What full/almost full ride colleges attract NM students?

Our son’s National Merit Scholarship was stacked with the AJ Drexel award too so he has chosen Drexel over UPenn. No brainer. He is doing 5 years/3 co op as a Custom Design major of Comp Sci, Economics, and Entrepeneurship. It’s truly an INCREDIBLE opportunity. To think he could have been paying $65, 000 a year just across the street. Ironically, now that he has investigated more, he really prefers a co op program school. With 1/2 the students at school and 1/2 working, it makes for a much more intense and realistic young environment. And I’m sure they fit some fun in too! (: GO DREXEL DRAGONS!

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) offers the President’s Scholarship, which covers the full cost of attendance (tuition and fees, room and board, transportation costs, books, etc.). Additionally, students receive automatic admission into the Honors College and receive one full semester of study abroad, completely funded by the university. It is a tremendous financial package and a great university to be a part of!

The University of Nevada (in Reno) offers the National Merit Scholarship ($16,000/yr for 4 years), which, according to the school’s net cost calculator, covers the cost of in-state tuition, fees, room, board, & books. Students also receive admission into the University Honors Program, one semester of study abroad, and an opportunity to participate in undergraduate research.

http://www.unr.edu/financial-aid/understanding-financial-aid/scholarships/national-merit

Does anyone know if the Drexel full tuition award for NMF and the stacking of scholarships is still applicable for the new incoming class of 2020/ current HS class of 2016?

I’ve seen some activity on the forum. You might start with the trail at this link and contact the parents that have been in direct discussions with Drexel.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-an-updated-compilation-p65.html

University of Miami, best bet for NM scholar Florida resident.

Florida state new law to keep NM scholar in Florida colleges.

Full ride to UF, FSU, USF, New College, FIU, and MIAMI.

MIAMI ! That is $65k x4 years!

Clearly the best offer.

I think the state only gives the highest COA for a public state university, which I believe is FSU’s at around 22k per year, and applies that to the 65k cost of Miami, so it’s not a full ride at UM.

@SteyrFWB lcgusa is correct. The FIS ( Florida Incentive Scholarship) pays out the highest cost of attendance for a Florida PUBLIC university which is the COA at FSU right now.

Drexel dropped its NMF award.

The Florida program does not cover the costs for UMiami. UMiami is a private

@celesteroberts did you say ASU Barrett pays travel to visit for NMSF? I didn’t see that. My daughter was accepted but we haven’t’ visited yet.

ASU will pay a portion of your travel expenses to visit. If you live relatively close by, you will get less, if you live far away you would get more. You have to place a call to their office and ask what the dollar amount is for you

I’d be interested to know how much ASU pays for visits when the student is a couple states away …or more.

@mom2collegekids our D is visiting ASU from Midwest in two weeks. We’re getting $250 back from her flight’s cost. (Had we planned earlier, we probably could have gotten a cheaper flight. We paid $400 for a nonstop.)

And ASU is being very nice about scheduling stuff for her. She’s going to one of the “explore” overnights at downtown campus – where the journalism school is – and then has a tour/appointment with someone from the photography department on the Tempe campus the next day.

My D is likely NMF, and ASU was her financial safety … but it’s climbing up the list because it has one of the top J school’s in the country and a well-respected fine arts/photo department too (her areas of interest). We’ll see what she thinks of Phoenix.

She’s been accepted to Barrett Honors college. We’re estimating costs with room, board, and fees of around $16k/year.

DS will likely go to Baylor where they offer full tuition (I think for 4 years.) We do know a NM Finalist who is there, who also won an additional scholarship from Baylor (had to fill out an application, was competitive) and ended up with a full ride there.

Unless Baylor has major changes in the last 2 years, they do not have a full ride. S1 is an NMS from '14. Baylor was going to still cost 7600 a year. The competitive scholarships are just that…no promises.

DW is a grad of UNLV. Not really as good of a school as most of the others offering great money for NMF. (unless student wants hotel administration)

My DD and I just had an honors tour of UT Dallas over the weekend and was very impressed with both the school, students, physical facilities and opportunities that they would offer her. I also think they have one of the best financial packages out there. It is a school for STEM, premed, cognitive sciences, art and technology, and business majors. They seemed to be very honest if they thought they could not offer the best situation for the student, an example was a student of opera. I’m crossing my fingers that my DD goes there.

@GTAustin So glad to hear this!!! Did it seem like most students go home (local metroplex kids) home the weekends?

@VANURSEPRAC, we were there on Friday and lots of kids were around even though many of their classes are taught MW or TT. I asked if my DD could sit in a CS class but none of the freshman CS classes were taught on Friday. She ended up in a Science in Science Fiction Honors discussion class taught by a chemistry faculty. She thought it was very interesting.
We were also there on Saturday but I was only in the student rec center. My DD was taking a test in the engineering building. There was a lot of activity because of a basketball game. There is housing for 6000 students on campus (I think) but many students are from the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. I should have wandered down by the dorms but I didn’t. I do know that none of the eating establishments are open before 10:30 am on Sat/Sun but several (the ones closest to the dorms) are open for lunch and dinner. I also know that UT Dallas is becoming more popular outside of Dallas/Ft. Worth. We had 22 students from our HS last year go there and we are in Austin.
The students that were guiding also stated they often went downtown on the DART on the weekends. A lot of stuff going on down there. Another thing that will help with decreasing the commuter school feel is Northside. It is a large housing and retail center going in across the street from the dorms. It will be opening next fall. I think it will be keeping more students around as well as attracting people from the entire area.

So, with all that being said, I do think a good percentage of the kids go home but there also a large percentage who remain and that percentage is growing. If my DD goes there, I’m hoping she can find a crowd that wants to explore Dallas on the weekends because there is lots of things to do but you do have to leave the Richardson area.

Thank you so much GTAustin, we are in Lubbock, and D21 is not a rah, rah kid at all. I know UTD will fit her geeky introverted personality. Her dad graduated from UTD many moons ago and he lives in the metroplex. I don’t see her going home to his house on the weekends though. I will plan a visit in the future. Best of luck to your DD. I will be watching to see where she matriculates.

We just met with UNT last night. They seem to have a good program for NMF. We are looking at schools in Texas and Oklahoma. Majoring in Math and engineering.