Which LACs give a lot of "merit aid"?
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Anonymous
PHEW! I feel better now after seeing your DD’s stats! Mine got some money at Oberlin, maybe like 15,000, but not nearly that much. Her stats were nowhere near as good as your DD’s though. Your post just saved her for getting yelled at for a weaker than expected junior spring. I mean, she was never going to be anywhere close to those stats. So I feel pretty good about what she got in comparison now! |
Anonymous
+1 same for my kid. Typical high stats, nothing special with EC’s and had generous merit aid from Furman. |
Anonymous
The top LACs (T15ish) that are worth the 70-90k a year do not give merit broadly. A few give a very small number of true merit to very top kids. The ones that give lots of merit, ie more than 15% of the incoming class, are schools trying to buy students: they are in danger of not filling seats and the “merit” is really just a sale price as one does to move a less desired good at a store. You are better off sending your student to the top school they can get into. If you do not qualify for beed based aid then you make at least 200k and can well afford the in-state flagship and if you had saved properly the 70-90k of a private. |
Anonymous
But a kid who wants to attend a small LAC probably isn't going to be happy at a huge state flagship, in classes w/ hundreds of students. I would argue that it would be better to attend a lower-ranked LAC that will still provide a terrific education than try to pigeonhole a kid into a huge school based solely on the price tag. So far, the schools that have offered great merit aid to my DD have been Kenyon, Oberlin, Kalamazoo and Wheaton College (MA). Brandeis offered her a $45k Presidential Scholarship, but the COA is still much higher than the other options. All fine schools, we're waiting to hear on the rest of her apps, but most of those will only provide need-based aid. |
Anonymous
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My DD received 20k a year from Fairfield. Middle of the pack grades but great ECs and huge demonstrated interest. We were not expecting this at all and did not apply for FA.
I think many schools give merit aid so you just need to apply and see. That is definitely a lesson learned when my last kid applies. |
Anonymous
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Focus on these LACs - GIVE MERIT AID:
Macalester Occidental Colorado College Kenyon Grinnell Oberlin Bryn Mawr Mount Holyoke Scripps St. Olaf SKIP these LACs that give NO MERIT AID: Swarthmore Reed Carleton Bowdoin Williams Vassar Wesleyan Pitzer Pomona Harvey Mud Claremont McKenna |
Anonymous
| Drexel gives decent merit aid. |
Anonymous
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Here's a list of the Top 40 National Liberal Arts Colleges (U.S. News), along with the Percent Receiving Merit Aid (Freshmen w/o Need) and Average Merit Award (Freshmen w/o Need) from the College Transitions (https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/merit-aid).
(Format: College — % Receiving Merit Aid — Average Merit Award) Williams College — 0% — $0 Amherst College — 0% — $0 United States Naval Academy — 0% — $0 Swarthmore College — 0% — $0 Bowdoin College — 2% — $1,000 Pomona College — 0% — $0 Wellesley College — 0% — $0 United States Air Force Academy — 0% — $0 Carleton College — 2% — $15,761 Claremont McKenna College — 8% — $23,300 United States Military Academy — 0% — $0 Harvey Mudd College — 17% — $10,457 Wesleyan University — 0.1% — $20,553 Smith College — 4% — $23,348 Haverford College — 0% — $0 Washington and Lee University — 4% — $59,826 Colby College — 0.3% — $2,000 Davidson College — 3% — $41,262 Vassar College — 0% — $0 Hamilton College — 0% — $0 Grinnell College — 23% — $26,154 Colgate University — 0% — $0 Bates College — 0% — $0 Barnard College — 0% — $0 Macalester College — 36% — $18,937 Bryn Mawr College — 17% — $5,438 Kenyon College — 33% — $24,471 Oberlin College — 51% — $23,035 Scripps College — 2% — $7,000 Pitzer College — 2% — $7,000 Colorado College — 8% — $12,776 Mount Holyoke College — (data not listed in this dataset snapshot) Denison University — 35% — $18,758 Whitman College — 37% — $21,981 Franklin & Marshall College — 25% — $19,876 Dickinson College — 31% — $32,586 Trinity College — 8% — $23,543 Gettysburg College — 32% — $38,359 Sewanee (University of the South) — 48% — $27,492 Connecticut College — 46% — $28,097 https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/merit-aid |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
I love you say you can just go to in-state flagship like it is a given. The competition to get into UVA from some of the NOVA HSs is brutal. |
Anonymous
I also love how everyone says that on a board where so many live in the District and have no in-state flagship. |
Anonymous
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I am not sure why multiple posters mentioned Colorado College? Only 8% of non-need students receive merit and the average merit amount is pretty low.
My "average excellent" DD (4.0 UW, high-rigor, 32 ACT, strong EC's with a few state-wide awards) received the following last year: Oberlin - 40K Kenyon - 35K Scripps - 25K Bryn Mayr - 7K Whitman - 40K University of Puget Sound - 49K Willamette - 35K Very expected pattern - awards directly correlated to the ranking of the school. Also of note, Puget Sound originally offered 35K, but then reached out twice and increased the award with no effort on our part. |
Anonymous
I think this is terrible advice. While it's true that many schools offer merit aid, there's no need to make your kid go through the hassle of applying just to "see" — the data is readily available before they apply. Look at the lists mentioned, then check the most recent CDS profile for each school to double-check. (Some online lists pull from outdated information.) My well-qualified DC wanted to attend a SLAC, but we weren't willing/able to pay more than ~50K per year; therefore, they didn't apply to many of the schools they were initially interested in, including Reed, Vassar, etc., since those schools very clearly do not give any merit awards. We also discouraged them from applying to schools where less than 10% of students received merit aid — knowing that even though they were a strong applicant, the odds of receiving a substantial award weren't in their favor. |
Anonymous
| that makes me think UPS is in financial trouble |