Schools with Generous Merit Aid For Above Average Students

<p>Elmhurst College in Illinois gives out automatic scholarships when they accept you if your grades/SAT or ACT are good enough. Not a full ride though.</p>

<p>ya google "scholarship calculator" and you find what some schools will give you, just put in ur info. i know alma and baylor have one. i have 28 act and 3.9 uw gpa so our stuff would be about the same, urs might be slightly higher. i think alma would have given me quite a bit and i think baylor was like 10k/yr</p>

<p>Lynchburg College, Emory and Henry both in Virginia. University of Richmond has an impressive merit program.</p>

<p>Try Hanover College in Indiana, Wittenberg University in Ohio and Denison University in Ohio.</p>

<p>Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia is very generous.Go to their site and click on financial aid to see the various awards. Hampden-Sydney</a> College, Virginia</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions thus far everyone, I'll be looking into them.</p>

<p>As to Granny, I have a question - I'm from Nebraska and I've been accepted to UNL, but I don't see a scholarship calculator on their website!</p>

<p>McDaniel College in Westminster MD - my D got a good merit scholarhip with an equal amount of need grant on top of it, with a 3.67 and she didn't submit SAT's because of their SAT optional.</p>

<p>Lebanon Valley offers automatic merit aid depending on your class rank--1/2 off tuition for top 10%, plus other awards for top 30%. It's on their website.</p>

<p>radannie, does wooster base its FA on weighted or unweighted gpa?</p>

<p>Then, there is another process that can be applied to gpa, and that is removing certain courses from the calculation - PE, orchestra, ect. Does Wooster do that too?</p>

<p>So in talking about GPA, in general, there is ...</p>

<ol>
<li><p>weighted (from the HS)</p></li>
<li><p>unweighted</p></li>
<li><p>bare weighted</p></li>
<li><p>bare unweighted</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The latter two are sort of (dirty little) secrets that I only accidently came upon while talking to a Valpo admissions person. I surprised they removed lots of classes.
by bare, I mean that certain elective classes are removed.</p>

<p>I am not sure but it seems colleges are calculating their own GPAs, using an unweighted scale (but still taking into consideration class levels as in AP, etc), and removing certain electives (such as gym, art, etc.) and using only the basic classes (English, Science, For. Language, Math, Social Studies)but it would best to contact the school directly.</p>

<p>try northeastern university, i know a friend there who got a $15,000 scholarship. but i think the schools somewhere around $35,000 a year so that doesnt really do much..</p>

<p>Hi Walt.</p>

<p>Take a look at Drew University in Madison, NJ. Also, if you haven't already done so, spend some time reading the long-standing thread "Schools known for good merit aid" in the Parents' Forums.</p>

<p>UNL</a> Admissions | Out-of-State Scholarship Estimation</p>

<p>The Nebraska scholarship calculator is for partial waiver of out-of-state tuition.</p>

<p>For good out of state students, the University of South Carolina is one to check out. My son was a good, but not great student. (B+ to A- average with a 1400 SAT on the old system). They ended up offering him money that we didn't expect...providing in-state tuition AND money on top of that. The net result was that had he gone there, our total cost would have been around $3000 (yes, that would include room/board/books too). A great deal. I often wish he would have chosen it :)
I've heard of others on this board with similar stories. Doing a search on this board about this school should yield more info. Pretty nice campus, and lots of school spirit, and definitely better weather than Nebraska! (I went to U of Nebraska and am from there so I know first hand!)</p>

<p>Anyway, it seems they are trying to expand their diversity by drawing more out of state students, plus seem to reward certain types of ECs (ie Eagle Scout).</p>

<p>Agree with curiouser about South Carolina. My D had the grades (3.9+ GPA) but only a fair test taker with a 1250 SAT.</p>

<p>She is now a sophomore at South Carolina with instate tuition and money on top of it. The school's attempt to attract better students is working as indicated by the fact that the average SAT score is now a record high so the bar is continually rising. With his grades and SAT he should qualify for much money. </p>

<p>D loves the place, has had no trouble adapting, has MANY friends, joined a sorority and finished her first year with a 3.95 GPA.</p>

<p>You should SERIOUSLY look at it, but hurry. Last year they cut off rolling admissions in January due to record response and matriculation.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input everyone, I think I will end up applying to USC, because it seems as if they give good financial aid packages. I'm from Nebraska, so I have the benefit of UNL's in-state tuition which total cost of attendance is right around $13,000, but I only want to stay in Nebraska as a last resort. Also, because the tuition is so low at UNL, they're stingy about scholarships.</p>

<p>I'm looking for places I may be able to go outside of Nebraska for under $20,000 (After factoring in scholarships, etc.).</p>

<p>Please keep them coming!</p>

<p>umm, i'm assuming any school where your stats are way above average. i was given two full scholarships to colleges back in the day...but that's because my sat score alone was about 400 points higher than the school's average.</p>

<p>I know of several people who've gotten good merit-based scholarships from Trinity University in San Antonio.</p>

<p>I have to second the nomination for Hampden Sydney in Virginia. My husband and his brothers got excellent aid (both merit and need-based grants), and a very good education. One of them is a trauma surgeon now. An all male school is not for everyone, but the social scene was pretty good even though it was rural, there was a lot of socializing between schools...we have good memories from there, and he graduated with very little debt. He got no help from his parents. It was the best education they could get for the money.</p>

<p>check the colleges on this website, some have been mentioned:</p>

<p>Colleges</a> That Change Lives</p>