<p>1st post-
As we look deeper and deeper into the scholarships- it seems many have been changed to tuition only -- not tuition and room/board-- Are any other parents seeing this trend?</p>
<p>has always been a rarity, but you may be correct in saying that it is rarer than ever these days. Among the handful of colleges I am aware of that offer scholarships that cover full tuition, fees, room and board are Agnes Scott and Wesleyan College (both women’s colleges in Georgia), Marietta College in Ohio and Southwestern University in Texas. </p>
<p>Some of the Ivy League schools also offer full-rides, but those grants are need-based and you need to have a family income in the sub-60K per year range.</p>
<p>There are a few. The student needs to be at the very top of the applicant pool. A friend of my son’s is at Texas Christian Univerisity and everything is paid for…including books, study abroad, etc. Of course, the student has to maintain a very high GPA to keep these benefits.</p>
<p>Students who are National Merit Finalist may find that some schools will offer housing and fees in addition to tuition. Alabama and Auburn do. I’m sure there are other schools that offer this as well. Such schools will often allow students who have academic scholarships for tuition to ‘stack’ departmental scholarships that can amount to a full ride.
You certainly have to search them out and see what schools fit your student. This route was our academic and financial ‘safety’.</p>
<p>I know someone who had a full ride offer to Emory that I believe was all inclusive. Of course, she had a 36 ACT…</p>
<p>I think the term “full ride” is just used loosely and wrongly (ok, I know that’s not really a word…). When people receive a full tuition offer, people often just call it a “full ride”. Seriously, I think it’s a problem because many people do feel that full tuition = full ride. </p>
<p>And then we all get our wake up call. :)</p>
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<p>Boy, that’s the truth!</p>
<p>If you play a sport don’t you normally get lots of perks, including books, room, and expenses?</p>
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<p>All of the ivies require a student contibution from summer earnings. If the student does not make the summer earnings, they may end up getting loans to make up the difference.</p>
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<p>This depends on the sport, the school, and the division of play. Like academic recruitment, it can vary widely.</p>
<p>If you play a sport at a Division III school you don’t get anything any other student is eligible for except maybe a bump in admissions. At a Division II school you might get an athletic scholarship or you might not. Same at a Division I scjhool depending upon the sport you play. You are thinking of the big money sports (football, basketball and, to a lesser degree, hockey) at the big time Division I sports schools. Do all of these DI money sports players get a full-ride? No. Do most of them get a full-ride? I don’t think so. Do some? Yes. But I don’t think that means it is “normal.”</p>
<p>P.S. – What Sybbie says about student’s at the Ivys requiring a contribution from summer earnings also goes for DI full-scholarship student-athletes, at least at the colleges I am familiar with.</p>
<p>In our state, full ride still means tuition, books & fees and room & board. At 1 state school, they’re offering my son all that plus stipend that should cover travel and personal expenses. Of course, this is thru honors program, he is at top of their applicant pool, and this includes the top university scholarship, top department scholarship, and (only if needed) top state ed. dept. scholarship. This (unofficial at this point) offer has kept this school consistently in his top 5 for applying.</p>
<p>To the best of my understanding Ivy league schools don’t offer merit aid, that is scholarships based on academic performance. They offer financial aid based on demonstrated need. There is a difference. Financial aid can be grants, loans, work-study, etc. Academic based merit aid scholarships are not paid back. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. :)<br>
My point being, there is a distinct difference between merit-aid, and financial aid.</p>
<p>there is really no such thing as a free lunch. even with full ride scholarships, you must read the “fine print” associated with merit money and not be afraid to ask follow up questions concerning your scholarships/merit $</p>
<p>Is it automatically renewable for the next 4 years</p>
<p>Is it renewable for the same amount of money?</p>
<p>Is scholarship adjusted to take into consideration tuition increases (about 5% per year)</p>
<p>Is there a gpa requirement needed to keep getting the money?</p>
<p>When does the gpa requirement start (by the end of fall term or the end of spring term)?</p>
<p>Is there a phase in to the gpa requirement?</p>
<p>What happens if you do not meet gpa requirement, does money leave immediately or is there a grace period?</p>
<p>If you lose scholarship and bring your grades back up is money reinstated?</p>
<p>Ask the financial aid office what percent of students lose their merit money in the first year.</p>
<p>And the most important question… worse case scenario if you were to lose the scholarship would you still be able to swing the cost of attending? </p>
<p>If the school does not meet 100% demonstrated need with large amounts of grant aid, there may simply not be enough $ to replace the lost scholarship with need based financial aid.
Some schools give the student a grace period before taking the scholarship while others take the scholarship immediately. I think you should find out if the scholarship can be reinstated at a later date.</p>
<p>“Some of the Ivy League schools also offer full-rides, but those grants are need-based and you need to have a family income in the sub-60K per year range.” </p>
<p>blueiguana – I don’t think anyone said the Ivies offer merit-based aid.</p>
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<p>I assume you mean merit based full-ride scholarships. The answer is YES. S1 received a four-year full-ride (covering tuition, room & board, books, fees) at our state flagship this year. It was a competitive scholarship offered to only five National Merit Finalists.</p>
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<p>Agree.</p>
<p>sybbie719 - Such GREAT advise! Honors colleges usually require these minimum 3.5 GPA’s. If you are OOS and are dependent on the scholarship please think long and hard. If your student is entering an engineering program with a well known two-year weed out process a 3.5 GPA may be a very large amount of pressure. These are unweighted GPAs and they are not in hs anymore. Students who routinely earn over a 4.0 can fight for a 3.0 under such programs. It’s something to think about.</p>
<p>Again, very good advise!</p>
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<p>It also depends on how big a star the athlete is. Coaches are limited by NCAA rules in how many scholarships they can offer. So instead of giving a full ride to one athlete, the coach may choose to split it and give partial scholarships to two or three athletes - whichever approach will help the team more. But if the athlete is a true, blue-chip All-American prospect in a major sport, s/he can probably still get offered a full-ride somehere.</p>
<p>hudsonvalley51 - It wasn’t directing my comment at a specific post here. We were talking about ‘full-rides’. I was making a distinction between a full ride via merit aid which doesn’t require repayment vs. full ride via fin-aid based on demonstrated need (or 100% need met) which almost always requires some sort of repayment. Sometimes people confuse the two. At schools that offer merit based aid they can combine those scholarships with fin-aid which has to be repaid. I find it confusing myself. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear.</p>