<p>My wife has a Facebook friend who told my wife that her son received a full ride from a small college that is not on the
CC Full Ride/Full Tuition lists. It was a matter of the college wanting top students and the offer came at the last hour after she told them he had other good financial aid offers that he was planning to pursue.</p>
<p>Has anyone else here at CC had such a circumstance or know of anyone who has received either a full ride or full tuition
offer from a college not listed on the full ride thread here?</p>
<p>It sounds like there may be some room to wheel and deal with some colleges to get full ride or full tuition even if they don't
mention it on their websites.</p>
<p>I think people use the term “full ride” loosely. For some it is tuition, others, tuition, room, board and more. Also, the term doesn’t specify whether it is merit or financial need that is met by the “full ride” and if any of that includes loans. </p>
<p>Since finances are very personal and individual, it would be hard to know exactly what that “full ride” means.</p>
<p>You do NOT know the friends full story. This could be need based aid, it could be merit aid, it could be a combo, and it could include Parent Plus loans.</p>
<p>Fact is…there are probably students at EVERY college who receive a full ride. I would wager that most schools give such need based and or merit awards to a small number of students.</p>
<p>But unless the award is a GUARANTEED award, one should not count on receiving it.</p>
<p>Any college can make a full ride or full tuition offer to whoever it sees fit, and for whatever reason it sees fit. Every year some students get surprises like the one you described.</p>
<p>It is not easy to “wheel and deal”. Your student would have to be seriously interested in college/university A, have a significantly better offer from college/university B, A would need to perceive B as being a peer institution, and A would need to be willing to “reconsider” an aid package after awarding it. Some are. Some aren’t. Some state their position on reconsidering aid right on their websites.</p>
<p>I believe it My son got a full tuition remission offer from a school not on the lists as did a number of his peers from a local school. Any college can offer some award or deal. On the board, we have the ones who tend to do so systematically, as otherwise there would be thousands of schools on there. </p>
<p>An acquaintance told everyone her DD had a full ride. In her mind, since the parents were paying nothing, it is a free ride. Breakdown: 50% athletic (tuition, room, board), 50% tuition merit-based, $5500 student loan to cover the remaining room, board, fees, books, and “spending money”.</p>
<p>From the mom when I pointed out that the loan would have to be paid back: but WE don’t have to pay anything, so it’s free for US! So that makes it a free ride.</p>
<p>We had a friend tell us they got a merit scholarship from Wellesley, but that when her other kiddo finished college thwt merit award was “taken away”. Ahem…it was a need based award. </p>
<p>My son was offered a full tuition award from a local Catholic school. It was a merit award, not financial aid, not a loan, not self help. It had a grade point stipulation. That I can guarantee you. He wasn’t the only one in this area who got the same offer. Apparently, a number of kids did and took advantage of it. He did not.</p>
<p>Also there are full tuition awards offered by Lehman College with laptops and summer study included for those in the area with certain break points in grades and test scores. So, yes, it can happen. </p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who “wheeled and dealed” a full ride, meaning COA of a college or even tuiiton, room and board. They either got some merit award that so covered that or a fin aid award. THough I’ve known folks who have discussed their packages and gotten more, it’s usually not a whole lot. One of my other kids did get his merit award increased, but it was not a huge amount, not close to the tuition cost or room and board. He let the school know he was turning down instate Ivy to go there, and they doubled their small merit award they offered him, to make the school just affordable for us. But we’re not talking big bucks there. That kid also did have other merit offers but not at highly selective schools. Most people I know who get package upgrades get just a few thousand at most, and often in loans. </p>
<p>Not saying it doesn’t happen. My son that got the full tuition award did not negotiate for it. It came with his acceptance offer.</p>
<p>It would not be surprising if there were colleges that offered merit scholarships, possibly up to full ride, but did not announce that fact on their web sites, perhaps because they do not want to promise anything that they may not offer in a given year (perhaps due to budget problems, or not seeing any applicants they deem worthy of that large a merit scholarship).</p>
<p>Of course, not announcing the availability of such scholarships means that some potential applicants looking specifically for large-enough merit scholarships may decline to apply, believing that there is no possibility of being able to afford the school.</p>
<p>There are also scholarships where the awarding of the scholarship, or the amount of the award, is based on a combination of need and merit, so they would not be strictly merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Even scholarships officially called merit scholarships may be initially awarded more to people who also show need. That is, given two worthy students, the merit award may be given to the one who shows more need. So it is not necessarily cut and dried.</p>
<p>@happymomof1:
School A does not need to perceive School B to be a peer institution. They just need to want the kid badly enough (or judge that the extra merit money spent is worth it to keep their yield high and acceptance rate low). </p>
<p>Both UChicago and WashU are/were known to use merit money to woo students who they want after acceptances have gone out. A co-worker said that a decade ago, a daughter of a co-worker of his got in to UChicago with some fin aid and a full-ride/tuition scholarship from her (averagish) state flagship. The father told UChicago that she’s going to the flagship unless they sweeten the pot. They were willing to add merit money to match the cost of the flagship so she went to the UofC instead.</p>
<p>Of course, since then, the UofC has shot up the rankings and gotten a ton more applicants so they may not be so willing to part with merit money now. However, I’m sure that schools lower down the totem pole are willing to play that game. @billcsho has also mentioned her daughter receiving scholarships from UMich (that I believe added up to a full-ride/full-tuition) after colleges had sent out acceptances.</p>
<p>So certainly, many schools do give out merit money that they do not advertise much. Oberlin and other OH LACs come to mind as schools who engage in that practice.</p>
<p>The Common Data Sets are illuminating. if a school says there that they are giving out merit aid there even if they don’t advertise merit scholarships, then they are giving out merit scholarships.</p>
<p>And yes, at some schools, the merit scholarships have a heavy fin-aid component to them. For example, I know folks at Northwestern who got big merit scholarships for writing, physics, and playing an instrument. In their cases, though, the scholarship mostly replaced fin aid (though it did mean they didn’t have to take out loans or work).</p>
<p>Just want to clarified that my D got several scholarships with the main one from UMich that covers 60% of tuition/fee. Then UMich gave a grant later that pretty much covers the remaining but that is due to the need met for in state students.</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan The grant replaced the loan and work study. I still need to pay the EFC which is basically the cost for boarding. Nevertheless, there are full ride (or near full ride) merit scholarships at UMich too even for OOS students.</p>
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