Also, merit aid that was awarded to my d’s from various schools (NYU, GW,
Brandeis, American, Pratt, and Muhlenberg) were given for all different reasons. Some for talent, some for art, some for academics, some for leadership and some for a combination of several these factors. None were given based on just gpa/ test scores (although I know some some schools award merit based on those factors only.)
This thread was very helpful for us in choosing some schools to apply to this cycle so I am posting the results for my daughter to help next years applicants. She is a relatively high stat student and we did not apply for financial aid. I have never completed a FAFSA.
UPittsburg - full tuition for 4 yrs
MiamiU (Ohio) full tuition plus 2K, value does not increase with tuition increases each year
University of South Carolina Cooper Scholarship - value of instate tuition plus 4K. She showed zero interest.
Alabama full tuition for 4 years The automatic one and we visited early - beautiful school and friendly people.
CWRU (Case) 25K/yr
DenisonU 20k/yr She showed zero interest. Probably would have been more if she visited.
UMiami (Florida) - full tuition for 4 years. She went for a scholarship weekend and interview. The McNair weekend at USC and the Stamps/Singer weekend at Miami fell at the same time and attending both would have been impossible.
Kenyon College 15K/yr Did not go for the interview they desired.
The Ohio State University Maximus 5K/yr about one half the instate tuition.
congrats to your d! thanks for posting her great results readytoretire—care to share your d’s stats so we know how she qualified for these merit awards.
@lindz126 35ACT SS was all she sent for scores, rank about 5 of 111 at a prep school, took a rigorous schedule with lots of APs, nothing extraordinary with her ECs, took 2 courses at one of the above schools last summer, achieved As, and had the transcript forwarded, took 3 dual courses with another of the above schools, pretty extensive volunteering
FWIW, my D got $8500 a year from U of Delaware. OOS, 2050 SAT, ~3.35 GPA (and honors college acceptance). Her friend with roughly the same stats got $10K in engineering (also honors acceptance). I had heard UD gave good awards, and they did. This is MERIT since neither family applied for aid.
Ohio University Admissions
Gateway Trustee Award Four-year renewable discount of $6,000 applied to
the non-Ohio resident surcharge. To be eligible, students must earn a
minimum g.p.a. of 3.0 (4.0 scale), AND either a minimum ACT composite
score of 25 or a combined math and critical reading SAT score of at
least 1130.
Central Michigan University -another school w/Div 1 sports in the Mid-America Conference ~ instate tuition w/a 2.7 unweighted high school gpa.
Can’t go to Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech ~ consider Michigan Tech. If you can get there and you don’t mind a whole lot of snow (it’s in the upper peninsula) they’ll give you a very good deal.
One last thing to add…this may be of help to those with kids graduating 2014 & beyond.
For those who are academically competitive and wish to be considered for merit awards, many schools have early application deadlines October-December 1st (usually)
Just wanted to point out that despite rhetoric, there is sometimes a fuzzy line between need and merit when determining aid. So, a financially very need student who is also a spectacular student will at some schools be offered more aid than they would be if they barely made it onto the admissions list. Likewise, a very financially needy student who is a stellar student might nudge out another stellar student whose family can easily pay college costs. This isn’t usually stated openly and it will vary from institution to institution.
The point in my mentioning that is that students who are offered an opportunity to compete for merit aid even if it won’t be enough should go for it and then try to get it enhanced if they really want to go to that school. I remember looking at my son’s financial aid offers which were amazing and seeing that one of his favored schools was a little lower and would make it harder for me to restart after a major illness. I called the finaid office to ask if they could match MIT’s offer since my son was seriously considering the other college (but didn’t ultimately go there). That school looked up his academic records (basis for merit, not need) and bumped him up to the top level of aid so that money would not influence his choice of school since he had several very generous full ride offers.
Also, and this is obvious but I want to point it out, don’t be flattered by merit aid over need based aid. Many of the most selective schools don’t offer merit aid. The only advantage of merit aid other than prestige on a resume possibly is that if your family circumstances improve, it won’t be affected typically. However, if you struggle academically, it can be gone and leave you with limited resources for school. I’d rather see my son on need based aid, knowing that I’ll likely have to pay more for his upperclassmen years than to see him possibly lose aid and have to leave school if he stumbled academically. Also remember that students with perfect high school records can fail or at least struggle in most selective schools. Now, if you lose merit aid but still qualify for need based aid, you might be okay. Just think it through.
Back to what made this thread useful…dd received these merit scholarships during this admissions cycle - all are 4 yr renewable with GPA requirements and not need based - her stats are 3.9UW/4.6W, 710cr/800m/640w
Pitt (OOS) - 19K (combination of UHC scholarship and engineering school scholarship)
Rutgers (IS) - 10K (note: this scholarship is URM-based merit given to dd for engineering school only, if she went into A&S or Bio, drops to $3.5K)
NEU - 20K
Rochester - 14K
CWRU - 25.5K
Adding the following merit info for my D. Stats: 35 ACT, good leadership and EC’s, highest GPA group, 2 of 350; Most of these were granted in the fall during EA season. We do not qualify for any need based aid.
Northeastern - University Scholar, full tuition $42,000 per year
BU - Presidential Scholar, $20,000 per year (applied RD)
WPI - Presidential Scholarship, $22,000 per year
Providence College - St. Dominic Scholarship, full tuition
UT-Austin (Engineering) - $5000 (half tuition, instate)
At NEU, BU, Providence and WPI, she is in the top % of applicants. She received no merit dollars at her academic match acceptances - NYU, Rice.
We can compile a huge list of schools which may actually not help much. What I’d like to propose is that people post a list of links to college scholarship pages that show merit grants and what it takes to qualify for them. For example, Ohio University (Athens, OH) is a public school, but gives automatic aid for certain SAT/GPA/Rank combinations, and also gives extra money for out-of-state students:
[Resource</a> Not Found](<a href=“http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/schol...scholfresh.cfm]Resource”>http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/schol...scholfresh.cfm)
[The</a> Gateway Award Program: Ohio University Admissions](<a href=“http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/gateway/]The”>http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/gateway/)
Also especially interesting is Southwestern University’s Merit Calculator for determining in advance how much merit money they’ll give you:
<a href=“http://southwestern.edu/admission-fi...olarships.html[/url]”>http://southwestern.edu/admission-fi...olarships.html</a>
[url=<a href=“http://www.pengepungen.dk/forbrugslaan.aspx]forbrugsl”>http://www.pengepungen.dk/forbrugslaan.aspx]forbrugsl</a>
UAB (University of Alabama @ Birmingham)
accepts apps and gives merit until May 1 for oos students (as long as funds are available) Deadline for the honors colleges however are December 1.
National merit, achievement and hispanic scholars:
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Full tuition, required fees, and housing (up to 15 credit hours per semester) for a total of eight semesters (fall and spring)
A one-time $2,500 stipend to be used for experiential learning (Study Away, internships, co-ops, etc.)
<hr>
ACT/SAT and GPA scholarships (automatic) OUT OF STATE
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Blazer Elite Scholarship
$15,000
Based on academic achievement (28-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Gold Scholarship
$10,000
Based on academic achievement (26-27 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
Blazer Pride Scholarship
$5,000
Based on academic achievement (24-25 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA)
<hr>
ACT/GPA automatic IN STATE (December 1st deadline)
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Presidential Scholarships, Presidential Recognition Awards, and Endowed Scholarships
From $7,000 to full tuition (up to 15 credit hours per term), required fees, and on-campus housing
Based on academic achievement (33-36 ACT and at least 3.0 GPA) and submission of the supplemental scholarship application sent to you if you were admitted to UAB by December 1. These scholarships are highly competitive and limited in number.
Golden Excellence Scholarship
$7,000
Based on academic achievement (28-32 ACT and at least 3.3 GPA)
Collegiate Honors Scholarship
$4,000
Based on academic achievement (25-27 ACT and at least 3.5 GPA)
UAB Breakthrough Scholarship
$2,500
Based on academic achievement (24 ACT and at least 3.5 GPA)
UAB Academic Achievement Scholarship
$1,000
Based on academic achievement
24-27 ACT and 3.0-3.49 GPA or 28-32 ACT and 3.0-3.29 GPA
there are many other competitive scholarships (honors, dept, athletic etc) that can be stacked but those are not automatic
Many of the private Us are not so transparent as to how they award their merit awards. Only one U our S applied to (an OOS public U) gave automatic full-tuition to all NMFs, U of Az. Az State U offered similar merit. Not positive they still do, as it was in 2006.
johngflynn - there are a couple of threads that have listed those automatic scholarships based on stats. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a>
Pitt would have never been on our radar if people hadn’t mentioned it here as being good with merit - online there is a little mention about potential for merit from $2000 to full ride but there is no guarantee or statement of certain stats = certain $$, but in the end - Pitt has been the most generous to both of my kids.
Miami U is great for in-state (OH). I wonder if anybody has mentioned. Lots of privately funded scholsrships. Combo of few (or many) might cover full tuition. Great Returning Students awards - applicable starting with 2nd year.
This is IT for us… The last of 3 kids all on FULL MERIT SCHOLARSHIPS! Her results from this cycle that is noteworthy:
UMaryland - Banneker-Key Scholarship (full tuition, room & board and book allowance)
WPI - Foissie Scholarship (full tuition, and book allowance)
Northeastern - University Scholars (full tuition)
UMiami - Singer Scholarship (full tuition)
She also got into USC, WUSTL, Vanderbilt, with smaller scholarships and automatic full tuition/COA scholarships for National Merit Finalist at ASU, UCF, Alabama. Stats: 35 ACT, 780 Math2, 770 Physics SAT2, Valedictorian, good ECs, Engineering major.
wow, impressive krug, all three kids on full merit scholarships, congrats!
Thanks!! Lots of hard work and of course, luck, no secrets. Our oldest is graduating in a few weeks and we have the privilege of paying for medical school. This is not sarcasm, we are thrilled that she received an acceptance and we have saved $$ from undergrad to be able to help out.
CC was a big help in our research of schools. We had one full tuition (plus a 3K stipend), one full cost of attendance (including personal expenses, travel costs, and 12K for travel abroad or summer research), and one tuition, room and board (plus book stipend). So grateful!!
S1 '12 had full ride, tuition, room and board, D1 '13 had full tuition plus 2 addl scholarships covering housing. Hopeful S2 '18 has similar good fortune too, yes it is work.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using CC
Well, since we’re talking money, my son got:
half off tuition at Tulane and $10K a year off at Northeastern. It’s not as impressive as Krug and others, but since we didn’t ask for the money, it looks good to us. Needless to say, my son is attending Tulane in the fall.