Texas Tech National Merit visit report

Paying for College National Merit Aid
1

We did a National Merit visit at Texas Tech this week with my D and I wanted to share some of the info we learned about their National Merit Scholarship, which is super generous.

The scholarship covers full Cost of Attendance (currently $25,776) for eight semesters. They take out tuition, fees, room, and board, and the rest is refunded to the student to use toward books, transportation, and personal expenses. If I’ve calculated correctly, the refund right now would be $5,620 for the year. The scholarship will increase along with any increase in the COA.

If the student moves off campus (freshmen are required to live on campus), then they take out tuition and fees and the rest is refunded to the student to pay for their off-campus housing and food.

If the student does study abroad during the summer, they will cover that expense in addition to the eight semesters of scholarship.

The website says that a scholarship student must take 15 hours per semester, but what it doesn’t say is that AP and dual credits can be applied each semester to bring the total to 15. So the student could take fewer classes each semester and then add in credits from high school as needed.

A 3.5 GPA is required to keep the scholarship, but there is a one-semester grace period if GPA falls below that. If the GPS falls below 3.5 in any future semester, the scholarship will be lost, but nothing will need to be paid back. The National Merit coordinator said that so far they have not had anyone in danger of losing the scholarship except one boy who thought he didn’t need to actually attend classes.

We asked whether a student could apply remaining semesters of the scholarship toward graduate study if he/she took fewer than eight semesters to graduate. They said right now that is not possible, but they are working on making it possible as early as next year. The student would have to do their graduate study at the university, not, for example, at the nearby Health Science Center.

Our National Merit visit was very well organized and we were treated like VIPs. Students drove us from one appointment to another, and also took us on a driving campus tour (we did walk through a few buildings such as the library and rec center). D had an appointment with a biology professor and the Dean of the Honors College, and we had lunch with a current student. All of the students who took us around were current National Merit scholarship recipients, so we got to ask them lots of questions.

There are lots of opportunities for undergraduate research and when the Honors College Dean learned that D is already doing undergraduate research at the university where she is dual-enrolled, he offered to set up meetings for her with several professors during her first fall semester, so that she could jump right into a research lab her first spring semester. Undergraduate research can be done for credit or pay ($8.00/hr). The pay for undergraduate research is in addition to the scholarship.

We also toured the new Honors dorm which just opened this year. It is “pod-style” (you’ll have to look at the layouts on the website to understand what that means!). The majority of the rooms are double rooms, and eight rooms share a single-gender community bathroom. There is also a single bathroom in each pod that is gender neutral. Rooms have their own thermostats.

My D did not particularly like the climate of Lubbock, but all in all, we were very impressed with the opportunities that Texas Tech has to offer.

2

Thanks for the visit update…

3

Texas Tech’s NMF package is one of the best out there. We toured last year and it came in second to University of New Mexico for my son.

4

@bctnln1059 What didn’t your dd like about Lubbock’s climate? My ds is looking at Texas Tech and will go spend a week there this summer. Several friends have said, “It’s Lubbock!” while saying they are unsure about Tech, but they haven’t even been there or elaborated on what they don’t like about Lubbock. What were your D’s concerns?

5

She just likes green grass, green trees, etc. The climate in Lubbock was more dry. That was all. She did like the college itself and the opportunities available.

6

@bctnln1059 ,
Where did you daughter decide to attend? What other schools were in the running for her?

7

She hasn’t decided yet–she is graduating in 2019. TTU allowed us to do a National Merit visit even though the Semifinalist list won’t be announced until this August. She is also considering Texas A&M and UT Dallas.

8

I’m from the Dallas are but I’ve lived in Lubbock for over 20 years. While the climate is not ideal, this city has the friendliest people! Also, I had never appreciated how beautiful the campus is until we started college tours for my D18.

9

@bctnln1059
Sorry, I missed that she graduates in 2019! What major is she interested in? Are y’all going to the TAMU national scholars overnight program? Have you toured UT Dallas yet? Thank you for sharing your Texas Tech report!

10

It looks like my OP didn’t mention when she graduates, so it’s understandable! We’ll probably do some kind of TAMU NM visit in the fall, but not the summer ones because she doesn’t want to go when class is not in session. We’ve done regular tours of both TAMU and UTD.

11

Texas schools (UT is an exception) are very generous to national merit scholars, they don’t need to attend TTU or live in Lubbock for free education, there are better options.

12

@CupCakeMuffins, as a TTU alumni who has family members who still live in Lubbock, I disagree with your message. There are other options in Texas such as UTD and UNT that have good NMF packages that are in different environments than TTU and Lubbock but you can get an excellent education at TTU and Lubbock is not a bad place to live. TTU has all the trappings of a big time school - large, competitive sports programs, thriving greek system, school oriented community. The people of Lubbock are some of the nicest you will ever meet. It does have a low cost of living. It has restaurants, clubs, music scene, sports and a airport (which A&M does not have). I know very successful people that have graduated from there in the past as well as the present that are doing extremely well. TTU is not for everybody but it should not be arbitrarily dismissed. They do offer one of, if not the best, NMF packages in the country.

13

I’m only saying that merit scholars have better options, for ones who doesn’t have similar options, there is nothing wrong with TTU. I’m not saying that you won’t be successful if you picked TTU.

14

I have to concur with GTAustin, Tech has some amazing programs and their honors program is excellent. Its a great college atmosphere and their academics are very high quality. We would have considered it for our daughter, but she wants to go into nursing and their program requires you to transfer to TTHSCU after your sophomore year. The NM scholarship doesn’t follow the student to TTHSCU so she is actually going out of state. My oldest daughter is at Tech and she loves it. Just curious, what Texas schools do you know of that offer a more generous financial package than the one at Tech?

15

UTD comes pretty close but does not cover full tuition, fees, room, board and a stipend like Tech. UTD offers full tuition and fees plus $4000 per semester cash stipend and $1500 per semester toward campus housing and a $6000 study abroad stipend. It’s not quite TTU but it’s close. They also arrange free cultural outings in Dallas for their NMF, like the symphony and so forth. I think the programs are pretty comparable but Tech’s is slightly more money. However, TTU requires a 3.5 to renew which might be tough in a STEM major. My DS is not an NMF but likes both schools will be applying to both.

I grew up in Lubbock. It’s an acquired taste for sure but most Tech students end up loving it there. Yes, it’s a drier climate than UTD or A&M but, hey, when the sun goes down the air cools off immediately like in the desert, a real advantage during the many hot months of Texas. The Lubbock community loves Tech and is fiercely supportive of it as well.

16

@fwtxmom I agree, UTD is a great deal as well. I know about a half dozen kids from my daughter’s graduating class that are going there and UTD gives wonderful financial aid packages outside of the NM process as well. It just kind of irks some of us to have folks throw their noses up in the air when they don’t know what they are talking about. I think for some people if it sin’t an Ivy it sin’t worth looking at. That isn’t the case anymore. UTD is one of the best schools in the country for STEM and so is Tech. They are both very competitive programs. UTD doesn’t have a nursing program or we would have been pushing that heavily for our DD, Good luck in the process with your DS !

17

A difference between UTD’s and TTU’s NMF package is the ability to use the scholarship for Masters classes. At UTD, you get 8 semesters of scholarship and you can use them for graduate level work. At TTU, that has not been the case but I do believe I have read they are going to change that. If you visit, ask the question. The GPA levels are different as well - UTD’s is 3.0 and TTU’s is 3.5.

18

Both great schools, in another thread cupcake called UTD a glorified community college, she clearly does not know what she is talking about.

19

Another difference between UTD’s and TTU’s NMF package is that TTU’s can be used for off-campus housing. UTD’s housing stipend can only be used for on-campus housing, although that does include their on-campus apartments, and I’ve heard that NMFs can get first pick of those.

20

UTD does give NMF a semester stipend of $4000 that can be used for off site housing and food. They do give an additional $1500/semester if you stay on campus. The on site apartments are nice and they do get first pick of those. As far as UTD being called a community college, cupcake has not been there recently if at all. In the last ten years, they have put in dorms, new buildings (engineering, ATEC center, biomedical, business, and working on physics), landscaping, alumni center among other things. I have older friends that received their graduate degree from there and it was a commuting, night school but that is not the case now thanks to Mrs. McDermott.