Data source/book/guidance about purely merit-based college aid?

January 10, 2022 11:55 AM

Our kid is a high school junior in Illinois and just got a really good SAT score (in the "99%+" range). She has straight A grades across AP and honors classes, and she's got good extracurriculars. But we make too much money to get any need-based aid. Are there any good data sources or sites that can predict where she'd likely get good merit-based offers?

There are a ton of websites and consultants for college searching but most of them seem a little too slick/salespitch-y, and oftentimes the advice seems to be to find places you love and then apply to find out what you can get. Our daughter has not narrowed her search in the slightest yet and I'd like to suggest some places where she could potentially get a good package.

I have seen lists like this one from US News about the percentage of students that get merit-based aid but those don't make distinctions based on test scores or qualifications. In my dreams there's a site that takes an input of SAT, GPA, state, etc. and then gives an output of realistic schools and net price tag.

(We are lucky to be in a good financial position but we have a junior, sophomore, and freshman and so we can't realistically write a check for tuition when we will have three college students in the coming years.)

posted by AgentRocket to Work & Money (25 answers total)

Most of the places my kids applied had scholarships that were based on test scores or grades adverstised somewhere.

I am not sure there is a general webiste that takes that info and gives you a list of colleges, but it is certainly available if you look at univeresity websites.
posted by domino at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I don't know of any listing but each of my kids got an unexpected scholarship offer. I don't think the details really matter but in both cases they applies to a school where they stood out as a top candidate for that particular school and each got offered a very nice partial scholarship without us ever filing out a FASFA. So I would encourage her think about her safety school - places where she could challenged and happy but also help raise the caliber of the program that they got into to. Both of our cases were private schools but some public schools offer scholarships to increase the caliber of their honors programs.
posted by metahawk at 12:17 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

I'm sure you know this but your dream search engine doesn't exist. If she's at a school with a robust college counseling program, they will absolutely be your best resource. Your daughter definitely needs to narrow down her search; she doesn't have to pick a major and a college RIGHT NOW but if she can narrow down area of the country (world?) and general subject area (humanities, science, business, etc.) your search will be so much easier.

I highly recommend the books Colleges That Change Lives and The Ultimate Scholarship Book. The Fiske Guide is okay but I don't really love it.

(bona fides: son graduated college in 2019, daughter is currently a college senior, I helped many family and friends' kids in their college searches)
posted by cooker girl at 12:33 PM on January 10, 2022 [6 favorites]

Go East young woman. Tuition in my Irish alma mater is of the order of $25K for non-EU students. Even if it's only for a year. Similar deals across continental Europe.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:45 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can't answer the question posed but here are my thoughts as we start this college selection process.

We actually filled out the FAFSA last year and I would highly recommend going ahead and doing it even if you feel like you won't qualify for need-based aid. We did it because although our kids aren't college age yet, we wanted to know what our "expected contribution" would be. We are middle class and our expected contribution was lower than we anticipated which was great news. Also, when you have multiple kids in college, this contribution gets split between them, not doubled or tripled. So, if the FAFSA says that you should be able to contribute $20,000 towards college tuition...it would still be $20,000 total even if you had 2 (or 3) kids in college.

I just found this aid estimator on the stuedentaid.gov website and it might be useful.
posted by victoriab at 12:48 PM on January 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

Also, because of the large endowments that many private schools have, your daughter shouldn't hesitate to apply to colleges that might seem fiscally way to pricey...I live in CT and hear stories every year of students that can go to Yale for less out of pocket then if they attended UConn.
posted by victoriab at 12:51 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

There are a couple of sites with a lot of data but you'll have to drill down a bit to suss out the possible grants or discounts:

* https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
* https://collegecost.ed.gov
posted by cowlick at 12:55 PM on January 10, 2022

Universities that only offer need-based aid tend to be institutionally on a much firmer financial footing than universities that do lots of merit-based aid. This means that big merit scholarships can come with unexpected costs (no allowance for room and board, fine print that removes the scholarship under various contingencies, etc., etc.)

The College Board has financial aid calculators for different institutions. I'd encourage you to put your family's information into the calculators for a handful of schools of different kinds (Ivy League, top-ranked small liberal arts school, mid-ranked small liberal arts school, regional public university, etc.) and see what comes out. You may find that you qualify for more aid in some places than you expect.
posted by yarntheory at 1:00 PM on January 10, 2022

Did she take the SAT or the PSAT? National Merit scholars can get scholarships at lots of schools but you have to take the PSAT first.
posted by nakedmolerats at 1:01 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

Many, many years ago, when I was applying, WUSTL and U. Chicago had generous merit aid, and I checked on this about a year ago and found that it was still true. The Ivies are all restructuring their aid to involve fewer loans depending on family income, so check into that—your income may be high but sadly pretty average for the Ivy League, as I found.

Not that your daughter will listen to an internet stranger, much less her parents, but one of my medium-sized regrets in life is that I went to Yale, paying out of my parents’ pocket, and did not accept a full ride somewhere. The message growing up was always go where you want to go, we’ll pay for it, but when it came down to it, that kind of expenditure made my parents (understandably) very resentful. Food for thought.
posted by 8603 at 1:07 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Anecdotally, I've heard of Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, Duke and Princeton offering some merit scholarship money. I suspect your daughter should also try to negotiate if one place offers it and her top choice doesn't but she's admitted to the top choice. I'd also encourage looking into endowed alumni scholarships/fellowships for undergraduates at her schools of interest. Honestly, your daughter sounds like she's in a fantastic position to apply to top schools - and sadly names/alumni networks matter for getting internships and first jobs, especially at the outset of a career for someone with varied interests who needs a period of exploration. It might be worth co-signing some amount of loans for that flexibility alone. I say that as someone who frequently saw the MIT/Harvard kids in Boston getting the cool biotech undergrad research internships, for example, regardless of the grades and other strengths of peers from a top liberal arts school.

Some schools also offer discounts for siblings - perhaps that's true at one of your other children's institutions?
posted by Last_wave_by at 1:54 PM on January 10, 2022

Came in to say the same thing as nakedmolerats. The PSAT is how National Merit scholars are determined, and finalists are often sought after, at least by the large public universities I'm familiar with. I don't know how much National Merit finalist status helps at the really elite institutions where virtually all the applicants have the same excellent academic profile as your daughter. Junior year is the time to start the PSAT/National Merit qualification process.

University of Oklahoma has a fairly good FAQ about the overall PSAT process that might be a good place to start. I am not affiliated with OU at all, but I remember they competed for national merit students in the region, at least they have in the past.

My advice would be to get a sense of the overall PSAT process and then start googling National Merit Scholarship + name of universities your daughter is interested in.
posted by kochenta at 2:12 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Some great advice here, but other significant details I have not seen mentioned: deadline application dates are awfully early, so it's good that you are applying now. Some majors, like science and math oriented focus, have greater amounts of funds available. Have all of your own financial information readily available for quickly meeting the application deadlines. The school your child chooses may have some quirky school specific scholarships, so ask the college financial aid counselor about those. Inquire about work-study programs. If you can swing it for her, not having to work the first semester of college will help her make the adjustment to college life.
posted by effluvia at 2:30 PM on January 10, 2022

Lol, sorry. Marry her off so she can claim financial independence. Thus is the tale of my wife-not-wife. That's just getting off of your parents income calculations. It was actually proposed by her university guidance consultant, year long legal stuff or you could get married.

Depending on inclinations... the Navy offered me Annapolis (Naval Academy) and a degree in Nuclear Engineering. Would have cost absolutely nothing.

That's basically the same as that if she's aligned in interests, some tech like schools are known for sorta full-ride scholarships just because they do want the best and brightest.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:39 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I found Fastweb useful but that was many years ago.
posted by crunchy potato at 3:20 PM on January 10, 2022

This information is intentionally obfuscated by colleges. You will not find straightforward comparisons. It is well worth understanding how the system works, but it's not as simple as looking at a list.

I recommend reading The Price You Pay for College by NYTimes reporter Ron Lieber. Alternatively, you could read/listen to some of the many reviews of the book or interviews he gave when the book came out a year or two back. This is a really good and important perspective as you and your child are going through this process.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:14 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

(Child in first year at college so just finished a round of this.)

MERIT AID
You are looking for merit aid, often called scholarships which can collectively include financial aid.
(Note - with 3 kids in college, you very well may be surprised that you might also qualify for financial aid at some schools, note that will trickle away as you go from 3 to 2 to 2 in college over the years.)

HOW TO SEE HOW MUCH MERIT AID A SCHOOL GIVES ON AVERAGE TO HOW MANY?
Schools publish in various databases, available online, the percentage of students who get merit aid (who don't also qualify for financial aid so are therefore without "need") and the average amount. Some schools (see Franklin and Marshall) offer no merit aid, others offer a lot of merit aid to 99% (and maybe their tuition is higher than average to start). This list is very, very useful where you can see schools offering merit-based aid to freshmen without need ranges from 0 to 100%, and the average aid is included. On this list, if you want more merit aid than average, you need to be more "desirable" of a student.

BIG, PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Some schools, mostly public and larger, (see University of Kentucky) publish the available discount for students in higher SAT and GPA brackets on their website.

SMALL, LIBERAL ARTS SCHOOLS
Most of the time, especially for liberal arts colleges, you won't know until you apply and see the offer because it is not just SAT, it is GPA and a host of other characteristics that schools will discount, I mean provide merit aid, for.

WHO GETS MERIT AID?
The more "desirable" students get more merit aid. So, for example, often the higher the SAT and GPA scores relative to the school's desired averages, that's where the merit money goes. The more "selective" or "desirable" the school, the less merit aid they will give. Some schools? Give almost everyone a "presidential" or "regional" or "whatever" scholarship if they are above the averages because it makes you feel desirable.

WHAT IS A DESIRABLE STUDENT?
Desirable is determined by the school's model and could include many possible measures - need more boys? need more girls? need more racial diversity? need more football players? need higher SAT averages? need more students who can graduate in 4 years guaranteeing tuition for 4 years? really need an oboe in the orchestra? need a student from North Dakota? or anything the school determines they want to make up their student body. Those are the students who get the merit aid.
posted by RoadScholar at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

Came here to suggest big, public schools. I got merid aid scholarship offers from UMass Amherst and Rutgers. The UMass one i didn't even apply for; it was offered to me (a MA resident) as part of my acceptance. The Rutgers one I was invited to take a special exam for based upon my avocation and scored well. Caveat- this was a long time ago (1990s). But big, public schools want to pull high-achieving students away from elite, expensive private schools and merit scholarships are a way to do this.
posted by emd3737 at 6:48 PM on January 10, 2022

Agree that it's worth checking schools' netprice calculators under situations when you have 1, 2, and 3 students in college... in case you would be eligible for need based aid with 2 or 3 students in college at the same time. Moreover, it could make sense financially for your eldest to take a gap year to maximize sibling overlap. (Note: this strategy does depend on attending institutions that do have institutional need based aid available).

Unfortunately, this exact resource that you seek does not not exist. Net price calculators include merit aid inconsistently. While rates of tuition discounts are increasing, in recent years, colleges have increasingly used sophisticated algorithms to determine merit aid. That being said, you could do worse than exploring the financial aid forums of College Confidential (ex).
posted by oceano at 7:26 PM on January 10, 2022

Having now been through the U.S. college admissions process on two recent occasions, the biggest surprise for me has been that cost can be negotiable.

When your daughter receives her financial aid packages, she can appeal by sending a short email explaining her situation and requesting that the school consider increasing her scholarship money. In one instance that I’m aware of, a small liberal arts school increased the annual scholarship award by more that $10,000.
posted by lumpy at 8:16 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]

I was in that score range myself and I'd say most of the colleges and universities I applied to tried to sweeten the pot a little bit with one merit scholarship or another. My recollection is that among private universities and colleges the best packages I was offered were at University of Chicago and Oberlin. But I think this is so random, honestly. Both of those very generously endowed schools were handily outclassed by a public school in my state, which made me an offer I'd have been a fool to refuse, and which I had no idea even offered merit scholarships at all beyond some less impressive statewide ones. You really never know who will manage to dig in the couch cushions to get your kid into their student body.
posted by potrzebie at 10:55 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Like others have said, if your goal is most bang for your buck, whatever your flagship state school is, often there are discounts for those who get into the honors program.
posted by coffeecat at 11:07 AM on January 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you can afford to pay for it up-front, a private college counselor might be the way to go. I wasn't quite as high as your kid on SATs, but close, and I had great grades and honors and APs and all of that. My parents shelled out for a college counselor who identified schools that would likely accept me and give me a merit scholarship, and would be a good fit for my personality. I got a 50% scholarship to a great school that I absolutely loved, so she was definitely worth the cost.
posted by radioamy at 5:02 PM on January 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think RoadScholar has the helpful info here, and that the people saying that the thing you want doesn't exist are right. I sat through a presentation from one of those consultant guys, and he had a guideline that fits with the best advice I think you're getting here: Look at the SAT ranges for accepted students at various schools on sites like this one. If you're looking at a school that offers merit aid, you can start with a (very generalized) baseline that if her SAT scores are up around the 75th percentile, a large award is likely. Down around the 25th percentile, awards start phasing out. There are schools where everyone gets merit aid; from what you wrote, those schools won't appeal to your family.

RoadScholar's WHAT IS A DESIRABLE STUDENT section has all the caveats you need to know on this.

How to know whether a school offers merit aid? Again, RoadScholar's got the good stuff. It's primarily about selectivity. Most of those schools that accept 6% of their applicants won't offer merit aid, because they don't have to. Your daughter's 99+ percentile score, not coincidentally, won't always be in the 99th percentile there. If you go on your preferred college-admissions site, you can look up the percentage of students receiving aid. According to the consultant's presentation, if that number exceeds 60%, it's likely that college grants merit aid. If the percentage is over 85, it's extremely likely.
posted by troywestfield at 2:51 PM on January 13, 2022

Also, I came across this spreadsheet from this site.
posted by cowlick at 6:36 PM on January 13, 2022