i don’t go there now, but i could have. when my acceptance letter came, a 15,000$ scholarship came along with it for four years. and a month later, without me even requesting or bargaining for it, that award was increased to 20,000$. Drexel is amazing with it’s merit aid, and even though i ended up deciding to go elsewhere, their offer was very appetizing
irish: My friend’s daughter was in a similar situation. D wanted to go to XU school but it only offered limited merit. She told the school that her parents wanted her to attend XXU because they offered more merit. XU came back with a better merit offer so she was able to go there. Don’t know how common this is, but I know it worked in this case.
jlauer, I know someone else that worked for, but they made it inconvenient. The parents were asked to meet with financial aid (meant a taking a day off and going to the college-few hours drive). The scholarship was increased though.
north: I can see that a nearby college might require such, but in this case both colleges were far away so fin aid wasn’t about to make such a request. there is no real reason why all of this couldn’t be handled by phone with fax as “back up” for signatures.
Thanks for the encouraging stories. Good to hear that things worked out for everyone. I suggested to my son that he “sit” on the offer and see what unfolds. I am trying to convince my husband to talk with Financial Aid when they do another visit this spring, letting them know the school is his first choice and see what happens. I do wish I had my son apply to one of the comparable schools, however, because that would make “negotiating” easier.
palermo: I don’t think its a good idea for the school to be simply told that the school is first choice without indicating that he’ll have to go elsewhere. In another thread, someone had good luck by having the <em>child</em> tell the school that he wanted to go there but his parents were insisting that he go to XXX because it was more affordable. If the parents tell the school that it is the “first choice” then the school will think that you’ll do whatever it takes to send him there. They won’t think that they will have to compete with another school in order to get him to go to their school.
Palermo: Just had a thought. Tulane is taking late applications (because Katrina has left them without enuf students) and is giving great merit. Perhaps if you can get a great merit offer from them, you can either consider it or have it “in hand” to bargain for a better merit from your son’s choice. Just a thought…
He has been accepted at two other schools with 50% tuition scholarships. Unfortunately, they are not really comparable schools. Thanks for the suggestions, though
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=148852&page=1&pp=20[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=148852&page=1&pp=20</a>
I have linked the above thread, as momintexas has provided a valuable perspective and resource on the topic of full ride merit $ in a separate thread. What I particularly like is that she has shared her experience with both a 1200± SAT student and a 1400± SAT student.
Lots of valuable thoughts on her thread, although you do have to wade through some inappropriate “piling on” by naysayers in the early posts. Worth it, though.
bump…
Northeastern is making a big push to make it into the top 100 universities and is putting money into the campus facilities and into big merit packages for top students.
Ann, my S just got an 11000 Dean’s Scholarship from Northeastern yesterday. His stats, I think, are in the mid-range for this school. So, I guess they are offering a lot of students merit aid.
Like Ohio, College of NJ offers scholarships to anyone who meets their designated SAT and class rank guide. This includes out of state applicants. They throw in a computer to boot for those in the 1350+ SAT range. Considered one of the top public universities.
The scolarships at TCNJ are rank dependent too. This has posed problems for kids from schools which do not rank.
Cooper Union in NYC gives full tuition scholarships to ALL students. Admissions to their engineering, architecture and fine arts schools are all very competitive.
Howard University offeres full ride to NMS/NAS and many other merit scholarships:
<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/scholarships/freshmen.htm[/url]”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/scholarships/freshmen.htm</a>
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St. John’s University (NY) offers almost everyone a scholarship (exaggeration, but pretty accurate).
CUNY Honors College & Cooper Union are worth mentioning. 
Our D received $12,000 merit aid from University of Denver(renewable for 4 years - $48,00 total). She ranks (SAT 1320 - but very lopsided scores, top 5% of class) just a little above the average student. She also found out she is in the running for some $1,000 department scholarships. DU is a nice school, with lots of individual attention for students.
I’m not sure of anyone else’s experience with Illinois Institute of Technology, but I was offered $78,000 in merit scholarships from them.
Louisiana Tech University isn’t a big name, but they have Presidential scholarships for people who score 32+ on ACT or 1410+ on SAT that pay for everything, and they also have Presidential plus incentives for National Merit Finalists. You can get about half of it paid for with a 28-31 on your ACT…and I can’t remember if it was a 26 or 28 ACT to get the out-of-state tuition waived. All of it’s merit-based with no seperate application form. I’m going there for Nanosystems/Biomedical Engineering in the Fall.
I got a lot of other letters claiming that I qualified for a ton of money based on my test scores as well. I remember University of Colorado at Denver mentioned $8,000-64,000 and Tulane full tuition.
Just personal experience…
Washington and Lee University in Virginia has a truly outstanding merit scholarship program that offers numerous full-tuition scholarships and even a number of full free rides, as well as many half-tuition scholarships. Any high-achieving student interested in merit awards should definitely apply! Just be aware that the deadline for W&Ls George Washington Honors Scholarship competition (the umbrella for all of W&Ls honors scholarships) is December 15th.
My family knows quite a few students who received impressive merit scholarships from several schools, yet W&Ls merit award managed to come in at the top for virtually every student. If you would be happy at a college that cherishes and enforces its rigorous honor codeand if you appreciate the exceptional quality of life that a well-functioning honor code conveysthen this scholarship competition is truly worth your while.