<p>(This is not for me...I'm just helping someone out under my username)</p>
<p>Stats: </p>
<p>Class of 2011</p>
<p>Rank 1 out of 400 (tied with a few others but everyone tied at #1 is considered "valedictorian" at this district)</p>
<p>SAT: Reading: 800, Math: 690, Writing 690 </p>
<p>Will be captain of drill team (currently a junior officer), member of Student Council, and a few other community organizations that do a little volunteering.</p>
<p>Overall, looking for a university in Texas (or close) that gives out good scholarships. Money is a huge part in the decision so I just wanted to see if there are school in this area that give out good awards to top students (full rides or w/e). </p>
<p>I know UT-Austin is the one that will probably be thrown out first but I know that they don't award merit scholarships to most students so its pretty much crossed off the list.</p>
<p>She doesn't know what major yet so not really looking for anything major specific. Thanks!</p>
<p>Rice offers merit scholarships to 30% of the incoming freshman class that range from $1000 National Merit to full tuition. However, Rice is also a top 20 school, so these are quite competitive to get. However, your friend has a shot at getting one as long as she distinguishes herself and shows a dedication to a certain passion.</p>
<p>Your friend should look into Trinity University in San Antonio or SMU.</p>
<p>LOL, at first I thought maybe I knew the OP (drill team mom here), but then when I saw the perfect reading SAT, I don’t think so!</p>
<p>Anyway, with lesser stats (great SATs but only top 20%) my son got offers of between $18,000 and $21,500 per year at:</p>
<p>Southwestern U
Austin College
Oklahoma City U</p>
<p>Offers of between $12,000 and $14,000 per year at:</p>
<p>Baylor
Trinity
Tulsa
St. Edwards</p>
<p>If your D is not a NMSF, her best offers probably won’t come from schools like Tulsa or Oklahoma that give free rides to NMFs. (Schools only have so much money to give out, so they can’t give big bucks to everryone.) </p>
<p>TCU also gives out serious money to top of the class kids.</p>
<p>Also, schools like Southwestern have a few free rides that kids in the top 5% of the class compete for.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thats a lot of help! Thanks.</p>
<p>If money is a big factor, try the University of Texas at Dallas. I haven’t done any in-dept research of the school myself (too close to home for comfort), but from what I can gather, they are very generous with aid and don’t subtract any outside scholarships from financial aid.</p>
<p>I second Southwestern, you would probably get at least $19,000 per year with your stats, and any of their other scholarships you’d qualify for. Check out their website - they have a refreshingly straightforward page for scholarships that lets you get a good estimate of how much you’d get from them.</p>
<p>Outside of Texas, there’s Hendrix (in Arkansas) and Tulane (Louisiana). Still pretty close, and both are known for good merit aid. Tulane offers a full tuition Dean’s Honor Scholarship, which is pretty competitive. I think you would at least qualify for their Presidential Scholars Award, which is $24,000 per year, I believe. Hendrix also has a good amount of scholarships you would be competitive for.</p>
<p>I basically just gave you over half of my college list 
I’m slightly scared now, since we’re graduating in the same year. Tough competition. Ha, good luck!</p>
<p>I’ll be sure to look into these schools. Never really thought about most of these, so I’m really happy with the response I received from everyone so far.</p>
<p>Baylor has a fin aid calculator on website that gives you an instant answer. UTD has a list of website. U of H has automatic scholarships for people with your stats, and still has many open spaces with those scholarships…see admissions website for each of the above.</p>
<p>kb, one thing additional thing occurred to me this morning that is important to understand in the search for merit money: Some schools use the student’s weighted GPA while others use unweighted while others throw out courses and compute only on core classes. The method the school uses is rarely on the web site - you pretty much have to ask the question directly.</p>
<p>Here’s what we found:</p>
<p>Trinity - uses unweighted GPA only
Southwestern - uses weighted GPA only
Oklahoma City U - uses weighted for admissions and unweighted for merit aid decisions</p>
<p>You can see how a student with all As in unweighted courses could end up with a better merit offer from Trinity than a student with Bs in weighted courses.</p>
<p>wow, i never even thought about that. thanks for the info.</p>