Best schools that give the most merit based aid

<p>Check out Ohio University for generous merit scholarships based on GPA and test scores--for nonresidents, too. My S applied to Scripps College of Communication and was accepted with scholarships (rolling admission).</p>

<p>OU scholarships should definitely be pretty easy to get for most people on CC</p>

<p>Case Scholarships:
Financial</a> Aid - Scholarships
Financial</a> Aid - Academic Awards Program
they give out 11 full tuition per year. Case gives out a lot of merit aid to a lot of people, but as you can see, full tuition is rare. You are automatically considered when you apply.</p>

<p>WUSTL gives out scholarships, but they are really hard to get. most are roughly 1/3 tuition, but there is a dozen or so full tuit. You apply for them separately, and many depend on what school you plan to attend. Request their mailed scholarship brochure. I'm sure you can find it online too.</p>

<p>Rice
Rice</a> University | Prospective Students
there are 1/3 - 1/2 tuit scholarships. Full tuition is basically nonexistent unless you go into engineering or you are a foreign national (whatever that is). YOu are automatically considered when you apply</p>

<p>Ohio Wesleyan University offers merit scholarships up to and beyond full tuition. My daughter received an award of $25K per year for four years with her EA letter of acceptance, which is about 80% of tuition. She may also be eligible for additional institutional grant support in the Spring. She is an excellent student, but nothing out of the ordinary for CC posters. There is a stipulation that if you cannot acheive a 3.5 GPA after two years the amount of the scholarship will be reduced to $12,500 for the last two years.</p>

<p>Anyone know about Georgetown's financial aid and how much they give either need based or merit based. Thanks.</p>

<p>Georgetown does not offer any merit based scholarships. They are need based only.</p>

<p>NYU.</p>

<p>pshaaahahahha.
Just thought I'd give y'all a nice laugh.</p>

<p>How do you know this? Whwere do yo get this info...and why are all these postings so old??</p>

<p>Stanford and Brown also offer tremendous merit-based need-blind aid.</p>

<p>My daughter applied to a host of loosely competitive schools in Ohio. She received merit-based scholarship offers ranging from $9,000 to $17,000 annually. These scholarships are renewable for all four years provided she maintains a specified GPA. We are not filing the FAFSA. These schools range from Very Competitive to Highly Competitive; with several schools in each category offering different amounts of merit-based scholarships. </p>

<p>My question is how do I ask the institutions at the low end of the range to increase their scholarship awards to compete with the institutions at the high end of the range? Also, are there any inducements, other than increased scholarship awards, that I could ask for from the institutions at the low end of the range?</p>

<p>Brown does not offer merit aid only. Any scolarships/ grants are need-based only. That is the policy of ALL ivies!</p>

<p>I know that Franklin W Olin College of Engineering offers full tuition, room, and board to everyone who attends. Mind you, the undergrad size is approx 300 students.</p>

<p>^^^I don't think Olin has offered free room and board for several years now. Tuition is paid for, but not room and board unless the student demonstrates financial need. Correct?</p>

<p>Negotiate? Good question customsman. Does anyone have past experience negotiating with schools regarding merit aid if the school you most wanted to go to had a lower offer than the others you were considering? Do you mention the other offers when you "negotiate"??</p>

<p>For the couple that asked about comparing aid packages (scholarships, etc) from one school to the next. Yes, show them what you are getting from another school and ask them why the difference. Let them explain it. From there, start acting. Tell them how this may make the difference, you are disappointed, etc. You really have to think about it. Ask them if there is any way they can make up the difference.
The schools say they don't adjust but if they want you, they will.
There was a good article in Newsweek about this a few months ago.
Usually you compare similar schools. In the same conference, etc. You can't compare an Ivy League school and most state schools. From the start, you apply to schools just to use them as leverage. It may be too late now to do this.</p>

<p>
[quote]
From the start, you apply to schools just to use them as leverage.

[/quote]

Yes, yes, yes! I wish we knew this when my son was applying to schools, as the one he really wanted to attend gave lousy financial aid and would only consider comparisons from a handful of other colleges. Had we known this, he would have applied to "peer colleges" even if he had no intention of attending them.</p>

<p>We were able to get a slightly improved merit award from the school our S wanted to attend by mentioning the other school he was also considering and their merit offer. (He still would have chosen the school he is attending, but we hoped they might give just a bit more & they did--helps pay for books, but merit money is always good.)
The other school we mentioned is one that some students do attend instead of the school he attends & both are in CA with good engineering programs.</p>

<p>FatherOfACT36 & HImom-Thanks for the info. I am anticipating a situation where I may need to negotiate and the schools are similar but the merit offers may not be! Good to know that some schools choose to be flexible in light of a reasonable comparison.</p>

<p>Leveraging the offers </p>

<p>If I may phrase a question in regards to leveraging the offers a different way, is it almost expected or understood that prospective students will negotiate in this way?</p>

<p>The situation has to be approached delicately; I don't think schools are "surprised" that there is some attempt to bring information about other offers the student is considering but they don't like to be made to feel they are "bidding" for a student.
I was very honest with the schools S was chosing among and said that he really wanted to go to 1st choice school but honestly funding is something we have to consider & he was offered $$$ from the other school which he was also strongly considering. The student has to accept that the schools may not budget from their initial offers & if there is need-based money, they may juggle it around a bit.</p>

<p>is the leverage conversation of the form, ' we really would like to go to your school, but we cannot swing it financially. It is costing us $X at peer college A. If you can make it $X, we'd go' ?</p>

<p>if it is like this, does this mean one should be prepared to go with the college RIGHT THERE if they agree to your terms?</p>

<p>In other words, you cannot do this conversation serially, from one college to another?</p>

<p>I know we can try to do anything we want to, but I am asking about probable outcomes in this 'game'. </p>

<p>In other words, FatherofACT or other leverage experts, please game out or sketch out ways of negotiating, dealing, leverging, conversing for us people naive to such gamemanship.</p>