Anonymous wrote:People keep mentioning Tulane. I’m not sure Tulane gave as much merit aid in 2021 as years past.

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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.

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And, they need to be able to WRITE.

I just want to be sure everyone gets to appreciate the irony.

Why the irony? I'm the person you are quoting.

If your kid isn't great at writing personal essays, don't chase merit aid. They could be super smart and accomplished in math and science fields, but the scholarship application process requires them to be able to churn out multiple, excellent and compelling essays.

Don't put a comma after a coordinating conjunction at the beginning of a sentence, and don't emphasize through typography.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And, they need to be able to WRITE.

I just want to be sure everyone gets to appreciate the irony.

Why the irony? I'm the person you are quoting.

If your kid isn't great at writing personal essays, don't chase merit aid. They could be super smart and accomplished in math and science fields, but the scholarship application process requires them to be able to churn out multiple, excellent and compelling essays.

Anonymous wrote:OK, now I see that's the crux of the whole conversation.

What about Loyola MD or some of the NC States? I can't completely get a read on what he wants.

Agree with the earlier suggestion of Temple. Delaware?

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Anonymous wrote:
And, they need to be able to WRITE.

I just want to be sure everyone gets to appreciate the irony.

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Anonymous wrote:Washington University in St Louis and NYU

WUSTL is very expensive and offers terrible aid.

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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 wrote:The donut hole is rough. Kudos to you for trying to stay financially solvent.

I haven't read through the whole thread -- I will -- but another strategy is to apply to colleges that are a notch below his level, where his stats would truly shine.

Anonymous wrote: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 wrote:
And, they need to be able to WRITE.