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>The secret to getting merit-based money is to choose a school one level below what the student qualifies for. Pretty much none of the top tier schools offer merit money at all. That includes the Ivy Leagues schools, as well as the top liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, and in fact, Vassar, which you mentioned, and we looked at with our son two weeks ago).
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I understand this too. We went to Barnard College and during orientation they said something like "don't even dream about merit-based money" <g>. They do offer need-based money but we are not that poor <g>.
And Brandeis is definitely one of the schools my daughter will be applying. Especially since it is only 1/2 hour drive from home so I can bring her her favorite food any time she calls <g>. And you are right, I hear they do offer merit money. Of course, it all depends on how they view her GPA, SAT, etc. etc.
Good luck to you and your younger son. Who knows, maybe I will see you at the same college <g>
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham
