couldnt agree with you more LKF…both my parents were immigrants, and they always put education first! Now my son gets into Georgetown, and Im not sure if we can send him to his dream school. It is cost prohibitive. I am a HS teacher, one income family.Hopefully their financial package will make it coem to fruition <crossing fingers=“”></crossing>
I wish you and your son GOOD LUCK Ragsypagsy!
I just wanted to make a comment about the Universities and size. Also, costs at the public vs. merit at other schools. The UCs and CSU system give merit too, by the way. I live in CA.
My oldest applied to the UC’s under duress (I told her she had to for financial safeties). She got into UC Berkeley, UCLA and Riverside. Riverside offered her a full ride merit. The other two gave her nothing but admission. She also applied to a bunch of small privates (LACs). She went to a small LAC for less then the cost of Berkeley because of the merit aid she received.
My middle D wanted a large school. She is at a Cal State because it had the program she wanted and the UC’s did not. It is a terrific school and, yes, it is comparatively cheap: about $3,500 a year fees plus books at around $800 plus room and board 8-10K (the same as at all schools). Room and Board are not guaranteed, either. She is almost done and has received a great education for a good price, but has not had the same experience my oldest did. She has struggled to get the classes she needed and because of that she will be graduating a year later then she should have. She also barely knows her professors. My oldest went to lunch with hers.
My youngest did not want a large school either. After the experience of my oldest, I knew it was possible to go to a small college for near, or even below, the price of a university, IF you were a very strong student. She is a strong student. The UC’s are now 22-24K a year with room/board and books. That is real money and far more then the previous poster quoted. You could go to one and commute, living at home. It is about half of a small private, but a lot of privates give good merit and need aid. The UCs mostly give you offers of loans unless you are way, way up there in stats. At the most competitive UC’s ALL the students are way up there and getting anything but need based loans is difficult.
My youngest did not bother applying to our state schools. <em>gasp</em> I do not recommend doing this, but she said she would rather go to a small community college with small classes the first two years then go to a University and be taught by grad students in classes with hundreds of others. It sounded okay to me and she was serious. So, she only applied to LACs. Seven of them in the end. One she applied to EA and already got in with a nice merit (Lewis and Clark). That merit is just big enough to make it possible for her to go there. She won’t need to go to a community college even if she is rejected from all her other schools. Her college list includes five schools that offer significant merit aid and two that guarantee to meet 100% of their determination of your need.
I guess my point is that Universities are wonderful for a certain kind of student. My middle D would have hated a small, cozy school. Many students get lost in giant schools, though. For those students who are not ready for a gigantic college, going to a small community college for two years is dirt cheap here in CA and transfer to a UC is virtually guaranteed. That is an excellent option. But, you won’t have that ‘in the walls’ experience in a community college (dorms, dining hall, etc.). If you want that and a small school, give the privates a go. You never know what might happen.
And cross your fingers for my D. Although she loved Lewis and Clark and would be happy there, she has her heart set on a couple others.
One more thing: college costs will hurt no matter how much money you do or do not have. I learned with my #1 D though, it is only four years. Four years of pain and belt tightening is not forever.
<h1>2 son (the one currently going through this)</h1>
UPitt - got full tuition.
Clemson - got in state tuition
Case - 20k a year
Westminster - the same.
<h1>1 son (at UMich)</h1>
OSU - full tuition
Miami in OHio - buckets off (can’t remember -it just kept coming)
Case - 24k a year
Umich is NOT so generous :).
Both had #32 on ACT. #1 was Nat Merit Scholar for SAT. Both were athletes so a little limited in EC’s beyond the sports. Both in top 10 of class of 500.
Drake is very generous with merit scholarships.
I heard that Tulane were generous though I am not so sure that is still the case.
Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, offers automatic merit aid for students with (unweighted) GPA of 3.7 and ACT of 27
My son was offered a full tuition merit-based scholarship to Lewis and Clark in Portland, OR. He did not need to apply for it separately.Consideration for it was part of his regular application. Lewis and Clark is a great school .
[Merit-Based</a> Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.lclark.edu/dept/sfs/meritscholarshps.html]Merit-Based”>http://www.lclark.edu/dept/sfs/meritscholarshps.html)
my son received a full ride, (tuition, fees, room and board) merit scholarship from Washington and Lee University in Virginia–a small top LAC
so glad he applied to several privates along with financial safety State U–you never know and if your child is a strong student there are some excellent scholarships out there. congrats to others and good luck to those searching…
Can anyone tell me what Florida universities offer Merit Based aid? Thank you.
msearles,
Every public school in Fl offers need based aid–called the Bright Futures Program. U of Miami is also generous, with merit aid in various ranges. I do know Lynn U offers merit. I do not know about the other private colleges–Stetson, etc.
Actually, Bright Futures is the very definition of merit-based aid. You qualify for it by getting a high GPA, scoring well on SATs or ACTs and accumulating a certain amount of service hours. I don’t think there are any income or assets limits.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard anecdotally that Rollins, Stetson and UMiami all offer merit-based aid. How generous they are probably depends on how far above their average GPA/SAT your scores are, or on how talented you are at athletics etc.
Do you consider it “Good” merit aid if it is only for the stat-high student?
Just my opinion but, to me, “Good” merit aid is from a school that looks at the student as a “package” and rewards THAT, OR schools that give money futher back in the pack. THAT’s “Good” to me as that is the type of kid I have, brilliantly charming and a stand-out personal leader who maintains a “decent” gpa & got decent test scores. She has been awarded local scholarships and numerous from some schools based upon this info (thru letters of rec and verifiable resumes which list her accomplishments outside the classroom). Schools that give merit aid to only NMS & 30+ ACT scores are “normal” merit aid to me, I would expect pretty much EVERY school that admits those students to throw money at them(except HPYS) - D received nothing from those “normal” merit aid schools except admission(in and of itself great in it’s own way but still…).
And don’t EVEN get me started on those kids in the top 10% of their HS class, D knows several that openly talk about cheating through HS (she has seen them do it) and their ACT/SAT test scores bear it up.
Sorry, hit me funny today reading this thread. Had to get it off my chest. I’ll end on something positive - MOntana State & Northern Michigan U give GREAT money to students starting at ACT 23 & gpas of 3.5 - especially NMU!!! D ultimately passed on NMU for a better fit at close to the same price, but I want to spread the word because NMU is VERY impressive and puts their money where their mouth is regarding going after the WHOLE student. This makes for a very stimulating campus learning environment. They also offer a HUGE amount of full-rides in their Presidential Scholarship competition that is basicly a fun day and a half of interaction with other competitors on teambuilding/problem solving combined with one-on-one interviews with faculty. The enrollment is about 8,000 students and they give full-rides to as many as another school D was admitted to that has an enrollment of twice that. The ones that don’t get full-rides still get so much money that we were blown away!
Can you tell I feel kind of guilty that D turned them down? 
(although I support her decision, she is going to the best school for her) Please go check out Northern Mich. Your students can apply already now for Fall 2009 I believe and it is rolling admissions too. Seniors applying could know before they start Senior year that they have one admit “in.”
Hey, this was my 1000th post! I’m FINALLY a senior member. Does this mean I graduate?
Do you know what kind of scores are needed for merit aid from Santa Clara? My son got a 33 on the ACT(99th%), a 780 in math SAT, 710 in Critical reading and 720 for essay/grammar. I heard Santa Clara doesn’t give much merit aid. Thank you.
msearles,
Florida Schools are generous. Fl State gave my son $10,000 on top of Bright Futures. Unv. of Miami gave him 50%, plus they take bright futures. I dont think his stat were off the charts either. His SAT was 1400, GPA:5.2, and class rank was 68. He not using any of this as Brandeis was most generous.
Definately, Case Western. One more - Miami University, Oxford, OH
I haven’t read this entire thread, but want to suggest that someone start a Google docs site (one with a username of “meritaid” might make sense and a password of “scholarship” or something so that anyone who wants to can add to it easily) with a spreadsheet listing:
College name
Stats (SAT, ACT, GPA, whatever) required to apply for the aid
Stats that tend to actually <em>get</em> the aid
How many scholarships at each level are available/granted a year
How many apply for the scholarships on average each year
How much the 2008-2009 tuition is
How much the 2008-2009 room and board is (as knowing how much they give doesn’t mean much without knowing how much the total price tag would normally be)
Perhaps also:
The ranking/tier of the college
What city the college is in (ditto state)
What fields the college is best known for
If the college has an Honors College/program
How many undergrads/graduate students the college has
An open field for misc. notes
This way people can more easily browse a larger picture, seems to me, than reading posts here.
Hmmm. You want us to update each entry , put it in the format you suggest, do research to determine the answers to your questions and
<a href=“you”>quote</a> haven’t read this entire thread
[/quote]
Are you aptly named or what? 
Folks this stuff isn’t easy and you really need to do it yourself with your own parameters in mind. Take the suggestions from the folks who have taken their valuable time to post data, but do your work yourself. JMO
As to your suggestions, uhhhh…NO.
There is a problem with Internet research. Schools send you Final Merit Award package AFTER you indicate that you are attending. My D. Academic awards package vastly exceeded our wildest dreams. But we did not know about it until she indicated that she will attend. In addition, there is no way to know what you might get as a returning student after Freshman year. That was another pleasant surprise. There is no way to research it ahead of the time. Even if you contact individual school FA office, they will not be willing to deal with you, since they are extremely busy with their students matching them to whatever scholarships (a lot of them named and totally unknown to public outside of school) are available. The best bet is to get general idea (without details) about schools that are famous for being generous and schools that are not, and try your best to get GPA, scores as high as possible, including your years in college. Hard work always pays!!
In my experience, that’s very unusual. All of my d’s merit awards came at the same time or slightly after her admissions decision. And everything came well before the May 1 decision date. Same for all her friends. The only merit awards of which I am aware that came after the decision date were private scholarships, or specific awards that require second semester grades (like awards for valedictorian or 4 year GPA). Otherwise, how can a student decide if he or she can afford the school if he or she doesn’t know how much merit money has been awarded?
MiamiDAP, can you tell us which school requires that you tell them you’re coming before giving merit aid?