<p>Hey I was really hoping someone could point me in the right direction for some good schools (top 30? 40?) that I would have a competitive chance at receiving a full tuition scholarship for. I'm hoping to major in Biology</p>
<p>GPA : 3.98 (1 B in 8th Grade that was high school level and showed up on transcript)
SAT I score: 800 CR, 800W, 750M (one sitting) = 2350
SAT II Score : 790 on BioM
Rank : school doesn't rank </p>
<p>AP Classes taken
AP Biology and AP Government</p>
<p>Current Schedule
AP Chemistry
AP English
AP World
AP Stat
AP Physics C Mech/E&M
AP BC Calc</p>
<p>Extracurricular</p>
<p>USABO Semifinalist
AIME Qualifer ( Scored 5 on it)
1st Place in County Physics Competition : Division Golf Ball Barrage
2nd Place in Counter Physics Competition : Division Shuttle Arm
Awarded Best leadership at Botball Robotics competition
UMD State math competition Finalist (results pending)
2nd place in JETS National Engineering Design Challenge
BYG National Scholarship winner (2x times)
etc,etc</p>
<p>Pres of Env. Club
VP of Bio Club
Pres/Founder of Exploratory Math Club
CoCaptain of Quizbowl
A-team for Math Team
in Science/Math/and English honors Society
Founder/Prez of History Honors society
etc,etc</p>
<p>Florida International University will give full cost of attendance. So will University of Central Florida and Hofstra University. Theres a lot of state schools that will go crazy for those stats. I believe University of Miami may give you free tuition</p>
<p>Top schools aren’t great sources for big merit because all of their students have high stats. You can apply to a few and hope that you’ll win one, but also apply to some schools that will give you assured full tuition scholarships for your stats.</p>
<p>Do you have any hooks? URM? from a state that doesn’t send many students to top schools? </p>
<p>As a bio major, will you be premed?</p>
<p>What was your PSAT score? </p>
<p>If you get a free tuition scholarship, will your parents pay the other $15k for room, board, books, fees, etc?</p>
<p>I sadly don’t have many hooks. And I did not do well enough on the PSAT to garner NMSF status. I would be applying as a white male. </p>
<p>My parents would definitely pay for the rest, but I’m really trying to find a decent school that I could have a shot at getting good merit aid at. I’m looking at schools like Rice,University of Maryland,Tulane money-wise and plan to apply to big-name schools (ivy’s etc) in order to see how much financial aid they will give me.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I want to do premed or research yet.</p>
<p>I hope that some of you guys can give good suggestions. And I don’t mean top TOP, I mean like decently reputable schools in which I can get a good education for very little money.</p>
<p>lol…is this a joke? NYU is the poster child of lousy aid/merit. It does sometimes give good merit, but only if there is high need with high stats.</p>
<p>Just keep scrolling down through this forum, and you will hit on a whole bunch of threads on merit-based aid. However, if you are going to be picky about the ranking, that is a whole different story. Think long and hard about how far down the USNWR “tiers” you are willing to go, and about just exactly how much aid you need. If you do indeed need a true full ride, the money is out there, but may be at a place you have never heard of before.</p>
<p>As for Tulane, U of MD, and the rest, sit down with your parents and run the Net Price Calculator at each website, and carefully read through their aid policies. If they are going to expect your family to pay more than the $15k your parents can afford, you will have to keep looking.</p>
<p>Merit aid works like this - Harvard, Stanford etc. no. All of their students are already merited enough to get in. Duke, WashU… sure, if you could get into Harvard, they would give you almost free education. UMiami, Case… sure, if you could get into Duke, Nortwestern, they would give you a lot of merit aids. University of Tulsa, UAlabama… sure, if you are top candidate at UMiami, Case. </p>
<p>I hope you see my point, although it might not be accurate. If you want big merit scholarships, you have to apply to schools that you are in top 1% or some decimal percentage of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>The thread I linked previously contains all the upper-tier schools offering full ride scholarships that have been identified via the collective wisdom of this forum (plus some not-so-upper-tier). If you want suggestions beyond that, they will be lower-tier schools.</p>
<p>Full rides at top schools are extremely competitive. You might consider selecting a safety school from this list of guaranteed merit awards (with the understanding that guaranteed full rides are not given by top tier schools):</p>
<p>“lol…is this a joke? NYU is the poster child of lousy aid/merit. It does sometimes give good merit, but only if there is high need with high stats.”</p>
<p>NYU can be very generous when it has a student it really wants and this is a very desirable student. I would not be surprised if NYU gave him/ her a lot of money but it’s a school that’s very difficult to predict.</p>
<p>Almost all aid given by NYU has a need component. </p>
<p>When it comes to purely non-need-based awards, NYU gives them to 3.5% of freshmen with no need, average amount $7K. Many of those awards are not academic awards but rather based on talent or some other criteria. So the odds of an academic non-need-based full ride have to be close to nil.</p>
<p>Bob, I do know of someone who got a full academic ride with no need component at NYU. I also know of a case where scholarship money far outweighed need. They sometimes seem to define need very generously when they really want a student. Like I said, I wouldn’t count on it but I wouldn’t rule the school out before even applying-- I would just encourage a student with those stats to also have some assured safeties on the list.</p>
<p>Make a list of those schools that interest you. Eliminate the ones with no merit awards like the ivies and some of the LACs since you have a ZERO chance of getting merit from them. Then start looking at who has the money. Your stats are such that you stand a good chance though not a certainty for awards such as the UPitt Chancellor’s Award, Fordham’s full tuition awards, etc. Read up on what they pay out and the chance of getting tem. Full ride is tough, but there are some full tuition awards out there. </p>
<p>Your stats are up there so that you are in the running for some the nation’s most selective merit awards. They are more difficult to get than getting accepted to HPY, but you have the first step covered with excellence in academic with your classroom and test score numbers. SOme such schools:
Davidson<br>
Uof Chicago
CIT
Duke
Emory
Johns Hopkins (half tuition, I believe)
UNC Morehead
Rice,
Vanderbilt
Swarthmore
UVA Jefferson Scholars
Wake FOrest Rynoolds
Wash U in SL
Wash & Lee
Georgia Tech Presidential
Rhodes College Bellingrath
USC
Villanova</p>
<p>This list is just off the top of my head and not by any stretch comprehensive, but give you some idea that there are selective schools out there that have hefty awards. I think BC has limited half tution awards and GW has some heavy money in the merit game too.</p>
<p>If NYU is on your list, by all means, give it a go, but as BobWallace shows with the stats, it doesn’t look so good. Call any school that you like, call the admissions office and ask outright what full freight, pure merit awards they have and what their largest awards are, AFTER you look on the site and see what you can find. I would ask if those are the only ones and about how many are given out each year. When it comes to NYU, I know some pretty top notch kids going there, and I don’t know any with bragging rights to substantial merit money, and I’ve never seen any listed in 15 years worth of programs in the NY areas. So not saying they aren’t giving, but I’ve seen more kids get the JHU and BC awards and there are danged few of those given out, than any substantial merit from NYU. The only ones I know getting merit from NYU would get some as part of their fin aid package and it has not been substantial. Statistically, more kids do get merit of some sort from them that are not getting need too, but I sure haven’t seen them. And the numbers show that these pickings are meager. But the chances are not good at any school with name recognition in terms of getting substantial merit award, so if a school is on your interest list and there is merit there, go for it.</p>
<p>Thank you for the extremely comprehensive list.</p>
<p>If anyone has any experience receiving some of these full tuition scholarships, I would appreciate some tips/stats for the people who went there.</p>
<p>I think I have a solid shot at a lot of these scholarships but I’m not really sure what more to add to my application besides 2 more SAT II’s and my APs</p>
<p>For me, a full tuition scholarship to a good school > Ivy league, but if I don’t end up getting a good merit aid package, my second choice would be an Ivy league with financial aid</p>