Schools known for good merit aid

@nymother1996 Yes they do: https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-aid/scholarships/scholarships-0

Miami is private, so in or out of state isn’t really relevant the way it is for out-of-state publics.

In general, I highly recommend going directly to the website of any university your child is interested in and look at what they offer in the way of merit money.

Just Google “[school name] merit scholarships” - this is what came up for Miami:
http://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/new-freshmen-or-first-year-students/index.html

My son who did not apply for financial aid received amazing merit aid offers from Case Western and Lafayette. He didn’t apply for them, didn’t know they existed – the offers came with the acceptance letters. Both would have halved or more than halved the total cost inclusive of room and board and made it cheaper than our in-state public option.

Citivas - what were his stats? Thanks!

It does matter. Florida residents are eligible for a resident’s grant, currently $3300 per year, plus BF kids can use that (this year for those at the top level it was $6500 plus $600 for books, but it will drop again next year). There are also a lot of local scholarships that can only be used at an instate school.

It all adds up.

Some Florida privates will accept the Florida residents grants and BF.

Arizona State University offered DD a very generous merit aid package.

Thanks for the correction, @twoinanddone, about Miami. I was actually trying to address a question from an out-of-state parent (@nymother1996).

Right, but everyone thinks “Oh, a school is private so everyone is treated the same as far as cost goes” and that often isn’t true if there are instate grants or scholarships. This might mean there is more school money to give to OOS students. It might not

there are a few (major) scholarships in the western region and while one (Daniels)can be used at any school, the scholarship goes a lot farther at a school in the region, public or private.

Our son has applied and been accepted at UA Huntsville. Based on his ACT scores, he qualifies for full tuition. Honestly, UAH came into our radar because of their merit scholarship. While that doesn’t include room and board, it’s worth almost $82,000 as an out of state student. Also, they have a simple application for additional scholarships but he won’t know about those until spring.

Southern IL Univ Carbondale is also offering about $24,000 over 4 years in merit but more importantly, they’ve invited him to compete for their top scholarships that include a full ride. We’ll see how that works out. They also have done away with OOS fees so all tuition is now in state rates - that $6000 per year brings the in state rate down to $3000 per year. There’s a general scholarship application that matches the student to additional scholarships that they may qualify for but then each scholarship has to be applied for separately.

We have some savings but honestly, scholarships are super important to making it all come together for us and he definitely wants to stay in the southeast. IL is an option only because he has an uncle and grandfather within a couple of hours.

Is there a recent or updated list of meets full needs schools? TIA

How much was he offered at Case Western? My son has a 4.0 on a 4.0 HOW all SO classes and 35/ACT

Adrian College (Michigan) offers great merit aid - my d was offered $20k/yr based on her ACT (33) and another $6k/yr if she shows up for scholarship day.

There was a great article about this in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Something to look at are RENEWAL rates. Many colleges give excellent merit awards to freshman but then withdraw them for various reasons. So you need to carefully examine the terms of the award, especially if it makes a particular college affordable or not.

ambkeegan, our son was offered I think $22,000 at CWRU with a 33 and a 3.9

@UIUC9395, congrats on your son’s award from Case Western! I know someone who received a similar award with like stats, so I think CWRU is generous with the merit. Just to confirm, you believe your son’s award was strictly merit?

@SAM-I-Am if you look at past Case acceptance threads merit $ is often posted. They have merit $ that is non-needs based.

@Sam-I-Am Yep, but it is not stacked. My daughter received a 31,000 merit scholarship this year, but it was not stacked with financial aid so in a sense it replaced the financial aid we would have received. This was confirmed by a call to the financial aid office.

Oops, sorry, tagged the wrong person—@MA2012

Florida State has great merit aid. Out of state tuition waivers bring tuition under 7k for high stat OOS students. Last year I think you needed a 31 ACT and a certain gpa calculated on their scale. Nice honors program, gorgeous campus, super welcoming atmosphere, huge variety of good academic programs and wonderful undergrad research opportunities. Moves up in rankings every year, recently named #4 best value for OOS in Kiplinger. I am the proud Bostonian parent of two very happy current students.
i will say the location is not the most accessible. But Tallahassee airport is 10 minutes from campus, and the huge tuition savings more than compensate for the hundreds of dollars per year spent on plane tickets.