For a student, who is otherwise qualified (Likely NMF, STEM magnet school, strong list of exracurriculars, national awards like Siemens and many others, summer programs like Promys/RSI/Primes, published research, no sports), what schools would be good options for a full ride (or close) education? I am aware of a few like Duke (AB Duke Scholarship), USC full-tuition or full-ride scholarships, Georgia Tech NMF/Siemens program, UT Dallas, University of North Texas merit program, UVA Jefferson Scholarship but not a whole lot.
I am just getting started in this process, and have a lot to learn. I don’t think we will qualify for any state based scholarships or financial aid as they don’t seem to offer many, or are very small in amount $1-2 k only. RPI has awarded medal but even after the medal, their NPC is too high and not affordable.
State school is an option, but I wonder if it will be too different from schools from south (like UT Dallas), and we can save money by going out of state.
In Texas, a National Merit Scholar can get several full or partial free rides. UTD, Baylor, A &M, UNT really want to grab merit students. Even if you don’t make national merit, many colleges have other merit scholarships for high stat students. Rice and UT Austin doesn’t offer national merit but they do offer few merit scholarships so its worth trying. If you have some FA and get a decent merit scholarship, you should be fine.
^ This thread might be a good resource for you @cognizance
Our kid is at University of Kentucky on the Patterson Scholarship, which at that time, 2016, was full ride. The Patterson last year was full tuition plus two years of $10k towards dorm housing.
You can start making a spreadsheet of your long list, noting automatic vs. competitive scholarships, then keeping an eye on each school’s web site in late summer-early fall for when the schools update the scholarship info for the next incoming class.
NMF have had good options at University of Alabama, Kentucky and Oklahoma along with with UT Dallas to name a few. Some of these are pulling back funding so do your research.
Then there are competitive scholarships at places like Emory, Wash U, Vanderbilt plus some you listed above.
Search the threads here - including the link above and check each school for changes to funding (especially automatic merit) for 2019.
Check schools for early scholarship deadlines. Many are in November/December to be considered for scholarship even with RD.
@thumper1 GPA - school does not calculate. Grades are mostly A (but there are two B’s in foreign language). SAT not yet taken but should be fine - between 1550 and 1600 hopefully. Not targeting for perfect. Subject tests (three 800’s in them). Focus so far has been on Math, CS , Physics , Robotics and research. Physics top 400 (USAPHO) , math (AIME qualifier 3x and a lot of other awards), JSHS top 10, Robotics - (team qualified for world championship), 9 APs so far (all 5’s) though school does not have AP .
No, not New York state. Our state seems to offer not much in merit aid, and so I wonder if an OOS (like Texas or Florida or Alabama or Oklahoma above) may be a better option. We got mailers about NMF program from Oklahoma, USC, Georgia Tech, UT Dallas, UNorthTexas and some others. Our state university has not sent anything except for flyers about expensive summer programs.
USC tried to apply Junior year only so that opportunity is probably gone, not sure. But I checked their web site and they have merit scholarships.
Applications for USC for the 2019-2020 freshman year are not yet available. If your kid will be a college freshman fall 2019, he hasn’t missed anything with regard to USC…or any other college for that matter.
You are focusing on the wrong thing. You need to look at what your NET COSTS will be annually for colleges. Remember, out of state public universities will likely have double the tuition costs than your instate universities. Your kid might get more aid…but because the cost of attendance is higher, your net costs will be still higher than your instate schools. Plus…add travel. That’s not free.
I have to ask…when exactly does he plan to take the SAT or ACT? He needs to do this ASAP because if he delays, he could miss the early deadlines for merit consideration at some schools. If he is taking after school starts in September, and wants to retake, he will need to do so before December. You need to check the schools to see which SAT or ACT is the LATEST they will accept for merit consideration.
Many…MANY colleges have an early deadline for applications for those wanting to be considered for merit aid.
And some award their best merit aid to earlier applicants. One example is Pitt. Pitt awards the best merit awards to earlier applicants. If your son had NOT yet taken the SAT or ACT, he likely has missed the boat on getting a larger award from Pitt which is a great school.
I’m not sure why you don’t have UT Austin on your list.
@thumper1 USC invited him to apply in Junior year (and they said they have better merit aid if he can join a year early - basically forgoing the senior year of high school).
UT Austin could be in consideration but as I understand they don’t have merit aid (OOS) and they never reached out.
SAT - yes that is in August, so results should be out by mid September.
Texas Tech does include travel in their NM scholarship, @cognizance is correct, UT Austin offers very little merit. I currently have two National Merit kids in college, my oldest is a Meteorology major at OU and my middle son is a Comp Sci major at UT Dallas.
As much as I think OU is a great fit for my DD she’s not been too impressed with their comp sci department and they have significantly reduced their NM scholarships. I’d leave it off your list, for a STEM kid you can do better elsewhere.
UTD has a huge comp sci program and a great NM scholarship. The NM scholarship is enough to cover tuition, room board and books, it also covers $6K for study abroad but you’d need to cover travel to and from school. Thankfully Dallas is an easy city to travel too (two major airports, Amtrak…) UTD students are also given free transit passes for the city buses and computer trains.
If you can, arrange to visit during a National Merit Preview Day (https://www.utdallas.edu/enroll/visit/events/national-merit-scholars-program-preview/). The campus is very sleek and modern but it is not a party school (no football and they are proud of that!) The dorms are amazing! Another thing, UTD will waive their application fee for NM kids if you ask, just don’t pay the fee first because they can’t refund it after the fact.
While some schools may try to court NM students, many will not. YOU have to do the work, contact them, follow up with questions and applications. Many an athletic recruit has missed an opportunity sitting at home waiting for the coach to call, and the same is true about NMF too.
