My name is Ashton and I am currently a Junior in High School. I am an Out-of-State student, and I am looking at colleges primarily in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. I have a ton of potential colleges on my list, but I am really going to need a lot of money from merit-based scholarships so I just wanted to reach out on CC across several different forums to try and get a better grasp about each college’s Out-of-State merit scholarships. So does anyone have any advice, comments or experiences with schools in these states in regards to OOS scholarships?
Thanks so much!!
Right now I have a 3.88 unweighted GPA and a 4.26 weighted GPA. I have taken 7 AP classes, and I am Dual-Enrolling next semester. I also just went and took the ACT ( I didn’t study or anything, I just wanted to get a feel for the test) and got a 28 but I am going to keep trying and hopefully I will be able to raise it to a 30-32 with some practice. I go to an art school and have about 200 community service hours, I am stage manager for a production this year, part of UNICEF and Speech and Debate club. So sorry if this is overload, I am not sure what helps and what doesn’t! Thanks!
Thank you! I have a good amount on my list, as I’m really open to anything. Here are some I am considering:
University of Georgia
Berry College
Georgia Southern University
Emory University
Furman University
Wofford College
University of South Carolina
UNC at Chapel Hill
UNC Charlotte
Wake Forest University
Davidson College
Elon University
North Carolina State University
University of Alabama
My OOS daughter received in-state tuition plus a scholarship from U of SC and Clemson gave nice merit as well with a 33 ACT & a 3.94 gpa. I heard that Alabama gives very generous merit but don’t have first hand knowledge of it.
The Georgia public schools do not give much in aid. Many Georgia students get Hope/Zell Miller so the state doesn’t provide much in other aid.
Georgia and NC schools do not have a large number of OOS students. I think NC’s limit is 18% and Georgia’s rate is about the same. Those are small numbers.
You have to define what a lot of money is, full tuition at OOS schools still leaves you with at least 12K a year for R&B, some schools near 16K. Then you have travel expenses. Make sure you understand your budget.
For sure keep working on your test scores but you need to be in the mid 30s to get into the running for some of the full tuition money, I can't tell you how horrible the idea of taking your test unprepared was. Getting a great score as a junior is really a big help to get that part of the equation taken care of. Preparation is key. What is your home state? You know there is no financial aid in the picture?
I am not sure of my budget, my parents want to wait to talk about it once I’m getting acceptances/scholarships hopefully. It wasn’t a horrible idea to take my test unprepared, in fact it really help me decide which test I would rather focus on. My goal was not to get a good score, I mean obviously it would have been nice, but I just wanted to see if i liked the format of the ACT. I will take the test as many times as I need to, that’s why I took it early in my junior year to give myself practice and time. Thanks for the info!
My parents haven’t given me a specific number, but I would say full tuition or close to it. I am just hoping to find out if there are schools that are known for giving less/more to out of state students, and what my chances are. Thanks for your reply!
It is expensive and time consuming to apply to colleges. If you spend a thousand dollars applying to ten schools and you can’t afford to attend any of them because you didn’t run your parents information through the net price calculator before applying you might not have a viable option. That’s why the money talk is so important, so you don’t waste your effort and can focus on applying to schools you can actually attend if accepted.
