<p>We hear a lot about UofAlabama and UofCentral Florida. Any other colleges that offer full rides that seem to attract NM/NA finalist?</p>
<p>We are also interested in hearing reviews of visits to any colleges that offer solid scholarships.</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>University of Oklahoma attracts a huge number of NMFs.</p>
<p>I’m not a NMF but I’ve had a very positive experience at the school up to this point.</p>
<p>What “review” info would you like?</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a higher ranked school than Bama that offers equal or more than Bama does.
Go to Bama’s forum here on CC for first-hand accounts…
[University</a> of Alabama - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/]University”>University of Alabama - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>What’s your child’s major or career goal?</p>
<p>Bama also has a high number of NA Finalists, if that interests you.</p>
<p>USC has the most, more than 250, but their scholarship is just half tuition. Alabama and Oklahoma are next on the order of 200 freshmen each per year. Texas A&M and UMN are at about 140. ASU is about 100. UArizona and UKentucky about 75. UT-Dallas and Auburn 65. Nebraska 50.</p>
<p>Those are 2 yr old numbers. This past year was an anomaly as Alabama temporarily dropped its scholarship amount and they had many fewer enroll so t hey parched it back up to a great deal though somewhat different than what they had previously.</p>
<p>Kentucky just opened brand new honor dorm and may be rising for NMF. We’ll see.They have a full ride.</p>
<p>ASU enrolls a substantial number of NHispanic Scholars as well, not sure about the other schools.</p>
<p>If you check the National Merit Forum’s big scholarship thread and then cross check with the NMSC Annual report on their website, you can see how many freshmen NMF schools enrolled the previous year. They also list separately the NAF(Alabama 20), but not Hispanic Scholars. It’s pretty interesting, the NAF list. The top schools take in most of them. Not many at the big scholarship schools. I suppose they may be getting financial aid/scholarships from those schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. D is interested in the sciences…not clear which direction that will take her. Preference is a smaller university (or college), or a very active honors college within a large school. Finally, hoping to find a school where the kids do not self segregate to a huge extent (at a diverse school now where students interact greatly and would like that same feel in college).</p>
<p>Secondary issue is a location close to a major city.</p>
<p>Just starting this search so we appreciate all input and will be searching this thread for previous posts!</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>A family member recently attended the Univ of Oklahoma as a NMF and it was just not for her (engineering). Ended up dropping out of it and going someplace else. Be sure to visit and see if it is a good fit for her. No matter what the college does to entice the student if it just isn’t a good fit they won’t be happy and make it through.</p>
<p>Baylor 85, Mississippi 40, and UCF 65. Forgot them. </p>
<p>Most NMF go to universities that don’t have those big automatic scholarships. There is lots of other merit money around. I hope you find the atmosphere you are looking for. Good luck.</p>
<p>celesteroberts, did you mean UMN or UNM? I suspect the latter?</p>
<p>Taben, I’m a geology major in a STEM soroity at OU. If you have any questions about the school feel free to PM me or post on the University of Oklahoma sub forum
[University</a> of Oklahoma - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-oklahoma/]University”>University of Oklahoma - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>Still trying to understand the whole process here, but thinking that ‘reserving’ a spot at a college where the Finalist designation can provide a full ride or close to it might not be a bad idea in case other avenues do not lead to the path we are hoping.
Still, I fully agree that you want a university or college you will be happy with. The problem is that as we look at the colleges, these are NOT ones we have visited or considered at all until the semi-finalist designation came.
T</p>
<p>Although UCF is much bigger than what you are looking for, they are in Orlando, should be diverse, will waive application fee for NMSF, and have a great package. Have not visited yet, but was accepted very quickly. What part of the US are you from?</p>
<p>East Coast…open to going elsewhere, but would prefer to be near a city for may reasons including internships, off campus life, transportation home and diversity on and off campus.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the suggestions!
T</p>
<p>iFinally, hoping to find a school where the kids do not self segregate to a huge extent</p>
<p>Self segregation on college campuses happens everywhere, but that doesn’t mean much in regards to any individual. A person who doesn’t want to self-segregate, doesn’t. So, on the same campuses that there are “Muslim kids sitting together” or “Asian kids sitting together” will also have mixed groups sitting together or dating because THOSE kids want to do so.</p>
<p>Even the most “progressive” colleges have self-segregation issues. I think it was Stanford that did research on the UC’s to find out why this was happening…in the dining halls, at parties, and other social functions. </p>
<p>There’s a book about self-segregation in schools…
[Why</a> Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race: Beverly Daniel Tatum: 9780465083619: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465083617]Why”>http://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465083617)</p>
<p>As long as kids who don’t want to self-segregate (socially, dating, clubs) are doing so on campus, I wouldn’t let the fact that some kids self-segregate bother you because you’re going to have a hard time finding those segregation-free campuses.</p>
<p>What is your situation? do you want/need large merit? Or are you looking for large merit at safeties because you’ll pay (or get aid) at the top choices?</p>
<p>"…are you looking for large merit at safeties because you’ll pay (or get aid) at the top choices" This one, from my end. We are in the tricky middle class boat.
OR
“…do you want/need large merit?” This one, from my husband’s perspective! Plus he is having a hard time on a practical level thinking of paying for college, when there are these offers out here for a number of very different schools for full or full tuition rides. Better to save the dollars for graduate school, if needed.</p>
<p>BUT we want our kids to be happy and will NOT at all force a NM/NA college choice…but we do want 1 or 2 on the table for discussion for their sakes as the reality of student loans may come into play when all is said and done at choice time!</p>
<p>This something to be so grateful for, but on the other hand has opened another can of worms on the college search we had not at all anticipated.</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>p.s. re: ‘Self segregation on college campuses happens everywhere’…yes, I would agree with this in general but sometimes it is more prevalent at some universities more than others. But, students have choices regarding friendships everywhere.</p>
<p>Check out Fordham. It meets the NE/city location criteria. They do not have automatic NMF scholarships but they have some scholarships where you have to be a NMF to be considered. Friend’s child is attending on full tuition ( they were a non need family ).</p>
<p>WasatchWriter, UNM gets 15 NMFs. A friend checked it out with her S and shared her impressions. They decided it was not a good fit. There are a couple of other schools like that which offer full rides but don’t have many enroll, like UIdaho.</p>
<p>UMN-Twin Cities offers $10-12K/yr practically guaranteed. They had such a dramatic rise in NMF enrollment over the past several years that they had to institute a cap on the scholarship of 125. Not sure if the other 15 (actually 18, exact number is 143 NMFs) kids got some other scholarship instead. Three years ago they enrolled 160 when they were still guaranteeing the scholarship. Since it dropped a bit, guessing they don’t give everyone scholarships.Their NMF adviser told me they expect to continue at the 125 level in foreseeable future. I tracked the increase in enrollment looking through old news reports. In addition to the NMF money, most OOS NMFs receive another scholarship that waives the OOS portion of tuition. It ends up being almost full tuition</p>
<p>My son is at OU on a NM scholarship. He loves it there. The honors college is very active and gives the feel of a small liberal arts college in a large university setting. He connected very quickly, I think in part because he lives in the honors’ dorm. It’s a small dorm with a very active group of students. In addition to the great scholarship, OU has a lot of perks for NM students and offer them all kinds of support to make their experience a successful one. My son is not a STEM major, but most of his friends in the honors college are. They are very happy there, as well.</p>
<p>My older son goes to TU and is studying ChemE. He is not on a NM scholarship, but TU offers a full ride (Presidential Scholarship) to NMFs. It is a competitive scholarship, but most of the recipients are NMF. The number awarded yearly varies. Last year it was somewhere around 50, I believe. My son loves TU. It’s a small school with small classes. TU is known regionally for their engineering school, particularly PE, though all engineering disciplines are strong. The campus is beautiful. </p>
<p>Oklahoma State gives a great NM scholarship (full ride last year). They are also strong in sciences, particularly geological sciences. Boone Pickens gives a lot of money to OSU and it shows when you tour campus. 
Stillwater is small and OSU didn’t have the “feel” my boys were looking for. It felt pretty conservative (even for an OK school). However, the kids we know who go there absolutely love it.</p>
<p>celesteroberts, OP asked about full-rides, so I was a little confused.</p>
<p>WasatchWriter, Oh sorry, I guess I interpreted that to mean ‘big scholarship’, since OP mentions Alabama, which is not a full-ride, except possibly for freshman year.</p>
<p>If you look only at schools that offer full-rides to OOS and rank them according to USNews(for lack of a better measure) in top 200 national it’s</p>
<p>Tulsa(never even knew of them until today. Have to check it out)
Kentucky
Oklahoma State
UT-Dallas
NJ Inst. Tech(they don’t appear in NMSC report, funny)
Idaho
UCF
Alabama-Huntsville
New Mexico
Louisiana Tech
U of Houston</p>
<p>Then Auburn, UMass-Amherst, and U Louisville give full ride to instate</p>
<p>And there are the schools which give substantially more than tuition, but not full ride, like Alabama, Mississippi, and Alabama-Birmingham.</p>
<p>Am I missing any?</p>