<p>My Daughter has a 4.6 GPA/4.0 scale with a 32 ACT score. She has also done a lot of extracurricular activities and volunteering outside of school. She is looking to go into nursing and is looking at Purdue and Michigan. How likely is she to get Merit money from these two schools?</p>
<p>Both these schools offer good merit aid and her credentials are excellent. If her ACT were a bit higher she would be a sure bet. Most of the merit aid is listed on the school website. Purdue’s Beering scholarship is the best deal but very competitive [Purdue</a> Newsroom - 4 Purdue students receive full ride with graduate school option](<a href=“http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/students/2011/110613BrownBeering.html]Purdue”>4 Purdue students receive full ride with graduate school option)</p>
<p>Michigan is very stingy with merit aid. My son in an incoming freshman, and at orientation we were told that of the incoming 6,500 freshmen, only about 750 received any sort of merit aid. Thankfully my son was one of them, securing a nice engineering scholarship, but he has a ACT of 36, over a 4., and a NMF. The valedictorian from our HS the previous year had almost identical stats as my son, except a 35 on the ACT. The only thing he received was the $1500 one-year Regents scholarship, which is given to all Michigan residents. I would suggest she try for a higher ACT to increase her chances. It’s not impossible, but you should have realistic expectations. I have no experience with Purdue… Michigan was in-state for us, so it was a no-brainer.</p>
<p>I attended Purdue a dozen years ago and have a few friends who have kids there - Let’s just say it is not very generous despite what they publish - the difference between IS and OOS tuition is also pretty significant…</p>
<p>At Purdue she’d get about $9-10k…at UMich, she’d likely get nothing. UMich tends to give its merit to higher ACT scores.</p>
<p>What state is she in?</p>
<p>This is experience from 4 years ago; am in-state for Purdue. S1 had great stats. I was very under-impressed with Purdue’s financial/merit aid. This state rambles on about our brain-drain and wanting to keep good kids in state, but they don’t put their money where their mouth is.</p>
<p>Also, as time went on, he rec’d several different f/a awards from Purdue, all without us requesting or doing anything different, or changing stats or income. The awards were more each time, but the experience left a sour taste for me. Who wants to wait along, seeing <em>if</em> they are going to give more and ultimately reach that of other schools.</p>
<p>She is in Illinois. So no in-state tuition.</p>
<p>My D had similar stats to those of your daughter’s. She received a substanial scholarship from Purdue… enough so that as an out of state student at Purdue her cost of attending would be about $10,000 less than as an in state student at UIUC. Engineering major though.</p>
<p>Check out IUPUI for nursing. They have auto-merit for OOS students and the nursing school is ranked higher on many reports. The campus is houses the IU medical centers, etc so lots of hands on opportunities.</p>
<p>[Admission-Based</a> Scholarships for Non-Resident Students : Scholarship Central : IUPUI](<a href=“IUPUI”>IUPUI)</p>
<p>*My D had similar stats to those of your daughter’s. She received a substanial scholarship from Purdue… enough so that as an out of state student at Purdue her cost of attending would be about $10,000 less than as an in state student at UIUC. Engineering major though. *</p>
<p>Yes…an engineering major would probably get more money…scholarships from the College of Engineering…especially being a female. </p>
<p>Alabama has a very good College of Nursing…brand new state of the art facilities and your D would get the Presidential scholarship of free tuition…remaining costs would be about $10-12k depending on dorm/meal choice.</p>
<p>Presidential Scholar</p>
<p>An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of out-of-state tuition for four years. </p>
<p>The Capstone College of Nursing students have a 99% pass rate on the national exam.</p>
<p>[Capstone</a> College of Nursing - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://nursing.ua.edu/]Capstone”>http://nursing.ua.edu/)</p>
<p>Bama has a lot of students from Illinois.</p>
<p>Michigan State has some decent merit awards such as their Alumni distinguished scholarships and distinguished freshman scholarships. My D won one of the latter, full tuition for 4 years (she went elsewhere…). They even paid for her to fly to MSU for the competition. </p>
<p>For kids with stats line yours, they also have the Honors College National Scholarship:
“Awarded to out-of-state Honors College invitees who are U.S. citizens or permanent aliens, or citizens of Canada or Mexico; $8,000 annually for eight semesters**. To be automatically invited to the Honors College, applicants must be in the top 5 percent of their graduating class and have an ACT composite score of 30 or above or SAT combined score (critical reading and math) of 1360 or above.” </p>
<p>See their website: [Academic</a> Merit Scholarships | Michigan State University Office of Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.msu.edu/finances/scholarships_merit.asp]Academic”>http://admissions.msu.edu/finances/scholarships_merit.asp)</p>
<p>Ohio State should also have some good scholarship $ for those stats.</p>
<p>I am not so sure about OSU giving good scholarship money for those stats. 4 of my DD’s friends are going to OSU. All 4 have a similar stats including a 32 ACT and 2 had higher. The most they received in terms of merit aid (not financial aid) is $1500 each. At least one of them is in the honors college. All 4 are in state, so I don’t know if out of state makes a difference.</p>
<p>I do not know about Purdue, my D. did not apply to Michigan because it is known for not giving good Merit packages. Our estimate was zero. My D. got Merit scholarships at every UG that she applied. She was on full tuition+ Merit schoalrships for all 4 years at her UG, which allowed us to pay for her Med. School which she just started. OSU gave her some Merit award but not much. Michigan State’s awarded her IS tuition along with some other perks. We are in OH.</p>
<p>Is anyone familiar with the “equalizer” I think it’s called? According to a friend of mine, Indiana and Purdue will give automatic money to (at least) Illinois residents with certain ACT scores, and even give “in-state” tuition to OOSers who have higher scores than that. I’ve never seen anything about it but she was pretty adamant.</p>
<p>Also know there’s something at Minnesota that OOS kids can qualify for at least in-state tuition.</p>