I’m a junior from Mississippi. I go to one of our better high schools in our state. I’m ranked in the top 25% of my 500 person class, I’m captain of the QuizBowl team, Producer of the school news show, a member of the marching band and the chess club, and a member of the 30+ club.
My ACT score is 32. I have not and probably won’t take the SAT. My GPA is around 3.7-3.75.
I am looking to attend college outside of Mississippi. I would like a major school (a la SEC or at least something with major athletic programs and just the overall college experience). Some schools I’ve considered are Auburn, Florida State, and Arkansas. However, I must receive full tuition from scholarships from the university to be able to attend. With this in mind, I’m asking for your help! I am planning to major in marketing or advertising. I need to find a school that will be able to give me the full college experience and be fun and enjoyable while still giving me at least full tuition, including the out of state portion and the balance of tuition.
Please give me suggestions of schools to look into. I’m starting to stress and I’d really like to find a couple of schools I’m comfortable with and know I can afford to attend, and seriously delve into what they have to offer.
I can’t tell from your post if you are eligible for need based aid or not. If you really feel strongly about getting out of Mississippi, you may be able to get into some schools that meet financial need, but they aren’t going to be SEC-type schools. Maybe Northwestern or USC? They are reaches, but your geographic diversity might give you a small admissions boost for those. Both have DI sports. Run the net price calculators on both (on the college website) to see what your costs might be.
Ohio State gives merit to OOS students, but I’m not sure of the amounts.
Note that the school super-scores for admission AND merit aid. If you can get a a 33 or a super-score 33 you’d be on the top line and eligible for a 1/2 to full tuition scholarship (not guaranteed). Note also that the deadline to apply and be considered for merit aid is Dec. 1. This is true of some other schools as well.
As noted above, lots of private schools claim to meet full financial need, although there might be reasons this is not precisely the case, for example a school calculates a student can pay $15k per year and the student can only pay $8k per year. Still, this is a great place to start.
You can google “colleges that meet full financial need.” The lists you see will include many of the most competitive schools, but also some excellent schools that are more accessible. Good luck!
What about UAlabama? You’d need a 33 for automatic near full tuition.
tOSu, Temple, Miami-Ohio, UMN-Twin Cities, UKentucky, Montana State…? (when invitation isn’t automatic, always apply to Honors college).
If your family has financial need (ie., makes 150K a year or less) then you can apply to “meet need colleges”.
Just want to confirm that a full tuition scholarship still requires you to pay $12-15k per year. Sometimes people confuse full cost of attendance with full tuition.
5 is a good point. A full tuition scholarship would not cover room and board. It would, though, drop the cost down low enough that a campus job 10-15 hours a week could cover a decent % of room and board, even without need-based aid on top of the scholarship.
In contrast, if you were accepted to a school that claims to meet full financial need, and the school did indeed do so, then the financial aid would include room and board, and sometimes transportation costs as well.
With a 3.7 GPA and 32 ACT, you’re eligible for a 100% tuition scholarship at University of Alabama-Huntsville. https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships. That does not include housing, meal plan, books, etc. It’s just for tuition and does not include academic fees.
BUT UAH does not have a football team. So if, for you, “overall college experience” = going to big football games, then don’t go to UAH.
What does “the overall college experience” mean for you?
You might do better with need-based aid at a well-endowed private school. Your stats are good, but full-ride merit is hard to come by. For colleges with big-time sports for which your stats are solid, check out SMU, Baylor, TCU, and Wake Forest. Vanderbilt and Duke would be reaches.
Check out Florida International University…if your weighted gpa can make it up to 4.0 (they will compute it by their own formula–adding points for honors and AP classes), you might qualify for a full tuition scholarship.
Indiana University (Kelley) should be at the top of your list. IU is a Big Ten school. Kelley is a top ten business school in the country and IU provides merit aid to people with your scores. It also has a beautiful campus in a great college town. You would be making a huge mistake in considering a Southeast Conference (state - taking Vandy out of conversation) school over a Big Ten school like Indiana. I am not a fan of choosing universities by sports programs and IU can’t compete with Auburn or Arkansas on Saturdays in the fall, but during the school week and for your future, it blows those schools away.
@frozencustard You lost credibility with the statement “A huge mistake in considering a Southeast Conference school over a Big Ten school.” There are many good business schools in the SEC. More importantly, IU won’t come close to offering a full tuition scholarship, so it doesn’t even meet the OP’s requirements.
IU does have excellent scholarships but they’re competitive and must be applied for early in the Fall term. High test scores are a minimum expectation.
Op needs to explain what his/her etc is, and what his parents can/will pay.
For an out of state student, max scholarships (outside of the competitive full rides) won’t total OOS tuition. My D maxed out last year, and before getting the full ride, still would have had to pay much more than room and board. If OP says he needs full tuition, why suggest schools that don’t meet that request? It’s one of the reasons why threads get derailed regularly on CC.
OP, my D had some of your same requirements last year (big football + good business). There are many schools that offer both, but very, very few that guarantee full tuition based on stats. There are quite a few that offer full tuition - full ride, but they are extremely competitive (think low single digit chances). And a 32 and 3.7 are unlikely to land one of those scholarships. Ole Miss is likely your best bet for a big football public school. Bama is also an option if you can get your ACT up, but I wouldn’t pay more for Bama (and you would have to) over Ole Miss - they are comparable schools. If your EFC is around the cost of room and board, then NU and USC are worth a shot. If you relax the football requirement, then Temple is worth a shot. But that’s about it. I’ll look at my list, however, and see if there is anything else.
Take a look at tOSU Morrill. It’s a diversity scholarship that anyone can win if they can show that they have championed diversity in high school. That didn’t jump out at me from your post, but still take a look.