Chance Me: Full Ride/Substantial Merit Aid

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a junior at a competitive public school in Missouri. I have a unique situation (actually I’m sure it’s fairly common but among my friends/classmates it’s not common); that is, I have a sister who will also be attending college at the same time, and my oldest sister will most likely be pursuing a graduate degree, so my parents agreed that my sister and I will not be getting much money from them for our undergraduate education. We moved to Missouri last summer from Ohio, and my mom is almost eligible for a perk from her employer that would give a lot of money towards our college.

Long story short, we’ve been waiting a long time for my mom’s higher-ups to approve the benefit, but for now I will have to apply to schools I have a good chance of getting a full ride at, or that my parents would only have to spend ~10k a year for each of us. My dad went to Miami at Oxford, Ohio and my mom studied at Ohio State.

Info:
White, male
Major: Math? Undecided?

SAT: 1560 (790 M, 770 E, 22/24 essay from a different time)
PSAT: 1480 (Selection index 221; most likely National Merit qualifier)
ACT: 35 (36W, 35M, 35R, 33S)
Class Rank: Unknown, but probably around #6-8 of 300
GPA (unweighted, out of 4.30): 4.08-- All honors classes possible taken, and almost all the hardest APs possible
Freshman year: AP Bio - 3 (Exclude?)
APs this year: Calculus BC, Physics 1, US Government – TBA; confident for 5 on Calc and Government.
SATII: Math2 (800) Literature and Physics (TBA)
APs next year: English Lit, Chem, Macro Econ, Stats

ECs:
Cross Country – 2 years, Varsity all years, attended state championships all years. (Captain next year). 47th in State this year; Best on team
Track-- Varsity 2 years, Captain next year
Quiz Bowl- 2 years, captain next year
TEAMS (team engineering competition): 2nd in Missouri, 5th in Nation for district
Will attend national championships in July
100+ volunteer hours, but not all at same place (since I moved states)

My questions are:

  1. Which kinds of schools do I have a good chance of achieving full ride scholarships to? (I know I have a good chance at Miami and perhaps OSU since I am legacy.)
  1. I might want to apply to some selective schools, such as Vanderbilt or UChicago. What are my chances of being accepted, and receiving merit aid? I know that the Ivies don't give merit aid so I should probably rule those out?
  2. Would there be anything I can do over the summer to bolster my application/increase my chances of getting financial aid?

Thank you all.

2

Side Note: An A+ is 4.3, and A is 4.0 at my school. The average GPA for accepted students at my high shcool to Vanderbilt, for reference, is 3.92.

3

You definitely have good chances at Miami and OSU, even for financial aid. UChicago would be a reach for you, but Vanderbilt would probably be a match. I’m not too familiar with their financial aid, but you likely won’t receive as much as you need.

4

I think you may be confusing full tuition scholarship with “full ride.” You would definitely be in the running for full tuition at Miami. I’m not sure how many full tuition scholarships OSU offers to out of state students.

Look at these links regarding merit scholarships:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p1.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-an-updated-compilation

Make sure you check each school’s website to see if they are still offering the scholarships referenced in these links.

5

UAH should offer full tuition plus 5k or so for on campus housing for 8 semesters.
STEM heavy, it has an average ACT creeping up on 28 (possibly highest in Alabama) with essentially the same middle 50 as Miami. Large research park adjacent to campus, with both Army R&D and NASA within a couple miles of campus.

I graduated from Miami; my oldest just finished freshman year at UAH. Very different vibe than Miami, but DD really likes it.

6

Check school web sites for updates, since some scholarships have changed since these lists were made:

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/

7

@ams355 any of the Ivy’s, VANDY, and USC give great financial aid with USC giving full Merit Scholarships for those in your SAT/ACT range.