<p>Can anyone give me an idea of good schools in the midwest that offer substantial merit-based aid to high-acheiving students? Thanks.</p>
<p>Can you give us more info? </p>
<p>What size of school are you looking for? A specific state(s)? Major? </p>
<p>If you've taken SAT/ACT sometimes the best thing to do is start looking at school websites under fin aid/scholarships and see what places offer for certain SAT/ACT scores or GPA's.</p>
<p>Denison University</p>
<p>Ohio University - Athens. Check out the Gateway Scholarships (based on SAT scores)</p>
<p>Also, see this thread:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52133%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52133</a></p>
<p>You're best bet is to check the figures on CollegeBoard.com or on USNews Premium Online College Edition (which only costs $15 - but will be updated in August so you might want to wait - it's well worth the money, though). They will list, under each college's financial aid section, what percent of kids are awarded merit scholarships and on average how much they are.</p>
<p>Ohio Wesleyan
Kenyon College
Washington University in St. Louis
Wright State University
Ohio State University
DePauw University</p>
<p>My D's school to be - Ohio Northern University - nice merit based on GPA/ACT.</p>
<p>WashU awards a substantial number of merit scholarships every year. Go to their website for a list of these merit awards: <a href="http://admissions.wustl.edu/admissions/ua.nsf/3rd%20Level%20Pages_Scholarships_scholarships.htm?OpenPage&charset=iso-8859-1%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.wustl.edu/admissions/ua.nsf/3rd%20Level%20Pages_Scholarships_scholarships.htm?OpenPage&charset=iso-8859-1</a></p>
<p>In addition to the scholarships listed on the website, also look at Danforth Scholars. It is either a half or full tuition award. You have to be nominated by your GC. Nominations are due in the fall of your HS senior year.</p>
<p>Grinnell College offers 1/3 of their students merit scholarships.</p>
<p>In the following site, you can search for schools, and this gives you the number receiving and average amount received of non-need-based aid under the "financial aid" section.</p>
<p>The Wash U numbers are kind of interesting: 18% of freshman without need receive merit scholarships, but 13% of all undergraduates receive merit scholarships. 12% of freshman with need receive merit scholarships, but 7% of undergraduates receive them. Nearly 1/2 of freshman offered scholarships lose them at some point, or perhaps Wash U increased the number of scholarships in the past few years. The average merit award for freshman are about 30% higher than the average for all undergraduates.</p>
<p>WashU in fact did increase the number of awards for several of the Scholars programs over the past few years. Most of these programs do not require a minimum gpa, so it is quite easy to maintain a scholarship.</p>
<p>I don't know what size school you are interested in or your major but the University of Missouri-Rolla a very good engineering school offers great merit aide based on GPA and ACT.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas...here's my other information....I'm looking for a school with a good English program and preferably a pretty good music program....I know for sure that I want to major in English, with a possible double major and/or minor in music or communications...I would prefer to stay within about 3 to 4 hours of Chicago...my top choice is University of Chicago...I'm researching outside scholarships, but I'm going to have to get some good financial/merit aid in order to afford it...If you have any more ideas, I would truly appreciate it...Thanks!</p>
<p>Miami of Ohio</p>
<p>Grinnell was extraordinarily generous to a boy in my daughter's class -- and he was far from the top of the class. We were told it was merit-based, although there may be a big need element and a desire to enroll a steady minority boy.</p>