Regarding W&L, my S was offered a full ride to fill a diversity need. However, that was back in 2006; things may have changed since then.
"I like to think that to receive substantial merit based scholarships, one needs to be competing for admission to colleges two tiers up the college at which one is targeting the scholarship. So if you are a likely candidate pursued by multiple Ivies, then you may have a shot for the full scholarship at Duke. "
On what planet is Duke even one tier below, much less two tiers below, the Ivies? What part of “the Ivies are 8 of the best schools, not the top 8 of all schools” is unclear on CC? What possible difference is there between Duke and these other schools except for location and personal preference? Weird.
@homerdog For fun, I went to the 2015-16 CDS at each of the six top LACs I listed and pulled the following information from the Financial Aid section (H), specifically the H2A section of each which lists the number of non-need based merit scholarships awarded to the freshman who ENROLLED in 2015-16. I think “enrolled” is key because each of those colleges award scholarships to many more accepted students but those students may choose to enroll elsewhere. For example, from the information my daughter received from Lafayette, I believe it stated that they award the Marquis scholarships to the top 15% of their applicant pool. From the number below, 6.5% of the enrolled freshmen received merit scholarships.
49/510 (Davidson) – 9.6%
17/454 (W & L) – 3.7%
61/582 (Macalester) – 10.4%
58/806 (Richmond) – 7.2%
44/672 (Lafayette) – 6.5%
137/731 (Dickinson) – 18.7%
I agree with Pizzagirl on this. If my children are fortunate enough to get a full tuition scholarship to Duke, we wouldn’t hesitate for a second to send them there over any HYPSM. Same goes for full tuition scholarships at Vanderbilt, Rice, or WashU. We would seriously consider full tuition from USC, UVA, and BU as well.
@scholardad Awesome! Looked on Lafayette’s website. This wording is pretty typical for these types of awards:
“Lafayette recognizes its most outstanding applicants with merit-based awards named for the Marquis. Recipients of a Marquis award display the Marquis’ ideals of global citizenship, scholarly pursuits, leadership, and concern for others.”
Unlike merit at most state schools, these awards can’t really be quantified. I guess students send in their applications and hope for the best!
@homerdog Yes, definitely agree. Unlike some state schools where specific GPA and SAT/ACT scores are the criteria for merit, most LACs have undefined criteria. My DD applied to all six of the LACs I mentioned and received great merit from four of them and zero from the other two. She was very happy with the outcome.
She only applied to LACs that awarded merit, unlike some of her classmates who thought their high stats would earn them non-need based merit at places like Colgate, Colby, Hamilton, Wellesley, etc. Her friends were admitted but could not accept due to finances. Had I not lurked on CC for a couple of years before my DD applied, I would have assumed that colleges who said they make their education affordable would include merit. Fortunately, I learned from the excellent advice and information available on this site. You are right to start early, even if things change by the time your child starts the application process.
Does Wellesley offer merit aid? I didn’t think they did but I could be mistaken.
@Pizzagirl No, they don’t. You are correct and that was the mistake that my DD’s classmates made. They thought colleges like Wellesley, Colgate, Colby and Hamilton offered merit but they don’t.
Colgate gives merit aid to a certain number of its highest achieving applicants who ultimately enroll, as follows:.
https://www.colgate.edu/academics/scholars-programs/alumni-memorial-scholars
Northeastern is discontinuing the University Scholars program - they sent an email that the incoming class of Fall 2016 will be the last group of University Scholars.
@scholardad - I wonder how accurate those numbers are. W&L claims 53 Johnson Scholars, not the 17 reported in the CDS.
@krnBoston any info or rumor about what they are replacing the scholars program with? I thought this program was such a huge success for NEU, so very surprised they are discontinuing after only 4 (5?) Years. Any insight would be appreciated.
I have to make a correction. Due to the poor organization of my previous post, it sounded like I was saying Duke was two tiers down than Ivies. That of course is not true. I meant it was incredibly hard to get the full/close to full ride scholarships in Duke. In many cases, those scholarship recepients can easily have multiple Ivy admissions. Also, I think it’s significantly harder to get a full ride/close to full ride merit based scholarship than say half tuition in any college. The spots are very limited and I think that is where the “two tiers up” really applies…
Note on post 38.
Lafayette’s Marquis Fellowship is $40k per year unless they have announced an increase that is not on their web site.
https://admissions.lafayette.edu/financial-aid/types-of-aid/lafayette-scholarships/
According to Davidson’s scholarship pages it looks like they give 12 per year group valued at $25K or more. 8 Belks plus 4others.
Unless I missed @intparent mentioning it I thought Harvey Mudd gave merit aid.
@suzyQ7 From what I heard it sounds like they are rolling it into or enhancing the honors program. I don’t think there is much real information out about what the changes will be. It didn’t sound like there were going to be changes for the existing scholars.
It has been so successful that Northeastern may not need it anymore - the stats have been steadily improving. They can still use merit aid and the honors program to attract high stats students.
On another thread, it was reported that the take rate for Duke’s full scholarships was less than 50 percent.
Yes, but it can be hard to get. My kid with 2380 superscored SAT and 800 Subject tests in Math II & Lit with strong ECs did not get any. She did from UChicago, too.
Interesting. Would he have added geographic diversity perhaps? Or maybe he just nailed the interview 