Any thoughts on receiving merit scholarship at these schools: George Washington, Washington University St Louis, Univ Richmond, UPitt Honors, Case Western. My daughter’s stats entering Sr yr are as follows GPA 4.8 (expect 5.0 by graduation), ACT 33 (retaking 1/4 pt from 34), 6 AP classes this year, AP scholar, National Honor, 2 sport athlete, active leadership roles. No financial aid expected.
WashU…no. Wash targets their merit towards poaching students likely accepted to ivies and students that help diversity numbers.
UPitt… maybe a modest one, but not full tuition.
Don’t know about the others.
GPA by graduation doesn’t matter. Acceptances/awards are based on GPA now.
What is the major and career goal?
What do you need net costs to be?
My S18 was offered $25K pa at GWU (which appears to be their top merit amount) and $28K pa at CWRU (I think that’s the largest amount excluding the competitive full tuition scholarships).
How much merit aid do you need.
I’ve heard of merit scholarships of upto half tuition at Vandy, Rice and Duke, which makes them even more attractive for no aid eligible families focused on elite schools. You have to be really good and really lucky to get these but compared to many others like Ivies, who doesn’t offer a penny for merit, at least these can make dream of attending a top college a possibility for upper middle class.
My family member received a full tuition merit scholarship to GW, as did my daughter’s friend. Although the school suggests that $25,000 is their highest award… it really isn’t. The money is there for students they want… who will likely be admitted to highly selective schools.
GW- I think your daughter may get some merit… not one of the larger awards
Wash U- no merit
Richmond- maybe some merit
Pitt- some merit, not full tuition- maybe $10,000
CW- some merit if interest is shown… not sure how much
What do you want your final cost to be?
Yes, these schools do award some highly competitive merit. But they’re going to be like WashU…targetted to tippy top stats/resume and/or ethnically diverse students that they want to poach away from schools like HYPSM. Since all of their students have high stats, they use merit to try to get the super super stars (students that they believe HYPSM would accept) and/or students that help their diversity numbers.
If she needs merit, she should make sure she has matches, when looking for merit, many schools become reaches. For her nice but no cigar stats, she needs to merit shop where she is in the higher stats group, vs nice just for admission stats. You need to know her real UW GPA.
As you see here, even CCers will tell you that merit is potential for your kid at mega reach schools like Duke. Don’t be distracted unless you have some URM status or very special hook. 33 ACT and an imperfect GPA is just not that uncommon, for the ACT that 33 is 98th percentile. That means over 26000 kids have that score or better (as per 2017 numbers). You need to look to less desirable schools if you want your kid to be given real money (vs some pandering $$ at expensive privates). What CAN you pay? What is your home state? What major?
CakeCupMuffins, Vanderbilt offers approximately 250 of its signature merit scholarships every year and each one is full tuition, plus a summer stipend of $5K, and if there is still financial need beyond that, they offer FA up to the full cost of attendance. These are not half scholarships. They are awarded need blind.
To get back to the OP, her daughter may want to consider Vandy if her research shows it to be a good fit. It would be helpful to raise her ACT score by a point or two, as she is trying, in order to have a chance at a merit offering. Note that extracurriculars, essays and recommendations are very important as well. With the leadership roles and lots of APs that the daughter already has, OP is searching in the right direction. I believe flagship public universities like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama all offer generous, set amounts of merit aid for a 33 ACT, the details of which can be found on their websites. They all have honors colleges as well, I believe. Tulane also has generous merit packages and they allow non-binding early action applications.
Tulane’s real academic merit comes at higher than a 33 ACT. Those are the WL kids that help Tulane’s numbers game.
@Sam-I-Am Vandy has 250 merit scholarships to give out? I think that’s high. For our non-URM, no hook, high stat son, I think the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship is the only option and I’m guessing there are only a handful of those, no?
@Sam-I-Am says that 250 are offered. If so, that doesn’t necessarily mean 250 are accepted/attending students.
@Sam-I-Am where are you getting that number from?
It seems doubtful that 250 Vandy frosh are attending on free tuition merit scholarships each year.
We know students that got very good merit at Pitt with those stats and both my sons got merit at Case Western with similar stats. Look at the Michelson Morley and Presidential awards at Case. Apply early action at Case, too, if she is interested.
What is her preferred major right now?
U of Maryland College Park has some fantastic merit for engineers, as they added a new merit program. We loved the U of Maryland campus, both my sons spent summers there, and its on a METRO line right to DC, and the campus is colonial and pretty.
RPI in Troy NY gives girls HUGE merit, boys not so much, lately.
As I remember, there are about four special scholarships at Vandy for regular kids with no financial need.
Some are based on leadership and require extra essays. Quite a few girls win them, from Colorado, but most
will turn it down for another top award, or an Ivy School, so Vandy is fighting for the Ivy kids, with the 250 awards.
With a 33 on the ACT, its may not be high enough for the Cornelius or other full tuition at Vandy, which usually require a 35 or 36 composite score, but still may be worth a try if she is strong in ECs. Grades look great.
U of Southern California has an interview program for a full ride. Again, ACT needs to be higher to win.
I thought Tulane might give something for a 33.
Arizona State Barrett Honors College may be worth a look. You can look up the awards on line with GPA/ACT score.
Truly, Vandy offers approximately 250 full tuition scholarships. I know from experience and the website. I would put the weblink in but I think that might violate terms of service with this website. Just google Vanderbilt Merit Scholarships. And Mom2CollegeKids is very much correct in that not all of these awards are accepted by the recipients. The impression I have is that each of the 3 signature scholarships tries to have around 40 kids accept the awards for a total of around 120 matriculating in each class with one of these merit awards. The website talks about additional merit scholarships as well.
Also, the OP is writing the ACT again and just missed a 34 last time. With her current 33 there are a number of excellent merit options noted above.
Homerdog, the CV scholarship is going to be a reach for anyone. But I believe about 40 freshman will start school with one each year as they are awarding them now. They will offer more than that because not every kid that receive an offer will decide to accept the offer. Top students often have multiple excellent options. However, some kids, like mine had excellent full pay (or nearly full pay) options but the Vandy scholarship offer was tops by far. Some schools attract merit applications to increase applications but then hand very few out. Other schools hand very many out but in very small $$ amounts. Vandy seems to be one of a few schools that is willing to apply its donations and endowment to attract great students. And while one might quibble with the rubric used by Princeton Review in ranking Vandy as #1 in FA, it is impossible to deny that it is worth applying to for merit/FA if the school is otherwise a good fit. It is also usually ranked #1 or #2 for happiest students. I think Nashville was just ranked #4 best college city or something like that. The Ingram Commons provides a great, common freshman experience for each incoming class. My kid loves it.
For University of Pittsburgh I would predict you will get $5,000 - $10,000 per year tops with a 33. A 34 increases the odds to $15,000.
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/
Here is the link to Vandy scholarships. Read away…
^^^
Right. And nothing that the OP has written would suggest that her very good student would get one of these. The problem is schools like Vandy get Ivy-quality students so the top 1% of those students would be spectacular or very much needed because of diversity numbers. Again, these awards are used to poach students that Vandy believes will get accepted by HYPSM-like schools. That’s who gets offered those 200 awards. And as mentioned, only about 40 of them actually accept and enroll. (Typically those would be students who for whatever reasons, can’t afford the amount expected to attend an Ivy)
mom2collegekids, that is 40 scholarships accepted per the 3 signature scholarships for a total of 120 students with full tuition awarded plus summer stipend plus any additional need. I encourage OP’s daughter to apply but not with rose colored glasses on or anything. She has a 33 and missed a 34 by 1/4 point. I think she would have a better chance if she had a 35 ACT. And that is 250 awarded, not 200. Not sure I have heard of a similar elite school that is more generous. Name one if you can, other than the service academies.
Do you think the “250 recipients” are in each class or could they be spread over all 4 classes?
Actually I believe that 250 or so are offered to each applying class. My kid got one and I recall that the school was shooting to give about 40 Chancellor’s Scholarships. I assume they are shooting for about 40 of each the Ingram and the CV for a total of about 120 to each incoming class. In order to achieve those numbers, I believe they offer approximately 250 or so (that is the number from the website). In other words, about half of the offers are accepted. Beyond that, the website says there are additional, non-signature merit scholarships. Plus the FA is great and Princeton Review gives it top ranking.