I was wondering if there are full ride scholarships for people like me looking for non-need based and non-merit based scholarships. Those which are based on involvement during high school or essay writing etc.
If you’re a great athlete you may get an offer of a full ride even if your family doesn’t need the money. But that’s about the only scenario I can think of.
Not need based? AND not merit based (I personally think athletic scholarships are a “kind” of merit aid)?
What kind of other aid is there?
Full need based awards are based on the family being very very low income AND the school policy being to meet full need.
Merit awards are based on some achievements…could be musical, or athletic, or academic.
If you don’t have any of the above. It’s not likely you will get a FULL ride to any school.
Based on your EC’s or writing essays would be merit based.
There is no magical money fairy.
You mean like buying a lotto ticket? There are scholarships for outstanding community services, for example, in some area. However, it would be likely in small amount, non renewable, and may still have a need component.
^^And not likely to be a full ride. Getting one scholarship that pays for everything is very very rare. D1 football players and Nobel prize winners. In our state there are two scholarship programs for the top students, and even those are just slightly under covering everything (room and board is partially covered). They are just rare.
I think you should focus on what you might get - a merit scholarship for your grades/stats, a talent scholarships for music or art or drama, a local scholarship for an essay or community service. My daughter has 8 grants and scholarships she stacks up, plus her loans, to pay for everything. We don’t think of it as a full ride because it is a lot of work to keep the scholarships (gpa requirements), to keep her athletic scholarship, to follow up on requirements for the grants. There is no free lunch, and if there is, the government will tax it anyway.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1989380-reach-schools-low-gpa.html#latest
The OP has a 34 ACT and a 3.2 GPA unweighted. I would imagine there are some schools where merit aid if some amount would be in the cards…but maybe not a full ride.
Income is >180,000 for a family of two (student and mom). Can’t the parent contribute some amount for college? Can the dad contribute?
To the OP…some of the colleges on your list will require financial information from BOTH parents…Profile for your mom, and non-custodial Profile for your dad.
There are a few tuition free colleges out there.
This is NOT a low income student…so a school like Berea would not work.
What other tuition free colleges are out there?
Plus…this student’s family lives in the U.K…so she would need room and board as well.
Alice Lloyd, Barclay, College of the Ozarks, Deep Springs… The OP can check on their eligibility/ interest.
Alice Lloyd enroll bout 25 students a year. This student lives in the U.K…so is not eligible for free costs at Ozarks…not in their area for free costs. Deep Springs offers free tuition only.
Yes…the student should look into these but really, they are not traditional four year colleges. And this student is not going to get a full free ride at all of them either.
Maybe, just maybe, ROTC.
Advisable for this student? Don’t know.
Do they exist? Yes. And at least RIT used to have a room and board scholarship add on for students who had the ROTC scholarship, making it full ride.
The OP will probably have to piece together a package of no or low tuition and scholarships in order to reach their goal of a free ride.
If this is a UK student, why not look at the low cost colleges of Europe?
Perhaps the OP can clarify…but it sounds like she is a U.S. citizen residing in the U.K.
People really need to stop saying “ROTC” as an answer for people looking for college money. ROTC is not a scholarship service. It is for young men and women whose #1 goal in life is to serve their country as an Officer.
Students who manage to get an ROTC spot for the money inevitably drop from the program and then have no way to pay for school. I’ve seen it dozens of times.
Excellent post, and you echo my thoughts exactly, especially the part about what the #1 goal of being selected for ROTC should be.
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wondering if there are full ride scholarships for people like me looking for non-need based and non-merit based scholarships. Those which are based on involvement during high school or essay writing et
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If the award isn’t need or merit based, then it wouldn’t come from the college unless it’s a talent award…theater, art, music, athletics.
To get a huge award just for writing an essay or high school involvement?? No.
Think about it…such a huge award would have to come from an outside entity. What motivation would an outside entity have to give a huge 4 year award to someone w/o need or academic achievements??? Why would they do this? What benefit would it be for them?
No.