I’m just curious about how much merit is available at Vermont and Iowa. Full tuition?
I’ve read about the others here on CC but I haven’t heard anything about Vermont or Iowa.
Thanks.
Have you thought about USC (California)? They have guaranteed partial scholarships for NMF and also award some full scholarships. Weather is nice!
Have you looked into Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State? They offer full tuition for NMF.
Also, younger people (e.g. those of traditional college age) generally tend to be more left-leaning on social aspects than their elders.
Many of the sororities still appear to be highly racially segregated, despite post-scandal reforms. The fraternities tend to be slightly less racially segregated than the sororities, but mostly are not really what one would call good examples of racial integration.
@mom2collegekids We haven’t visited Alabama yet. I only looked at Auburn briefly and didn’t realize it was as skimpy as you say.
@suzy100 I suppose UK ought to be on the list. I really don’t want him going to school in downtown Lexington. A friend of a friend was killed by a probably drunk driver seven years ago. Since he left the scene he got off with evidence tampering. A UK student was murdered earlier this year. There are other urban schools, but I just hate the way UK is long and narrow, which to me seems to make it less of a safe haven. Maybe I’m being unfair.
@LuckyCharms913 Fordham was not even on my radar, and that’s why I posted this thread!
@nw2this Iowa is not full tuition unless they do some stacking. And really it’s not very high, just a place I thought we might visit. I’ve got some property in Iowa they I need to look at, so two birds… Vermont offers an automatic $10,000 to National Merit Finalists plus a competitive $17,000 scholarship. That still leaves a $10,000 tuition gap, plus room and board. I don’t know if they stack anything else. Needless to say, I prefer more generous packages!
@pittsburghscribe I saw that USC had a few scholarships but just kind of scratched them off the list because there are so many California kids curing cancer and such. Maybe I should remember that they are likely to be shocked that anyone from Mississippi can read and write.
What kind of net price after scholarships are you looking for?
Off the top of my head, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, Northeastern (good NMF), USC (good for NMF), Temple (good merit for high stats), Case Western (decent merit), Ohio Wesleyan (Greek life/sports/good merit). WUSTL might be worth a shot - there are a few full ride scholarships but they are EXTREMELY competitive.
I have not researched exhaustively the above places regarding Greek life, though. Not sure if NE, Temple, or WUSTL have robust Greek life or not.
My cousin’s kid got a full ride from UNC-Chapel Hill (OOS) but I don’t remember the particulars.
Do not underestimate the “diversity” factor of a Mississippi applicant in other parts of the country. Not trying to offend, just my perspective from somebody who lives in a poorer state from which few kids go OOS for college. We have been told by reps at college fairs that they would love to check off our state on their list!
@mamaedefamilia I talked to a friend recently who has kids at Pamona and Clermont-McKenna, and both schools have apparently wanted someone from Mississippi for a while to no avail.
My son wanted to go to UNC above all, but the merit aid just seemed impossible to get, so I urged him to take it off the list. I hate to take him to a place where he has no chance of going. My mother got her master’s in public health from UNC on a Rockefeller scholarship and I have a photo in her scrapbook of Eleanor Roosevelt speaking to her class of 14 or 15 students. Unfortunately, the UNC website makes it clear that grandchildren are not legacies. My g-g-grandmother, a widow, actually moved to Mississippi with her eight children from very near Chapel Hill just before the war, and there is a town nearby that carries our family name. Wouldn’t it be a nice homecoming! But I will need to convince myself that he has a prayer before we spend a lot of time on this.
The UNC-CH full rides are Robertson (also at Duke) and Morehead-Cain.
http://robertsonscholars.org/selection-criteria/
http://www.moreheadcain.org/apply/application-process/
Thirding Northeastern University for the 30K NMF and well-regarded business school.
My D16 has similar stats. We are from Texas (really just the eastern part of TX is part of the South FYI. There are some comical maps that divide Texas up into 3 or 4 regions).
I’ll ignore your comments about liberals, but really? My DS is politically progressive and is a spiffy dresser who would never in a million years dye his hair, have a piercing or get a tattoo (which are all prevalent in Austin to the point I barely even notice them).
You say “full ride”. Is “full ride” a necessity or wishful thinking? How much can you afford (really willing to pay) each year? You need this number. Also, will you qualify for any financial aid at places like Duke and Vandy. (Is your income too high to receive much if any aid?)
My DS has received a full tuition scholarship to Fordham (room and board is pricey but this could be our least expensive option). We are still waiting on his other schools. An important point with merit scholarships is to consider the GPA required to keep the scholarship!
Your son should consider Fordham (if you can afford the room and board), the University of Southern California (being from Mississippi might help with a scholarship), Boston University and Northeastrn University perhaps but you will likely still have to pay a lot.
In Texas…maybe Trinity University in San Antonio. This is a small school but might work if your son decides the large schools are not for him. Baylor gives big NMF scholarships but your son will likely not consider it because it is conservative. Same with Texas A&M.
Your strategy might be to select two safeties (Alabama and Oklahoma) and then go fishing for large merit awards: UNC, Duke, Vandy, Boston University, etc.
How about St. Louis University? SLU offers 30 Presidential Scholarships. It covers full tuition. My daughter was a Presidential Scholar there and really liked it.
@silverlady Congrats on your D being a Presidential Scholar at SLU. That’s definitely not easy to get.
My D was in the running for it but had to pull her app (not she she was a shoe-in for it anyway).
Just a little aside about full rides. You may already know this but the room and board portion of a full ride is taxable as income. Didn’t mean to derail , but thought this may be helpful info.
@EarlVanDorn you should definitely look at more top private schools that give Merit Aid. Schools like Boston College, University of Southern California and Northeastern U. all have merit scholarships and are generally much higher ranked (and usually more highly regarded) than most of the schools on your list. All have strong undergrad business schools. Vanderbilt also likes to give money to National Merit finalists. Being from Mississippi will help him with admissions to competitive schools.
Also, you mentioned that Alabama has “luxury dorms”. I had read somewhere here at CC that Alabama now only guarantees housing for one year. Assuming this is true, this would somewhat diminish the benefits of the nice dorms.
@EarlVanDorn you mentioned Pomona and McKenna. I know Pomona only gives need based aid, no merit aid at all. I think McKenna is the same.
@LKnomad Those schools aren’t on my list! My friend was just telling me that both schools had wanted to recruit someone from Mississippi and had been unable to do so. They are very good schools, but they lack name appeal, and California really isn’t on the radar of people from the Southeast. My friend now lives in Cleveland, OH.
Both of his kids are NMF, and I can’t believe he didn’t try to steer them to at least a half-price option.
@txstella I wouldn’t say a full-ride is wishful thinking since a number of schools provide them to students with NMF status, which my son is likely to have, and/or a 32 ACT with 3.5 or 3.8, which my son has. He’s actually trying for a 35 on the ACT. My income is going to be too high to qualify for need-based financial aid.
Obviously I have a strong preference for full-ride places, and have told my children that if they manage to keep their grades high enough to qualify for a full- or near-full-ride I will try to fund them as generously as possible in terms of personal finances. The possibility of paying room and board has always been in the mix.
We’re certainly going to take a look at Fordham. I really think my son would benefit from the traditional college experience, with fraternity and football and so on, but it certainly seems to be a great school. I have a first cousin in New York with whom I exchange about one email a year who might be able to offer some good advice and connections for my son, kind of a Clyde Griffiths sort of thing, I would hope with happier results.
And we will definitely go for the “safety” strategy, to the point that if Alabama is in the picture he will go ahead and put up the housing deposit to get a good room (same elsewhere). I think he may want to apply to some of the “long-shot” merit aid schools, but I just hate for him to get his hopes up for a school like Vandy or UNC when there is only a slight chance of a merit scholarship. They only have one that he would qualify for, and I think it’s fairly hard to get.
Our conservative dressing, but politically liberal D is an NMF this year (NMSF at the moment but grades and SAT should have her advance). She applied to three NMF schools in West Virginia Univ, Drexel - which suddenly dropped its NMF offer, and for a true full ride went with Univ of Central Florida. We visited UCF and we all loved it. Beautiful area, warm and southern but with more of a northeast feel, absolutely loved their Honors College. It is a riding school and is very well designed, does not feel half the size you might expect when you see the undergrad population numbers. I highly recommend taking a look there.
She would not apply to schools in Alabama, Texas or Mississippi as they were too “southern conservative” in her opinion, though I really liked the sound of UAB (very diverse student population) for her personality and healthcare/science focus, plus she prefers schools in or near cities. We visited U of Kentucky and I was impressed even if she wasn’t.
Tulane made her list with similar pros and cons and hopes for a competitive scholarship.
Pitt seems to love adding geographic diversity and is generous with OOS merit for good numbers.
Sounds like you have some great ideas and options to look at, best of luck with the search!!
@Skates76 I went to the Drexel site and pecked around for quite a while looking for the NMF scholarship! I’ll do some looking at UCF. My son says he doesn’t want to go to school in the Goldwater/Wallace South, but we’re still going to look at Alabama, and Ole Miss is right here. He took some classes at Ole Miss as a ninth grader and will probably go to at least one summer session this year.
I’ve gotten some really good and helpful feedback from this thread, and I hope to keep on getting some suggestions. FWIW, while I wish my son were a good, solid Republican, my father spent his whole life wishing I were a Democrat.