Any thoughts about my college search list (Nat. Merit Finalist hopefully)

Actually, the Auburn Pres Scholarship for NMF is very nice OOS. I would not count AU out just yet.

@EarlVanDorn Florida might be perfect then for the politically diverse family, being a classic swing state and all (-; South Florida in Tampa has a nice program too and NMF full tuition scholarship, you could easily hot both of those in one trip if they interested you down the literal road.

The Drexel NMF scholarship was there one minute, gone the next. They claimed NMSC had them remove it, but CCer’s called NMSC and it was just an issue with the way the scholarship was named that needed a minor tweak. Parents on the forum called Drexel and emailed a number of times with conflicting answers, but as of the last time we looked, as you did, it had never reappeared on their website. That and a few other unimpressive moves and mess ups by their administration dropped them from near the top of D’s list to not even being in consideration any longer despite her acceptance there.

Villanova offers some full tuition scholarships. Not tied to NMF status and very competitive, but strong B school. Don’t know about fraternities but sports of course are a huge draw. Geographic diversity may help him there.

UNL and ASU appeal to me if my D makes NMF, but they are only full tuition.

Re Florida

Looks like Florida publics require students to take a 9 credit summer session, regardless of whether the student can graduate on time or early without it. This can impact cost planning, in that summer session school costs and fewer or no hours of work possible in that summer can be significant.

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Actually, the Auburn Pres Scholarship for NMF is very nice OOS. I would not count AU out just yet
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Everything is relative. Some think a partial tuition scholarship is very nice. Some expect that at least all tuition be covered and likely more. Auburn’s merit is limited to a $$ amount that is well below tuition and does NOT increase with each year’s tuition increase.

Some good feedback on this thread. We looked to get on a variety of campuses early - days off from our school but not at college for some day trip to schools in our geographic area. For example saw two private Birmingham schools (Samford and B’ham Southern) on the same day (was interested in seeing Samford and Air Force ROTC, and seeing what B’ham Southern was all about). When my children were younger, we drove over their spring break to visit nephew who was a graduate student at LSU - just to see what that school was all about. We know a lot about schools in WI/IA/MN from years H and I lived there and/or the schools nieces/nephews/we attended. H and I lived in TX (Houston and College Station) and I attended U of Houston (for pre-req courses) and TAMU for MBA program.

Since your son has really strong stats, it may be he can find where a private school will provide him the merit on one of their strong awards. With enough school visits, can see what ‘type’ of school he likes and the intricacies of various business programs (if that is what he wants).

By visiting enough mix of schools, you can perhaps see where your son is comfortable attending and maybe even excited.

UA has a great campus experience - often students have a ‘conversion experience’ - they don’t think they will like it, and are totally in tune with the positive vibe and beauty, and what they experience during their visit. There is a large pool of high stat students at UA, and a big campus is going to have a full range of conservative to liberal range of students.

DD2 knew for years she wanted to go to UA, and is happy as a clam there. She is also taking advantage of STEM MBA, and is in the Million Dollar Band (so I am nervous for the second half of the big game tonight). We were able to use the opportunities to learn more with campus visits through senior year (Scholars Saturday, etc).

DD1 is graduating from UAB in April. She loves B’ham and will stay and work there, and maybe do graduate school there too.

Both DDs attended the school that they wanted to go to, and also offered them great merit. Both will finish UG debt free - we had money set aside along with the AL Pre-paid College Tuition Plan (AL PACT); scholarships were super helpful.

A friend’s son was so indecisive - was looking at schools where he could play soccer, but eventually that did go to the wayside and he decided to attend UAB where he also got great merit.

My advice is to take advantage of making some campus visits during this junior year (best if while schools are in session to really ‘experience’ the school). However many do visit campuses over summer ‘vacation’.

Re: Fordham, the full tuition scholarships are competitive, not guaranteed. They don’t say how many but it’s not a lot. My current senior NMSF – and likely NMF – was admitted EA but has not received any merit aid as of yet. The school is not known for good aid. Wish it were different. It was probably my D’s top choice.

Like @Skates76, my D was hot on Drexel (visited, liked it) before they pulled the NMF scholarship very late in the process. Awful experience. Will not go there. Felt completely misled.

My D’s top safeties for money are ASU – free tuition – and Missouri (in-state tuition plus $2k /possibly more off). If she were only chasing the money, OU would be in the mix. Mizzou and ASU rise based on top programs in her major, more important than pure cost because those scholarships make them affordable doable for us.

She has other schools on her list that guarantee set amounts off for NMF (Northeastern: $30k, BU $20k, USC $24k) but we would have to rely on need based aid to supplement… and in the case of USC, she’d have to get in!

Good luck