Recently, about one-tenth of USC’s freshman class got half-tuition merit scholarships. There are some more juicy ones
<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1213/USCFreshmanProfile2012.pdf”>here.</a>
With the ending of free tuition at Cooper Union making news, this thread will be helpful to parents and students looking for merit scholarships.
Tulane is wonderful about merit scholarships, Dean’s Honor and Paul Tulane are full tuition and I think there are 75 of each given. UT Dallas McDermott is a deal that can’t be beat. Stamps Foundation sponsors a few at a wide variety of institutions (from Michigan to Cal Tech to Miami and lots of others) that is extremely generous but verrrrrry competitive. USC, Vanderbilt, WashU, Emory are top 25 schools (according to USNWR) that give full tuition merit scholarship for kids that have high stats (since there are so many, they have to have something special).
It’s humbling to go to these scholarship interviews/events and meet so many talented, bright seniors competing for the very few spots, there is definitely an element of luck.
I hope the following will be useful to others. All of those are automatic (unless essay required which makes them competitive then), merit only and received with acceptances early as part of rolling or EA. DD had 3.92UW/4.0 and 5.54W/4.0. She had 28/31(super-scored) ACT and is 10/315 in ranks, very strong and unusual EC, amazing recommendations, multi-lingual, white but multi-ethnic used it heavily in her essays and in application, involves in rare/difficult sport, tons on volunteering and hobbies, some leadership roles. The only schools DD didnt receive any merit were Macalester and Carleton (she will be attending there for fall).
Truman State U (OOS) 7.5K (combo of OOS, academics and languages)
Valparaiso University ($22.5K board of directors)
St. Louis U ($16K dean’s)
Augustana College IL ($17K presidential + 3K Multi-Cultural (essay required))
Knox College ($15K Muelder’s + $3K social concerns (essay required))
Loyola U Chicago ($16K Damen’s),
Depaul U($16.5K presidential + 1.5K pathway to medical school(essay required))
Hendrix College ($20K academic + $5K Odyssey)
Beloit ($20.5K presidential)
College of Wooster ($17.5)
Kalamazoo College ($22.5K Trustee)
Centre College ($21K Faculty)
Lawrence U ($18K Trustee + $2K Global Awareness)
Denison U ($20K merit)
Look into Alabama … If he has 1330 he would get automatically 2/3 of out of state tuition… Moreover if he does engineering then the engineering dep will pick up remaining one third…
I haven’t read much of this thread so apologize if I am repeating much, but USC has very generous merit scholarships, at several levels, available to a good number of students. On top of that, they offer wonderful academics, arts, sports, etc., as well as numerous paid research and other opportunities, so it is really worth considering - just apply by Dec 1. DS received the Presidential Scholarship - 1/2 tuition, currently worth $22K, but will escalate each year if tuition rises. For a family with several kids to educate, in the band where we would not qualify for need based aid but would have a hard time paying the huge tuitions nowadays, it was a tremendous blessing.
CWRU offers the Bolton Scholarship for nursing majors
MIchelson Morley STEM Scholarship
University Scholarship. My son won this one and it is worth $92,000.
My son also applied for a Creative Arts Scholarship and that was worth full tuition on CWRU. Only a few of these are given out to theatre or music majors . It required an audition
on campus.
Other CWRU merit awards with additional requirements here:
[Scholarships</a> :: Case Western Reserve University](<a href=“Undergraduate Admission”>Undergraduate Admission)
Cleveland has nice neighborhoods like LIttle Italy and the area reminds me
of Cambridge MA. Older churches and beautiful architecture.
CWRU is also fantastic for any premedical or nursing student. AMAZING SCHOOL.
It’s worth noting that the amount of the scholarships is misleading. My D chose a school with the least $ amount but it covered tuition, room & board, with a book stipend. Her offer from other schools were for full tuition (and one came with an annual 3K stipend), all worth over $160K. The school she is matriculating to just happens to have lower tuition than the others. It’s all about what one pays out of pocket.
Looking for suggestions: Jr S 3.7 GPA unweighted (all honors and 3 AP classes ) … active extracurricular involved with all below all 3 years of HS and will continue senior year : 1- Varsity Lacrosse (looking to play club / intramural level in college)
2- bands - mainly tenor sax ( marching band, jazz , pep, school play PIT ) - leadership and good chairs . does not want marching band in college (as of now though mom thinks different ) … also plays clarinet, and some guitar and piano.
Good community service ( about 200 hours - after school program lacrosse /sports with children , playing sax at events like cancer runs etc ) .
Looking for school size 4000- maybe 15000 max ( middle would be optimal) .
Wants school spirit and sports to play part of social life - rah rah .
Prefers decent szie city ,very active night life with parties, fraternities , sports clubs, outside of campus if possible, school events … we are from a decent size town and used to lots of things to do .
Looking for merit money & and will qualify for decent amount of Finl Aid according to EFC’s .
Trying to find schools that would come close’ish to SUNY tuition / R&B rates…
On his list : Tulane , Lehigh , U Miami, Boston, Syracuse , GWU ( I went but dont think school for him ) , U Roch (?) , SUNY Binghamton & Buffalo /
Much smaller schools on my list are the Liberal Arts that are better known for FA and better graduation rates/ smaller student to professor ratio, quality education : Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, U Richmond .
Not sure about Bucknell & Colgate …
East Coast 'ish - North to South
Thanks for additional suggestions !
and he is pretty much undeclared major - business/ sciences?
also : forgot to add… act 30 (sat cr 620 / math 660 / writing 700 = 1980 - 3 sections / 1280 - 2 sections ) … he is retaking both this spring)
Not sure what has been said before but University of Pittsburgh was generous with me and a friend of mine who applied. Both are high stats (34 and 36 on ACT, high-ish SAT, good GPAs and ECs) and we both got full-tuition. I was invited to apply for the Chancellor’s (full ride) but did not get selected for an interview. Wonderful school, too!
Matthewcollege: If your son will qualify for a considerable amount of financial aid, I’d be concentrating on schools that meet full need in your search rather than concentrating on the merit aid component. A lot of students on this forum are concerned about merit aid because they do not qualify for any need based aid. But if your child will qualify for a lot of financial aid–and considering that many schools do not meet full need–I’d concentrate on trying to apply to schools that meet that need.
real quick question - is there a similar link called ‘Schools known for good need based aid’? this would be the ‘Meet 100 pct financial need’ club. a search did not yield such a thread.
Can anyone recommend some good merit aid schools for D1 to apply to next year? SAT 2080 (took once, no prep, taking again with prep); wGPA 4.5/4.0 with 6 AP’s, 3 more sr. year); class rank 3/325; solid EC’s - debate captain (state finalist), mock trial co-captain, youth symphony, etc… In CA but wants to explore northeast/DC, likely poli-sci/history major with aspirations for law school. Has Ivy League dreams but I’m looking at bang for the buck. Thank you in advance.
There is this list:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-18.html#post15895768[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-18.html#post15895768</a>
DGDZDad - check out University of Richmond, University of Pittsburgh & Temple University - excellent merit aid possibilities at each of these. Possibly some music money also if she will play in an ensemble. Also, if her SAT is over 1400 for CR + M, she will qualify for full tuition at U of Alabama (provided they will still offer that deal this coming year - hoping to hear any day on that). Good luck!
Lots of good information on this thread. Thank you all who’ve contributed.
My daughter has very high academic stats, plays vball for all four years. A couple of academic clubs and an NHS member. I don’t believe we will qualify for much or any “need-based” aide. So I am wondering if this list u posted appliesnto her. .
Jack,
GPA-4.0 uw
SAT-2220
ACT-32
SAT subject test-BioM- 760
4 years of Spanish
NHS
4 years of…
Your D has very good stats. Merit is based mostly on ACT or Math+CR of SAT with a strong GPA. ECs don’t usually matter much unless the merit is competitive and then they may be used for down=selection process.
What is your D’s Math + CR for her SAT?
How much can you pay each year? Since merit gets applied to “need” first, if you think that you won’t qualify for much/any need-based aid, then you need to find HUGE scholarships that will cover most of the costs, so that the remaining costs are affordable to you.
For instance: if you can pay $10k-15k per year, then your D will need a “full TUITION” scholarship so that your money can cover room, board, books, fees, etc. Your D could take a small student loan if there’s any uncovered expenses (or work a summer job).
As for your question on another thread about “free rides”: Calif is not a good place to be looking for “full rides” unless maybe at some unknown unranked school. Calif schools tend to either give need-based aid, or give some merit to bring costs down to about the cost of a UC (about $32k per year).
Schools like USC give half and full tuition (not full rides) to some students with ACT 35/36 or ACT equivalent. You’re going to have to look OOS.
What is her major and career goal?
Your D is going to have to apply to some schools that give HUGE ASSURED merit for her stats so that you’ll have a couple of financial safeties in your pocket…just in case.
A few large merit scholarships at California publics:
UCB: Drake (mechanical engineering majors only, full ride)
UCLA: Stamps (5 in-state, 5 out-of-state, full tuition)
CSULB: President’s (in-state only, full tuition + room (+ board if NMSF))
As you can see, they seem to be rather scarce.