<p>Do any of the top colleges (as superficial as the rankings are, think USNWR ~top 30) offer significant merit aid?</p>
<p>I appreciate your assistance.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html</a></p>
<p>^ Though that link is helpful, it is very disorganized. It takes long search thing through the pages to find schools that are practical personally, and no criteria was set on the schools. Therefore the topic is full of schools who members suggest give good merit aid off of bad stats (FA being portrayed as merit aid) or ridiculously competitive scholarships.</p>
<p>I do not know how to make such nice link as Keilinger, this requires a few more clicks. Go to the Financial Aid forum. Search ‘Merit Aid’. There is a thread titled:
“IMPORTANT: Links to AUTOMATIC/GUARANTEED Merit Scholarships”
It should appear fairly high up on the page (I believe third).
You may find this helpful.</p>
<p>The top awards are schools like GATech, Duke, UChicago, UNCChapel Hill, Wake Forest, Boston College, Boston U, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Vanderbilt, GW, Tulane, Case Western, Rensselaer, Rochester, . A lot of state U’s like Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina, Alabama, Pitt, to name a few, have major awards as well. It does some searching to find a list, and even then, you have to research each and every school because policies change year to year. But any of the highly selective schools that have merit aid have ridiculously competitive odds. Harder than getting into HPY, they say, and I don’t doubt it.</p>
<p>Most schools have some sort of scholarship for high scoring kids. The best methodolgy I have seen in finding a list of such schools is MomfromTexas’s thread on how to find full ride scholarships. Depending on your stat cutoffs, you’ll get a number of hits. But yes, you’ll have to sift through the results.</p>
<p>If you mean assured merit scholarships, the answer is no. None of the top 30 schools give assured merit scholarships.</p>
<p>A few (Vandy, GT, WashU for instance) target some merit scholarships to students that they really want - for instance super stats, URM status, or from an unusual state.)</p>
<p>It’s not unusual for kids with really high stats to get NOTHING in merit from these schools.</p>
<p>While it’s ok to apply to those schools to see if you might be one of the lucky ones to get a big merit scholarship, if you need big merit to go to college, you need to apply to a couple of schools that will give you assured big merit for your stats. </p>
<p>Assured (aka automatic) scholarships are given to all who have the specified stats and who apply on time. Those are mostly given by mid-tier schools.</p>
<p>AUTO SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Auto Scholarships…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a> </p>
<p>(to copy a link…go to the actual page…go up to where you see the http:// and copy the entire thing…then paste in your reply. It will look “ugly” when you paste it, but when you post, it will likely look better.</p>
<p>And that can change too. Pitt used to automatically give Honors College and scholarships to kids at a certain grade/SAT threshhold. Now that bar has been raised significantly and that is only for consideration for acceptance the program,then further screening for any money. There was a time when Florida State gave automatic full rides to NSM scholars. No more. It’s getting more and more difficult to get a full merit scholarship to schools with name recognition. This is happening when at the same time, the costs are at a point that a $25-30K scholarship which, is a hefty sum, is not even covering tuition at the priciest schools. </p>
<p>When I started college, my NSM award basically covered the tuition, and my college continued it for 4 years, also supplementing it with its own merit awards. I had no work study, hardly any loans for the first two years till I lost my scholarships when I took a leave, and actually made money from my windfall because the schools did not integrate outside awards. The NSM amounts have not gone up since those days, but the cost of college certainly has; more than 10 fold. Frightening.</p>
<p>University of Southern California is a top 30 school that offers 100+ full tuition Trustee Scholarships (~$40,000) and 200+ half-tuition Presidential Scholarships (~$20,000) every year. They are competetive scholarships, not guaranteed with any particular “stats.” To be considered for them you must apply and submit all supporting materials (test scores, transcripts, recommendations, etc…) by December 1st.</p>