I have never really looked at this thread, but I would highly recommend anyone with fairly strong stats, who is interested in a wonderful liberal arts college, to look at Denison University outside Columbus, Ohio.
One of the prettiest campuses anywhere, friendly kids, very small and personal classes and a really sweet town - all with WONDERFUL merit scholarships. My son is on half tuition plus a nice music scholarship (and he is not a music major). Dension routinely makes lists of schools with the best scholarships and is featured in the book āSchools that Change Lives.ā
Washington and Lee and Davidson are the most highly regarded LACs which give out good merit aid. W&L in particular has the George Washington Honors Scholarship program, which this year gave nearly forty full tuition scholarships and other smaller ones to an incoming class of only 460.
there is of course no definite cut-off in test scores/ GPA/ ECās for such scholarships, but the two kids i know who received the full rides had SATs in the 1500s, perfect GPAās, and many leadership positions in clubs/ sports. in addition, they wrote outstanding essays (separate from the application for admission).
The ātopā schools obviously determine their merit scholarships by individual canidates since so many have awesome scores, but a ton of universities do have cutoffs.
Thanks, but most of those are full tuition not full-ride. Iām sure there are some , but most full rides Iāve seen at top 100 or so schools tend to be more fluid then the scholarships for less than full tuition room and board. EVEN AT THE SAME SCHOOLS. Some have academic standards objectively LOWER than the lesser , purely academic scholarships. I think it is exactly as you suggested, so that they can consider individual candidates for whatever reason they select.
Youāre right that most of them are full tuition scholarships, but getting a full tuition scholarship based on test scores and GPA isnāt too shabby either.
I think six or seven of the scholarships listed were full rides, though, and there are obviously many other schools not listed with similar awards.
Iām too lazy to go look up all of the schools even in my region with black and white merit criteria, so Iām really only useful when talking about my schoolās two full-ride scholarships.
My D has a 1250 SAT with a 3.6 unweighted GPA. Will retake the SAT in Octā¦hoping for at least a 1300. Any thoughts as to what Tier 3 and Tier 4 schools may offer her a good merit package? Thanks in advance.
Anxious dad, is she looking for large Uni or small LAC? And what are your cost parameters? IOW, it doesnāt do us a lot of good to suggest schools that would give her $10K when the T , R+B is $40K plus and you want to spend $10K. First thing you can do is google āscholarship + SAT + 1250ā (or ā1200ā). There will be several to wade through.
I have no idea what the schools will tell me the EFC should be, but Iām looking at paying about 8K max. D doesnāt have a real preference on school size but would prefer something no less than 2000 students.
Well, if you truly have no idea what the EFC will be , then you need to go the college board site and calculate both the Fafsa EFC and the CSS Profile or IM EFC. For most parents the results you get will be fairly accurate.
$8K is less than room and board at most private schools so that means you are at least looking for full tuition scholarships and unsubsidized Stafford loan, or pretty much close to a full ride . We have a couple of current threads going that address full rides. Iād look through them if yu havenāt. Iād look first at your non flagship regional publics. Sometimes their Honors Programs will come with generous scholarships.
Like everyone else searching for merit money , her scores are of preeminent importance. Keep taking the tests. The higher the ACT/SAT the more money she gets. Tell her its a parttime job.
I donāt know of any automatic scholarhips at her present level for full tuition or full ride but you may check the guaranteed-scholarships website (google it). Good luck.
Anxious Dad I understand that you willing to pay 8K but you will have to figure out what schools will expect you to pay. Put numbers from your last tax form into EFC calculators you can google or find on collegeboard and you will have some numbers what need based aid you looking for. USNews. com will have good info about fin packaging schools provide- how much of the package is loans, grants etc. It is important to know if the school you are looking into has reputation of generous school . Still some schools might like your D much better than others- due to them wanting her because of geographical diversity, EC or something else. It is a process and your D certainly has more than stats to consider.
Also many schools have their own scholarships- based on talent, like creative writing, hobby, craft etc. So portfolio of some unusual talent like building bridges from matches suprisingly might bring decent discount of COA.
e.g.:
"The University of Florida recently slashed the value of its four-year scholarships for in-state scholars who qualified under the National Merit program by 79% to a total of $5,000.
Last year, Illinois eliminated funding for a statewide merit program. Since 2004, the state of Maryland has been phasing out one merit program and flat-funding another while nearly doubling need-based college aid, to about $83.3 million a year.
Many highly selective private schools like Harvard and Stanford universities donāt offer merit aid, but some colleges that do are paring back sharply.
Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pa., where annual tuition and fees total about $28,300, gave its $15,000-a-year merit scholarships to 15% of this yearās freshmen, down from about 33% three years ago. To free up funding for more need-based aid, Rhode Islandās Providence College scuttled its smaller merit scholarships and raised the eligibility requirements for its larger ones: A grade-point average of about 3.7 on a 4.0 scale used to be good enough; now it takes around a 3.83. Providenceās merit scholarships can run as high as full tuition, which is $26,780 this year."