Grinnell, Smith, Drew, Fordham, Rhodes, Richmond, Skidmore, Dicksinson all give merit money in addition to the ones already mentioned. There are many, many more.
Google previous threads, especially those featuring lengthy posts by Curmudgeon for very inclusive information on merit awards.
Last year I scoured these boards looking for the schools that would give my son merit money based on his stats (1490/2200 SAT, top 1% of class). So far the strategy has worked as he has received 25K from Tulane (waiting on possible full tuition), 24K from Miami (with an invitation to come interview for full tuition), 23K from Rutgers (a total free ride), 12K from Pitt and UConn (half tuition but not great in comparison to the others). We are still waiting for a few others. I will post when we receive them so people have reference for next year, but as you can see he does have some nice choices.
mamajay, tell your son to have fun at scholarship weekend. Be enthusiastic and enjoy being spoiled. Admissions people were very friendly and informative. I hope the weather’s good. My son had the same deal from RU and UM, assuming you mean U Miami. If so, your son should enjoy Singer Scholarship weekend. UM does a nice job with the transport to/from the hotel, tours and meals. We met some nice folks and some kids we had already met at other schools. In the end, all the kids we sat with were offered the Singer (full tuition) - The offer came after they returned. Good luck. Your son has some great choices.
University of Miami
D Stats - 3.8 - 7 AP classes/8 Honors
1840 SAT
Active in sports, community service
Worked during school
Pacific Lutheran offered $18,000 Presidential Scholarship to 100 incoming Freshmen. Renewable all four years with 3.0 gpa.
Will interview for Regents which is full tuition ($28,000).
Makes PLU competitive with state schools.
Makes it more than competitive because most kids there graduate in four years, not five or six. 
I like the following thread because it provides the links to the actual scholarships. I also liked the parameters the OP stated in the first post.
*This thread is designed to cut through all of the clutter and get right to colleges that provide non-competitive, guaranteed, automatic merit scholarship money.
PLEASE do not list any scholarships which are not GUARANTEED. Please provide the name of the college, the tuition cost, and the link to where one might calculate, based on GPA and SAT/ACT and class rank (or other attributes) the amount of money the student would get.
PLEASE keep this focused to automatic scholarships based on merit. PLEASE do not enter posts like:
“I hear that XX College is generous…”
“Several students a year get …”
“Private colleges give better aid…”
“My daughter got a great scholarship from…”*
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a>
My Daughter’s stats
3.8 UW, 4.16 W GPA
1950 SAT (800R 560M 590W)
Class Rank 10/569
Lots of Leadership, active in clubs and theatre, 400+ hrs community service
So far offered the following merit aid:
Whittier College offered 4 yrs full tuition (had to apply by 10/15 and attend honors weekend)
Mills College offered 4 yrs half tuition ($18,500)
Univ of Redlands offered 4 yrs $17,000 and stated that if she qualified for a CAL GRANT A she could get full tuition need-based scholarship
University of the Pacific offered 4 yrs $10,000
I believe that all merit aid offers are contingent on getting a 3.0 GPA while in college.
Does anyone know if Loyola College in Maryland gives good Merit aid. I have heard this from a fewl people
As we are receiving our financial aid packages from schools we applied to in the fall, I am so grateful that my son did give in and agree to look at safeties and found that he was not “selling out”, but that there were actually some good affordable schools out there, and even better, schools that really wanted him.
My son applied to 13 schools. He would fuss at me at how he desperately wanted to get out of the south, yet here he was, applying to seven southern schools, at my urging.
Out of those seven southern schools, five gave him full rides, not just tuition, but housing and stipends to help cover board, as well as study abroad money and technology allowances, as well as admission into the honors program at all.
What of the other five that he was only going to apply to? All save one are out of state, so you have to factor room and board in there, too.
His top choice offered him 12K out of 32K tuition.
His second choice offered him 18K out of 36K tuition.
His third choice offered him 18K out of 32K tuition.
His local private offered him 15K out of 40K tuition.
Only the local private would be considered elite schools. The others were Catholic colleges with good engineering schools, but not considered Tier I or even Tier II schools.
The other two, both high reaches, he has not heard from yet, but doesn’t really care at this point.
He’s happy he’s going where he is. He will graduate hopefully debt free. He will save his money for grad school.
We used to laugh when he’d say, When I graduate, I want to use the money left over from college to take a trip to Japan to go to Iron Chef’s restaurant.
Maybe he will be able to do just that.
I have not scrolled back to read all the posts, but speaking from my son’s experience, several OOS Universties offered him merit aid based only on his academic performance: Iowa State and UT Arlington. UT Arlington offered him, also, in-state tuition plus a scholarship that would cover board. In effect, he could go there for under $5k/year. It is not his first choice, but it was good to know that in these difficult financial times, he had the option of going someplace for very little.
Iowa State has a scholarship program for high-achieving students from my state (NY)-- which we were totally but pleasantly surprised to learn when DS got the scholarship letter. It makes an OOS State school cheaper than an in-state.
I have heard since then that Clemson also offers OOS students with high academic stats in-state tuition. There are probably many others with this type of scholarship program that I have not investigated, but worthwhile to dig into.
Yes, definitely, that’s exactly what we did. As son did not want to go to any of the instate schools, we began looking at OOS state schools with good honors programs, as the privates were way out of reach, even with their “generous” merit aid.
Be careful, though, if you are on the fence between a school giving you full tuition and instate tuition. Even our state schools are going to raise tuition, something never allowed before because we have a free tuition incentive program for good students. While this year, schools offering instate tuition may seem affordable, you may be looking at as much as a 30 percent increase the following year.
If your child is on the fence between the instate and full tuition, take a closer look at the full tuition, as that will truly be a “safety”.
Had my son not been happy at any of the full tuition schools, I would have been glad to look closer at Clemson, where my son did receive the OOS tuition waiver. It is still on our radar as a graduate school possibility. Even with the “generous” merit aid son received at his private choices, Clemson would be a lot cheaper, and even higher ranked, if that’s important to you.
Good luck!
Here’s an update to my previous post on merit aid.
My son is an excellent student (Top 1% of class 1490/2210 SAT in NJ) but does not live for his studies and was not picky about where he had to go to school. Using this site last year I targeted schools that I thought would not only give him generous merit aid but where I thought he would be happy. He applied to 8 schools, got into the Honors programs and Business schools at all of them and got the following merit awards:
American University 27K per year
Tulane 25K per year
University of Miami 24K per year (with invitation to interview for up to free tuition)
U Maryland 12K per year
U Conn 12K per year
U of Pittsburgh 12K per year
U Delaware 21K per year (almost free tuition)
Rutgers (in state) 23K per Year (free tuition, room, board)
Hope this info helps anyone applying next year.
mamajay, thanks for the info. My youngest, a current junior, has similar stats and I will show her your son’s list. My older two had definite “wants” that limited their choices (majors, programs offered) but this one has no clue what she wants so I’ll ask her to consider some of these. My son was offered the Singer Scholarship from UMiami (a great deal) as well as the full ride from RU but neither school offered the program he wanted. My oldest considered the UDel offer but decided on another’s school BFA dept (with an equivalent offer)… I love getting ideas from others so thanks again.
S class of 2012 was offered $15,000 merit scholarship from Loyola md. 2180 GPA 3.82 UW. AP scholar with distinction two sport athlete with lots of community service. He chose Rollins College because of a better merit scholarship
I have a 3.86 UW GPA, a 35 ACT, and received a $27,000 scholarship (well, combination of scholarships) to Hendrix College. And that’s before I named them as my National Merit Finalist first choice.
My beloved step-daughter is a hs jr. We are beginning to make our plan of attack for the college app season. She has a great gpa (3.96) with a solid, honors curriculum. However, it seems as though her testing is not uuber-great (PSAT to SAT 1600~1260), and her in-class Kaplan tests are staying pretty much around the same numbers. Some are saying that she could probably get full-ride, or high-amount merit scholarships (she is interested in history and/or biology). Any ideas for colleges with great merit aid?
Has she tried the ACT?
Also go to <a href=“http://www.faritest.org%5B/url%5D”>www.faritest.org</a> to checkout some of the SAT optional schools. Sill may not get a full ride because some schools asks for SAt scores, however don’t sleep on womens colleges such as smith and mount holyoke who give merit in need aid.
3years ago, my daughter (who ranked 5 in a class of 700) was offered grants that would cover most tuition in the private colleges she applied for. The state colleges were not as generous. I always thought merit award would be better than need based, but I was wrong. First, she had to be admitted to the selective college, schools that seek out excellent students, then she gets awarded over 20 thou a year for the 4 years of college. In her sophomore year, the school decides to ensure that their students do not graduate with debt. No more loans. Their endowment allows for the cultivation of a select, excellent female student body. Wellesley College, best choice we ever made. The only drawback is paying taxes on part of the grant because tuition is less than the grant…unreal.
^
My children are in the same boat, but none of us are whining about grants > tuition.
I am not positive, but think that letting the kids file their own tax returns should decrease the tax liability to zero. The parents lose any eligible tax deductions/credits, but this is offset in part if not in full by child savings credits and retirement allowances.
And to be clear, taxes are not due per se on grants > tuition; but rather, money spent on room and board is taxable. Money spent on classes and fees are not. You will be well served to read the IRS document on the subject.