<p>Check this article in the New York Times and click on the link to the left for a sortable chart with merit-aid totals for more than 600 schools:</p>
<p>The Education Life section in Sunday's NYT newspaper has another chart that filters out the smaller schools and lists the 100 most-generous colleges for merit aid that have at least 2000 undergrads. Tulane No. 2.</p>
<p>LOL, there was already another thread on this. But the chart in this Sunday’s NYT is new info, thanks.</p>
<p><a href=“Since%20there%20are%20two%20threads%20on%20this%20same%20topic,%20I%20will%20reprint%20what%20I%20said%20on%20the%20other.”>i</a>*</p>
<p>Excellent timing by the NYT regarding this issue of merit based aid, and to see how Tulane stacks up against others in the top 50. It confirms my statements above <a href=“see%20other%20thread%20-%20FC”>i</a>*, that other schools do indeed have programs for merit aid, but few as good as Tulane. Now that they have published their table of colleges and the merit aid they give (Colleges and Universities That Award Merit Aid - Graphic - NYTimes.com) we can talk about this with less guessing/anecdotal references.</p>
<p>For those schools where at least 10% of the students receive merit aid, there are at least 2000 undergrads and they give at least $5,000 on average, Miami (FL) comes out on top with about $23K per entering freshman. Vanderbilt actually was a bit higher at $24.5K, but only 9% of the freshmen get this kind of aid, while at Miami it is 24%. Interesting that Johns Hopkins has average merit aid of $29K, but only 1% receive it.</p>
<p>Tulane, while below Miami $$ at an average of $20.5K per freshman, also has a larger percentage of freshmen that get this aid, at 33%. So while the NYT sorted by absolute $$, there is that factor to consider as well. At the same time, Miami also has about $3,000 lower sticker price. Assuming the rest of the COA is similar, the Miami aid is really good. But in any case both are quite generous.</p>
<p>Now to the issue of other schools in the top 50, excluding those that are Ivies and Ivy-like, and of course the state schools. Duke is not listed (and I do not consider them Ivy-like) so they don’t cut it. Neither does Northwestern. Stanford actually is listed, but only 5% get merit aid and at only about $5K.</p>
<p>WUSTL, on the other hand, has about 19% of the students getting merit aid at almost $9K. Not super generous, but fairly decent number that get the aid. U Chicago is similar, with 16% receiving merit aid at a rate of about $10,500. Rice was not listed as giving merit aid, and Notre Dame gave only 2% this kind of aid, although at a clip of around $14K. Emory was missing from the list, as was Georgetown.</p>
<p>Carnegie-Mellon came in at 8% of the students receiving around $8300, while USC, not surprisingly, was at 24% and nearly $19,000. Wake Forest was only 4% and about $17K, and Tufts was absent. Boston College was only 1% ($17K) and Brandeis only 3% (about $11K). NYU was zero, and I will add the editorial comment that they have a reputation for terrible financial aid and having students come out with huge debt.</p>
<p>I was a bit surprised to see that the University of Rochester doesn’t do merit aid, but Case Western came in at 19% and around $18K. Lehigh was 4% (almost $11K), and finally George Washington at 20% and about $18,500 per student.</p>
<p>So I think that puts to rest that none of the rest of the top 50 have merit aid. True, only a few are in the ballpark with Tulane and Miami, but there are a number that spread out some decent money based on merit alone. Anyway, generosity like beauty is in the eye of the recipient and beholder, respectively. These at least are the facts as reported by the NYT.</p>
<p>Very interesting analysis. Rice, Emory and Rochester say they offer merit scholarships, and it looks like they probably average in the $10K-$16K-a-year range.</p>
<p>But I couldn’t find common data sets for Emory or Rochester, and I could only find one for Rice, from 2010-11 in quick Google checks. So they might not have reported enough data for be included in the NY Times charts, which also look at the changes in merit awards from 2007-08 through last year.</p>
<p>That could be. Obviously I am only summarizing what is in the NYT chart. I don’t think I missed them, I checked twice, even checked under Rochester and University of Rochester just to be sure. RIT was there, but not U of R. I think Duke even has a little merit based scholarship program, although I am not sure and in any case I think it is pretty small, if it exists.</p>
<p>As far as the CDS goes, is there a place in there that would show you how much merit aid they give? I never checked for that.</p>
<p>All this pretty clearly shows there is merit aid out there at some top universities for a lot of deserving students, which I think is absolutely right. Of course need based aid is also the right thing to do for students that belong in college/university, but I personally see no reason that top students shouldn’t get scholarships like top athletes do. It tics me off that Duke, Northwestern and Notre Dame, for instance, give full rides to athletes but little to no academic merit scholarships. An old soapbox of mine, so enough said.</p>
<p>I just noticed that when I copied and pasted the post from the other thread, the link did not make it intact. Collateral damage, I guess. Here is the link to the NYT chart: [Colleges</a> and Universities That Award Merit Aid - Graphic - NYTimes.com](<a href=“Colleges and Universities That Award Merit Aid - Graphic - NYTimes.com”>Colleges and Universities That Award Merit Aid - Graphic - NYTimes.com)</p>
<p>[Best</a> Values in Private Colleges, 2011-12](<a href=“Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts”>Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts)=ALL&id=none&sortby=non<em>nb</em>aid_p&sortorder=DESC </p>
<p>Slightly different database/data than the NY times chart. This has all the usual suspects for merit aid that are ranked above Tulane – Case, Rice, USC, Vandy, Wake, Duke, Emory, WUSTL. </p>
<p>As you can see, as these schools (and presumably Tulane in the future) move up the ladder, they dial back the merit aid and switch over instead to need based aid. Boston College, for example, used to be a big merit aid school but not any longer.</p>
<p>I wonder if the schools that have athletic scholarships (Tulane included, of course) leave those in for this study. After all, the title in the NYT article was specifically “merit based”, not a term usually associated with athletic scholarships although one could argue it is based on athletic merit, and the Kiplinger says “non-need based aid”. Hard to know.</p>
<p>Northwesty: The problem with the Kiplinger Report article you cited is that it utilizes some of the same subjective criteria which others have complained about in referencing the USNWR evaluation. For example, the Kiplinger Report utilizes Yield as part of its analysis for Competitiveness. Competitiveness is 25% of its analysis. As others have complained, yield is a very inexact criteria and doesnt necessarily indicate quality. Also, Kiplinger uses Academic Support as one of its factors in doing its ranking. As is evidenced by the comments to the article, Academic Support is hardly quantifiable.
I would prefer to evaluate the raw data. The NYT article is more of a compilation of information, as opposed to a ranking system. I think the biggest point that many of us have been making is that a university should be evaluated based upon those criteria which are most important to the student and his/her family, not the partially subjective ranking system which USNWR or Kiplinger utilizes.<br>
A positive thing I noted from the Kiplinger Report is that Tulane is as generous with its need based aid as it is with its merit based aid. I think this shows a rather well balanced approach to giving. However, perhaps the stat I am most concerned about is the avg. debt at graduation. I believe Tulane is too high. I realize this is a factor of tuition cost, but this criterion has the potential to have the most impact on a departing students future. I will note that Tulanes avg. debt at graduation is significantly lower than many of the higher ranked universities. Some of these higher ranked institutions do not even report this number.<br>
As FC has often said, it isnt worth going into a huge amount of debt to obtain an undergraduate degree. I think this is one area of criticism that Tulane should seriously consider. Unfortunately, this criticism must be leveled against many of the Countrys Private and Public Universities.</p>
<p>Trips – forget about the ranking aspect of Kiplinger. Just look at the actual underlying data. </p>
<p>On merit aid (which is what we’re talking about) it shows what percentage of students get merit aid. 82% at Gonzaga!! It also shows you what the average amount of merit aid is – $21k at Tulane!! So you can see which schools give out how much and also to how many in merit aid. </p>
<p>Kiplinger also shows what schools do/do not do on the need aid side. So you can go shopping based on whether you’re looking for merit money or need money or both.</p>
<p>I didn’t know Kiplinger uses yield in their ranking, since not many pay attention to the Kiplinger rankings anyway. But using yield is outrageous, even more so than most of the USNWR factors. USNWR used to use it and dropped it, so if even they realize it…</p>
<p>In this day and age of mass marketing, common apps, online apps, free apps, etc. yield is more meaningless than ever. How stupid that anyone would use it.</p>
<p>northwesty I don’t think you read the Kiplinger chart correctly. The 82% at Gonzaga referes to “Percentage of all undergraduates without need who received non-need-based aid.” So I think they’re saying that 82% of students who didn’t qualify for need based aid received merit. On the NYT chart it said only 35% received merit, but that was referring to all students.</p>
<p>The common data sets have a category for # of students receiving non-need-based aid (and the average amounts) that includes academic merit awards and a separate category for athletic awards. Just spot checking a couple of schools, it looks like the NY Times used the numbers for the academic category and excluded the athletic awards.</p>
<p>Interestingly, 532 freshmen at Tulane received academic merit scholarships last year vs 43 who got athletic scholarships. Altogether, 2102 undergrads at Tulane held merit scholarships last year, while 173 had athletic scholarships.</p>
<p>Much of the info in the common data sets is reproduced on College Search and other similar sites. But while most of those sites just list the 25/75 percentile ranges on the SATs, I really like how the common data sets break the results into 700-800 on each part of the SAT, 600-699, 500-599 etc. That gives you a little better feel for the class.</p>
<p>Of Tulane’s freshman class last year, 27.92% received 700-800 in CR, 27.73% scored in that range in math and 33.62% did so in writing. The percentages of freshman scoring 600-699 ranged from 55% to 58% in each of the categories.</p>
<p>Thanks for that info on the scholarship breakdowns. I never looked at that section.</p>
<p>I agree with you about the SAT breakdowns. Tulane, as I have mentioned before, has a strong average SAT score. A couple of years ago they reported it as 2010 for the average, and I am pretty sure that it hasn’t gone down from there. If anything it should have gone up just a little. Those are good numbers, putting them around 28th among national universities, if people that have done the math are correct.</p>
<p>Speaking for money for College, Tulane not only has a generous Merit aid, etc but also there is a reduced tuition for Grad School in Engineering. That is called 4 + 1 Masters Program as follows:</p>
<p>■Tuition during the 5th year is discounted by the School of Science and Engineering to be 35% of the undergraduate tuition. Note that scholarships and other financial aid will not normally be continued during the 5th year; financial need is most often met in the form of low-interest student loans.</p>
<p>■Students pursuing this program are strongly encouraged to spend the summer between the 4th and 5th years doing research on their project. Occasionally, summer funding may be available from the student’s advisor or other sources of support.</p>
<p>I dont know about other schools, especially the Top 50 Ranking in USNWR, whether they have similar programs or not. However, this 4+1 Masters Program is something to to be considered for prospective students, etc.</p>