<p>I'm a rising senior and trying to finalize my college list! I'm lucky in that my parents make enough money that we will not qualify for aid, and they will be able to afford full tuition if push came to shove, but I'd like to lessen the burden as much as possible and also potentially save for grad school! So I'm looking into possible merit scholarship options.</p>
<p>My stats:
4.0/4.6, most rigorous courseload, school doesn't rank
1600/2300 SAT
800 Lit/ 790 US history/ 790 Biology M SAT IIs
5s on 4 AP tests
very involved in speech/debate, state/national awards, varsity athlete, 500 community service hours, student council
CA resident</p>
<p>I'm looking for a college with school spirit, ideally in or near a city, I am undecided on major so some flexibility with major considerations is a plus. Currently, I'm searching choices that offer merit scholarships that I'd be competitive for or that I'd be automatically guaranteed. </p>
<p>The Jefferson Scholars program at Virginia and Emory Scholars program both look incredible, but also are unfortunately incredibly difficult to win! I'm also aware that I'd be competitive for a few scholarships at USC (legacy) and automatically guaranteed some at U of Alabama, but any other options/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Also advice on random schools to apply to as matches/safeties would be great!</p>
<p>You look like a good candidate for Washington & Lee’s Johnson Scholarships (not in a city thought) and University of Richmond and Wake Forest merit scholarships, if you are willing to look at smaller schools.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee looks great! And thank you for those thread suggestions, but unfortunately no, I doubt I’ll be a national merit semi-finalist because my PSAT was 218 and I live in CA so I will probably be slightly under the cutoff</p>
<p>Otherwise, go through the links in post #4 for large merit scholarships. Presumably you want large scholarships to bring the price down to significantly below UCs and CSUs, right? Basically, this would mean fairly close to full tuition or more.</p>
<p>University of Miami should give you a good scholarship and it’s located in a very nice part of Miami, though not in downtown. It definitely has school spirit, plus, the climate shouldn’t be too different than California’s. With the major flexibility, I’m not exactly sure but I think that you don’t have to declare until the end of your sophomore year so it should give you some time to choose what you want to do.</p>
<p>Note that UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara have relatively large Regents’ scholarship honorarium amounts for non-needy students ($7,500 and $6,000 respectively). With your high stats, you may be a candidate for the Regents’ scholarship there. That can reduce the in-state cost of attendance to $25,573 at UC Davis, $24,524 at UC Santa Barbara off-campus, or $28,177 at UC Santa Barbara residence halls.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus ideally, yes I’d love a scholarship that would bring tuition to UC level, but as I said my parents can swing full pay so really I’m just looking to cut costs even if it’s only by a couple thousand, since that still adds up over 4 years! And thank you for the information about those UCs, definitely taking a look at all of them as well as U of Miami, looks like a great school with great scholarships!</p>
<p>Northeastern has a Jefferson Scholars equivalent called the University Scholars. I believe they cover study abroad and any research you want to do. Beyond that they are also the highest ranked school what gives full scholarships to National Merit Finalists.</p>