@DCNatFan Thanks for the list and links, very helpful, but be aware that many of those merit awards are NOT automatic.
They are just listing min requirements to be considered for merit.
I canât wade through all this, but Case Western offered my son 17K his freshman year. he ended up staying in Ohio, and recently got his PhD in Nuclear Engineering at The Ohio State. he immediately had an offer for 120.000 starting in the Bay Area (CA) at a start up. I think Case was a great school that we never considered! Very very happy.
For example Ohio University.
DS received the Buckeye and Maximus scholarships at Ohio State, which total $16,500/yr, bringing OOS tuition down to ~$13,000/yr. ACT 33, GPA 3.93/4.29, strong ECs, and some national academic honors. (He also received an athletic scholarship that covered the rest of tuition plus a bit more.)
Thanks for the links @DCNatFan. My son just finished his Junior year as an OOS mechanical engineering student at University of Utah. He got a 4 year full tuition scholarship (~$30K/yr) with admission to Honors College. 33ACT 4.0 UWGPA. Utah is never mentioned on CC but IMO it is an excellent school and has been a really good fit for him. Like all schools it has its pluses and minuses. But adding world class skiing, honors and generous merit together it became a no brainer for him. In addition to the link below there are many scholarships in the various schools.
https://financialaid.utah.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/freshman/index.php
Note the gpa to keep the scholarships like this at the U of U is 3.6. That is a big risk for OOS rates to such a school. It might just be smarter to work on the instate rate reqs. I doubt a 33/4.0 will get full tuition now.
@Sybylla @rose135 That renewal criteria was also something that stood out to us initially, but its not too much of a worry for most top students when 3.6 is only the 66th percentile of all GPAs at the U, though for mechanical engineering 3.6 is more like the 85th percentile (https://www.obia.utah.edu/data/student-data/gpa-percentile/). When the 75th percentile ACT score for enrolled freshmen is 29, it shouldnât be too difficult to meet the renewal threshold for someone well above that (unless they become a ski bum).
D18 got full OOS tuition but not the presidential scholarship (tuition+fees+part of the room cost) this year with 4.0UW/35ACT despite the presidential scholarship having been shown on the NPC for her stats. So I think it has got a bit harder. However, she later won the Eccles full ride where the renewal GPA is only 3.5 (for her ballet major thatâs the 25th percentile). The U is a largely ignored school here in CA, many more kids we know are going to Oregon or Boulder where the merit aid is nowhere near as good (but they apparently perceive the politics to be more congenial). We would probably have overlooked it too, if it hadnât had one of the top ballet programs in the country.
Does anyone have any experience with Davidson College and their combo merit/athletic scholarships? My daughter has a 34 ACT, 94 unweighted GPA and a 97 weighted GPA and is a recruited athlete in a sport where the coach said there wasnât a lot of athletic scholarship money.
LMU in CA is pretty generous⊠I had 3.78/1500 and received $19k in merit aid.
I would love for people to define what they perceived as generous, LMU CA has a COA of $67K with tuition and fees being 48$K. 19K in merit leaves a 48K a year bill.
@Sybylla, for merit aid to qualify as âgenerous,â as far as I am concerned, it should reduce the overall cost of attendance to that of your in-state public school, at the absolute minimum.
In my experience, every school my son applied to that offered need-based or merit aid knew what we would be asked to pay at our in-state flagship. Some (those with the most generous need-based aid) will offer more if they believe you truly qualify, but it was uncanny how many schools came within a few thousand dollars of our most likely in-state option. I think many schools utilize powerful algorithms to determine a lot of this stuff.
I agree with your suggestion that too often folks focus on the amount of the aid theyâve been awarded and not the net cost of attendance. If all I can afford is a $25k automobile, what difference does it make if the local luxury dealer is offering me $30k off a $70k car?
I also think students have a very different perspective than parents LOL.
@Sybylla âNote the gpa to keep the scholarships like this at the U of U is 3.6.â
And it sounds like once you go below the minimum you lose any future merit aid (unless you have a successful appeal). I would think having a financial back-up plan would be smart for anyone relying on merit aid to fund most, if not all, of their COA?
@LoveTheBard Was your Dâs Davidson merit aid called anything? or was it just listed as $25,000 merit aid? Davidsonâs website is not clear about merit aid. It makes it look like they have the named awards (Belk, Pepper Art, etc) but then sometimes offer âotherâ amounts as well.
@homerdog - One could call it the âBelk Consolation Awardâ or perhaps more alliteratively, the âBelk Booby Prize.â (In reality, it probably had a name more official name like âChambers Scholarshipâ or something of the sort.) Pretty much everybody that was a finalist for the Belk (full ride) Scholarship that came for the weekend and was not among the 8 Belk winners was awarded a $25K scholarship.)
They now seem to have a whole host of scholarships â some automatically offered by Admissions, some specific to area of study or leadership that require applications, some geographic, etc. Theyâve changed it up a bit since last yearâŠthey now list them a whole bunch of scholarships (some with exact amounts, some more nebulous) on their under Nomination/Competition/Application/General:
https://www.davidson.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/financial-aid/scholarships
@Sybylla if you fall below a 3.6 you have a semester to bring it back up. And it is a cumulative GPA so there is less chance one bad semester will put your scholarship in jeopardy. @Twoin18 congrats to your daughter on the Eccles scholarship! I heard the dance program is very good at Utah but didnât realize it was ranked among the top in the country. And I agree with your opinion that students who receive the scholarship likely will continue to do well. My son has kept a 4.0 through his 3 years. No doubt he has worked his butt off for those grades. (and skis a lot less than he would like to!) We loved Boulder but the price difference was huge, higher tuition and much less merit. While I was trying to figure out how we could afford it there he had no intention of going into debt when he didnât have to and easily chose Utah. It was a very good decision.
Hereâs from my experienceâŠ
Schools that give good merit aid to freshmen:
- Stetson University - got $33,000/year presidential scholarship + some other ones
- Hofstra University - got $29,000/year presidential scholarship + some other ones
- Hollins University - got $28,000/year presidential scholarship
- Nova Southeastern University - got $18,000/year from a combination of scholarships
- George Mason University - got $12,000/year as an out-of-state student
- Regent University - got $9,000/year + invitation to compete for full-tuition
- Liberty University - got $4,500/year + some other ones
- James Madison University - pretty sure got something as well
Schools that give good merit aid to transfers:
- University of Miami - got $15,000/year presidential scholarship
- Clark University - got $20,000/year transfer scholarship
- American University - got $10,000/year Phi Theta Kappa scholarship
Some other schools also offer PTK scholarships - Northeastern $5,000; George Washington $7,500;
Boston University $20,000; Colorado State $6,000; others.
Stats: 4.0 College GPA, 4.0 High School GPA, 1310 SAT, lots of extracurricular activities
University of New Mexico at Albquerque
University of Central Arkansas has good merit. Out of state students get in state rates if they live on campus and the COA is then a little under $16,000. A 31 ACT or 1420 SAT and a 3.5 gets you a $12,000 award. Even a 27 ACT gets $6000 off.
http://uca.edu/scholarships/files/2018/05/1920-Freshman-Academic-Scholarship-Renewal-combined.pdf
We visited and it was really nice! DD would gladly go there if it was closer to home.
Wow. Rice University just announced their âRice Investmentâ plan effective Fall 2019. It is going to be âno loanâ for any student receiving financial aid, and is giving full tuition/room/board for families with incomes of $65,000 or less (and typical assets); full tuition scholarships for families with incomes of up to $130,000 a year (and typical assets) and at least half tuition of incomes up to $200,000 a year (with typical assets). I know that they did no include home equity in their equation when my kids attended. Great place and great deal!!!