Merit-Based Financial Aid from Colleges

As a student who will most likely be facing student loans from tuition costs, are there any colleges/universities known for their merit-based financial aid packages? (in addition to the full ride/ full tuition options I have seen) For example, if they are viewing your application (from a school that does not have the full ride/tuition for grades and GPA), will they offer scholarships to exceptional students?

Also, if you have any experience with the merit-based financial aid from a college, can you give some information about how you felt about the process and your experience?

If you get into an institution that you may like with moderate costs, but also one that you may like slightly less with a large scholarship, which is the better choice?

Thanks!

Merit based aid is almost always based on grades and test scores. Some schools also have a need component to the merit scholarship, as do some of the big outside merit awards (Questbridge).

Some schools have separate applications for merit scholarships while others just award it based on the application (and gpa and scores)

You would need to check each school’s FA site to see what is available. I know Ohio public Us have a calculator to tell you what merit aid you would be offered (based on GPA and scores).

Baylor has a separate scholarship calculator as well (don’t need to enter financial data). But basically, if the NPC asks for academic stats, it should spit out what the estimated “automatic” merit component of a future aid package would be for a student with that profile. And really, you may as well know now what the need-based portion (if any) would be as well. Best to have full data.

When I ran the NPC in the fall 2016 application season for the private college my son ultimately ended up at, it estimated a merit-based scholarship of $14K. His actual package for fall 2017 had a merit scholarship of $20K. Interestingly, his actual stats ended up slightly lower than the projected stats I had put in the NPC (his fall ACT/SAT results were not in yet; he ended up not improving his scores as I had projected), but presumably he stayed in the same tier as far as the college was concerned, and then their scholarship budget went up year-over-year (of course the tuition and all other elements of the COA went up too). Another quirk is that when this estimate was spit out in 2016, it said “2015” on it so the college may have been even an additional year behind in plugging in updated data. Anyway I am just one data point but in my case the NPC was basically accurate (and actually an underestimate) for both the “automatic” merit portion and the need-based portion.

When you talk about the merit-based “process,” it sounds like you also might be referring to the interviews, scholarship weekends, etc., that some schools (e.g. Miami Fla.) make applicants go through for “nonautomatic”/competitive merit scholarships? No direct experience with this so I will let others chime in. I do know from friends’ experiences that there can be multiple interviews and group sessions where everything is observed and is fair game for evaluation. Sounds a bit like The Bachelor to me but it is what it is. At least everybody is in the same boat.

As for your last question, first, always compare apples to apples based on net cost after scholarships and grants. In the end, a scholarship/grant is just an intermediate variable - a discount off a sticker price. Compare the bottom lines. And then the question really becomes, can you justify paying (or asking your parents to pay) $X more for school A over school B.

When I was a kid, I personally was lucky in that I got rejected by my “dream” (and very expensive) school, and that my legit #2 choice was fully half the cost of the other schools I got admitted to. So, a no-brainer and a win-win for me and my parents. But had I gotten into my dream school, I admit it would have been very hard at 17 to let go of that but I also know now, looking back, that it would not have been worth double the cost to my parents. The two schools were similar in most respects, it’s just that the dream school was 10 spots higher in USNWR and was in a nicer locale, which of course were huge to my 17-year-old self. But I can absolutely say now, 30 years later, that my life would not be substantively different had I gone to the dream school.

I know I am a parent talking here but I do think in most cases it will end up “feeling better” to choose the least-costly-to-your-parent(s) option that you can still be happy with. There is a lot of peace of mind in choosing to do something that your parent(s) will really appreciate even if it requires some sacrifice on your part, like passing on a dream school/reach admit that is significantly more expensive than other options that you still like. Not saying to slavishly exalt cost over all other variables and go to a school you just don’t feel would be a fit. Again speaking as a parent, I would never want my kid to be miserable just to save me some money, even a lot of money. But I do want them to see their decision as an important one that impacts and involves all of us as a family.

Baylor has a separate scholarship calculator as well (no need to enter financial data). But otherwise, if the NPC asks for academic stats, then it should spit out an estimate of the “automatic” merit-based portion of an estimated future aid package for a student with that profile. And you may as well have an idea of the need-based (if any) portion too.

When I ran the NPC in the fall 2016 application season for the private college my son ultimately ended up at, it predicted a merit-based scholarship of $14K. His actual package offered in the spring of 2017 had a $20K merit scholarship. Interestingly, his actual stats were slightly lower than the projected stats I had entered (his fall ACT/SAT scores were not yet in and he ended up not improving). But presumably he stayed in the same tier as far as the college was concerned, and then their scholarship budgets and amounts went up year-over-year (of course, the tuition and all other COA elements went up as well). Another quirk is that when I ran the NPC in 2016 the estimate it generated said “2015” on it so the college may have been an additional year behind at that time in updating its NPC code. Anyway I am just one data point but in my case the NPC was an accurate predictor (and actually an underestimate) of both the automatic merit and need-based aid that was ultimately offered.

There are also merit scholarships with other non need components. Some schools have a scholarship profile check list for you to fill up so that can use that info to match.

We were surprised at the merit aid my D got without trying, just a result of applying for admission.

She applied to one scholarship that required a separate application and was denied, but she got an equally good package from that same school.

In general, you will see more generous awards at slightly less well known schools, and schools in slightly more out of the way locations such as the Midwest. Those schools often use merit aid to attract desirable students who might otherwise choose a big name school on the east or west coast.

Yep, there are lots of schools in the Midwest with automatic merit. What part of the country are you in? What are your stats? University of Nebraska-Kearney gives full tuition even to non-residents with a 29 ACT and a certain GPA- I forget the SAT figure. Southeast Missouri State starts full tuition for non-residents at a 27 and 3.6. There are others. I just started looking for a Wikipedia list of schools in each state, then going to their websites to look at COA and auto merit.

???
Tell us more. To a college, “exceptional students” generally mean students with high test scores and high GPAs.

What are your stats?

How much will your family pay each year?

What do you need your net costs to be?

What is your major and career goal?

What is your home state?

Thanks to all who responded!

@bjscheel @mom2collegekids
Live in Virginia
Yet to take SAT, but PSAT of 1490 (hoping for National Merit)
GPA: 4.42 w, 4.0 unweighted
Not sure about major/career yet
As for net cost, I am not sure if I will receive any need-based aid (and if any, not much)

Aside from GPA and scores, I was wondering about extracurricular activities and the considerations of those in awarding merit scholarships. (For example I have several leadership positions in the school/community)

@potatoepotatoe Be aware that YOU, yourself, can only take $5500 Freshmen year, $6500 Sophomore, $7500 Junior, Senior year in Stafford loans. That is the maximum recommended debt of 28k.

Most top 30 universities give no merit aid at all. A few give a limited amount to merit aid to the top 1% or so.

Merit is rarely given for having held leadership positions in high school.

What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay each year for college

@potatoepotatoe You sound like a wonderfully accomplished student, and you should be able to find a school that will award you merit scholarships. However, I also suspect they are going to be schools that you posted as “the ones you have seen listed” (assuming you have read the FA forum here and gone through the lists of schools offering merit $$.)

My current college kids (one a sr and one a freshman) are both attending on scholarships (one on full scholarship and the other’s is very close to it.) They both also attend schools known for large merit awards. One received multiple stacking scholarships on top of an automatic guaranteed admission scholarship bc of additional honors awards and dept scholarships. The other received one of 20 extremely competitive scholarships. Both were awarded numerous other competitive scholarships, but these schools were their most affordable options.

Both of them had more than test scores and GPAs. As you narrow your list of schools to apply to, you need to be brutally honest in assessing your personal profile compared to the national and international pool of applicants. Read the profiles of students awarded the scholarships in the past. (Look for the profiles of Jefferson, Parks, Robertson, Banner Key, Wells, etc awardees.) Look at the test scores of students being awarded scholarships like the Cornelius.

As you make your list, keep in mind that there will be applicants who have national and international level awards, high level research projects, experiences that differentiate them from students with school/local community service awards. There are students out there with jaw dropping achievements. They are the other competitors for those really high level, top school, competitive awards.

These apps are going to consume hours upon hours if you do them well. You need to pick your options carefully AND have automatic guaranteed schools that you would be happy to attend as your most likely real option.

Fwiw, I can share that my kids, even with international level awards, did not consider applying to a lot of competitive scholarships. Why? When they evaluated themselves compared to the award focus or former winners, they saw area weaknesses that made them feel their odds were too small. They wanted to focus on the scholarship apps they felt were better matches bc they wanted to be able to put in enough time to make their app the best possible.

Also investigate the requirements for maintaining the scholarship. My kids thought some were too stringent to be their only feasible way for attending. (they didn’t want any scholarship that required higher than a 3.0ish to maintain. Some scholarships require a 3.4 or as high as a 3.7 to keep.)

Here is an additional list that you might find useful. It is hard to navigate, though. I did find it helpful, but I also found it extremely clunky and it took a lot of effort to use. It is not free ($8). https://www.mykidscollegechoice.com/full-scholarship-list/

Since you are concerned about costs and trying to avoid loans as much as possible, here are a few initial guidelines based on our experience:
1. The most popular colleges offer few or no merit aid scholarships, and have a higher cost of attendance.
2. Focus your search away from coastal states and coastal metro. centers. Schools in the center of the country generally have larger and more merit aid awards, and a lower cost of attendance, partly because the overall cost of living is so much lower.

I am going to disagree with @Marigrow’s #2. SC and AL are both coastal states with great scholarships. College of Charleston has great scholarships. FL might be increasing their OOS NMF scholarships to cover full tuition. I think a couple already cover that and possibly more.

NE and CA, otoh, yes, I agree.

I think leadership positions held in HS are in fact part of the holistic evaluation for most merit awards.

It is nice to have an automatic award in your pocket early in your senior year. Univ of New Mexico, and I think others in NM and AZ, have a nearly automatic award in several levels depending on stats. You have to apply early before money runs out (Aug or Sept as you begin senior year). A reasonably good student, based solely on stats, can attend for under $20,000 total per year - yes that includes room and board as well as tuition and fees!

Awards don’t have to be fully automatic to be easily attainable by good students. The merit awards I mentioned for my D were from liberal arts colleges and one U like UNM. Two of the LACs were midwestern, one was in a very desirable West Coast location but was a smaller award.

As far as maybe ending up not at your first choice, study abroad can help fill that need. Also many schools have programs where you can spend a semester or year at another US institution, often at the same cost. Or there may be Jan. or May terms with all kinds of interesting excursions.