<p>It seems to be a default assumption on CC that every student with "Ivy qualified stats" (2150+ SAT, lots of AP classes, top 5-10% rank, good ECs, etc) can just walk into a full-ride at a flagship state u (which typically offer bigger merit money than non-flagship state u's, I've found). However, in my experience, full rides at state u's, especially flagships, aren't that plentiful and are quite competitive--certainly rarer than the 30,000 "Ivy qualified" HS students that may apply each year. </p>
<p>For example, in the state where I went to college, between the two flagship u's, there are about 48 scholarships that would possibly qualify as "full-rides" (tuition, fees, room, and board) for IS students, and those might not even cover the full costs. About half of those go to OOS students. Even though it's a small state, I can guarantee there's more than 24 to 48 "Ivy qualified" high school students graduating per year--and I've personally known some really spectacular HS students who got in top LACs but didn't even make the finalist cut for those flagship scholarships. </p>
<p>The flagship u in my home state doesn't even offer any full-rides--they do offer some full tuition plus scholarships, but again, those are few, have an insanely high GPA requirement, and wouldn't cover room and board. The other flagship-ish u offers more formulaic full-tuition scholarships (available to anyone with anywhere between a 3.5 UW/1360 M+CR and a 4.0 UW /1600 M+CR) but nothing above full-tuition.</p>
<p>The (well-ranked) flagship state u's in the state where I now live now offer very few full-rides, and those are only if you can manage to cobble together enough from a few different university pots of money with requirements over merit (e.g., being first generation or coming from a certain HS). Full tuition scholarships are a bit easier to come by but still not being handed out like candy.</p>
<p>All of these are fairly large, rural states where commuting would be geographically impossible for many/most students.</p>
<p>This isn't to bash merit aid at state schools--I'm very, very grateful for my OOS flagship state u education and the large scholarship that keep my yearly expenses below $10k--but rather because I'm honestly curious where this assumption that every "Ivy qualified" student can simply elect to take the full-ride state u scholarship they will certainly be offered. :confused:</p>