<p>Anyone know of or have experience with colleges that give large merit scholarships (15,000 per year +) or lots of merit? For reference, I have a 4.0 GPA and 35 ACT. </p>
<p>Like many students, my parents are offering to pay in-state tuition, but I'm hoping to find some other options that will leave me with minimal debt. Thanks!</p>
<p>15,000 a year means a lot of different things if the COA is 25,000 or 60,000. </p>
<p>You qualify for some automatic scholarships. </p>
<p><a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>And for some in-state tuition breaks:</p>
<p><a href=“Automatic Out-of-State Tuition Waivers - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Out-of-State Tuition Waivers - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; </p>
<p>What is your home state?</p>
<p>My home state is Illinois. The COAs of the colleges I’m looking for are mostly 50,000-60,000.</p>
<p>Just checking for clarification. Are you saying you are only looking at colleges that cost between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, and you would like $15,000 of merit aid for those schools? Is that your question?</p>
<p>Does this mean your parents will pay between $35,000 and $45,000 a year for you to attend college?</p>
<p>I’m also looking at less expensive public universities, but I’m mostly concerned about getting enough merit at the private schools, which are $50,000-60,000. I say $15,000 understanding that I’d have to take out some loans, but ideally I’d like to get more, possibly half or even full tuition scholarships. I’d just like to hear about any schools that give large merit scholarships!</p>
<p>Try Denison U if you are looking at LACs.</p>
<p>Wittenberg is another. </p>
<p>Ok…I read the OP again. Parents will pay instate costs…so $25,000 or so…is that correct? </p>
<p>The student wants to attend a college that is $50,000 or $60,000.</p>
<p>OP…this means you need $25,000-$35,000 in merit aid…not $15,000. Even if you subtract the $5500 Direct Loan, you are still looking at $20,000-$30,000 a year.</p>
<p>Look at some of the SUNY schools. OOS costs are about $28,000 a year. Some give Merit aid. Some don’t.</p>
<p>Check Case Western University. You might get sufficient merit there with your stats. </p>
<p>Out-of-state public schools whose costs may be comparable to or less than in-state UIUC could include Minnesota, Iowa State, SUNYs, NC State, SD publics, and perhaps others.</p>
<p>In addition, see the sticky threads about automatic and competitive full tuition and full ride merit scholarships.</p>
<p>What are your academic and other interests?</p>
<p>And look at the thread that has colleges that cost less than $24,000 a year.</p>
<p>Instate Illinois is more than $25K a year. Still UI-UC is a great school for the money. If OP’s family does not qualify for financial aid, and it’s merit that he’s seeking from a school with more name recognition, reputation, rankings than UI, getting merit money from such a school can be highly competitive, and it’s not a slam dunk even to get into some of those private school, many of which have little or no merit awards. Look at the lists at the top of the page of those schools with substantial merit money.</p>
<p>@tardis40 </p>
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my parents are offering to pay in-state tuition, </p>
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<p>can you clarify? will they pay $30k per year? or will they pay IL tuition costs (about $15k)?</p>
<p>If your parents will pay $30k for UIUC, but you want an even more impressive private school, then it will be hard for you to find enough merit because higher ranking schools are filled with high stats students so they give few merit awards…often targeted to those who help with ethnic and regional diversity…or have some unusual hook.</p>
<p>For instance, if you are wanting to go to WashU, then it is highly doubtful that you would get any/much merit, certainly not another 30k, which you would need.</p>
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I say $15,000 understanding that I’d have to take out some loans, </p>
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<p>15k is not enough…not even close.</p>
<p>for one reason, any prices you are seeing now, will rise each year…while the 15k merit will not. so, your 55k cost now, would be 57k when you are a frosh, and probably 65k cost by the time you are a senior. If your parents are paying 30k, and during jr year, your costs have risen to 63k, where would you get the other $33k??? As a JUNIOR, you can only borrow 7500</p>
<p>YOU can only borrow 5500 dollars as a frosh, so you cant (and shouldnt) borrow more than that. Other schools arent worth more debt over UIUC…not at all.</p>
<p>what is your major and career goal?</p>
<p>UIUC is the best deal for you. If you insist on going oos, Purdue and Minnesota do offer good money to qualified students. If you are NMF, you will get near full tuition from Minnesota. For Purdue, ACT 35 would be right at the threshold for those large scholarships.</p>
<p>With $15,000 I was merely suggesting that I’m looking for schools that have large scholarships (not just a couple thousand). I do not have a set financial plan in terms of total parental contribution/loans/scholarships/financial aid, I would just like to hear about good schools that do offer merit scholarships on the larger end.</p>
<p>I’m interested in math/science. </p>
<p>It is better to figure out your price limit rather than looking at the scholarship amount. A $15,000 scholarship at a $60,000 school still leaves it more expensive than a $35,000 school.</p>
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I do not have a set financial plan in terms of total parental contribution/loans/scholarships/financial aid,</p>
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<p>it is mid summer, and scholarship apps have EARLY deadlines…so ask your parents NOW how much they will pay each year. Do NOT waste your time (and others’ time) making lists that may not even be feasible. You need to come up with a fab strategy based on YOUR true situation. </p>
<p>it really is best that way…why get hopes up for - say - WashU - only to find out that parents will only pay 20k and washu would NEVER become affordable. </p>
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<p>ok…great. engineering? career goals? grad school? med school?</p>
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is better to figure out your price limit rather than looking at the scholarship amount. A $15,000 scholarship at a $60,000 school still leaves it more expensive than a $35,000 school.</p>
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<p>absolutely…and I personally dislike set merit amounts because they become much less meaningful as a student moves thru college and prices rise, while the award doesnt. so, never choose the option where a school is barely affordable as COA rises each year.</p>
<p>University of Richmond gives 45 big merit scholarships from full-tuition to full tuition+room/board. Semi-finalist for these scholarships get 15K a year. Your stats could have you in the running. You could probably get 25K+ merit at Willamette… more if you have any musical or performance abilities and willing to send in an audition but it is an expensive school so don’t know if that would be enough for you. I know Rider gives large merit but we weren’t personally impressed with the school.</p>
<p>Like others have said, find out what the budget means. What is “in-state tution” in your state? Are your parents including room/board or just tuition? Do you have financial need or are you high/full pay? Start running netprice calculators. We found them pretty accurate including estimating what type of merit D would be qualified for in some cases.</p>
<p>You should visit each of the school’s website that you have potential interest and run the NPC to see how much you would need each year. Then talk to your parent to see how much they can contribute. It is not wise to preset a certain scholarship amount and just aim for that.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids:</p>
<p>And for engineering, UIUC is actually more prestigious/will give you more opportunities than WashU!</p>
<p>To the OP: unless you want the LAC experience, chances are good that you won’t be able to do better than UIUC for the same price at another research university (unless fin aid makes the price the same) in STEM.
I understand the desire to not go to the big state U that everyone in HS goes to and to go away farther from home, but the list of research universities that are better than UIUC in STEM isn’t that long, and most of them don’t offer merit aid; only fin aid. Duke has some full-tuition scholarships that are extremely hard to get. JHU has a tiny number of full-tuition scholarships. Rice also gives merit aid.<br>
WashU, Vandy, & Emory offer merit aid, but I actually don’t consider those schools to be as good as UIUC in engineering/STEM reputation/opportunities.
I would consider Case Western to be equivalent to UIUC in engineering & sciences (worse in CS) if the cost is the same.</p>
<p>USC has merit scholarships and may be considered on the same level as UIUC, but at least they have the differentiator of a very strong alumni network.</p>
<p>A bunch of small engineering schools on the East Coast (WPI, RPI, Stevens, Cooper Union, Olin) are cheap enough (with merit or automatic scholarships) and are much smaller. Webb is free.</p>
<p>So far my safeties:
FIU
Louisiana Tech
Matches:
What I need suggestion and are the hardest to find
Reaches:
Wake Forest University
Franklin and Marshall College</p>