A few years ago students from our HS were accepted to schools like Vanderbilt… with huge merit. Fast forward to the present and the same type of kid is now waitlisted. These awards and acceptances seem to get harder each year at certain high schools.
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I thought CA has some ELC guarantee for top of the class. Seem to remember it gave guarantees to certain local UCs, but these danged things change all of the time. I know UT and TX directional shave some sure goodies for top o’ the class.
There are states where the valedictorian or top whatever % get guaranteed entry to flagship or other state schools, sometimes with guaranteed $s. My state gives no such guarantee though if you get into a state school STEM program and are in the top 10% of your class, tuition is paid. My son also was in a situation where he was guaranteed entry to a school with at least a certain dollar amount of money as top 10% and was told early on, when he got his application in, that he would have full tuition paid there. So, his safeties were reasonably covered especially because he applied early and got everything on the table.
Also if NMF, there are some reasonably sure options. OP’s son is also not needing a full ride. There is money in the picture, and that is flexible too, depending on how loose the pursestrings lie.
I’m sure OP’s son will have options at the end of this season. He’ll be going for some lottery ticket chances, yes , but his base is a likely a strong one He can afford state school costs and has strong flagship.
@cptofthehouse UT Austin is top 6% and all other TX state schools are top 10% for autoamitts status. All Teas Vals get free tuition at any state school for their first year provided by the state.
UT Austin gives very little merit to freshmen but I know friends kids have had luck in later years getting some deparmental funds depending on major and how well they do. Doesn’t sound like finances would be a problem for UT Austin, just make sure the application is turned in on time. I’m pretty sure the Apply Texas App goes live August 1st so there’s time to work on reach applications after a sure thing is in hand.
The OP says “full ride” not “free tuition”.
But his other posts make it sound like he can afford $30,000 a year himself…so a flagship U in most states won’t be that costly for just room and board…if his son gets a guaranteed full tuition award.
Beside Alabama, what flagships give guaranteed full rides to NMS?
Univ of Idaho gives guaranteed NMF full ride scholarships (need to select Idaho as first choice institution) https://www.uidaho.edu/financial-aid/scholarships/undergraduate/hs-non-resident
Ole Miss (must select as first choice institution, need 3.0+ GPA, I think this applies to non-residents too) https://finaid.olemiss.edu/scholarships/#8
U New Mexico - National Merit plus Amigo equals full ride (or close to it) http://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html
Expanding to non-flagships increases the list
@thumper1 off - Florida, Mississippi, Idaho - Texas has some great schools that give full rides TAMU, UT Dallas, Texas Tech - but not UT Austin
@thumper1 - FL expanded their state sponsored full ride NMF awards to OOS students. So UF, FSU, and UCF in addition to some of the smaller state schools.
@3scoutsmom TAMU, UT Dallas, Texas Tech…are those guaranteed full rides? Very good choices if so.
And the Florida colleges as well.
Wondering what colleges private or public in the 30-100 ranking give guaranteed merit awards? And hoping the OP is considering some of these too.
@mountainmomof3 I thought NMF OOS UF did not qualify for full ride because they can’t get Bright Futures? I must be reading these wrong?
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/factsheets/FIS.pdf
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/FactSheets/BF.pdf
@Mwfan1921 - yes it is a full ride. The OOS NMF students are given an OOS tuition waiver I believe. How ever it works out, S19 was admitted to both UF and UCF as an NMF and scholarship is a full ride plus as outlined to us by both schools. Interestingly enough, he preferred Alabama to both but in the end was awarded a full ride plus as a Dupont Distinguished Scholar at UDel - a sentimental favorite for him and a program with perks that are hard to pass up.
@thumper1 yes, UT Dallas and Texas Tech are guaranteed full rides, TT is even a “true full ride” as it covers transportation and a stipend for other expenses beyond R&B and books. TAMU is isn’t guaranteed, they piece together several different scholarships to come up with their NM package but the NM kids I know all ended up with full rides.
UT Dallas might be $100 or so short a year depending on the food plan you pick and books the first year but after that you can get away from the food plan and bank money, you’ll also have extra funds if you can commute from home. But freshman dorms are very nice! There are other nice perks like $6K for semester aboard and auto admit to the honors program. My DS is using the $6K to study in Korea this summer.
Unfortunately OP has made it clear on other threads that they have no interest in schools with big $$ NM because they don’t want to go to lower ranking schools or school that use merit money to “buy” high stats kids. Thankfully they seem open to their state flagship which is affordable to them and student will be an auto admit.
My advice is to get that application in to the state flagship ASAP and then apply to the reaches but be VERY clear with the student about what the budget is. Nothing worse than spending the time and effort applying to a reach, getting in and then learning that it’s not affordable!
Most kids getting into these schools will investigate merit scholarships specific to the school. Also many kids at these schools receive scholarships related to their field and achievements. The thing is, you have to do the work and apply.
If you have a specific budget, why not apply to the schools of interest, have many safeties and see where the chips fall? A scholarship could make the difference.
Full ride at top name schools very difficult to get. Getting in is a challenge. But getting the cost down to $30-40k a year is eminently doable with top of the line stats. You can cover most all state schools with that budget.
Not all state schools get down to $30k for OOS students. Not Michigan, not UVA, not Wisconsin, not UT Austin, not William and Mary, not any UC school.
If the top state school being considered as a safety is UT Austin, be careful. You will have auto admittance to the school if you are in the top 6% but not to your major. I have seen many kids with top stats not get accepted into engineering and CS. If that is your school and either of those majors are being consider do not consider UT to be a safety.
Not OOS schools. In state for the student.
GTAustin, how does that work if a student in the top 6% and autoadmitted to UTAustin? Do they have to make several choices in schools within the university upon application , or just apply to school of choice and get automatically diverted to School if Liberal Arts?
At UT, when you apply, you do list your top 2 choices for major. You might get either one of those or neither. If you are not placed in a major, they will allow you to enroll late in the admission process to any open majors. COLA is a choice. Normally, all engineering, CS, business, economics, math are all full. It is a disappointing process for many of the students.
@GTAustin DS is top 1% class rank in an academically rigorous school and has very high standardized scores to validate his GPA so this is not an issue for him.
@riversider those are great stats but I’d caution you not to count those chickens too soon. Do you have ranks for the end of Junior year already?
There was a big upset with the class of 2018 at our school. The person that thought she would be Val didn’t realize that senior year grades counted toward final rank.
Our school recognizes the kids in the top ten spots too. They have a rule that you have to take at least 4 unweighted classes and at least 3 have to be taken before senior year. Kids that chase rank always leave one unweighted class for senior year but my DS was not concerned with rank and took all four classes unweighted class early on and Senior year took all AP weighted classes so he managed make it into on of the top ten spots. The GCs told the students rank does really change much from Junior to Senior but that year it was a huge upset.
Per our course book “For the purposes of determining the weighted academic class rank, grades through the third nine-week period of the senior year will be used” and “All students shall be required to take a minimum of four non-weighted courses during high school to be used in the calculation for class rank and the top ten percent. A student MUST complete three of the four required non-weighted courses prior to the beginning of his or her senior year.”
Just curious, does your school have a requirement for a minimum number of unweighted classes too? I wonder how common this is.