Best National Merit Scholarships

Paying for College
1

<p>Which schools, in your opinion, offer the best National Merit Scholarships? Post their stats here if you can, as well as a link to the schools' websites.</p>

<p>Here are a few I have seen:</p>

<p>University of Southern California: Half-tuition (16,750)
<a href="http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/sg/entering_undergrad_meritbased/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/sg/entering_undergrad_meritbased/&lt;/a>
I am assuming this is renewable yearly, but I do not know.</p>

<p>University of South Florida: (10,000/yr + study abroad for residents, 100% tuition + room and board + study abroad for nonresidents)
<a href="http://usfweb2.usf.edu/admissions/freshman_scholarships.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://usfweb2.usf.edu/admissions/freshman_scholarships.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>New College of Florida: (17,500/yr)
<a href="http://www.ncf.edu/financialaid/scholarshipftic2.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ncf.edu/financialaid/scholarshipftic2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think it would be helpful to compile a list of colleges with excellent scholarships for Finalists.</p>

2

<p>boston u does the half tuition thing to, provided theyre your first choice... ALOT of colleges seem to do the half tuitiona ctually, U Texas at Austin gives a pretty big chunk to texas nmsf's...i ahve a question bout this first choice college stuff though...we havent had to give our first choice yet have we? the NMSC website makes it seem like part of the packet we'll get...its just dod cause i got mail last april asking me to go to some site and give my top 2 colleges for some scholarship thing i guess i assumed it was national merit but maybe ti wasnt...did anyone else get that letter? and whats the deal with giving your first choice?</p>

3

<p>Well, apparently you can change your first choice school all the way into April. I think the information booklet they give you says you can fill in "undecided" if you don't know what you want your first choice school to be.</p>

4

<p>For BU, you have to declare they are first choice by Feb 1, BEFORE you hear about admission decisions.</p>

5

<p>University of Alabama. Full ride plus $2000 for other study and free laptop.</p>

6

<p>Re The U of Alabama:from an article in the Birmingham News:</p>

<p>The University of Alabama expects to rank among the top schools in the nation again this year for enrolling National Merit Scholars, high school students who earn top scores on a qualifying college entrance exam. But competitors are questioning whether the generous scholarship package UA offers is in the state's best interest.</p>

<p>This fall, UA expects to enroll 76 new freshman Merit Scholars, offering them four years free tuition and housing, new laptop computers and $6,000 for books, living expenses, summer study and travel.</p>

<p>The same deal is offered to 19 National Achievement Scholars under a program targeting high-scoring black students and to 92 National Hispanic Scholars. Of those 187 scholarships, UA plans to award 56 to in-state students and 131 to students from out of state. All the Hispanic scholars are from out of state, including 60 from Texas.</p>

<p>The scholarships are paying dividends in the recruiting of top scholars. Last year, UA enrolled 68 Merit Scholars, more than double the number that enrolled at Auburn. UA ranked No.31 in the country for the number of freshman Merit Scholars and No.13 among public universities. UA's total topped Ivy League schools Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown and well-regarded public schools such as the University of Virginia and the University of California Berkeley.</p>

<p>None of those schools offers scholarships based on the National Merit distinction. Auburn offers scholarships to National Merit Scholars, but only on tuition; for out-of-state students, Auburn pays two-thirds of tuition.</p>

<p>Private schools that traditionally have drawn high-achieving students with affluent backgrounds are finding themselves in head-to-head competition with UA, which is using its healthy endowment and large alumni donor base to fund the scholarships.</p>

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<p>For a while UofA took National Hispanic off the table.
The have added it back, but you have to have a 32 ACT to go along with it.</p>

8

<p>bump</p>

<p>Does anyone else have information? Thanks.</p>

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<p>Oklahoma offers a near-full ride to any National Merit Finalist (pending admission, of course). Check it out at <a href="http://go2.ou.edu/national_scholars/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://go2.ou.edu/national_scholars/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Iowa State offers a full ride to the NM finalists. There is some fine print about being one of the first 50 to be admitted. You also need to designate ISU as first choice. This came out of the blue.</p>

<p>Nebraska-Lincolon offers a full ride as well. Received unsolicited letter from them.</p>

11

<p>As I read Oklahoma's deal, it is 5 year, fall, spring, summer free ride.</p>

12

<p>University of North Texas in Denton, TX offers Finalists a full ride for four consecutive years. This means:
*full tuition and fees
*free room and board (wow!)
* $500 book/ supply allowance per semester. </p>

<p>This is a great school for Music, Art, Fashion Design, Fashion Merchandising. Finalists must enroll in the school's Honors College.</p>

<p>UNT is building a state-of-the-art Honors Dorm, scheduled to open fall 2007, where these bright students can choose to live. </p>

<p><a href="http://essc.unt.edu/finaid/scholarships_overview.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://essc.unt.edu/finaid/scholarships_overview.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>