Looking for a top college that offers merit aid?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I recently did a check of the Common Data Sets for the colleges in the USNWR Top 50 national universities and discovered a lot of information about the merit aid actions of many colleges. Below is the list of the colleges that acknowledge the use of merit aid and provide the data behind their actions. I know that there are additional colleges that also provide merit aid, but I don’t have their specific detail. If anyone does and can provide a link, then please do so. Thanks.</p>

<h1>of freshmen receiving Merit Aid , % of incoming freshmen receiving merit award , Average Merit Award , College</h1>

<p>3814 , 57% , $ 5,598 , U Florida
2127 , 42% , $ 5,498 , U Michigan
1337 , 19% , $ 2,796 , U Illinois
1253 , 22% , $ 2,910 , U Wisconsin (06-07)
1250 , 17% , na , U Texas
754 , 20% , $ 4,119 , U North Carolina
454 , 11% , $ 3,820 , UC Davis
452 , 6% , $ 3,311 , Penn State
424 , 13% , $ 8,370 , U Virginia
397 , 31% , $ 12,214 , Rensselaer
386 , 8% , $ 6,930 , NYU (06-07)
274 , 6% , $ 4,054 , UCLA
262 , 16% , $ 13,012 , Emory (06-07)
252 , 6% , $ 4,030 , UC Berkeley
236 , 9% , $ 3,339 , Georgia Tech
236 , 21% , $ 19,409 , Case Western
200 , 4% , $ 3,200 , U Washington
154 , 4% , $ 6,985 , UC Irvine (03-04)
112 , 8% , $ 9,687 , Carnegie Mellon
98 , 2% , $ 7,275 , UCSD
95 , 8% , $ 10,799 , Lehigh
94 , 5% , $ 2,417 , Northwestern (06-07)
83 , 2% , $ 6,491 , UC Santa Barbara
67 , 4% , $ 3,177 , Stanford
22 , 2% , $ 5,854 , W&M
na , na , $ 12,879 , Vanderbilt
5 , 0% , $ - , Dartmouth
0 , 0% , $ - , Princeton
0 , 0% , $ - , Yale
0 , 0% , $ - , MIT
0 , 0% , $ - , Cornell
0 , 0% , $ - , Brown</p>

<pre><code> No CDS , Harvard
No CDS , U Penn
No CDS , Caltech
No CDS , Duke
No CDS , Columbia
No CDS , U Chicago
No CDS , Wash U
No CDS , Johns Hopkins
No CDS , Rice
No CDS , Notre Dame
No CDS , Georgetown
No CDS , USC
No CDS , Tufts
No CDS , Wake Forest
No CDS , Brandeis
No CDS , U Rochester
No CDS , Boston College
No CDS , Syracuse
No CDS , Tulane
</code></pre>

2

<p>For those who are considering applying to U of Florida from out-of-state, keep in mind that the reason it tops the list is because they're including a scholarship that Florida residents receive for staying in-state.</p>

3

<p>Go to the Financial Aid forum, and you'll see a couple of sticky threads on colleges which give good merit money.</p>

4

<p>Again -- watch out for instate/OOS. I'm pretty sure the majority of the UMich merit money goes to instate students.</p>

5

<p>The list is misleading in that it contains a number of state schools. YOUR state school may be the best source for merit money, but when you apply OOS, it is not necessarily your best bet. I know kids who did not get anything from some of these schools, and they got into ivies. Though there are some wonderful out of state awards from some of those, they are highly, highly selective.<br>
Also one of the great sources of wonderful merit awards is Tulane. I know many kids who got generous merit grants from them without such selective stats, and it does not seem that data is reflected.</p>

6

<p>The data is directly from the CDS and no distinction is made therein about the IS vs OOS awards, but I think that this is a very real issue for the public universities. </p>

<p>As for Tulane, I think that they suspended some of their reporting due to the Katrina problem. I agree that they are a prolific awarder of merit aid and should be considered by any student in search of a potentially large award.</p>

7

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/211927-institutional-merit-based-scholarships-full-tuition.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/211927-institutional-merit-based-scholarships-full-tuition.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

<p>I also suggest that folks go to the FA and Scholarship forum or use the threads that ta has provided. This list is very misleading and incomplete. For instance, Staford giving merit aid....only for athletes.</p>