I’m looking for some “been there done that” advice on merit scholarships. D is a great student with many interests. She wants to major in English with eyes on an MFA. Our state school is a top 10 public/top 50 nationally, and wouldn’t cost very much ($5K-$10K)…and she really likes it. To consider going out of state, she’d need merit aid. According to the NPCs I’ve been playing g with, we wouldn’t qualify for any financial aid. We’d like to see if there are any private schools where she would be competitive for the highest merit awards. She’d prefer a school with more than 5K undergrad, not rural and with a theater program. Here are her stats:
GPA 4.0 unweighted, 4.7 weighted
ACT 33
SAT II - Literature 800, US History 800 (will be taking Chemistry and Math II in the Fall)
APs - Lang (5), US History (5), Macro (5), Gov (5), Psychology (5), (will be taking Lit, World, Physics and Art History next year)
Extracurriculars:
Speech and Debate - Debate Regional Champion and national finalist, National Champion Speech (leadership positions regionally and nationally)
Theater
Community Service: 500 hours
I know college admissions have gotten significantly more competitive so this may be a futile effort, but before we develop our final list, I wanted to be sure. Thanks.
I can’t speak for specific schools for english but my daughter got significant merit (for engineering) with similar stats. Look at programs where her stats put her over the 75th percentile of accepted students. We also found that instate options, not just the flagship public, were the most generous. Good luck and hopefully folks will chime in with specific colleges.
We have a few more in state options as well. To go out of state would require significant merit aid so that’s why we’re looking. Unfortunately, we’re not really considering the small LACs because most of them are too small and more rural than she would like. I’ve been lurking here for some time and have searched all the “merit aid” threads for choices that seem to match her stats. I just wanted to post to see if anyone who recently went through the process had any ideas.
Have you considered Tulane? The Paul Tulane and DHS scholarship apps are time-consuming and quite competitive but she might have a shot. I don’t know if Fordham offers any full tuition awards outside of National Merit kids, but you might look. Room and board at both of these schools would exceed $5-$10 K, though (by quite a bit more in the case of Fordham).
We got the big merit awards (full tuition to full tuition plus) in 2016 with National Hispanic Scholar (PSAT) and her ACT score (U Alabama). She tried for one competitive scholarship & did not get it.
You are very fortunate to have a great, affordable in-state option.
If you have a top 50 option at 5-10K, I think it’s going to almost impossible beat that in a top 50 school in an urban area. And probably hard to beat anywhere if you don’t qualify for need based aid.
We’ve also found a lot of larger universities do not have inclusive faculty run theater programs for all. They might have an auditioned program and the rest of the school might do club based or more casual theater stuff. LAC’s seem like they’re the best for being able to dabble.
I’ll be watching this thread. I have a kid with a 4.0 UW, 34 ACT we’re looking for merit - we’re full pay. Our in state option is more like 30K though so we have some more flexibility. My kid would definitely prefer urban but I have told him he should keep all options open. Location matters much less for undergrad kids heading to grad. And many of these little LAC’s have rock solid career centers too that place kids all over the place. I know that’s a deal breaker for some. We live urban and my kid really likes urban. Our in state options are urban too so we have that.
2 bigger urban universities that can be generous with merit though are University of Denver and University of Miami (FL). I think getting down to your current price option would be tough, but there’s a couple to check out.
My daughter was looking for merit scholarships this past application season and had very good results. OP, if you’re instate for Florida like we are, it will take a full tuition or full ride scholarship to match or beat the instate schools (with Bright Futures) financially. Your first step should be to determine how much you are willing and able to pay and make sure to communicate this very clearly with your daughter.
My daughter really liked UF except for the size (she wanted a smaller school), so she applied to some schools she liked that have large competitive merit scholarships but kept UF on the table and would have been happy to attend there.
If your daughter decides to try for large competitive merit, here are some tips:
Do lots of research online. Merit scholarship offerings can change frequently, so make sure to have the most up-to-date information for schools of interest. Don’t bother applying if there isn’t the possibility of merit that meets your needs.
When preparing her applications, she should make sure to show how she could contribute to the school. This is especially true if there is a “Why _________?” type of essay. Once again, LOTS of research to determine what about that school makes her a great fit. Also, scholarship winners often have something special about them that differentiates them from other high-stats applicants (posters on CC call it a “spike”). Make sure the application shows this effectively.
Pursuing competitive merit requires a thick skin - the ability to not take it personally if not asked to interview for a scholarship. Make sure your daughter understands that schools are looking to fulfill certain institutional needs with these scholarships. She may or may not meet those needs, and shouldn’t take rejection personally. Also, it will be very common to get accepted to a school but not get the necessary merit. She has to be able to shrug it off and let that school go. It’s very important to have an affordable option that she would be happy to attend.
SMU in Dallas, TX might be worth looking at. She has the stats that would make her competitive for the Presidential Scholarship and, if not that, would still qualify for generous merit scholarships. My daughter is an engineering major but was able to perform in 2 of the student run musicals (called 24 Hour Musicals) and had a great time. There were both theater majors and non-majors from the Meadows School of the Arts in the cast.
I’m not aware of any mid-sized LACs or Catholic universities in your daughter’s size range that offer merit-only scholarships that would bring costs down to $5-10,000. U Denver’s top award is 25K plus 3K for dorm housing. That still leaves way over 30K in expenses. Most of the LACs and Catholic universities seemed to top out in that range.Your in-state option sounds like a dream! We walked away from ours (UIUC) since it was closer to $35K.
Quite a few schools do have full tuition or full ride merit scholarships, but they are very competitive. Some examples off the top of my head:
Emory/Oxford: Emory Scholars/Oxford Scholars
Tulane: Paul Tulane/DHS/Stamps
UMiami: Singer/Stamps
Richmond: Richmond Scholars
Washington & Lee: Johnson Scholarship
SMU: President’s Scholarship
Duke: AB Duke Scholarship/Robertson Scholars
If you want your net costs to be $10,000 a year, your student would need probably more than a full tuition scholarship…as at many places room and board costs exceed $10,000 a year.
Google “85 colleges with full ride scholarships” for a pretty good list. (I would post a link, but not sure if it’s allowed by the forum rules.) Just remember to check each college’s own website for possible changes to merit offerings.
Luckycharms913…we’ll be in New Orleans later this summer, so we’ll visit. I didn’t realize they were so generous with merit aid. She wants to stay warm, so this fits the bill.
Midwest 67…yes we are. $5-$10K for room and board only. We have free in state tuition based on her stats and she secured some individual scholarships that pay the rest. We are truly blessed.