It also looks like UK and UL are about $4,000 more expensive than the others, both in list price and net price (although the net price varies more among the others than the list price, presumably due to student family financial demographics).
Of the others, it looks like WKU’s graduation rate shows relative overperformance, since it is comparable to Murray despite lower incoming GPA and SAT/ACT, and higher than Morehead and NKU despite lower incoming GPA and SAT/ACT.
^It’d only make sense for UKY to do that if they figured it wouldn’t dry the number of strong students while allowed more 25-30 students to attend thanks to better financial aid.
Not true regarding Alabama regarding not offering needs based money. I was just on a financial aid webinar tonight.
Of course Alabama offers need-based aid. However, it offers far more merit-based aid, while it’s been increasing in-state tuition. This causes it to have a high net price, for lower income families (earning $48K a year or less).
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=AL&ct=1&ic=1&id=100751
For those interested, here is a recent update by UK to their scholarship page:
Award opportunities for freshmen entering in Fall 2018 (high school class of 2018) will be announced in early August 2017. Kentucky Governor’s Scholar/School for the Arts Scholarships will remain unchanged for Fall 2018 applicants. Please check the website in early August for other scholarship updates.
Obviously still waiting on a lot of specifics on what is happening for the Patterson (guaranteed full ride for NMF only) and the Singletary (competitive with min 33 ACT). Interesting though no changes to the guaranteed Presidential full tuition (not full ride) for Governor Scholar kids with 31+ ACT. Governors Scholars is in state only, about a 1000 kids, but many of them don’t have the 31+ ACT so they go elsewhere (other in state public with lower ACT threshold). But a decent portion of the 1000 do have the 31+ and a lot of them typically end up at UK. At DS high school the GSP kids with the 31+ typically go to UK and the under 31 end up going to U of L or WKU.
This tells something about where the shrinking merit dollars will be spent. On in state kids versus out of state NMFs? To early to conclude that but that has been my guess. They may (and I hope) they keep the full ride for the in state NMF kids, even if they decide to discontinue for out of state NMFs. U of Louisville does it this way, so they wouldn’t lose in state kids to U of L if they go this route.
I think they need to cross reference their lists while doing this. My DD has a 33 ACT, awards and honors out the wazoo, class officer, etc. and she wasn’t even considered for any of the higher level scholarships. When I asked why, I was told it was because of the switch from merit to need based.
That’s the thing…we ARE need based! In fact, very need based. I feel cross referencing would have caught that.
UK has now updated their scholarship page (after much delay). Both the Patterson and Singletary are still offered but at a reduced level. Both were previously full ride for up to four years. Now both offer a 10k annual stipend for the first and second years only.
The Patterson was previously an automatic award. It appears to continue to be automatic. (“Selective” seems to be described only as achieving NMF or NHRS status)
The Singletary continues to be a competitive award.
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
@LOUKYDAD - it looks like the Patterson just covers in-state tuition, right?
@LOUKYDAD FYI, UK just joined Raise.me, which doesn’t seem to go along with the idea of getting away from merit. Go figure, right? Anyhow, here you go: https://www.raise.me/edu/university-of-kentucky
As an example, if my S were to be admitted, he’d be guaranteed a minimum of $7,000/year based on his RaiseMe profile. I doubt this would stack with their NMF award for the first two years. I’m not sure about years three and four, however. I suppose it would be worth asking.
@crazy4info actually it says full out of state tuition for nonresidents. Separate section down below for nonresidents.
So ultimately, where does Kentucky stack up in terms of national merit scholarships. Oklahoma, Alabama and UTD are very popular for national merit kids on this site. I do not recall any of those schools giving the full ride that Kentucky did. Now that UK is no longer giving the full ride, how does it compare to other schools in terms of scholarships/costs of attendance?
@saillakeerie UK’s COA is currently $46,300 for OOS. For class of 2018 OOS NMFs receiving the Patterson, for years 1 and 2 amount of COA would be $8,254. Years 3 and 4 would be $18,254. Total 4 year of $53,016.
As most probably know, the COA includes books and supplies, travel and other personal expenses that are highly variable. If you look at it for only the direct costs (tuition, room and board), year 1 and 2 would be $2,858. Years 3 and 4 would be $12,858. Total 4 year $31,432.
For in-state kids, you can subtract KEES lottery funded scholarship of up to $2,500 per year/$10k total for four years from that. It does stack. So assume close to nil as far as direct costs for years 1 and 2. In years 3 and 4 when you lose the stipend you would be paying a little over $10k a year.
For the in-state NMFs, the contrast is U of Louisville. They are still offering an automatic full ride. It is for in-state students only.
UK requires a 3.0 GPA to maintain the scholarship.
In reality I think many students find ways to reduce some of these costs. You become an RA. Or you move off campus with your buddies and rent an apartment or house.
I never looked at it from a Kentucky resident perspective. But it does seem like Louisville has a better deal for in-state kids now. Not sure how the two schools are perceived in terms of preference for Kentucky residents. Seems to me that often ebbs and flows somewhat (at least in some states looking at top 2-3 schools in the state).
Kentucky seems to get a lot of National Merit kids from out of state (Ohio and Illinois in particular). I would imagine that would continue though maybe they will lose some? Although the Patterson is not as good a deal as it was last year, it still seems like a good deal. In Ohio, Ohio State has reduced its merit awards somewhat (maximus is now $4k/year rather than the $6/year it was a couple years ago). So Patterson is still a good deal (though Ohio State is a higher ranked school).
Also seems to me that the Patterson is comparable with the Oklahoma, Alabama and UTD NMF scholarships that are available. Though I have not spent much time looking closely at each of the scholarships for those schools for 2018.
The Patterson is still a great deal, IMO, and I’m relieved UK will continue to offer a generous automatic scholarship to National Merit and National Hispanic students.
UK got about 125 NMFs from the class of 2017. Will be interesting to see how many they get from the class of 2018 and beyond.
I agree it is still a great deal. As a KY citizen/taxpayer, it is easy to agree with the changes. As a parent of class of 2018 NMSF and likely finalist, of course it is bad timing for us, but “thems the breaks”.
I remember a quote from the UK Provost where he said something like “We know we may lose a few National Merit finalists”. His wording (“a few”) seems right on target now. They will lose a few, but they will still get a decent number I think. A few more (but not all) KY NMFs will choose Louisville over Kentucky, or an out of state option. A few more (but not all) Ohio and Illinois NMF kids will choose Oklahoma or Alabama over Kentucky now that there is not much difference in cost.
If last year was 125, my wild prediction would be 75.
It looks like the two year limit is only on Room and Board to me. It mentions on campus only is my reason for reading it that way. So 4 year scholarships with two years of room and board on campus. Just my perspective of how it reads.
That is how I read it as well. And that is a change from prior years in that the room and board did not require the student to live on campus. The university cut the student a check for the room and board amount if the student lived off campus. So in addition to limiting it to two years and $10,000/year, they now require living on campus those first two years. Though with as new and nice as their dorms are, I am not sure that is a big change.
Yes agree, full tuition for four years, $10k stipend for first two years only.
My son (OOS, upper midwest) applied to Kentucky as a “backup” for 2018 well after the competitive scholarship deadline (unfortunately). We had no idea if he would get ANY merit aid, but were quite pleased with a supplemented Bluegrass scholarship that brings OOS tuition to near instate levels. He applied with a 3.6 GPA/33 ACT, a rigorous course, and good ECs. He enjoyed his visit to the campus and UK is now very much in the mix. On-campus housing/dining, student union, etc were simply outstanding.
I think Kentucky is a hidden gem for kids from the upper midwest that want to attend a flagship within driving distance in a nice city (with much improved climate). They need to walk a the merit tightrope, but I think they have done well, at least by us. Still astounded that Alabama is basically waiving tuition for OOS with strong, but (lets be honest) not exceptional, stats. Seems like an unsustainable race to the bottom to me.