Anonymous wrote:Did you ask Claude?

Aren’t most of the top posts here, including this one, from Claude?

Minnesota

We're full pay. My kid got to under $45k on merit-only at Dayton, Seton Hall, Duquesne, Hofstra, Loyola Maryland, and Mary Washington.

The big surprise was Dayton- when DD declined, they were giving her $40k, which would've made the total (direct) COA of $29,700. I heard that they were also giving additional $2k after she declined, so assuming she would've gotten that too to make total COA of $27,000.

Honestly, I would've been thrilled if she had gone there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you ask Claude?

University of Alabama
Tulane University - The catch: their total COA is high (around $85k+), so even a $32k merit award still leaves you above $50k all-in. To get to $45k at Tulane, you'd need to be competing for one of their larger named scholarships.
University of Tulsa
Albion College (offers five GPA-based merit scholarships ranging from $30,000 to $42,000, with increasing amounts for higher GPAs. With a sticker price well below $70k, a $40k+ merit award can get you to $30k or less all-in).
University of Hartford
Hofstra University
DePaul University
Olin College of Engineering

Ursinus College, Lake Forest College, St. Lawrence University, and College of Wooster offer substantial merit aid precisely because they're recruiting strong students who might otherwise choose better-known schools.

Apply early.
Use Road2College's R2C Insights tool: https://www.road2college.com/top-30-colleges-largests-merit-based-scholarships/

Tulane’s total cost of attendance is $98k. My DC will be attending with merit. It helps bring the astronomical price to within our budget. But certainly not $45k, as OP specifically asked.

Tulane has 10 full-ride scholarships I think. The rest is around 20-30k, right?

Anonymous wrote:Did you ask Claude?

University of Alabama
Tulane University - The catch: their total COA is high (around $85k+), so even a $32k merit award still leaves you above $50k all-in. To get to $45k at Tulane, you'd need to be competing for one of their larger named scholarships.
University of Tulsa
Albion College (offers five GPA-based merit scholarships ranging from $30,000 to $42,000, with increasing amounts for higher GPAs. With a sticker price well below $70k, a $40k+ merit award can get you to $30k or less all-in).
University of Hartford
Hofstra University
DePaul University
Olin College of Engineering

Ursinus College, Lake Forest College, St. Lawrence University, and College of Wooster offer substantial merit aid precisely because they're recruiting strong students who might otherwise choose better-known schools.

Apply early.
Use Road2College's R2C Insights tool: https://www.road2college.com/top-30-colleges-largests-merit-based-scholarships/

Tulane’s total cost of attendance is $98k. My DC will be attending with merit. It helps bring the astronomical price to within our budget. But certainly not $45k, as OP specifically asked.

I think you should be looking at the average cost of attendance and not the merit aid amount. The merit aid amount is deceptive because the total cost of attendance can be insanely high to start with.


For example, loyola Maryland gives a lot of merit aid, but it starts out relatively more expensive then say, JMU, that gives hardly any merit aid.

For schools that are under $45k all in COA, you’re probably looking at in-state publics, Catholic private schools that are not Georgetown or Notre Dame, etc, or a place that is lesser ranked, but your kid is high stats.

It also matters whether you’re talking about an in-state public versus an out-of-state public versus a private school, and your kids stats versus the ranking of that school.

What type of school is your kid targeting size wise and region wise, and what are their general grades and SAT scores? Only with that information, could somebody probably give you a reach target and list of schools.

Awards are regularly given OOS at Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Colorado, Vermont, Ole Miss to name a few.

We got about to that or less at Ithaca, Hobart, Duquesne

Rutgers (New Brunswick): with $10k/year, the total OOS cost is just below $45/year.

University of Delaware and American both came to about $45k after merit, no need based aid

Kids' friends at public school in MD got significant merit at IU, UF, FSU, USF, UGA, South Carolina, GMU, VCU

Loyola New Orleans
College of Wooster

There are lots of others but those are two my kids got into and had under $40K COA.

Did you ask Claude?

University of Alabama
Tulane University - The catch: their total COA is high (around $85k+), so even a $32k merit award still leaves you above $50k all-in. To get to $45k at Tulane, you'd need to be competing for one of their larger named scholarships.
University of Tulsa
Albion College (offers five GPA-based merit scholarships ranging from $30,000 to $42,000, with increasing amounts for higher GPAs. With a sticker price well below $70k, a $40k+ merit award can get you to $30k or less all-in).
University of Hartford
Hofstra University
DePaul University
Olin College of Engineering

Ursinus College, Lake Forest College, St. Lawrence University, and College of Wooster offer substantial merit aid precisely because they're recruiting strong students who might otherwise choose better-known schools.

Apply early.
Use Road2College's R2C Insights tool: https://www.road2college.com/top-30-colleges-largests-merit-based-scholarships/

Ours got to just under $40k at St. Olaf. Didn't end up there, but were really impressed by the people and the school.

I would love to hear about where people got lots of merit aid this cycle, particularly at private universities and as out of state students at public universities. Did anyone get to 45k
or less all-in on merit only, and if so, where? Even if your child did not enroll, I’d love to hear merit success stories. We’ll be doing this next year, won’t qualify for a penny of need-based, but we can’t pay full tuition. We’re not chasing prestige, so less selective schools are on our radar, too. Who gives “full pay” families enough to get to 45k or less?