Would love some advice. My daughter is a junior and has a good chance of being a national merit semi-finalist. We will be looking for large merit scholarships in the fall. Please comment on our Plan A, which we will execute if she does get NMSF (and) NMF status. We are starting early since she is very busy with a full AP course load, extra-curriculars, and work and it will take her months to evaluate all of the options.
Apply to 3 of the following schools that are good fits: University of Tulsa, OU, U of Kentucky, Ole Miss, OSU, Texas Tech. These will be her safeties.
Apply to as many relatively high ranked (1-100) competitive full-ride schools as she likes so long as she likes the school as much as or better than her safeties. These are largely lottery type scholarships though she will have a very good chance at some as she will have a very strong application (stats and all the rest).
Apply to at most 3 relatively high ranked (1-100) competitive full-tuition schools with a cost of attendance after scholarships within our budget ($15,000-$20,000 per year), and she must like the schools enough that it would be worth giving up the extras we can provide if she goes to one of the safety schools.
What do you think? Assuming she gets NMSF, is this a good strategy? Or is it still risky?
PS: Our plan B, if she doesn’t get NMSF, is to also apply to some lower ranked schools where she has a > say 50% chance at a full-ride or near full-ride and apply to more full-tuition schools.
Pretty sure that the highest ranked school that gives full tuition for merit based on just stats is University of Alabama, with an ACT of 32 or SAT equivalent. It’s listed on their site. That was the top ranked full merit ride school for awhile, not sure if it still is today. But definitely look into it.
If she can have at least 3.5 and a 32 ACT, it’s a good plan. Warning on “full ride” on the yolasite: not many schools offer it, and none automatic in the 1-100 range. So you may be better off looking at full tuition and paying some room/board.
It does sound like a good strategy. We gave both my Ds that same advice. They were both NMF and had options of full rides. We gave them a max budget and said if they could match it with scholarships, the school would be considered. We also said if they took a full ride, they could keep half the savings.
You are leaving off a couple of great schools for NMF - University of Alabama and my favorite, UT Dallas. Depending on her major, they should be considered.
I don’t believe there are many competitive full ride lottery type schools that any student has an excellent chance of landing. Especially not multiple schools.
Automatic schools yes and figure if that is the strategy that will be her landing spot.
Read through the links on this thread. Many ideas there. But do check because it was compiled a while ago, and some awards might not exist or be the same.
@OP - Full ride in CC parlance means room and board in addition to tuition. These types of scholarships are very rare. Otherwise, your strategy seems sound if you are not overly concerned with prestige. The colleges that are CC darlings typically do not play the merit aid game. You might like the following thread.
I spent a lot of my free time last year and had help from a friend creating a comprehensive list of schools offering at least full tuition+. I understand that most aren’t automatic. With my daughter’s profile, I think she’ll have a good shot at some of the full rides, especially as we go farther down the rankings. She wants to major in applied mathematics with a minor in environmental studies. Top 1% of her class in good school district, GT program, all honors and AP with 4/5’s so far (will have completed 17 AP by graduation), hasn’t taken SAT yet but will score high, good EC’s with leadership positions, community service, part-time jobs since 9th grade, African-American from single-parent household (may help). Well rounded easy-going kid that will do well anywhere.
We are in TX and she wants to leave the state, so not seriously considering UTD or even TAMU.
ASU with the Barrett Honors college could be looked at. Also, my oldest D also wanted to leave Texas and ended up at Univ of Pittsburg with a full tuition plus scholarship. It has worked out great for her.
Be aware that some of the big scholarships have early deadlines. For example, Alabama’s automatic full tuition scholarship has a December deadline. Howard’s automatic full tuition to full ride scholarships are first come first served.
I think your general thinking is sound, my 2 older daughters were both NMF and they each applied to a school where NMF status got them automatic scholarships along with others with competitive full ride/full tuition scholarships where they were in the top 5%-10% of applicants stats-wise. D1 who graduated HS in 2012, applied to 8 schools, got 2 full-ride offers along with 1 full tuition offer, and also Bama’s NMF package. At her remaining schools, she was offered decent merit, but not enough to attend. She attends the University of Richmond on a full-ride and was also offered a $750 National Merit scholarship, so she is a NMS even though that scholarship is small.
D2 who graduated HS in 2014 applied to 10 schools and got 2 full tuition offers in addition to Bama’s NMF package. She was also invited to compete as a finalist for Clemson’s National Scholars full ride, but did not get offered the scholarship in the end, Clemson offered her close to the equivalent of in-state tuition, but not enough to make it affordable. She also attends the University of Richmond, on a full tuition scholarship, with a $750 National Merit award.
D3 is now a HS senior and we are using a similar strategy for her. She is NM Commended, not NMSF, and her stats are not quite as high as her sisters, so we targeted schools a tier or 2 down from her sisters for her, with the goal of getting full tuition/significant merit$. She has been accepted to Temple and Bama with full tuition for her stats, was also offered enough merit, not quite full tuition, at several other schools, making them affordable. Still waiting to hear from several others, including our state flagship, where I think she will be accepted, but they are pretty stingy with merit and it may end up being the most expensive school on her list, rather than a financial safety, lol! She is seriously considering Bama and we are planning to visit next month.
The odds of receiving large competitive scholarships are hard to predict. Some schools may perceive that they are safety schools and not make an offer, some programs/majors are ultra competitive, there are many other factors. It definitely makes sense to build the list that makes sense within the affordable limits of your family to maximize the options for your child at the end of the journey! It makes no sense for students to apply to schools that they will never be able to afford, it takes a lot of effort and $$ to send in applications/test scores, etc.
I would suggest getting on various diverse college campuses to get a ‘feel’ for what seems to be comfortable/liked - checking out those in geographic area first. One gains experience on visits beyond the touring. Some kids don’t want to be far from home, while others it is not an issue. Some kids change majors in college, while others stay on the same degree plan.
You want to make sure that the chosen school works out when the merit situation weighs heavily.
The more you can narrow your focus, perhaps the more ‘noise’ you can take out.
Since you are in Texas, I would suggest visiting A&M, UT, and Trinity just to get an idea of the type of school your DD prefers.
My DS is also a NMSF and has applied to schools hoping for reasonably sized merit scholarships. I am not sure how this will unfold. He did not apply for any of the automatic full ride NMF scholarships, but he has received one full tuition scholarship so far.
Positive we won't get any need based aid, unfortunately. The NPCs give us an absurd number that we absolutely cannot afford.
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So, what is your goal net cost? Your DD may qualify for some competitive merit at schools that want more high stats URMs. It seems that Vandy and WashU tend to give merit to help their diversity numbers. However, your desired net cost may be different from the net cost after a merit award.
How much do you want to spend each year?
Is this student more likely going to be STEM, Liberal Arts, Humanities, Business or what?
Yes, we are full pay according to the calculators. She is not certain what she wants to do but is thinking applied mathematics with a minor in environmental studies. She is pretty sure she wants to do something math related but is also very passionate about the environment. We can do $15k-$20k per year stretching it and she will have to do work study but our goal is to keep it under $10k per year. We aren’t allowing her to go into any debt as we’re still paying off our own student loans and it is limiting.
Looks like your price limit means that you are looking for a approximately a full tuition scholarship or better.
Math and applied math are fairly broad fields once the student gets to junior/senior level work beyond the “core” courses for the major (e.g. real analysis, abstract algebra, complex analysis). If she has any definite subareas of interest, inspection of the course offerings in the catalogs and schedules may be warranted. If not, a reasonably large selection of subareas would be desirable. Some PhD programs are said to care a lot about the rigor of the applicant’s undergraduate math department, although it is not always obvious to a high school student which math departments are viewed highly by such PhD programs.
Thanks, everyone. Feeling a little nervous, but think it will work out. Our college scholarship list is much more comprehensive than those posted here. One day when I have time, I will figure out a way to post it on this site to help others.
Btw, my daughter is taking a strong liking to Alabama. She just told me this week that they get 2 days for college visits this year (more senior year) so we will probably visit soon. And we have a college road trip planned for spring break to check out a few that are on the list and a few others that aren’t but that will give her a sense of what she likes and does not like. She’s already visited a number of schools through summer camps and programs and visiting days. I’m already really looking forward to this process being over.
