<p>As a parent worried about being in the middle class financial aid donut hole, i.e., too "rich" for significant aid without tremendous burden of loans in a struggling economy and too "poor" to check full-pay on the application, I have been looking at the fantastic listings of National Merit Scholarships (thanks BobWallace!), as well as reading about the tremendous opportunities at Kentucky, Alabama, Miami-Ohio etc. for full merit scholarships for high stats students.
Besides Denison University in Ohio, I am unaware of any significant merit scholarship opportunities at liberal arts colleges that are simply guaranteed based on stats (GPA/SAT/ACT). It seems more of these are rigorous selection awards: there is the Belk at Davidson and the Johnson at Washington & Lee, Monroe at William & Mary, Stamps/Singer at University of Miami, or maybe some competitive awards at University of Richmond. But those are all just too "risky" to count on because of the hoops the applicant has to jump through to possibly get the award (scholarship weekends, extra apps, etc.).
Anything overlooked? Is anyone aware of liberal arts schools or private schools with national merit or full tuition scholarships for highly credentialed applicants? Please suggest alternatives or options.<br>
Also, should the national merit semi-finalists start directly hearing from schools soon?
Thanks.</p>
<p>There are quite a number of LACs giving such awards to be found in the list you mentioned, such as Evansville, Pacific Union, Wesleyan College, Sterling, Westminster College, etc.</p>
<p>As far as the “name” LAC’s go, quite a few give large merit scholarships, but they seem to be awarded on a competitive process rather than automatic criteria.</p>
<p>Minnesota-Morris is a public LAC (1952 students) with a full tuition NMSF scholarship.</p>
<p>University of Minnesota – Morris
NMF Award: Full Tuition
[University</a> of Minnesota Morris | Admissions | Scholarships, Costs & Financial Aid | Scholarships | Automatic Academic Scholarships](<a href=“http://admissions.morris.umn.edu/costsaid/scholarships/automatic/]University”>http://admissions.morris.umn.edu/costsaid/scholarships/automatic/)</p>
<p>Notification of NMSF status is done through the high schools. High schools appear to receive notice in the last week of August. Some notify their awardees immediately and others take a while. Some even interpret–incorrectly–the mid-September “embargo date” against releasing news publicly as a proscription against notifications of any sort until after the embargo date.</p>