<p>Hi I'm looking to know if anyone might be able to tell me any schools in either california, florida, texas, or the Carolina's, that give out a good amount of scholarship money (by good I mean making the out of state cost of attendance around 30,000) for students who have a 29 and a 4.36 weighted/ 3.95 unweighted GPA. I've checked into automatic scholarships, but I was wondering more of schools that don't state the exact requirements, but that you guys might be aware of or know anything about. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>You want to look for schools where the 29 ACT and your GPA will put you in the top 25% or higher in the applicant pool. (Usually higher, if you want a high chance at a sizable award.)</p>
<p>For example, at University of Florida, the middle 50% of the admits are 26-31 ACT, so you wouldn’t expect merit aid there. At College of Charleston, OTOH, the mid 50% is 23-27 ACT and only 7% score 30 or higher, so your chances of merit aid are good there.</p>
<p>California is a tough place to get merit aid - almost none from the publics. Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas all have quite a few schools with good merit possibilities, but with a 29 ACT it’s not likely at the “name” schools in those areas (UF, UNC, UT, etc.)</p>
<p>There are some very affordable schools in those areas where you wouldn’t need any merit aid at $30K/year, for example public LAC UNC-Asheville or a big state school like South Florida.</p>
<p>I like looking at the USNews and World Report Big Book, that has pages of schools in order of how much merit money and financial aid they give. For merit awards, the last columns are relevant. You want a school that gives a large % of awards and large average amounts. You then look up the school and see what % your test score puts you in. At a school in the above example, if 7% of the kids have ACTs over 30, you can figure that you are in the upper 10-15% of the test scores. You then look at what % of the kids get merit aid, and the average amount. If only 10% of the kids get merit money and the average award is $10K, that tells you that you are likely to get about that amount. If 25% get merit money and the average award is $10K, you might want to look on the web site to see how many high ticket scholarships, they give because you are in the upper half of that group, which means that if the school gives $20K and above awards, you just might be in the running for them. You don’t want to waste your time on those schools that give out very few high scholarship awards when you know your test scores are not close to the % of those awards given, unless it is a school high on your list where you want to take a lottery ticket chance.</p>
<p>Are you going to test again? </p>
<p>Are you going to take the SAT?</p>
<p>Can you tell us more? What is your intended major or career? What kind of schools do you like? Large? Small? Quiet? Rah rah?</p>
<p>Yes I am going to take it again. My score was a
33 english
27 math
30 reading
25 science
29 composite
So I am hoping to work on my science and math a lot for the next test. I got an 1880/1270 on the SAT but am waiting on my current scores which I feel a little more confident about, so hopefully they are better.</p>
<p>As for major I want to do something in business, preferably in marketing and then also have a spanish minor.
UF is my dream school but I would definitely need scholarship money to bring down the cost:(</p>
<p>UF unfortunately gives minimal merit aid:</p>
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<p>What is your home state?</p>
<p>Illinois is my home state. And yes unfortunately u have seen that, my only hope would be that only about 3% of Uf students are out of state, and most instate students recieve the florida bright futures scholarship from the state I have heard. I really am interested in California as well though, considering that my options in florida are very limited and not very probable.</p>
<p>University of South Carolina</p>
<p>Does your family income/assets make you eligible for financial aid? There are some Florida schools that might ante up. My son’ has two classmates at U of Tampa and they are on generous aid/scholarships combo. Some smaller schools like Eckerd, Stetson, Rollins might come up with some money as well as some of the lesser known Florida state schools</p>
<p>With the numbers as they stand for UF, the chances of getting much merit money are very slim for you, or for anyone for that matter.</p>
<p>Thanks but yeah I looked into university of tampa but I feel like I would like to go to a school where I would be challenged a little more. As for the size of school, I prefer larger or at least mid size (6,000+). Are there any options like this in california?</p>
<p>There is essentially no merit aid in CA for OOS. All of the UCs are extremely expensive OOS. Some of the Cal States are around $30K OOS, so you could look at those.</p>
<p>If your family will pay $30k per year, then qualifying for any need-based aid is doubtful other than loans.</p>
<p>It’s highly unlikely you’d get merit to UF. There’s also a very good possibility that UF won’t even accept you. They accept few OOS students because the school is in demand for instate students. The OOS students likely have some hooks…athletes, extraordinary stats, or other talents.</p>
<p>In California you can look at these schools which offer merit aid:</p>
<p>Cal Lutheran
La Verne
University of Redlands
Whittier College
University of the Pacific
Pepperdine</p>
<p>The problem is that these are very expensive schools to begin with, so even generous merit aid will most likely leave you with more than $30,000/year to pay. Plus you’ll need to budget for travel which will be expensive as well.</p>
<p>Nikkkkki</p>
<p>Mirabeau Scholars Program
[Scholarships</a> - Lamar University](<a href=“http://beacardinal.lamar.edu/paying-for-college/scholarships.html]Scholarships”>http://beacardinal.lamar.edu/paying-for-college/scholarships.html)</p>
<p>[Merit</a> Scholarship Information](<a href=“http://www.scholarships.ttu.edu/Meritscholarship.aspx]Merit”>http://www.scholarships.ttu.edu/Meritscholarship.aspx)
Contact them and ask if it will qualify you for Competitive Scholarship Waiver
[College</a> For All Texans: Competitive Scholarship Waiver](<a href=“http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/financialaid/tofa2.cfm?ID=435]College”>College For All Texans: Competitive Scholarship Waiver)</p>
<p>I am sure it will be many other Texas colleges with merit scholarships and academic tuition waiver.
Just how high ranking college do you want?</p>
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<p>The reason schools give merit based aid is to draw students who have high statistics compared to the rest of their students. So to some extent you are going to have to accept that you can’t go to a school that is very challenging for you AND get a tuition break (which is what a merit scholarship really is).</p>
<p>Put some serious focus on your test scores this summer, that will definitely help your prospects.</p>
<p>*Quote:
I feel like I would like to go to a school where I would be challenged a little more.
*</p>
<p>Don’t assume that you won’t be challenged at a school where your stats are in the upper 25%. At large schools, the upper 25% are usually concentrated in about 8-12 majors (various engineering, various business, math, physics, bio, chem, The Classics, and so forth). So, your classmates will be like you and the courses will be challenging. </p>
<p>Both of my kids were well into the top 25% of their undergrad. They both had nearly free rides. Were they challenged? You bet they were. One was a Mathematics major who was accepted into an elite PhD program. The other was a Chemical Engineering major who is going to med school this fall. </p>
<p>Many people don’t realize that on large campuses, the top 25% is a large number of students and they’re not equally spread out amongst the 100+ majors on a campus. No. They’re largely concentrated within a small number of majors.</p>
<p>There is always that club mentality of not wanting to join those clubs that want you . People tend to want the more selective venues. But your stats are not the sort that those who are so selective want around them either, you know. And a school certainly is not going to pay for them. Be realistic about this.</p>
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<p>I don’t agree with this at all. Honors colleges at large universities can provide a challenging, engaging environment for top students. So can small LACs, even if not every student is HYP material.</p>
<p>Schools provide merit aid to attract good students, and they like the boost it gives to their average test scores and so on. BUT, another big reason they provide this aid is because the professors want better than average students to mentor and interact with. If you look at students who take big merit aid to go to Arizona State’s Honors College or to Rhodes College, you will find students who are interacting with their professors and peers and have a rewarding, challenging undergrad experience.</p>
<p>The reality, however, is in order to have the best chances of getting large merit money, one should have stats in the upper echelons at a college that has big merit money to give out.</p>
<p>Someone with a 29 ACT is not likely to get substantial merit money from a school where those getting any merit money are at and ACT 30 and up That you want to run with this crowd is not going to bear any weight in terms of getting the money to do so.</p>