<p>Is it possible to get a full ride for college just based on merit scholarships? I've heard a few people talking about it on CC. What schools give full ride just based on merit? And what scores do you need to get it?</p>
<p>first of all, the words “free ride” are often misused. People will use the words “free ride” when they mean a “free tuition” scholarship. They still have to pay for room, board, and other costs…unless they commute from home.</p>
<p>There are some schools that give free tuition scholarships for merit, and some that give free rides (tuition, room, board, etc). </p>
<p>Each school that has such awards has its own req’ts for merit. My kids’ undergrad gives free tuition for an ACT 32+ (or 1400+ SAT M+CR) and a 3.5+ GPA. Other schools have different req’ts. </p>
<p>Most schools do not give free rides or free tuition for stats.</p>
<p>There is a link that tells you about some schools. Look at post #98
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-5.html</a></p>
<p>Looking at your other posts, you have great stats, you are interested in meteorology, and you like volleyball and FIT.</p>
<p>FIT sounds nice, but their top academic merit award is $19,000/year, which would give you a residual cost of maybe $30,000/year.</p>
<p>Alabama-Huntsville would give you a full ride for your stats and has meteorology and D2 volleyball, so that’s worth looking at.</p>
<p>If you like Florida, you might want to consider Florida Atlantic and Miami, both with meteorology and the potential for larger merit scholarships. </p>
<p>There are several other schools on the list m2ck referenced with meteorology and guaranteed large merit awards for your stats.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your insight! The University of Alabama- Huntsville definitely looks interesting! I just have one question, how do you know a school would give a student with my stats a full ride?</p>
<p>Alabama-Huntsville has automatic merit scholarships based on stats. See the list:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14675705-post98.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/14675705-post98.html</a></p>
<p>Your stats meet the threshold requirements for their top award (1490 SAT, 3.0 GPA):</p>
<p><a href=“http://uah.edu/iFinAid/scholarships/2012-2013%20approved%20scholarship%20grid.pdf[/url]”>http://uah.edu/iFinAid/scholarships/2012-2013%20approved%20scholarship%20grid.pdf</a></p>
<p>Okay thanks! Definitely looking into it.</p>
<p>Do you need a free ride? What is your situation? Will your family pay anything towards college?</p>
<p>I don’t absolutely need a free ride. My family is in the middle class, but we live in NJ and our cost of living is very high. I also have a younger brother and sister. Therefore my parents have saved up almost no money for me for college. Whatever they have to pay, they will take out in loans.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Talk to your parents about this issue. Parents taking out loans for college can be VERY risky, especially when there are younger kids to put thru college.</p>
<p>The problem is this…
Say your parents borrow $15k per year for you to go to college…That’s $60k in debt. The payments are spread over 10 years. </p>
<p>BUT…while they’re paying those off, your younger siblings go off to college. They will have to borrow AGAIN and AGAIN…easily ending up with over $200k in college debt. They may not even qualify for that much debt.</p>
<p>ALSO…if they can’t pay much out of pocket for college, then HOW can they afford the HUGE loan payments on THAT MUCH DEBT???</p>
<p>$200k in debt would create payments well over $2000 a month. Again, if your parents haven’t been able to save for college, then how would they make those payments???</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you all sit down and look at this long term…taking into acct the younger siblings as well. </p>
<p>A test as to how much your parents could pay for loan payments would be how much they can save right now each month (to put towards next year’s college costs). If they can’t save a few hundred a month NOW, then making loan payments each month - year after year - is unlikely.</p>
<p>It would be VERY wise for you to look for full tuition scholarships (or more), so that your remaining costs can be covered with a $5500 student loan, some summer work earnings, a small contribution from parents, and maybe a SMALL loan by your parents.</p>
<p>My mistake in my last post. I did not mean to say that my parents would be taking out the loans to cover the rest of the cost of college. They will contribute a small amount of money most likely towards college, but the cost after any scholarships that I receive will be covered by student loans taken out by me. Nevertheless, it will still be beneficial for me to get as much money as possible for merit so I don’t have to take out as much in loans.</p>
<p>Last year, I received a full ride to the University of Alabama. They awarded this based upon my designation as National Merit Semifinalist.</p>
<p>You can’t borrow more than the student loan amount mentioned above ^^ by yourself. Additional loan money requires Parent co-signing and becomes the responsibility of the Parent. I’m no expert, but I’ve read enough here as the experts try to clear up this constant confusion about college loans.</p>
<p>It is possible to get a full ride, even from schools that are not guaranteed. It is NOT easy or a sure thing. My D ended up with a full ride to Texas A&M which was our goal. It was not one big scholarship, but a combination of smaller awards that added up to the COA. We approached this systematically by also applying to competitor schools that offer big guaranteed awards. This was both a back up plan and for scholarship matching purposes. D went to several events to get herself in front of the scholarship people and to show she was truly interested in the school. I think this was important to make her stand out. My D had very high stats and she got to know the head of her department. I think he helped get her some of the money because he wanted her to come there badly! It never hurts to develop a personal connection at a big school. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Alabama doesn’t give Full Ride for NMSF - they give Full Tuition.</p>
<p>*My mistake in my last post. I did not mean to say that my parents would be taking out the loans to cover the rest of the cost of college. They will contribute a small amount of money most likely towards college, but the cost after any scholarships that I receive will be covered by student loans taken out by me. Nevertheless, it will still be beneficial for me to get as much money as possible for merit so I don’t have to take out as much in loans.
*</p>
<p>You may not realize this, but YOU can only borrow $5500 for freshman year. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what merit scholarships you’re talking about. Private merit scholarships are usually only for freshman year, so you’d be short for the rest of college.</p>
<p>If you need money for college, then you need to apply to the SCHOOLS that award LARGE ones for your stats.</p>
<p>For you to have an intelligent strategy, you need to…</p>
<p>1) find out how much your parents will PAY each year. $5k? $10k? ???</p>
<p>(to give you an idea, since your parents don’t have college savings, for them to contribute $5k per year, that’s about $500 each month for 10 months. If they live in a pricey area and don’t have much leftover each month, then coming up with that much might be a challenge.)</p>
<p>2) Add the amount that YOU can borrow…$5500 for frosh year.</p>
<p>3) Add in the amount of merit scholarships you’ll get from various schools.</p>
<p>4) You likely will need a FULL tuition scholarship, so that your parents’ contribution and your loan can pay for room, board, books, fees, etc.</p>
<p>@BobWallace, there must have been something else too then. My package stated, in no uncertain terms, that tuition, room and board, and a book allowance would be covered, along with a $1000 allowance for a laptop.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Last year’s NMF pkg from Bama did NOT include “board”…look at what you were offered.</p>
<p>Last year, the NMF award was for tuition, housing, $1k per year, $2k study abroad, iPad (not a computer allowance).</p>
<p>This year, the NMF award is for the same, except housing is now only for 1 year.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re right. I didn’t accept it so I only know what I remember from memory. Maybe it was UT Austin:</p>
<p>NMSF and NMF are not the same thing - NMF award at Bama is indeed more than Full Tuition, but is not Full Ride. Still a great scholarship either way.</p>
<p>Sorry, UT Dallas. But they gave a $4000 stipend to cover books and to help defray the cost of room and board. </p>
<p>Anyway, depending on your financial situation it may be more beneficial to apply to a school known for financial aid. All the Ivies gave me aid packages that dwarfed Alabama’s offer over the first two years.</p>