<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>[cross-posted on National Merit Financial Aid Thread]</p>
<p>For families like yours, it is important to cast a wide net. Look at some of the state schools that are LACs like Geneseo in New York and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. </p>
<p>Your student, if he/ she is a rising senior should be starting to get some mail. I do not think that every single college that gives money to NMFs sends mail to every one. I remember my daughter getting mail from some of the big state schools like Arizona State and Texas A& M. I do not remember a flood of mail from full scholarship programs.</p>
<p>Often, those students who are NMF have stats that qualify them for other scholarships, as you know. This site is a great place to start. I wish I had known about it earlier in the process.</p>
<p>The way I see it, a good enough student will get significant merit/grant money from a college with adequate endowment. 10K to 20K of “debt” which the student can make up for by part time jobs and low interest loans will not interfere with life especially if the debt is spread out over 10 years or so. Of course, this all depends on the capabilities of the student in maintaining grades.</p>
<p>How about low cost LACs like University of Minnesota - Morris, Truman State University, SUNY at Geneseo, and University of North Carolina - Asheville?</p>
<p>You might want to check into the FA situation at the University of Rochester. It’s not a LAC, but it is a very good U in that sweet spot of about 4,000 undergraduates with broad academic strengths, and it does give merit awards. I think that there MAY be something for NMFs, although I am not sure.</p>
<p>Trinity College in Hartford offered full tuition merit “Presidential” scholarships as recently as 3 years ago. I don’t know whether they have continued to offer it. There was no special application, the offer came with the admissions decision.</p>
<p>Hobart and William Smith Colleges offered hefty merit scholarships (not full tuition) 10 years ago. </p>
<p>Grinnell College has also offered merit money in the past (in addition to meeting full demonstrated need - in other words, you might not have qualified for aid, but could have been offered merit money).</p>
<p>That’s pretty much the norm for merit schools, isn’t it? That’s why my S had to apply to a range of full need schools and hope to get in to one of them. </p>
<p>UR does give need-based aid too, though. BTW, conventional wisdom has it that they are very big on displayed interest, so arranging an interview with one of the travelling adcoms this fall would be key if you can’t visit.</p>
<p>can’t help you with the LAC question but I do know that both Drexel and Northeastern offer full tuition scholarships to National Merit Finalists. You still have to pay for room and board. Both Drexel and Northeastern have coop programs and the $$ earned during coop can help to defray the room and board. Just thought I’d throw that into the mix, even though it’s not what you asked about.</p>
<p>Fairfield University in Fairfield CT gave my D $26K in merit scholarships and awards. I’m not sure if it’s considered a LAC. Some days I kick myself I didn’t make her go there.</p>
<p>Fordham U in NYC, while not a LAC, is a nice sized school, has small classes, strong humanities offerings and offers most National Merit Semifinalists full tuition scholarships.</p>
<p>“Hobart and William Smith Colleges offered hefty merit scholarships (not full tuition) 10 years ago.”</p>
<p>My son was offered $27K in merit from HWS, but it did require a very short extra essay. St. Lawrence offered him $30K, again with a very short additional essay. </p>
<p>He turned them down to go to Bates, which offers no merit, just need based, but we did, unexpectedly, extremely well with that.</p>
<p>…Geneseo Tuition plus R & B is approx. $27,000 per year for OOS .LAC’s with a lower price tag than UR should get give merit aid that would get price down to this or lower. however I would agree that Geneseo is a better school than most of these. If this example the question the student would have to answer would be…“is UR worth $8,000 more than Geneseo”…we almost had to do this with my D if she hadn’t been accepted to her first choice school!</p>
<p>We knew we wouldn’t get need-based aid. Our S was in line for a 3/4 to full tuition merit scholarship from Goucher, but had already been accepted to Grinnell with their top merit scholarship and decided to accept their offer. Many LACs offer no merit money at all or only $2,000 per year. Sometimes their need-based aid can make the offer doable. Sometimes not.</p>
<p>We had a great visit (for my son) at Southwestern University, a CTCL LAC just north of Austin, Texas. They were very generous with merit aid.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion of Fordham for NMF kids. We had a great visit (for my daughter) at Fordham (Rose Hill campus). One of her best friends went there and loved it.</p>
<p>U. Tulsa is a smaller private school that gives very generous merit aid. NMF’s (and other highly qualified applicants–it is not limited to NMFs) have to apply for the Presidential Scholar Award–which is a full ride. They give about 40 per year. If you don’t get that, they’ll give you full tuition (about 30K per year), leaving room and board to pay (less than 10K).
Hendrix College is a highly regarded LAC that gives very generous merit aid.</p>
<p>The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (a school I just heard of) is a public LAC that gives a full ride to NMFs. (This is not guaranteed to all out-of-state students, but it seems likely that it is given to some–if not most or all–OOS NMFs every year. Wouldn’t hurt to ask their FA office.)</p>