<p>My dd has a chance of being named a NMSF. She is quite the intellectual- interested in latin, greek, philosophy, english, and poetry. She is a good writer and is editor in chief of her school newspaper. She loves learning for the sake of learning. She has done well in math and science but isn't passionate about them. She really has no idea what she wants to major in. Most of the schools I have seen listed for giving generous aid for NMSF are large schools. Are there any smaller schools that are generous? We would like to pay $10,000 or less per year out of pocket if at all possible. We live in the Cleveland area and she'd like to be no more than 3 hours from home. Any thoughts of colleges she should take a look at.</p>
<p>Look at Fordham</p>
<p>The 3 hour req’t may have to be relaxed. One problem is that room, board, books, fees often cost more than $10k in that region.</p>
<p>Look and see what Seton Hall is giving now.</p>
<p>There are some past threads with long lists …not sure if all are still accurate, but I would search for those. Tulsa did at one time - although I don’t believe it’s automatic any more … but they have a large number of NMF’s.</p>
<p>I will echo the comment about University of Tulsa. (last yr: about 40 full rides & many more near full tuition scholarships) My son visited many schools which offer nice NMF packages. Tulsa was perfect for him. His first year was everything he’d hoped for and was capped off with an awesome paid internship in DC in his field of study. The high percentage of NMF on campus creates a good environment for academic challenge as well as finding friends who are interested in studies in addition to having fun. The honors college has a nice grouping of classes which may appeal to your child. From a parents perspective, the smaller class size translated into the connection with professors that we hoped for, and their commitment to undergrad internships/research (TURC) really sets them apart.</p>
<p>MaterMia, there are a lot of lists that I have found on here. However, most list big schools or schools that are too far for my dd’s comfort zone. She has a late birthday, so she is young for her grade. She isn’t as “world smart” as many of her peers. The problem is that we just can’t afford to pay $20,000 a year for her tuition and we don’t want her taking many loans since she’ll most likely go to grad school.</p>
<p>I am not that up on colleges in Ohio, but you might want to check into Denison. Its on the big list that is found here </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-33.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-33.html</a></p>
<p>Oklahoma Christian University is giving a “Full ride” to National Merit Finalists. According to their websit: all National Merit Finalists receive full tuition, mandatory fees, room and board.</p>
<p>Don’t overlook the fact that starred (*) schools from the above link are schools with 1000 students or fewer enrolled each year (meaning 4000 or fewer in the entire college). Use that - it should make your life much easier!</p>
<p>The maker of the NM scholarship thread did her research - the starred schools and ones marked with a ^ should be more of what you are looking for. Don’t forget that need-based aid may be stronger at some schools than others.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that college is a time for expanding horizons and learning to be independent. If your daughter isn’t ready to head off to a far away college, allow her to consider a <em>productive</em> gap year or beginning at a nearby state school and transferring later. Because schools like Fordham (full-tuition) or New College of Florida (17.5K) could be perfect for her if she’d consider travel! (Besides, college kids shouldn’t be coming home every other weekend or any such thing no matter how close their college, they will miss out on a lot of different things - maybe if you would run this theory past her, she’d stop letting the fear of homesickness hold her back.)</p>
<p>Or maybe a Christian college (if she is Christian) would be the right kind of more sheltered environment she needs, as Christian2 suggested. Fordham is Jesuit but I wouldn’t say it’s for those who aren’t world-smart (it’s located in Manhattan/the Bronx). Liberty University (in Virginia) is really Christian and guarantees full-ride for NMF and full-tuition for NMSF). Baylor is farther away, and is historically a Christian college - gives full-tuition.</p>
<p>But almost every full-tuition college will cost at least $10,000 when you add up room, board, books, travel, and other expenses. University of Arizona (very large school) has a “full-tuition+” scholarship of $30K, but that still ends up costing almost $9K. If less than $10K is your goal, then your goal is full-ride or full-tuition+++ haha.</p>
<p>Belleniente, thanks for pointing out the * to me. That will really help me analyze the list.<br>
I totally agree that students who come home all the time miss out on college life. That is why even if dd goes to school where we live (Cleveland area), I want her to live in the dorms. She would love a catholic college, but most won’t fit into our price range.<br>
Our ds is a freshman in college and even with a presidential scholarship we are paying $24,000 out of pocket for his pharm D program. We are hoping to pay less out of pocket for DD and I don’t think we’ll qualify for a lot of financial aid that is not in the form of loans. </p>
<p>Anyway, we have some research to do. I am off to my other ds’s high school orientation. He is a freshman this year and another dd is in 8th grade. At some point we will have 4 in college at the same time- yikes!</p>
<p>What are her grades/SAT/ACT like? University of Dayton (3.75 hours from Cleveland) offers a lot of merit aid - up to $110,000 over four years (making the cost ~$9K per year). Here’s a link: [University</a> of Dayton : Apply: Undergraduate](<a href=“http://www.udayton.edu/apply/undergraduate.php]University”>Undergraduate Admission : University of Dayton, Ohio)). I got the scholarship stats from You-niversity’s video.</p>
<p>It is a medium sized school (10K total students), but it is Catholic and founded by the Marianists. Anyways, my cousin goes there and loves it. It prides itself as being a school where students have fun and work hard too, or something along those lines. It offers an honors program that might be of interest to your daughter. 96% of students qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>She has a 4.0 out of a 4.0 scale, 10th in her class, ACT 32. I will look at Dayton. I didn’t think that they gave enough merit aid to bring the cost that low. We will not qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>linnylu - here is my suggestion. Make a list of all the schools … public and private in the geography your daughter would be interested in. Start researching their websites for merit scholarships, not just NMF. With those stats, she may qualify for some merit at various schools. Looking for a lower “division” school, with a strong honors program is a good idea. They are looking to attract strong students with money. You can also email admissions, and ask them to specifically tell you what merit scholarships are offered, and what are the average stats of those students who receive it. Keep in mind, some schools will offer supplemental scholarships in the different schools, and or even “honors” scholarships, so you can start piling those together. Finally - more and more schools are super scoring the ACT, so it may be worth one more try - to shoot for a 34 score straight out, or a 34 super score - that would tilt more merit her way as well. We also found that even though private schools had higher price tags, many have more generous merit scholarship programs. On the school’s websites … search for “merit” and “scholarship” in the search boxes to get started.</p>
<p>*We also found that even though private schools had higher price tags, many have more generous merit scholarship programs. *</p>
<p>Yes, that can be true…However, you have to look at “final price”. A $30k per year merit scholarship from a private school that costs $55k per year is not as great as a $25k per year scholarship at an OOS public that costs $35k. </p>
<p>We found that out when our son was NMF. Sometimes the “total value” of a scholarship can sound immense…especially if it’s free tuition or even “half tuition” at a private that has tuition at $35+k per year. But, your remaining costs can still be substantial. </p>
<p>USC gives a half tuition NMF scholarship (about $19k per year…so about $80k total)…but the remaining cost is about $37k per year.</p>
<p>Also…be aware of any scholarship that gives a “set amount”…such as $20k per year. As tuition goes up every year, that $20k does not increase. Look for words like Full tuition or Half tuition and find out if that increases as costs increase.</p>
<p>You also need to be aware of what the student has to do to “keep” the scholarship. 3.5 average? Is that doable? Etc.</p>