Good Schools w/ Merit Aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People saying good colleges don't provide merit aid are simply wrong.

Publics like UVA, Michigan, Maryland, W&M, etc. do have a small number of full-pay/half-pay scholarships for top students. You should be able to find it on their websites. However those students would need to be competitive for Ivies.

The WGPA is obviously great, but perhaps he could raise his SAT score in the fall. SAT has become very inflated due to changes and a 1500 is not what it once was. Closer to a 1600 and he would have a lot of merit scholarship options, including from top publics and great SLACs.

Considering he's male, good SLACs i.e. within top 30 will provide merit scholarships as well.

UMD tuition is $10k/year though. It's highly unlikely that SLACs charging $60,000/year in tuition alone - more than many top privates - would get that low. 50% of total cost of attendance is more likely, which makes it closer to $30-35,000 per year.

UVA does not have merit scholarships. The Jefferson Scholars Foundation—which is a private foundation separate from UVA—picks and provides full scholarships to UVA for Jefferson Scholars. All aid from UVA is need-based.

[Anonymous]

William and Mary has full scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People saying good colleges don't provide merit aid are simply wrong.

Publics like UVA, Michigan, Maryland, W&M, etc. do have a small number of full-pay/half-pay scholarships for top students. You should be able to find it on their websites. However those students would need to be competitive for Ivies.

The WGPA is obviously great, but perhaps he could raise his SAT score in the fall. SAT has become very inflated due to changes and a 1500 is not what it once was. Closer to a 1600 and he would have a lot of merit scholarship options, including from top publics and great SLACs.

Considering he's male, good SLACs i.e. within top 30 will provide merit scholarships as well.

UMD tuition is $10k/year though. It's highly unlikely that SLACs charging $60,000/year in tuition alone - more than many top privates - would get that low. 50% of total cost of attendance is more likely, which makes it closer to $30-35,000 per year.

Sorry if it wasn’t clear…SAT is 1560, and he doesn’t want to retake. Does this change anything? Also, which SLACs are you referring too (I don’t know much about LACs!)

His SAT is 1560 and he doesn't want to retake, which makes me think that you suggested he do so. If so, that tells me all I need to know about you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is trying to find strong schools that might offer merit as we don't want to pay much over the in-state price for UMD. UMD is a fantastic school, and he'll get in no problem, but I know he definitely wants to apply to some other good academic schools that might give merit. In terms of stats, from MCPS, not at W or Magnet, 1550+ SAT, 4.00 GPA, 4.85 WGPA, 10 APs completed by junior year, fairly strong ECs, probable National Merit Semifinalist, (will be) 4 year varsity athlete. Aside from Case Western and Northeastern, can anyone recommend strong academic schools that might offer merit? DS isn't interested in LACs and definitely not interested in any big southern schools like Bama, Ole Miss, UofSC, etc.

If you're more donut-hole-y than poor, and you could afford to pay, say, $20,000 to $50,000 in cash per year for university, maybe your son could consider English-language bachelor's programs outside the United States.

In a lot of cases, the tuition is less than $5,000 per year. Most of the spending would be on bills for books, housing, food, travel etc.

Challenges:

- Your son would have to figure out how a European bachelor's would fit into what he wants to do next. He should ask his dream grad programs if he would have to do anything extra to make his European bachelor's U.S. grad school compatible.

- Your son might not be able to get any kind of financial aid, including student loans, to pay for school, and he might have trouble getting student jobs.

- If he doessn't speak the local language, he might be stuck hanging out with other grad students.

- Programs in places like England and Scotland tend to be a lot more expensive for American students than programs in places like Germany or the Netherlands.

Here's a site that talks about the cheap programs:

https://www.bachelorsportal.com/articles/2440/8-affordable-eu-countries-for-studying-a-bachelors-degree-abroad-in-2021.html

Also, see:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/top-english-speaking-bachelors-programs-eu/

https://www.educations.com/search/institutes/bachelors-degree-on-campus-english-europe/a62-b600-c747-d58?languageId=1

[Anonymous]

There are very few 1693 scholars at W&M but they are there!

[Anonymous]

Tulane, which is ranked about the same as W&M, has several full tuition scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People saying good colleges don't provide merit aid are simply wrong.

Publics like UVA, Michigan, Maryland, W&M, etc. do have a small number of full-pay/half-pay scholarships for top students. You should be able to find it on their websites. However those students would need to be competitive for Ivies.

The WGPA is obviously great, but perhaps he could raise his SAT score in the fall. SAT has become very inflated due to changes and a 1500 is not what it once was. Closer to a 1600 and he would have a lot of merit scholarship options, including from top publics and great SLACs.

Considering he's male, good SLACs i.e. within top 30 will provide merit scholarships as well.

UMD tuition is $10k/year though. It's highly unlikely that SLACs charging $60,000/year in tuition alone - more than many top privates - would get that low. 50% of total cost of attendance is more likely, which makes it closer to $30-35,000 per year.

Sorry if it wasn’t clear…SAT is 1560, and he doesn’t want to retake. Does this change anything? Also, which SLACs are you referring too (I don’t know much about LACs!)

His SAT is 1560 and he doesn't want to retake, which makes me think that you suggested he do so. If so, that tells me all I need to know about you.

You are wrong to assume. He drove this process entirely on his own. We offered tutors, test prep, etc but he did everything on his own. I by no means want him to take it again and couldn’t be more proud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is trying to find strong schools that might offer merit as we don't want to pay much over the in-state price for UMD. UMD is a fantastic school, and he'll get in no problem, but I know he definitely wants to apply to some other good academic schools that might give merit. In terms of stats, from MCPS, not at W or Magnet, 1550+ SAT, 4.00 GPA, 4.85 WGPA, 10 APs completed by junior year, fairly strong ECs, probable National Merit Semifinalist, (will be) 4 year varsity athlete. Aside from Case Western and Northeastern, can anyone recommend strong academic schools that might offer merit? DS isn't interested in LACs and definitely not interested in any big southern schools like Bama, Ole Miss, UofSC, etc.

If you're more donut-hole-y than poor, and you could afford to pay, say, $20,000 to $50,000 in cash per year for university, maybe your son could consider English-language bachelor's programs outside the United States.

In a lot of cases, the tuition is less than $5,000 per year. Most of the spending would be on bills for books, housing, food, travel etc.

Challenges:

- Your son would have to figure out how a European bachelor's would fit into what he wants to do next. He should ask his dream grad programs if he would have to do anything extra to make his European bachelor's U.S. grad school compatible.

- Your son might not be able to get any kind of financial aid, including student loans, to pay for school, and he might have trouble getting student jobs.

- If he doessn't speak the local language, he might be stuck hanging out with other grad students.

- Programs in places like England and Scotland tend to be a lot more expensive for American students than programs in places like Germany or the Netherlands.

Here's a site that talks about the cheap programs:

https://www.bachelorsportal.com/articles/2440/8-affordable-eu-countries-for-studying-a-bachelors-degree-abroad-in-2021.html

Also, see:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/top-english-speaking-bachelors-programs-eu/

https://www.educations.com/search/institutes/bachelors-degree-on-campus-english-europe/a62-b600-c747-d58?languageId=1

Interesting thought. Definitely in the donut-hole and not poor. It’s simple because we have two in college together that we want to avoid private and OOS schools because we don’t qualify for aid. Not sure about what he wants to do for grad school (though he’s positive he’ll get an advanced degree), but do you know how European degrees are viewed by US schools? DS speaks Spanish and plans to study abroad, but I’m not sure how he’d feel about going to school abroad.

[Anonymous]

What about Fordham or Lafayette or Kenyon/Oberlin/Wooster/Denison, which offer significant merit aid?
Tulane also offers a lot.
Regarding Emory, which was mentioned earlier, it looks like a little over 5% of enrolled freshmen had no financial need but were awarded some merit.

[Anonymous]

Washington University in St Louis and NYU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington University in St Louis and NYU

NYU is known to have some of the worst FA there is...since when do they give merit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Washington University in St Louis and NYU

WUSTL is very expensive and offers terrible aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People saying good colleges don't provide merit aid are simply wrong.

Publics like UVA, Michigan, Maryland, W&M, etc. do have a small number of full-pay/half-pay scholarships for top students. You should be able to find it on their websites. However those students would need to be competitive for Ivies.

And, they need to be able to WRITE. All of these scholarship applications require top notch, compelling essays. Sometimes multiple. They require students to be able to explain why the school they are applying to is the perfect school for them, and what they would bring to the school - why they’d be perfect! Definitely not a process for kids with any self esteem issues.

[Anonymous]

Op my son chased merit aid. He wasn’t a good writer so he didn’t apply for any scholarships requiring extra essays.

He got accepted at several schools being mentioned here but the lowest he got cost of attendance down to was $42,000 -$45,000.

Nothing came close to UMDs $27,000. He got a small scholarship there as well that knocked $4000 off tuition. So $23,000. We couldn’t pass that up. It’s a great school snd within our budget with no loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People saying good colleges don't provide merit aid are simply wrong.

Publics like UVA, Michigan, Maryland, W&M, etc. do have a small number of full-pay/half-pay scholarships for top students. You should be able to find it on their websites. However those students would need to be competitive for Ivies.

The WGPA is obviously great, but perhaps he could raise his SAT score in the fall. SAT has become very inflated due to changes and a 1500 is not what it once was. Closer to a 1600 and he would have a lot of merit scholarship options, including from top publics and great SLACs.

Considering he's male, good SLACs i.e. within top 30 will provide merit scholarships as well.

UMD tuition is $10k/year though. It's highly unlikely that SLACs charging $60,000/year in tuition alone - more than many top privates - would get that low. 50% of total cost of attendance is more likely, which makes it closer to $30-35,000 per year.

Sorry if it wasn’t clear…SAT is 1560, and he doesn’t want to retake. Does this change anything? Also, which SLACs are you referring too (I don’t know much about LACs!)

His SAT is 1560 and he doesn't want to retake, which makes me think that you suggested he do so. If so, that tells me all I need to know about you.

DP. Why the snark? Do you not discuss things with your kid? When my DD got her SAT scores, she asked whether I thought she should retake. I said I thought the scores were great but it's up to her whether she wants to retake. I honestly don't think she needs to but I'm not making that decision. OP could have had a similar conversation and her DC decided he didn't want to retake.