@merething and @mom2collegekids, U Tulsa still has the big scholarship but it’s gotten more competitive in recent years. On CC and in other places I read there were 340-350 applicants (all of whom would have met the NMF and high stat threshold) and only 30 scholarships, apparently with a huge emphasis on leadership/community service/ECs. There’s a thread on CC about this year’s Presidential scholarship, and students with stats like the OP did not get it this year. Certainly it’s worth applying for but it is not as stats-driven as previous years, and there are now more applicants and fewer scholarships.
@Booajo My Dd and I both liked Oklahoma. With Dr. Boren’s global focus, it offers a lot of what the OP is looking for. They also have a Diplomat in Residence whose office is in the IR dept.
Prior to this current admission year, those stats would have gotten a lot of $ at Temple but times have changed. There’s still money to be had there it’s just not the automatic scholarships it was the year prior. But given it’s urban location it might be worth an application. And housing/meal plan costs should be covered by your parent’s contribution, student load and student work savings.
University of Cincinnati. You are in state. NMFs get full tuition plus fees, and room. There is also a $1500 one time allowance for a computer, research, or study abroad. See Cincinnatus Excellence Scholarship.
Doesn’t Ole MIss’s honors college have some sort of int’l focus? Maybe only China? I don’t remember…but do look.
@mom2collegekids Good suggestion. It’s the Croft Institute. http://www.croft.olemiss.edu/home/
Don’t forget that you should be able to earn around $3,000 each summer.
Consider UNM or New Mexico State. They have competitive full ride scholarships for OOS freshman, renewable for 4 years, as well as full ride NMF scholarships (not sure if automatic or competitive or if any apply to semifinalists).
Below that, they have very low-bar automatic scholarships coupled with low COA making them a good financial safety for most students–the lower scholarships wouldn’t quite get you to where you need to be–but check them out.
When looking at the yolasite, keep in mind it may not be updated with the latest info (that was a topic of another thread) so always go straight to the college’s own website for the latest, and email them with any questions.
University of Oklahoma(OU) has a good package for NMF includes full-tuition for 5 years.
Thank you everyone for all your input! I was out all day but it is really nice to come back to so many helpful replies. This was a little bit of a reality check but I guess it’s better to have that now than to have it this time next year. It really looks like my best choice is the National Merit scholarship schools (for the person who asked, 1490 overall with a 223 selection index which is well above what cutoffs have historically been in Ohio). Time to remake my list essentially from scratch!
Florida International university.
UF’s Benacquisto scholarship will be open to oos NMF 's I believe so worth looking into.
Utd is a bad choice as it doesn’t have OP’s majors of interest.
USC Columbia - apply well before (Honors) October deadline.
I second the idea of applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton - an admitted student I know with a 16k EFC elsewhere ended up with net costs of 8k (and lower direct costs.) At these schools, 75k means free ride, and 110k free tuition. With 90k Income they may meet your budget. Run the npc: they don’t calculate need the same way, espethe way to account for assets and home equity.
Less certain but possible as they have large endowments and want to increase economic diversity: Run the NPC on Middlebury, Amherst, Williams, Grinnell. If a girl, run the NPC on the seven sisters.
Also beside UCincinnati, apply to tosu (Morrill?), Miami OH, and OU - complete the full app even if they offer an 'expedited ’ app and do so as soon as the app is up.
@MYOS1634 Thank you for all these suggestions! Regarding HYP, I’m still a little confused about how they would be affordable. They say they meet full financial need but meeting my EFC doesn’t even come close to being affordable. It looks like you say they calculate EFC differently, but would it really be possible for them to cut that number in half? That just doesn’t sound right to me because it feels like my current EFC is pretty reasonable for my family income (assuming past savings and things like that which my family chose not to do). Also, if this is true, would it apply to any other elite schools? I’d be interested in one or two of the other Ivies but none of HYP are really a good fit for me. I’ll take your advice on the state schools but unfortunately I’m not the right gender for the Seven Sisters.
Run the NPC on each of the six or seven I listed, and see. They calculate EFC differently indeed.
If you were lucky enough to get into Woodrow Wilson at a decent price, you wouldn’t go all ‘oh but UCincinnati is a better fit’, right?
HYP are usually the most generous. You need to run the NPC at every school. NPC for U Penn was $15,000 or so more than Harvard for us. Do not use your FAFSA EFC as a gauge. That is irrelevant for any private school that uses CSS Profile.
@MYOS1634 why do you believe the Benaquisto Scholarship is open to OOS students?
Apparently it’ll be open to oos next year. Not sure if the legislature has passed the resolution yet or not but they were leaning that way.
I believe whether it will be open to OOS next year is still very much in question. The House and Senate bills have to be reconciled. Last I saw, the House version did NOT include OOS students. Here’s the thread on it: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-florida/1960940-bright-future-scholarship-increases-flat-rate-tuition-block-tuition-oos-benacquisto-scholarship-p2.html
You should run the NPC at Ole Miss.
We have friends from CA that have two kids with good academic backgrounds that are attending at a net price of $3,000 each annually.
They love it, and interestingly money is no object for them.
They told me they just wanted a good value for their money.
Their kids are in the honors college.
^ thanks. Fingers crossed!
lots of great suggestions already. Ohio State and Cincinnati, absolutely apply. i would add Utah, Arizona State, and Nebraska to your check-em-out list. UAH would give you full tuition + housing but it seems like you would get that at Cincy.
Alabama and Oklahoma are great for NMF.
DO NOT DO COMMUNITY COLLEGE. it makes no sense for someone like you, you can get a very generous NMF/high stats package from somewhere.