Schools known for good merit aid

Parents Forum
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<a href=“College Financial Aid & Student Accounts | Valparaiso University”>College Financial Aid & Student Accounts | Valparaiso University;

from the website:

Valparaiso University is pleased to reward students demonstrating exceptional high school achievement with academic scholarships. All admitted students will be automatically considered.

Academic Scholarships range from $6000 to full-tuition, and are based on standardized test scores (ACT or SAT) and a recalculated high school grade point average. Valparaiso University recalculates all grade point averages on a 4.0 scale using English, mathematics, science, social science and foreign language grades only for scholarship purposes.

PLEASE NOTE:

• First priority will be given to those who apply by the Early Action date of November 1, 2004, and then preference will be given to those who apply by January 15, 2005.

• Scholarship Funds are limited , so apply early!

Students competing for the Founders Full Tuition Scholarship must be in the top 5% of the high school class with a 3.85 grade point average, have either a 34 composite ACT or a 1510 composite SAT, and submit a complete admissions application, including transcripts and standardized test scores. Priority will be given to those who apply by November 1. A separate scholarship application will be sent to students who qualify.

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<h2>VU also guarantees at least on-campus room and board through federal, insititutional, or private grants for Indiana residents who receive the Lilly Foundation Scholarship through their county foundations. Since the Lilly is full-tuition for 4 years, this would make for a nearly free ride.</h2>

S was awarded $6K Presidential scholarship, with middle of the mid-range stats for this school. This is equivalent to slightly more than 1/4 tuition.

S applied by Jan 15. Merit award came automatically.

The website says that FAFSA is necessary only for need-based aid here.

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A word of warning about Goucher - they have been very generous with merit aid in the past (doling it out to people with relatively low scores) but that may bechanging. They have raised their tuition for next year quite a bit and Goucher’s President has said that they are considering cutting non-need merit aid and make more need-based grants to cover the difference. However, Goucher’s plan is to increase size from about 1300 to 1500 in the next two years and they are trying to raise their stats of admitted students and add diversity (gender, racial and geographic) at the same time. Therefore, if you’re towards the top or above their stat range (3.2 GPA/1200 SAT median), a male, a minority, or from outside the northeast/middle atlantic (where Goucher pulls most of its students from), I think you will still find them generous with merit money. They also have a number of talent-based scholarships in art, performing arts, and music that are quite generous and those apparently will not be changing. You don’t need to major in the arts to receive one.

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University of Maine
In addition to offering scholarships up to full tuition for Maine residents, also offers merit scholarships to non-residents and irrespective of residence:
For example:
Title: Presidential Scholars Award
Eligibility: Nonresidents who minimally rank in the top 10% of their graduating classes and have minimum SAT scores of 1250.
Deadline is December 15.
Award: $7,500 per academic year, renewable for up to 7 semesters
Title: Dean’s Scholar Award
Eligibility: Nonresidents who minimally rank in the top 20% of their graduating classes and have minimum SAT scores of 1150.
Deadline is December 15.

Award: $3,750 per academic year, renewable for up to 7 semesters
Title: Tuition Scholarships for Outstanding Academic Students and National Merit Finalists

Eligibility: Awarded to outstanding academic students regardless of residence and National Merit Scholarship Finalists who identify UMaine as their first choice
Award: Full tuition for those credits required to complete a first program of study, or eight semesters of full-time enrollment - whichever occurs first.
Title: Distinguished Scholar Award
Eligibility: Students who distinguish themselves through class rank and standardized test scores.

Award: Awards of $2,000 per academic year, renewable for up to seven semesters.
Title: Distinguished Student Award

Eligibility: Students who exhibit diversity–culturally, personally, or through achievement in the visual and performing arts.
Award: Ranging from $2,000 to $8,000, renewable for up to 7 semesters.

The website is at go.umaine.edu/scholarship

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Univ Georgia gives out -of state tuition waivers rather readily for those in the honors program. It is a large program and you do not need blow out SAT’s ,etc. to get in.

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My daughter received merit scholarships from several U of CA, but not very much, 40,000 from Occidental, and full tuition from USC (120,000). USC gives out 175 of these scholarships and have many more merit scholarships of lesser amounts.

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$120,000 is not very much?

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I think she meant from the UC’s themselves.

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  1. Go to USNews
  2. Look at each school you are interested in
  3. Check the Tuition & Financial Aid tab
  4. Check the table at the bottom of the tab for Merit Aid

For example:

Tulane:
(% awarded aid) $16,402 (28%) $15,306 (29%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $24,738 (3%) $28,469 (3%)

To me that means that if you are in the top 28% of the applicant pool then you will probably get around $16,402. If your child is in the top 10% of their class and has an SAT score above their 75th percentile I would expect that they would get that type of merit award.

Do the same check for all the schools that you are referencing, i.e. BU, Emory, Grinnell, WUStL. To save you some time here are a few of them:

WUStL:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,813 (16%) $9,231 (14%)

BU:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $11,902 (16%) $14,324 (13%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $27,699 (1%) $28,275 (1%)

Emory:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $12,428 (5%) $16,422 (6%)

Grinnell:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,370 (24%) $8,890 (28%)

To me you are looking for 2 things, the size of the average award and how broadly it is awarded. Using those 2 criterea Tulane probably has the broadest and deepest merit aid program. However, that is not the only reason to pick a school.

Of course there are a number of other schools that give merit aid for certain of their honors programs but those are not broadly administered. For example, Boston College Presidential Scholars Program, Villanova, same thing.

Anyway, good luck to all.

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Last year, D received (all for four years):

Fordham – tuition and room
Loyola New Orleans – tuition and room
Tulane – tuition
UNC-Chapel Hill (out of state) – tuition
NYU – $8,000
Davidson – $5,000
WUSTL – $18,000
Emory – tuition
UChicago – tuition (attending)

and our state school:
University of Texas – $1,000

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I have to put in a plug for Willamette. they are generous with merit and finaid. On top of that the school will subsidize the entire loan, ie pay the interest until 9 months after graduation. They have a full tuition community service/leadership scholarship as well as the above. It is a hidden gem college that would be rated higher then 51 if it were in the east.

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When we are considering finaid, we do not count loans.
I agree about Willamette. I really liked that school.

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St. Louis University gives 30 full tuition Presidential scholarships every year. They have almost 200 finalists for the award, and those who don’t receive the Presidential scholarship receive 1/2 tuition scholarships.

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Isn’t the question really, “What schools are most likely to give my student merit aid?” Surely a more useful answer involves a discussion of why virtually every school gives merit aid and what is the best strategy for getting it.

There have been many threads touching on this issue. Our experience, and many of the experiences I have seen shared on cc, include the following:

Know your hook (the thing that makes you desireable ) and research the schools you are considering to see if this is an area where they are trying extra hard to maintain or improve. Is this school a bit low in average SAT scores when compared to others in its category? They might be willing to use merit aid to attract very high SAT score holders who will improve their stats. Another school might be trying to enhance its ethnic diversity or international population. A third might be looking for science students or french horn players.

If merit aid is critical, don’t apply “above yourself.” Make sure that your applications include many in the so called match and safety zones. There are lots of wonderful, lower name recongnition and lower selectivity schools out there. Don’t be a snob. If you need or want the money, you must be at the very top of that school’s applicant pool. The down side of this strategy is the fear that the education at said school may lack the rigor and status of a more selective school. Do your research. A well developed honors program is reassuring. Placement tests for entering freshmen and remedial courses for those who don’t place suggests that more classroom rigor might exist than the stats indicate.

Apply frequently and often! If you are hoping for merit aid, double or triple the number of applications. Merit aid is unpredictable. It is common to hear of a student given substantial merit aid at the more selective of two schools while the “lesser” gives none or very little. If you cast a wide net, and you have followed the above steps, you may get some really wonderful surprises.

Don’t be shy! If the prefered school doesn’t pony up, don’t give up. Call the admissions office and let them know how much your son or daughter wants to attend and let them know that their competition has offered substantial merit money. Sometimes you can broker a deal. (probably best not to tell your child you are doing this - most are mortified - but heck, that’s why they have parents, right? If it works, you are allowed to boast about it after the fact.)

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Excellent ideas, DVMMOM.

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The above is converging on a pretty comprehensive list. I’ll toss in one that’s maybe a little out of the mainstream…

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has a very prestigous program called the Meyerhoff Scholars. The Today Show did as segment on it a while back with the UMBC president. The Meyerhoff program is probably unequalled in getting its students into the best terminal degree programs in the country in science and engineering. The two top prep schools I’m familiar with rate Meyerhoff on par with the top Ivy and high end techie school (e.g. MIT) programs. Needless to say, it’s very competitive. There’s a required overnight stay that includes a series of interviews for the finalists.

That said, the scholarship is a full ride in the true sense of the term (tuition, room and board, fees, books, etc). My youngest went through the process and was selected. Unfortunately, for me, she chose to allow me the opportunity to use her college fund elsewhere.

Anyway, for anyone looking for something unique that comes with a very nice financial reward, it’s worth looking into.

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<a href=“http://www.asu.edu/feature/includes/spring05/readmore/bhc.html[/url]”>http://www.asu.edu/feature/includes/spring05/readmore/bhc.html&lt;/a&gt;

The Barrett Honors College is featured in the Reader’s Digest “Best in America” publication in print this week and online at <a href=“http://www.rd.com%5B/url%5D”>www.rd.com</a>. This is very exciting news! Please visit the site, click on “Arizona” and read about our college! For more information about the award please also visit the ASU website at <a href=“http://asu.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://asu.edu</a> .

National Merit Finalist Scholarship
National Achievement Finalist Scholarship
National Hispanic Finalist Scholarship

Residents:
$12,500 annual award renewable for three additional years provided you satisfy Renewal Criteria.
$50,000 total four-year value.
Nonresidents:
$21,500 annual award renewable for three additional years provided you satisfy Renewal Criteria.
$86,000 total four-year value.
If you are sponsored by a corporation, corporate sponsored funds are already included in the total award offered by ASU.

<a href=“http://honors.asu.edu/[/url]”>http://honors.asu.edu/&lt;/a&gt;
search for - Entering Freshmen Scholarships

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The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA is an excellent school and is offering substantial merit scholarships to highly qualified students. Their merit scholarships have attracting many well qualified students who were either rejected from their top choices or accepted, but were not given enough financial aid.

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Wake Forest (very generous programs, particularly Reynolds and Grayling Scholars which are full rides, but a bunch of others, too).
Davidson (Belk and Baker Scholars are full rides, and they give out a lot of additional merit aid every year.
William & Mary has a full tuition ride for 4 students under its new College Scholars program.
D2 also was offered very generous merit aid from Rice last year.
UNC’s Robertson (sp?) Scholars and UVA’s Jefferson Scholars also give full rides.

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Now for a more complex question:

What schools have good merit aid, AND have need blind admissons AND meet all need - don’t gap?

Anyone have any good examples?

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This is my first post after lurking for years.I just have to plug the Honors College at ASU. DD is about to graduate from there.She has attended on a National Merit Finalist Scholarship.It’s worth (in her case) full tuition -out of state -plus 3,500 a year. Current enrollee’s are getting 5,500 a year. The extra has been enough to pay for housing both on campus 2 years and off 2 years.She’s had to maintain a 3.5 (out of state, in state its a 3.25) and do 20 hours a semester of community service (easy to do they have numerous opportunities handed to them through the honors college and many other sources.She’s just finished her honor’s thesis working with a music grad school faculty member who never worked with an undergrad before and did a summer honor’s only study abroad in between freshman and sophomore year-6 weeks, 6 credits with honor’s faculty teaching them in various cities.She’s been able to add a women’s studies minor which wouldn’t have been possible at a conservatory.
The honors college is self contained as far as dorms,classrooms and faculty offices are concerned.
DD was recruited and it was a happy match.She was looking for music performance, decided free standing conservatories weren’t for her (she felt too confined).She never considered ASU but it showed up on a top 25 music school list,she found a studio teacher she loved plus the National Merit plus Honor’s College.
Just an aside note:she’s been accepted and will attend a PHD program (fully funded) in Musicology next fall at one of those upper tier private U’s everyone on here is always talking about. ANd she warns that of all the people she knows who came in with a National Merit, she’s the ONLY one who has kept it all 4 years w/o probation at some point.Even at ASU its hard to keep a 3.5!!