Ideas for merit

[Anonymous]

Kid with 1350 SAT, 4.0 unweighted, two varsity sports and a year-round job, no other ECs. Can he get excellent/full merit somewhere you think? Not top 100 I am sure, but any ideas of potential schools that might be generous?

[Anonymous]

DS (with lower stats that yours) got an excellent package from LSU.

[Anonymous]

Yes of course there will be merit options - but you should clarify what you mean by "excellent/full merit." Are you looking for options that would be fully funded (including room and board)? That is exceedingly rare to the point of nonexistent for all practical purposes. Also to get the most useful input, you should identify any preferences/constraints, geographic/size/major etc.

[Anonymous]

What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

[Anonymous]

If you're in-state in Virginia, University of Mary Washington has a chart of scholarships associated with grades/scores. If he could get the SAT up to 1400, it would be full tuition. It's 6k/yr scholarship for his current scores.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t looked at it in a while, but the merit award chart for Mizzou looked very promising.

[Anonymous]

WVU and Alabama

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t Arizona have full tuition (not room and board) for an uw 4.0?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

Ideally under 40k. He will apply to state schools, would love to add other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

Ideally under 40k. He will apply to state schools, would love to add other options.

PPs recs for Alabama and Arizona are your best bet. Also look at Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

Ideally under 40k. He will apply to state schools, would love to add other options.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but consider some Jesuit schools: St. Joe's, Loyola, Scranton, Fairfield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

Ideally under 40k. He will apply to state schools, would love to add other options.

That’s going to be tough with SLACs. Wooster and St. Olaf might work and I know kids who are at both colleges and love them. St. Olaf started at a lower price point when my kid applied, which helped. Not sure where they are now.

As someone said UMW and maybe CNU, JMU, GMU in state. Other posters have provided OOS. I’d add Pitt as a possible.

Case Western (midsized private) and Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalaster and Grinnell all offer decent merit aid— but getting below 40k (less than half price) with merit only at these colleges would be a challenge. Your kid would probably end up is the 50-60k range. Not sure how able you are to stretch or how willing you are to take out loans.

[Anonymous]

Minnesota

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you looking to pay? He can get substantial $$ probably at some SLACS but a third off of $80k is still a lot.

Ideally under 40k. He will apply to state schools, would love to add other options.

That’s going to be tough with SLACs. Wooster and St. Olaf might work and I know kids who are at both colleges and love them. St. Olaf started at a lower price point when my kid applied, which helped. Not sure where they are now.

As someone said UMW and maybe CNU, JMU, GMU in state. Other posters have provided OOS. I’d add Pitt as a possible.

Case Western (midsized private) and Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalaster and Grinnell all offer decent merit aid— but getting below 40k (less than half price) with merit only at these colleges would be a challenge. Your kid would probably end up is the 50-60k range. Not sure how able you are to stretch or how willing you are to take out loans.

Wooster and Kalamazoo were the two that brought the total cost to under/around 40k for us with merit aid. Had W&M not worked out for our kid in-state, they were both really compelling options--especially for a kid interested in chemistry/health sciences.

[Anonymous]

My daughters stats were a bit lower than your sons and she got 15K at Michigan State which brings it close to 40k/yr. Your son would prob get invited to the Honors College as well, which kicks in another 5K. Not a bad deal.

She also got 9K at U of Iowa which brought tuition to about 36k.

Both of these #’s include room and board.