<p>A poster named evil robot passed up Yale for a full ride (or was it full tuition?) at Vandy with a very successful outcome. </p>
<p>Anecdotes: a family friend’s child passed up Harvard (and possibly other Ivys) for big merit money at WUStL. A student at D1’s school had to choose between big merit money at Duke and big merit money at U of C. We should all have such problems. I could swear that on the Pitt board I’ve read of students taking full rides at Pitt over Ivys. That might be tied into the guaranteed med school path. </p>
<p>Duke, Vanderbilt. I believe that Caltech has the Axline scholarship which is very prestigious.
UofMich Honors program also provides (provided?) merit money.</p>
<p>Its difficult to a merit award when entering Caltech, but they offer upper class awards, which can range from partial tuition to full tuition and more. Also, the school’s charges were quite a lot less than MIT or CMU, which matters if you are paying full cost.</p>
<p>I know you may be using shorthand, but it may be more helpful to avoid the “ivy” mindset (by which I’m guessing you mean highly selective, excellent programs/student bodies & prestigious) and even the “merit $$” mindset (by which I’m guessing you may imply lower on those very same standards as well as the USNews rankings but will pay student’s way). </p>
<p>Look for the schools that offer majors, programs, location, ECs, class size, internships, whatever will give your student the education he wants. For instance, U Chicago (with some merit aid available) has one of the strongest Economics depts in the world, WashU is excellent in pre-med as well as architecture, and USC offers one of the best film schools in the country. If I knew more about other schools and their stellar majors, I’d list them all. Students admitted into these programs, for example, are not “stolen” at all. They are lucky.</p>
Duke gives out an average of 18 AB Duke scholarships and 15 Robertson scholarships a year, so 4200 admits are competing for less than 35 scholarships. Your chances are very slightly improved if you’re in-state (BN Duke and Trinity scholarships) or black/African-American (Reginald Howard scholarship).</p>
<p>Needless to say, you have to be WELL beyond “Ivy caliber” to nab one.</p>
<p>
Yep. Effective with the class of 2013, Caltech eliminated merit aid for entering freshmen and has chosen to “redirect” that money towards need-based financial aid. Formerly it offered hefty merit aid for its size.</p>
<p>Shhhhh… if we keep spreading the word about all these outstanding non-Ivy league colleges/unis THEY will get a thundering herd of wanna-be kids and parents…</p>
<p>USC. They give out full, half and quarter tuition scholarships. They have a rather interesting system to admissions. The first wave of admitted students are the ones they are going after with the scholarships (say, roughly 5% of the 8,500 or so admits.) </p>
<p>These students are invited to USC for USC Explore, which allows them to visit the campus if they haven’t already. The students attend panel interviews, with a faculty member, current scholarship holder and a staff member from admissions. If parent(s) come along, the whole family is invited to a dinner with faculty, who can talk more about the college.</p>
<p>Yes, some of the scholarships admitees have also gotten into an Ivy, and some do come to USC.</p>
<p>Our flagships, Penn State and UPitt, get lots of honors college students who turn down Ivies (and other top schools), especially if they get one of the full tuition plus scholarships, but sometimes even without the whole package. On the flip side, I know of students who decide to attend Ivies that admitted them only after trying and then failing to qualify for the top scholarships at these schools. And, of course, others who choose Ivies over full rides.</p>
<p>If your kid is a sophomore, it might be worth some effort to prep well for the PSAT this fall. The junior year PSAT is the ticket to National Merit Scholar status (must score in the top 2%) but that will generate full ride offers to several schools (U of Arizona, Arizona State, U Oklahoma just to mention a few). </p>
<p>Our older guy had some interesting responses to his application set. Our big state school (U Washington) didn’t seem to care much. He was just one more fish in a large ocean of fish that were applying. Arizona State was very generous in what they offered. A smaller state school offered some but not dazzling (probably knew they were his safety). He ended up at Dartmouth which he has loved and which has been generous. </p>
<p>You may get different levels of interest depending on kid’s intended major. Our younger son has gotten some warmer responses after I suggested he say “chemistry” instead of “I don’t know.” </p>
<p>We had a long talk about this. He does chemistry and math well but wants to be an author. I told him that an English degree would mean working (probably) as a personal assistant or as waiter until he could get his novels under way.
A science degree could mean lab work that was well paid until he got his novels going. </p>
<p>I asked him to test out saying “chemistry” at a college fair. He must have liked the responses he was getting because he’s been saying “chemistry” ever since.</p>
<p>Caltech significantly reduced (if not eliminated) scholarships for incoming freshmen with the HS class of 2009. They now give them out beginning soph year. Guess they want to see how students do once they arrive.</p>
<p>umcp11 – I concur. We know lots of kids with tippy-top acceptances who took the merit money at UMD. UMD sometimes misses some of the stars, though – we know someone who got into MIT and got zilch from UMD.</p>
<p>The University of Miami awards a large number of merit scholarships ranging from 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 to full tuition. I believe the minimum requirements are top 10% and 1350/1600. My S knew several students who turned down ivies and higher ranked schools for the money.</p>
<p>Lots of the other tech schools will offer “Presidential scholarships” to the Ivy League calliber student. My son got offers from both RPI and WPI. CMU has some merit money, but not for my kid. Harvey Mudd used to give sholarships soley based on 700+ SAT scores in every section. Not sure if they still do. Caltech used to have freshman scholarships, but looking at their website it appears they’ve been discontinued.</p>
<p>Mudd was 750+ on math SAT and SAT-II, 700+ on W and CR, AND absolutely, inflexibly top 10%, no matter the school, strength of schedule or other goodies. They tended to lose kids who were at specialized programs that way. Starting this year they are giving the awards still, but are going to be a bit more flexible about the criteria. They do still give the full Presidential Scholars Program full rides, though.</p>
<p>Smith College uses its Zollman Scholarships to steal students they think are otherwise headed for Ivies. Not that their judgment is always accurate.</p>
<p>Evil Robot had a full tuition, plus engineering fees, a computer, and probably a NM stipend, but not a full ride, to Vanderbilt Engineering. He double majored in computer science and math, and, if I remember correctly, finished an MS in cs at the same time as the undergrad.</p>
<p>My S has met quite a few kids at Vanderbilt this year (he is a freshman) who passed up an Ivy to attend Vandy. Vandy has several very attractive, albiet highly competitive merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Their University Fellows Program is super competitve and have an average ACT of 33(you need I think a 32 to even apply)…I know a poster who got into Yale EA who was not even a semifinalist for this program</p>
<p>To post #12: Middlebury doesn’t offer merit aid.</p>
<p>Most of the following have been suggested already but I reiterate/nth them:
Private Us - Duke, WUSTL, USC, UChicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, URochester
Public Us - UNC-CH, UVA, UMich, UPitt, PSU, UMD…
LACs - W&L, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Oberlin, Grinnell, Kenyon, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr (not well-advertised)</p>
I could swear that on the Pitt board I’ve read of students taking full rides at Pitt over Ivys. That might be tied into the guaranteed med school path. </p>