Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting tripped up by the "southern schools like" Ole Miss and Bama. Emory is in the south, but it's not like a big state school; things don't revolve around football and nostalgia. And it still offers a ton of merit aid.

Stevens Institute of Technology also shovels it out.

Sorry for the generalization, I was referring to southern flagships which are typically associated with Football and Greek life. Emory is a separate caliber from those schools. Do they offer good merit? I assumed Emory didn't offer much merit because it's a top school, and they don't usually give much.

Most of them don't, but Emory offered my kid and some of my kid's friends a lot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

UMD is very large and a hit or miss depending on who teaches the class. There are so many classes taught by graduate students with no teaching experience.

OP here, this is definitely a concern for DS. He leans towards the smaller schools but we're pushing him to the bigger schools for better opportunities and offerings.

Huh? Such as? You seem a little misinformed, OP.

Sorry, I meant bigger schools in a sense that there are more majors and often times larger departments, and more opportunities meaning that with such a large student body and faculty, there are so many opportunities open to the students. That isn’t to say smaller schools don’t have opportunities, but bigger schools usually have more resources.

It doesn’t always work that way. A lot of the opportunities at larger schools are reserved for the grad students. At smaller schools, they are widely open to undergrads. Don’t push him away from small schools if that’s what he’d prefer. He may have a better shot at merit, and more opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

UMD is very large and a hit or miss depending on who teaches the class. There are so many classes taught by graduate students with no teaching experience.

OP here, this is definitely a concern for DS. He leans towards the smaller schools but we're pushing him to the bigger schools for better opportunities and offerings.

Huh? Such as? You seem a little misinformed, OP.

Sorry, I meant bigger schools in a sense that there are more majors and often times larger departments, and more opportunities meaning that with such a large student body and faculty, there are so many opportunities open to the students. That isn’t to say smaller schools don’t have opportunities, but bigger schools usually have more resources.

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!)

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

UMD is very large and a hit or miss depending on who teaches the class. There are so many classes taught by graduate students with no teaching experience.

OP here, this is definitely a concern for DS. He leans towards the smaller schools but we're pushing him to the bigger schools for better opportunities and offerings.

Huh? Such as? You seem a little misinformed, OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

UMD is very large and a hit or miss depending on who teaches the class. There are so many classes taught by graduate students with no teaching experience.

OP here, this is definitely a concern for DS. He leans towards the smaller schools but we're pushing him to the bigger schools for better opportunities and offerings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

OP here, we're definitely hoping for President's or BK...that would make the decision easy for DS. That being said, UMD has gotten so competitive that there certainly aren't any guarantees for merit aid like there are at other schools.

They've been saying that for years. BK unlikely but President's is def possible.

Why unlikely? High stats, hard classes, good ECs, and from a school that isn't known to be hypercompetitive - stands out against peers. I get that BK is super competitive for all, but can you explain why you think it's unlikely. Based on knowledge of other students, honors is practically a given, and I'd like to think that the top honors students get BK and Presidents.

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

UMD is very large and a hit or miss depending on who teaches the class. There are so many classes taught by graduate students with no teaching experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

OP here, we're definitely hoping for President's or BK...that would make the decision easy for DS. That being said, UMD has gotten so competitive that there certainly aren't any guarantees for merit aid like there are at other schools.

They've been saying that for years. BK unlikely but President's is def possible.

Here is a list of the most popular colleges at the Top 30 private high schools in the U.S. along with the number of students who enroll annually in 25 of those 30 schools on average.

UChicago is the most popular followed by Harvard.



Rank College Total Number of Students from Top 30 Private High Schools Annually

1) UChicago - 128.8
2) Harvard - 119.9
3) NYU - 118.9
4) Cornell - 110.3
5) Yale - 106
6) Georgetown - 103
7) Penn - 101.2
8) Brown - 91
9) Columbia - 90.5
10) Tufts - 75.1
11) Princeton - 67.25
12) WashU - 66.5
13) Stanford - 63.5
14) Dartmouth - 58
15) USC - 57.4
16) Northwestern - 48.9
17) Duke - 43.6
18) Williams - 41.8
19) Berkeley - 40.3
20) MIT - 36.9
21) Vanderbilt - 35.1
22) Johns Hopkins - 22.8

Most popular means the college at which the most students overall enrolled in.

Twenty-five of the Top Thirty schools according to Niche.com were included:

Andover, Exeter, St. Mark's of Texas, College Preparatory School, Hotchkiss, Harvard-Westlake, Trinity, Choate Rosemary Hall, Regis, Horace Mann, Collegiate School, The Brearley School, Lawrenceville School, Groton, Nueva School, Noble and Greenough School, Ransom Everglades, Lakeside School, Georgetown Day School, Dalton School, Rye Country Day School, The Spence School, Riverdale Country School, Hopkins School, and St. Paul's School.

Twenty-four of the Top 30 Schools provided exact figures. One school (Trinity) provided tiers (5+, 10+).

Four schools that only provided the names of colleges its students attended but no figures were not included. One school did not provide any information.

Most schools provided a range of 4 or 5 years for their enrollment figures. Total enrollment was divided by the number of years to give an average yearly enrollment per school.

Anonymous wrote:Tulane. Duke has highly selective scholars programs. UVA does too. Pitt and USC as well (already noted above). Indiana U. also provided merit aid automatically.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Anonymous wrote:Wtf? If this kid is a likely nmsf with top grades, there certainly are colleges better than mediocre northeastern that will offer aid.

Such as?

Anonymous wrote:I'm getting tripped up by the "southern schools like" Ole Miss and Bama. Emory is in the south, but it's not like a big state school; things don't revolve around football and nostalgia. And it still offers a ton of merit aid.

Stevens Institute of Technology also shovels it out.

Sorry for the generalization, I was referring to southern flagships which are typically associated with Football and Greek life. Emory is a separate caliber from those schools. Do they offer good merit? I assumed Emory didn't offer much merit because it's a top school, and they don't usually give much.

Anonymous wrote:OP child might get merit aid from UMD as well.

OP here, we're definitely hoping for President's or BK...that would make the decision easy for DS. That being said, UMD has gotten so competitive that there certainly aren't any guarantees for merit aid like there are at other schools.