Fellow Kansan here. We saw students from our high school have success with merit scholarships at these schools:
For larger colleges that offer merit, look at the merit scholarship opportunities at the following:
Ohio state
Michigan state
University of Iowa
Iowa state
Univ of Minnesota -Twin Cities
I would not expect to receive any merit from Purdue or UIUC. They offer merit to a very small percentage of students.
I will respectfully disagree that KU is way better than any other college in Kansas. Kansas State is also an excellent school, guaranteed admission and scholarships at your level and you would be in the running for even higher scholarships. My son loves the biology program there and knows many doctors and vets that went there and have great practices in and out of Kansas. He has several friends in the engineering programs also and they love it there. Worth looking at.
Miami of Ohio, Creighton and Univ of Dayton are schools that may give you decent merit aid with your stats.
Most people in Kansas are either KU or K-State. Many families will not cross form one to the other. I have heard good things about both, but I heard from more than one teacher at our high school that K-State seems to care about their students more. Also, there are some awesome things happening these days at Wichita State. I would definitely suggest looking there. Wichita offers options that the others can’t because it is the largest city in the state. One out of state option for you to consider is Truman. We also enjoyed our visit there.
@KSMom1518 My son (from OOS) got sold on K-State because of how much he feels the school and faculty cares about the students. After 1 1/2 semesters there he fees the impression was totally correct. His gf has a sister that will be going to Wichita State because it gives her just what she is looking for. It is also a good college. I barely even knew the state of Kansas existed before S wanted to look at it for college. Now I can’t pry him away! He also said the KU vs K-State thing reminded him of UT vs Texas A&M. It is one or the other!
That being said, not being from Kansas, I’d say KU has a top- ranked honors college while KSU is stronger in some applied subjects. KU is more academic.
Truman is a good recommendation for affordable OOS with good academics, as is UMN Morris. Nebraska Lincoln, ASU Barrett ( and UArizona’s new honors college), UOregon Honors, are all worth looking into.
Don’t discount private universities - run the NPCs to see what type of merit aid you might qualify for.
I would definitely check out the University of South Carolina… obviously not in the midwest but great scholarships and an urban location with good sports, school spirit, and some good programs. I am from Michigan, but I will be attending U of SC next fall!