<p>I am wondering how (if possible) to get a full tuition scholarship through a national merit finalist award AND a room/board (or any additional $) award (or financial aid). </p>
<p>In other words, once you receive a full tuition award (if that is the most the school offers for NMF), can the student also receive another merit award or any financial aid assistance (outside of loans) to help make a "full ride" an option?</p>
<p>Repeating myself, but asking the question differently.</p>
<p>Let's say that our EFC is $7000, but the difference between full tuition and COA is $10,000. Would there be any sort of award for the $3000 difference (or more if we're lucky)?</p>
<p>crazymomster…The answer is Yes, but it depends on the school. The easiest way would be to have your child attend one of the NM schools that gives full ride plus scholarships for NMF’s such as Alabama, Auburn, etc. There are several threads that discuss the various scholarships that you can read through.</p>
<p>Alternatively, some schools will offer additional merit scholarships on top of any NMF money that they offer. Our D1 will be attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities this coming fall. She received $11K per year as a result of NMF status ($10K unofficial and $1K “official” NMSC scholarship) but also received 3 additional University Wide merit scholarships plus a one-time research grant. The total of NMF plus other merit scholarships puts her very near full ride (at least at current rates) which we consider to be an outstanding offer for an OOS student.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are other schools that have similar merit scholarships to offer, but it would depend on the individual school and the individual student’s stats. We were worried that perhaps having the guaranteed NMF money would hurt her in consideration of other merit awards, but at least at U of Minnesota that wasn’t the case. Good Luck!!</p>
<p>NMF often have stats that activate many automatic merit awards offered some schools, and these are the same students that often compete for higher-end scholarships. In d’s case, the NMS award at her school is “only” $5000 a year, but she was also awarded a Presidential scholarship that pays half tuition, another monetary award, and won 1 of 10 competitive scholarships that include room/board, tuition/fees. Her full ride is being spread out over the 4 scholarship categories, so that she doesn’t go over the university’s maximum award.</p>
<p>Merit-based scholarships are not dependent on FAFSA or EFC. Check with the schools your kiddo is considering – many will allow stacking of awards, and look at all opportunities to apply for scholarship awards through (and beyond) the school itself.</p>
<p>Yes, there are many schools on the list that offer full rides. U of Alabama and U of Arzonia have great packages among others. At another school my D rec a full tuition plus 4K for NMF, plus 6K in honors scholarships from the school so that will cover R, B and tuition. They gave her a work study for books and spending money 3K. You also can stack local scholarships at some schools.</p>
<p>I’m trying to find the schools that offer stackable scholarships. </p>
<p>Yes, wolverine, I know there are some outstanding full ride scholarships, but I am looking at making a full ride out of a full tuition scholarship… as there are many more (appealing) options that only offer full tuition for NMF and that could still likely leave us with a huge room/board cost that would make attendance difficult… so wondering what options we would have to cover those costs.</p>
<p>mommidwest… what school offered the extras?</p>
<p>If you haven’t looked at this thread, you might take a look. Often times scholarships are almost hidden, but if you dig around enough, they are out there.</p>
<p>Yeah I’ve looked through that thread… I guess I’m not making myself clear about what I’m looking for. For example, Northeastern gives full tuition for NMF. Is it possible to get additional scholarships at Northeastern to make it a full ride or close? I’m not looking for which schools give full ride or full tuition… I’m looking for possible ways of making a full tuition school into a full ride school. Choosing Northeastern was random and what is available there specifically is not relevant unless there happens to be a way to make it a full ride :-).</p>
<p>crazy…I guess I’m missing something in what you’re asking, because I thought we had all answered your question. </p>
<p>Yes, there are options at many of the schools that offer NMF money to make up any difference between the NMF offer and full COA, but I don’t think anyone can tell you definitively whether or not those schools would offer additional merit money to your child.</p>
<p>I thought the examples provided by myself, mommafrog, and mommidwest all described exactly what you were asking about…additional merit money offered by schools to close the gap between guaranteed NMF money and COA. Any child who qualifies for NMF status is going to be competitive for additional merit money, but if you’re looking for schools who GUARANTEE the additional money…I don’t know of any offhand.</p>
<p>Wolverine, yes… I received lots of good answers (but without school names which I wanted), but I also received replies about XYZ school offers full ride and read the thread about full rides, so it seemed that my question was not clear to everyone.</p>
<p>I take it that it must vary from school to school, but was hoping for schools by name that do “bridge the gap” so that I can help my son choose NM schools without worrying about the cost of room/board (because those costs would be covered by additional merit monies… not because the school automatically covers them with a full ride scholarship). So, which schools will allow you to stack scholarships (regardless of your EFC) enough so that COA is close to 0?</p>
<p>Here’s my experience with the Arizona schools as far as NMF awards.</p>
<p>UofA - NMF will get 15K + ipad - COA instate is approx 23K. So in our case, we got the award letters stating what his award SHOULD BE, but in reality, his official fin aid award letter currently shows his NMSF award of 9K and the EFC data they have is based on the first FAFSA I did back in January! When I spoke to them last week wanting an updated package using current FAFSA in order for us to make our decision by May 1st, they said that they won’t update the fin aid until after May 1 and won’t show his $15K until he puts them as the TOP CHOICE. So it was frustrating to be able to make a decision or comparison against the private school pkgs. I don’t know whether or not he would have been offered any other monies to gap between the 15K - 23K COA because they don’t do it on the timeline that we needed (by May 1st).</p>
<p>ASU - COA in-state is 25K - NMF award is supposed to be 13K - same thing. Award letter is out of date on the website. No updates will take place until after selecting as top choice, but then it makes it difficult to compare. </p>
<p>Out of state may be handled completely differently. I’m not sure.</p>
<p>crazy…Gotcha. The only one I can tell you for sure (and this is based only on our experience) is the University of Minnesota. As I mentioned, they have $11K per year guaranteed NM money, and a pretty good number of University wide merit scholarships that anyone who applies to the University will be considered for.</p>
<p>Our FAFSA EFC came out around $30K which is higher than U of Minn’s COA, but our D1 was awarded 3 additional yearly merit scholarships plus a one time undergraduate research grant. The additional scholarships brings us very close to full COA. They allow any outside scholarships to be applied to the students’ account, and will refund any amount that exceeds COA to the student. U of Minn’s application was very easy (no essays) and of all the schools we interacted with during the past several months they were far and away the most friendly and helpful.</p>
<p>Additionally, many of their merit scholarships requirements are based on more objective criteria than some other schools (GPA, class rank, test scores, etc.). There’s obviously still a holistic component to it (contribution to diversity, etc.) but if you meet the objective criteria, meet the priority consideration deadlines, and demonstrate an interest in the school there’s a good chance you’ll receive some additional merit money. Here’s a link to their scholarship page, as well as a link with some contact info for Christine O’Shea Foster, the NM recruiter at U of Minn (bottom of the page). Good Luck!!</p>
<p>BTW…we’re OOS from MI, and U of Minn is probably one of the best OOS deals in the country. Hope that doesn’t change!!</p>
<p>If you have read the thread already, then you know which schools give good NMF scholarships, and U of Alabama is the one that seems to be the gold standard today.</p>
<p>Now what you really need to do is look at the websites of schools and talk to them. A lot depends on how attractive your child is to the school. Some schools will give you a lot of aid just because you are NMF and possibly bridge the gap. Unfortunately, most of them are state schools and they are cutting back on aid. Arizona State for example has cut back on what they are giving NMF’s.</p>
<p>Now once you know what the stated NMF policy is then you need to look at what other merit aid (assuming you do not qualify for need based aid) is available and do they allow stacking.</p>
<p>For example at University of Arizona, which is close to full ride but not full ride (the C of A for OOS is 38000 but the NMF award is $30000.)
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<p>So for example departments and colleges at U of Arizona give awards, now some of them can be combined, some cannot. So it is situation specific. And some of the extra awards are competitive.</p>
<p>I think your best bet is to short list a few schools and find out what they offer and how they stack up. Again please remember, most of the other awards are competitive. So your child may or may not get it. Again policies may change from this year to the next.</p>
<p>Based on your EFC and your attractiveness to the schools, the schools may decide to bridge the gap, or they could add Stafford loans into it. Or they may not and decide the gap is the parent contribution. I do not think you are going to get a straight answer unless you apply and actually see the FA package. Apply to a few schools including a sure financial safety and then decide once you get the package. No school will assure you that they will bridge the gap without seeing the application.</p>
<p>they’ve already given you all the answers you need. It depends on the school and it takes a lot of time to do your homework and find all the NMF scholarships for each school. I spent the entire fall finding “NMF targets”. The list posted above is fairly accurate, but keep in mind that once you target the schools, you need to find out what additional application materials need to be submitted along with that college’s application, and supplement. For instance, at Denison U., you need to submit their Pashal Carter application and that’s for full tuition. They also offer an additional $2,000 to NMF, so yes, there’s “stacking”. It’s time consuming to find the schools you want to target, but there’s no way around researching each school separately, on their own websites. Some schools are listed on the NM affiliated paperwork you receive with the NM application in the fall, but don’t actually offer much in the way of merit award. For instance Kenyon offers just $2,500, UNC Chapel Hill $1-2,000. So you need to look up each one and determine which to “throw out” from you list to target. That’s not to say, don’t apply to certain schools, but if your going to focus on getting a full rides using NMF status, you need to know that NMF isn’t a sure way of getting $$ from colleges. The higher tier you go, the less they care. Denison is a gem, by the way --#33 nationally for Kiplingers’ Best College Buys. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^^ Exactly right. You have to do your reserach and you have to remember what works for one person does not work another. </p>
<p>Again, the higher you go in college tiers, NMF’s decrease till they are almost nothing. </p>
<p>It worked for some of the posters in this thread, but it has not worked for anyone. You can find a college that meets your financial need, but you have to apply to several colleges and then find the one that fits. Unfortunately there is no easy way out unless you choose the sure things like of U of Alabama.</p>
<p>At my school (University of Maryland) the NM award is small (500-2000/year), but they offer FREE application to NMFs and offer about 150 full-ride scholarships to the top applicants without any need to fill out additional forms or apply for financial aid. IF you are a NMF, then you are probably a “top” student and would be in the running for the full-ride. There are several other top research universities that do similar things. So don’t dismiss a school just because the NMF award is small.</p>
<p>The “stacking” situation will not occur often. Bama is the only school that I can think of that stacks its big NMF scholarship with an additional 2500 per year if you’re an engineering major.</p>
<p>Other schools usually don’t let you stack…they’ll often only let you take the “biggest” offer. Schools usually don’t stack so that they can “spread” the awards around to other students…and schools often feel that a free tuition scholarship is already quite big (often $140k just for tuition at a school like your example of Northeastern).</p>
<p>I think your son is going to be an engineering major, so for your son to get a stacked scholarship at the few schools that would allow a full tuition NMF scholarship to be further stacked, would likely depend on his SAT or ACT scores and GPA. Such additional stacking (if possible) would likely come from a dept scholarship, not the school.</p>
<p>That said, when my NMF son applied to various schools, he did target a few that gave NMF full tuition or more scholarships. Bama was the only one who offered a stacked scholarship. </p>
<p>It’s a good thing that you’re inquiring now, so that you know what’s out there. It’s not likely you’re going to find what it seems that you want…a full tuition NMF scholarship to a techie school that will then further give $10k more per year to cover room and board.</p>
<p>The problem is that those techie schools already have enough high stats kids so they don’t neet to hand out scholarships of $200k or more (which is what such stacked scholarships would cost).</p>
<p>Lots of really helpful information. I really do appreciate it. Bottom line seems to be “it depends” :-). So yes, we will cast out the net and see what we reel in and evaluate the situation at that point. Depending on the school, S has decided that he can probably make a fair bit of money rather easily (and enjoyably)… however, those initial funds will be very low most likely. </p>