Thank you for that link!
Thank you midwestmom of boys-- did not know that about Kenyon-- will look up the details of Scholastics. Added Kalamazoo to our list… just signed her up for a tour. Dickinson and Whittenberg might be a little on the preppy/Greek side for her from what I’ve been reading.
Case Western does have full tuition merit scholarships but they’re by-application and very competitive! They require a 500 word essay so they wouldn’t show up on the NPC.
Dickinson’s merit currently maxes out at 20K, total COA is about 65K. Wash U also has some full tuition awards that are highly competitive, but they exist. Ditto for Case Western.
Not full tuition, but College of Wooster and St. Olaf have slightly lower starting costs (currently just under 60K instead of 65K+) and do allow some stacking of scholarships. Both have talent scholarships (dance, music) as well as academic-based ones.
Arizona State still offers a full ride for NSF winners and their Barrett Honors College is very well regarded.
Good luck!
What’s your EFC? Would you qualify for financial aid?
Yikes, that was the only reason why we set up a visit… I heard otherwise from someone w but can anyone else speak to this?
Excuse me but she’s a high stats student with a perfect ACT score! A very small percentage of students can pull that off. Many of these colleges may have an unpublished perfect score merit scholarship. I’m not sure how to find that out but a local tv news story will typically get colleges to chase her? I’ve seen that happen before.
We definitely did not have the advantage of a 36 ACT score to work with, so our experience was different but I spent a lot of time on individual college websites, researching what the school’s tuition and financial pages said and what the Common Data Set said. My kid graduated high school '16, but we were told highest merit award at Dickinson was $20k. Maybe there is something more for students with a 36 that we did not hear about, because kid was not there, but its worth a phone call or email to your specific admissions officer for your region.
Our experience confirms that a number of the midwest schools like Kalamazoo, Knox, Lawrence, Beloit, Earlham, and Wooster, have a lower list tuition price (last year, anywhere from $42,00 to $46,000) and often a lower room and board cost (often closer to $8k rather than $`10-12k)) so between the two, could bring the full pay cost to $10,000 less than east coast LACs.
For students willing to look a little more southern, Centre and Sewanee also had lower list price, though I think Sewanee has moved to model of increased list tuition price and using merit to attract high stat kids.
@Rdtsmith That belongs on the inaccuracies thread.
@Dunboyne Clemson does not offer a full tuition merit scholarship except for the national scholars program which is extremely competitive.
A few possible safety schools would include Ohio Northern, Mount Union, Valpo, Xavier, and Juniata. I believe at these three of these if not all give a limited number of full tuition scholarships (competitive). Also keep in mind some of the schools others have mentioned will also kick in $1,000-$2,000 for National Merit Finalist if listed as first choice. You will have plenty of time to name your first choice next year.
For high stats kids needing merit, it can be harder when looking for small schools. A tier down may have a lower starting cost and better chance at high merit. However you may or may not find many peers. Once you’ve had a chance to get a realistic list, you can glean some information from websites such as college data. Check the percentage of incoming freshman in the ACT range of 30-36, top 10%, GPA > 3.75, etc. You can calculate an estimate of how many peer students will be in your child’s range if that is important.
We are in similar situation with S18, just finished with D16. FYI, She got good merit from Lawrence (total cost under 30k). Got 32k from Tulane, but we still felt it was unaffordable. Got a decent merit scholarship from Grinnell, again, not enough to make it affordable. Got an awesome scholarship (close to full ride) from Truman State. I loved it. She wanted more urban setting and more name recognition. Good offer from Kansas. In the end, she went to Pitt on a full tuition scholarship and is happy there.
S18 is interested in Rochester and similar schools, but I suspect it may be unattainable to get the top scholarship. Looking at Case, Wooster, Denison, Kalamazoo. He nixed Allegheny and Juniata. Other PA schools didn’t have the level of merit I wanted. Dickinson im pretty positive did not offer full tuition. We are heading south this March to check Oklahoma (automatic merit), plus Tulsa and Trinity. He is also checking out Miami of Ohio, Richmond, Washington & Lee. Medium academically strong and affordable schools have not been that easy for us to find for either kid. We are from Wisconsin, so we have a great flagship, but my kids are determined to get out of here.
Booajo, hope your S likes Trinity. Our Minnesota raised S loves it there, great academics, very generous merit aid, and he is crazy about the weather. Spends the whole year in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops. I don’t think we will ever get him to move back up north after 4 years in Texas.
Trinity has the most straight-forward merit aid system I have encountered. They print and publish a grid, and you simply cross-reference your GPA and test scores, and that is what you will be offered for sure. You can then compete for a Towers Scholarship with a full-ride, but very competitive.
Good luck!
If she wants to stay in the midwest she should check out the residential colleges at Michigan State, Lyman Briggs and James Madison. They are smaller colleges within the large school, and MSU would likely give her lots of merit aid.
if she has good enough scores, she can send application to UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. they have full merit scholarships even for int students.
" I think Sewanee has moved to model of increased list tuition price and using merit to attract high stat kids."
A few years ago Sewanee dropped their tuition 10%. Last year they increased it 10%, but I think they will maintain it at that price for a bit. Also once you are in your tuition is fixed at your freshman rate regardless of any future increases.
Booajo, just curious, why didn’t your son like Allegheny?
I believe Bryn Mawr (mentioned up thread) gives a max of $30,000, leaving a remaining cost of about $35,000 or so. But Mount Holyoke offers some full tuition merit scholarships.
From what he read in Fiske, he didn’t like it. Sometimes I have no idea what they read they don’t like–but I’m willing to eliminate schools pretty easily. After all, he can only go to 1
Check out the Johnson Scholarship at Santa Clara University.
https://www.scu.edu/johnsonscholars/the-award/
Full tuition merit scholarship with additional potential to also cover full fees, room & board depending on need. Johnson scholars can apply for $7500 summer grants after soph/jr years for research, travel immersion, service projects. They also get admission to the university honors program with priority enrollment, honors small group seminars, and possible other leadership/travel opportunities.
It looks like a relatively new scholarship–started in 2013, so the first class of Johnson Scholars are about to graduate this year. They give about 10/year. The advantage over Boston College’s full scholarship, which requires applicants to apply binding EA, is the Santa Clara scholarship is in the RD round. However, application to the Johnson scholarship is by invitation only–they have a semi-finalist, then finalist round.
This speech was given by one of the 2013 Johnson Scholars, and gives a good idea of the benefits.
https://www.scu.edu/johnsonscholars/selection/–click-to-read-alaina-boyle-class-of-2017-2016-scholarship-weekend-address.html