National Merit Finalists! KY, OH, FL, TX ? Full Rides $$

Paying for College
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@SlitheyTove Also, for those who want Carnegie, they have Endowed Scholarships.

About Endowed Scholarships

Students who receive a Carnegie Mellon Undergraduate Grant may be eligible to receive a named endowed scholarship. These scholarships are established by donors who are committed to supporting Carnegie Mellon and its students. Some donors are alumni, who were themselves the beneficiaries of student aid. Scholarships are awarded to students who meet specific qualifications as designated by the donor.

Good to keep an OPEN mind… about possible Aid.

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^ Thanks for getting back on track to what I feel is helpful to both my son, and to others who are Finalists.
That way, it is beneficial when they visit more colleges…

& to those who BELIEVE IN DREAMS, AND ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS, THEN you should feel blessed.

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It’s good to keep an open mind, but with a grain of salt.

There is a player on my daughter’s team whose father has said several times that his daughter ‘got a free ride’ with her athletic scholarship. It just isn’t true. I know what her scholarship is, $20k, and that’s about half tuition. I know she gets a few other grants (alum, visit, FRAG), and she works a lot at her job (for an employer who does give scholarships). The family makes it all work, but it is NOT a full ride, especially from one school issued scholarship.

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In the interest of staying on track, are there particular areas of CS that interest your son? Different colleges may have different strengths if he already has some CS experience.

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@Ynotgo I believe he wants Game Development, which UCF near Orlando has, at Master’s level

And UCF is on his List (has full ride for Finalist)

I think he said he really wants to see what happens with his other choices (we’ll know in late March).

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I believe it is completely irrelevant to consider graduate school rankings when you are evaluating undergraduate choices. Rankings have been shown to be specious - particularly so the USNWR rankings.

I think you are best served to have your son reflect on his desires for his UNDERgraduate degree, think about his career path, and determine if he will need a graduate degree before embarking upon his career.

What size school does he want, what part of the country, what type of town (suburban, urban, small, large), big sports, big Greek, diverse, etc. He should reflect about the environment in which he will spend 4 years. Schools that meet his environmental criteria will stay on the list.

Your son’s career path will also be a big factor - particularly if his desire for gaming remains as this seems to be more of a specialty area – not every CS program is going to do a good job in this area. He should educate himself about the gaming career path – by doing informational interviews with people in the field having the types of jobs he desires. Then he can ask them about their own college internships, coops, etc. He could contact the hiring folks at a possible employer and ask what they seek in an employee – degree, experience, etc. All this information should inform his college selection.

Financial considerations may or may not play into his decision. In reading through this thread and a few of the others that you started…it is not clear to me if you are thrilled about his NMF status as a proud parent only and the bragging rights that go along with having a full-ride at a few schools or if you have the financial need for those large NMF financial packages. If it is the former - then it doesn’t really matter about any of the schools UNLESS the schools meet with environmental and career objective needs. If so, then come on CC and ask specific questions relating to his stated needs only about the NMF package schools that meet his criteria. You will find that there are lots of people who can address specific questions about targeted schools which seem to meet your son’s criteria.

Lastly, I would advise your son and you to think about his possible graduate school aspirations or needs. If your son will need a graduate degree to obtain his career desires – how will he fund it? What arrangements have you made with him about his educational funding? For instance, if you have money set aside for his undergraduate degree and he doesn’t use all of it - would you be willing to let him use the remainder for grad school? If so, then he may wish to attend a school offering a large financial package for NMF and roll over the college savings to fund the necessary graduate degree.

It is my belief that all of the above are considerations for which school to attend more than rankings or general questions thrown out to the board about people’s likes or dislikes about schools. Once your son knows his environmental criteria and what experiences (internships/coops, etc.) that he needs to pursue his career – those factors will guide his school choices and will allow you to ask targeted information seeking questions on his behalf.

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Just an FYI that any reasonable graduate program in Computer Science should be funded by the university. (Maybe not for a masters, but certainly for a PhD.) However, for game development, I wouldn’t suppose that even a masters would be necessary for a good position in industry. Grad degrees in CS are more for people with interests in theory-heavy subfields (AI, quantum computing, …) or academia.

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@2sunny Did you file FAFSA and CSS profile with CMU ? They will not give you full-ride ($70,000.00/yr). A lot of IITians do MS/PhD in CS from CMU on scholarships.

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To the original question,

I can’t answer specifically for Comp Sci because I don’t have access to NM for specific majors by schools, but if you look at the NUMBERS, UTD has a higher percentage of National Merit kids than any of the other schools you mentioned. So how can you ask why don’t MORE NMF seek UTD when in fact there are a higher percentage that DO seek UTD?

Students have many different reasons why they pick one school over another. My National Merit DD picked OU because of their world class meteorology program and with their 5 year option she can double major in Comp Sci and Meteorology AND it was in our budget. It is unlikely that any Texas state school will ever off a 5 year option, there is a tremendous push to get Texas students to graduate in four years. To make up for this UTD offers up to $6K for study abroad for NM kids. Also not all students go for the best NM offers as seem by UCF numbers. Northwestern’s NM scholarship is only $2K a year and yet they have 146 scholars.

Some families view NM as a bonus and others, especially those in the ‘doughnut hole’ that make too much for FA but not enough saved or can pay out of pocket, are looking more for the full tuition plus NM schools.

National merit numbers are from the 2014-2015 annual report. Freshmen class size is from collegedata.org (total number of undergrads divide by four then round to the nearest thousand)

of national Merit at UTD 78, Freshman class size about 4000, **1.95% of class**

of National Merit at UK 93, Freshman class size about 6000, 1.55% of class

of National Merit at U Cincinnati 38, Freshman class size about 6000, .63% of class

of National Merit at UCF 59 Freshman class size 14000, .42% of class

Added OU and UA because they are frequently mentioned as NM schools

of National Merit at OU 240, Freshman class size 5000, 4.8% of class

of National Merit A UA 120, Freshman class size 8000, 1.5% of class

NM Sponsoring Colleges with 100 or more national merit scholars

Northwestern 146

UA 120

Texas A&M 107

University of Chicago 207

University of FL 113

University of Minnesota 118

OU 240

University of Southern California 181

Vanderbilt 138

My predictions for the future:

OU will start to lose some of it’s hold on NMF (based on the increased fees and the fact that sadly Pres. Boren won’t be there forever)

If FL opens their NM scholarship program to OOS you will see a large increase of OOS NM at UF, FSU and USF!

UTD’s offer will stay the same but more NMF will apply because it’s becoming better known and higher ranked

UK has announced they are changing their focus from merit to need so I imagine a reduction in future NM

Anyone else what to gaze into their crystal ball and give us your predictions?

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@3scoutsmom That is great info about where they go. Also, someone who has a D at UTD now said there are about 100 NMF there now, and of those, many are Pre-Med… Also, very interesting about Vanderbilt, since they give $5,000 per year to NMF to add to your package. I predict UK will keep the NMF, but may reduce aid to those who score in ACT (but are not Finalists). Also, need to be careful since some students LOST their NMF since the GPA was not 3.0 or such requirement. I heard UTD has a tendency to be tad more difficult than others ? All opinion on that aspect.

@grtd2010 We did CSS an FAFSA for Carnegie, but I would be surprised if he gets in… 5% for CS.

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I would be very shocked if Florida opened Benacquisto to OOS students as it comes out of the state budget not the individual universities.

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@123field Oh, just to clarify —
the rankings were to give guideline, since I really was not familiar with many of the NMF colleges.

If school ABC in Alaska offered Full Ride, I would have no clue as to what they specialize in, or what they are KNOWN FOR… That is the KEY… We have local, regional schools that are well connected to companies in our area, but someone from Spain would have no clue about a college that they have NOT heard of.

We don’t pick a college based on Ranking, only, and tell someone that they must go to MIT, since it is ONE in the world for CS (but that student now has the BRAGGING rights as he graduates. If I was hiring him, I would be VERY impressed! But that does mean that I would not hire someone from a state school that I was not familiar with.

So far, my son does NOT want a small Liberal Arts.

He wants a college that will challenge him.

He also said no need for an Ivy, yet he understands the benefits of it.

We think he might like KY, but I think if he gets into Carnegie and likes the atmosphere there, then
he knows that they WILL challenge him. He gets bored with current school, so took 8 AP classes.

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Hmmm, not too many pick UCF near Orlando.

of National Merit at UCF 59 Freshman class size 14000, .42% of class

I think I read that 95% of those live in FL… so very few recruited from OOS

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The purpose of the Benacquisto scholarship has been to keep Floridian NMF from leaving the state but because it will cover UF and FSU, it is not surprising that UCF lags behind. While UCF is a very good school (especially for computer science - my husband was at one point a hiring manager in software and he held UCF in very high regard) most kids here still want to be a Gator or a Nole.

UCF is the only major university in Florida that offers an OOS package at all but because those funds come from the school rather than from the state, it is understandable that recruitment focuses on in state students.

I think focusing on numbers rather than fit is going to make your choice unnecessarily complicated. Focus on the program - does it offer what your child wants? Then focus on whether the school is what your son is looking for. UCF and UTD are very different schools (I’m less familiar with the other schools which is why I’m only addressing those two.) My son wanted the smaller school, isn’t interested in football, greek life, etc… For him, UTD offers the program he wants in the kind of school environment he seeks but another child may feel completely different about what kind of college experience they want.

We have often told all of our children that the even the “best” schools aren’t “best” for everyone. Find what’s best for your student.

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@delilahxc I’d be shocked too but it already passed the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education!

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/tag/florida-excellence-in-higher-education-act

I also agree that most FL NMF go to UF or FSU and many UCF NMF are OOS.

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Galvano is showboating (as usual!) But his road past subcommittee is rough. He’s been unsuccessful in the past even with the Bright Futures expansion. As popular as both scholarships are, there are a vocal number of people who would much rather see the focus shift away from merit and more towards need based aid.

Also, I just don’t think the state could afford it given the balanced budget amendment and the state’s heavy reliance on tourists for tax revenue.

And, Floridians would totally riot about the affect it would have on the already low acceptance rates at UF. It would be like UT suddenly offering a guaranteed full ride.

Then again, I was among those who didn’t think the scholarship would last as long as it would, so who knows?

Of course, this doesn’t help 2sunny’s decision but hopefully at least better explains the number she was looking at in regards to UCF.

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@delilahxc Once again, we are not focused only on numbers. If so, then we would choose OH State,
since that has the highest Ranking— out of the choices that my son has been accepted to— thus far.

I encourage you to read this Review about UTD. Pros/Cons about it:

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-dallas/1698490-general-questions-from-an-oos-student-please-help.html#latest

I know KY offers a college town with HUGE school spirit and HUGE basketball team.
Kids get so excited there, and they want to learn. He will know for sure when he visits, soon!

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This is outdated (2015) but page 32 shows how many nmf go to each school with or without a scholarship:

http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/annual_report.pdf?sessionid=0ce645a4-7ba2-4680-97fb-04e0aa047521

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@2sunny I think you misunderstood my post. I didn’t say you were focusing only on numbers -merely that you seemed concerned with a number of metrics (ie # of NMF per entering class) What I was asking what simpler - what does your child want out of college? While some metrics may be able to help narrow down a list, student imput is so very important. Ie - yes, I’ve seen the thread you mentioned. But DS is already committed to UTD because it is right for him based on program, size, merit offered and general tone of the school. I don’t pretend that means it is right for any other specific child.

If you’ve mentioned what he’s looking for specifically beyond a challenging school with computer science, I’ve somehow missed that and apologize. I merely meant to point out that some of the schools on your list are very different from one another and that student imput might be really key to narrowing down at this point.

I’ll be at UTD this weekend, so if you have any questions about that school, feel free to ask me next week.

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@delilahxc Have a great visit, please post your
assessment. D really likes the campus but I always like to hear what others think. Hail to “ENARC”!