<p>Hello all, I am new to college confidential, and I don't even know if I am even posting in the right place. I will be starting my senior year of high school in the fall and have recently been looking into different colleges throughout the country. I currently live in Alaska and am hoping to go out of state for college.</p>
<p>My parents will be helping to pay for college, however, they don't want to pay a lot for me to go out of state when it is so cheap in state. What are some good schools that offer merit scholarships (hopefully full tuition or full ride)? My SAT CR+M is 1390. 4.0 GPA and top 5% of class.</p>
<p>The University of Alabama is fantastic for merit scholarships and will often give full tuition scholarships to the top students. There have definitely been threads about this in the past, so feel free to look them up :)</p>
<p>I’ve been told a 32 ACT is a “line” for a lot of merit awards at many schools. Would you be eligible for any need-based aid, and how much could your parents pay / year?</p>
<p>DD did well with merit at UMassAmherst and Binghamton. The tuition is lower at public universities so even though the merit dollars are smaller, they go a long way. No where near a full ride though. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I’m not sure if I’ll retest again. I took the march one and got 1220 (CR+M) then actually reviewed to retest in May (and was able to get 1390!) so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it to go up any more in the fall. Would I be absolutely guaranteed free tuition if I got 1400? Also, how does their nursing program compare to other schools if you happen to know?</p>
<p>Yes, you would get free tuition if you got the 1400. That award is given to everyone with a 3.5 gpa and that minimum score.</p>
<p>Bama’s nursing is top-notch and is fully-accredited. 99%-100% pass rate on the national exam every year. Post your Q’s in the Bama forum. There are some there that know all the details on the Capstone College of Nursing. </p>
<p>the Capstone College of Nursing bldg is new and state of the art. (see link in above post) The school has robotic “patients” that are programmed to have numerous “symptoms” and responses. The bldg is located across the street from the hospital for convenience and experience.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids thanks for the reply! I’m still figuring out how to navigate this site (I just signed up yesterday, although I have looked at it before) so I’ll go to that page with any other questions I have. I hadn’t really been considering Alabama, but it seems like a pretty good school that I should look into more. </p>
<p>A word of caution about the wonderful “automatic full tuition/full ride scholarships” thread mentioned above. It appears to be a very fluid situation, as since the thread was locked last Fall, a number of the most recognizable names on that list (e.g. Ole Miss, Temple, Ohio U) appear not to be offering automatic scholarships at this time, at least based on what I could find through the links provided. Thank heavens for U of Alabama!</p>
<p>^ Good point about the fluidity of the scholarship world and needing to check each year. That’s one reason @BobWallace included links. I do want to point out that Temple does still have Presidential Scholarships which are full tuition.</p>
<p>@Erin’sDad I couldn’t find anything on the linked pdf that stated that the Presidential Scholarships are automatic. Do you know whether the wording has always been this way, or was it changed from something that was more explicit about them being granted automatically? I guess if DD were closer to giving serious consideration to Temple at this time, a simple phone call to them could clear things up.</p>
<p>One of the challenges I’m finding in trying to track down some of these automatic scholarships is the wording, and what one can assume. As an example, the Mississippi State Univ OOS tuition waiver info is on a page on the MSU website titled “Academic Scholarships for Entering Freshmen”. Nothing on that page led me to assume that those were automatic scholarships until I found another page there titled “Competitive Scholarships for Entering Freshmen”. So, I guess the listings on the former page are indeed automatic, but man it makes one’s head hurt.</p>
<p>Welcome to College Confidential and the crazy world of college admissions. There is so much info on this site, it can be overwhelming. There are also a lot of senior members who are posting daily with good advice. Best of luck to you with your college search.</p>
<p>@rrobb you said some of the schools weren’t offering the automatic merit scholarhips at this time… Do you know if that is going to be the way in the fall? Which schools are offering the automatic merit scholarships?</p>
<p>Oh, forgot to put in my two cents’ worth. Yes, it is worth it to take the SAT one more time. It could be worth THOUSANDS of dollars in FREE MONEY at a variety of schools. Especially important for the AUTOMATIC scholarships. There is a big difference between the competitive scholarships and the Automatic scholarships. Competitive scholarships may require an additional application, multiple essays, and personal interviews. And since you are all the way up in Alaska, it will be difficult to travel to the weekend events put on by most colleges that are a part of the scholarship interview process for competitive scholarships.</p>
<p>If you get the sat up to a 1400 then Alabama will automatically give you a full tuition scholarship (Presidential scholarship). That’s what I’m considering going for with my ACT</p>
<p>@blue I’m the furthest thing from an expert on this, just a very interested bystander. My very limited follow-up in following some of the links left me unable to find explicit confirmation that Ole Miss, Temple and Ohio continue to offer automatic scholarships, but clear confirmation that Alabama does. I haven’t checked the other 90% of schools on the thread. Note of one thing that initially threw me: some schools trumpet that incoming freshmen with certain stats will automatically be CONSIDERED for certain scholarships. It’s important to note that automatic consideration is not the same as automatic receipt.</p>
<p>Try to get your score up to 1400 and you’ll have a lot more options. Temple University in not so scenic North Philadelphia still offers full tuition for 1400 and 3.75 GPA. </p>