a very small number of awards. Generally for "good merit", by which people usually mean a lot of students get a substantial amount just for being an above average student in the applicant pool, you need to go down a tier or more in selectivity. The whole point of merit aid is to attract higher-caliber students who might otherwise go to a more highly-ranked school. Nobody gets merit from a reach (unless their reach is a mid-ranked school that does give at least some "merit" aka discount to every applicant) |
Anonymous
PP here, thank you - but all credit truly goes to DC, who is very driven and self-motivated as a matter of nature/personality. DC is at one of the above schools now, very happy and doing well so far. |
Anonymous
+1 Did Not apply to the Ivys? |