Why does everyone think that full rides at state flagships are easy to come by?

<p>Just to clarify…S1’s state u. scholarships were all merit based. We did not apply for any need based FA.</p>

<p>The University of Maryland has something called the Banneker-Key scholarships – about 150 each year. These are merit-based scholarships. Some are full rides; some are partial. As with any special program at the University of Maryland, you have to apply by November 1 to be considered.</p>

<p>UGA offers full ride ( tuition + $10K stipend + $9K study abroad + springbreak travel) through their Foundation Fellowship program. About 25 students are offered and this year 17 accepted. Another 25 are offered the Ramsey scholarship which offers free tuition and about half the other benefits. For instate tuition will be covered by the Hope scholarship.
The top 2% of students will be offered the Charter scholarship ranging from $1k to around $4.</p>

<p>The students at the Ramsey interview weekend have impressive resumes and top scores. Some not offered the fellowship were admitted to Ivies and vice versa. All had more than one fabulous offer to consider.</p>

<p>GT operates the Presidential scholars program. If I recall only 4 students are offered full rides. The remaining students invited to the interview weekend( 100) are offered between $4K- $8K.</p>

<p>Both programs are extremely competitive.</p>

<p>Many people use the term full-ride either mistakenly, or loosely, when what they mean is full-tuition. If you already live close to the college in question you might consider it such since you will be attending for free and living at home, but true full ride scholarships are rare. People who think a full-ride scholarship is easy to get probably hasn’t tried to get one yet.</p>

<p>In FL any student that makes the score cutoffs gets a Bright Futures scholarship. It covers 100% of 120 credit hours and can be used at any state U in FL including but not limited to U of FL and FSU. The value of it can be applied to any private U in FL.</p>

<p>Cutoffs are 1270 SAT/28 ACT.</p>

<p>I think its pretty rare for colleges to completely cover room and board with merit money.</p>

<p>“I’ve also noticed that when people say their kid got a ‘full ride’ it is often a combination of financial aid ( needs based scholarship) and academic scholarship” - </p>

<p>That’s surprising. It seems like most colleges do not allow students to stack FA & merit scholarships. I’ve seen parents looking for that. If there’s not already a thread listing “FA/merit stack schools” , somebody should start one.</p>

<p>I applied to SUNY Buffalo, and to get the Presidential Scholarship, which covers the FULL cost of attendance, you need a minimum 1480 SAT or 34 ACT and 95 UnWeighted GPA, which certainly only the top students in the country have.</p>

<p>After my first kid went through the process, I realized how loosely the terms “full ride” and “free die” are used. Many of these terms are used by other students who probably heard it from a bragging college bound kid. Now I know that some of these “free rides” were no where near, probably not even half tuition. And yes, some are definitely need-based aid.</p>

<p>*“I’ve also noticed that when people say their kid got a ‘full ride’ it is often a combination of financial aid ( needs based scholarship) and academic scholarship” - </p>

<p>+++++==
That’s surprising. It seems like most colleges do not allow students to stack FA & merit scholarships. I’ve seen parents looking for that. If there’s not already a thread listing “FA/merit stack schools” , somebody should start one. *</p>

<p>This usually only happens in very low EFC situations. The student gets merit, gets Pell and/or state entitlement aid, and the balance is covered with W-S and a student loan. </p>

<p>When a student has a decent EFC, then the merit would just replace need-based aid and/or “self-help” at most schools…and there still would be an EFC to pay.</p>

<p>However, anyone with a low EFC attending a full need school will likely have to contribute little to nothing because of COA padding. They usually think of a full ride is one that covers the “direct costs” to the school…tuition, room & board.</p>

<p>South Carolina awards high school students the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship for meeting:</p>

<ol>
<li>Score at least 1200 on the SAT (27 on the ACT) by the June national test administration of the senior year; earn a minimum 3.50 cumulative GPA on the SC Uniform Grading Scale (UGS), and rank in the top six percent of the class; or</li>
<li>Score at least 1400 on the SAT (32 on the ACT) by the June national test administration and earn a minimum 4.00 cumulative GPA on the SC UGS.</li>
</ol>

<p>The Palmetto Fellows is $6700 the first year nad $7500 the following 3 years. It is increased to $10000 after the first year for math/science majors.</p>

<p>Winthrop University does offer a free ride (tution+room+board) to all high school students that get the Palmetto Fellows. Winthrop also has rolling admissions.</p>

<p>My son’s high school just completed the paperwork for the Palmetto Fellows, and he recently got his acceptance letter from Winthrop. He will enroll in BS BioChem program.</p>

<p>This is a really great deal for South Carolina students!</p>

<p>Congrats, Ken. My neighbor’s D went to Winthrop. She got a full tuition scholarship there because she was a full IB diploma graduate. That was prob. ten years ago. Does Winthrop still offer full tuition scholarships to IB grads. Oh, we are in NC so this was not for SC residents only.</p>

<p>In WA state the University of Washington offers very few true merit scholarships. WSU and WWU offer full tuition for NMF. My son(high stats NMSF) who wanted to go away to school anyway has been offered full tuition at the University of Pittsburgh. He (assuming he advances to NMF) has also been offered about $3000 more than full tuition at the University of Minnesota. Northeastern has offered $20,000 but assuming NMF status that should increase to full tuition. He is in the running for the Chancellor (full ride) at Pitt and fingers and toes crossed the Trustee (full ride) at Northeastern. If one of these comes to fruition then he will attend that school. He has visited both of them and loved both schools. His main focus going into this process was to find an affordable(with merit), urban, well-respected university. We still have to visit Minnesota in late February or early March. He could very well end up there as well. Despite my efforts he had no interest in Alabama, Idaho, or even USC.</p>

<p>PackMom, Winthrop may still offer full rides to IB or OOS grads, but Winthrop (per their website) does guarantee full rides for all Palmette Fellows students. Good thing for us, without it DS would more than likely be going to the local community/technical college. He scored a 32 on the ACT and has a 3.75 non-weighted GPA. We did a campus visit to USC Columbia and Winthrop. Lucky of us (me) he thinks that Winthrop is a perfect fit for him. Winthrop has that small LRC ‘feel’, in fact some people think it is a small LRC, but it is part of the state system.
He has been accepted by the College of Charleston and USC Columbia, and while merit offers will not arrive until March, I don’t expect anything close to a full ride from them. He has also been accepted into the pre-pharmacy program at Presbytrian College. They offered a $20K/yr scholarship but cost of attendance is around $45K.
As an added bonus, the Winthrop football team is still undefeated (they don’t have one). But they do have a decent Basketball team that has frequent NCAA appearences.</p>

<p>They are easy to come by if you are a minority and dirt poor. I see plenty of dirty poor minorities getting full-rides who have no busy being in college in the first place.</p>

<p>Ken9455 - my son is in the Honors College at USC. He did get a small scholarship from the university to stack on top of the Palmetto but it wasn’t a lot. USC only gives out about 10 in-state full rides a year (my son’s bf got one). It’s called the Carolina Scholars program. He didn’t apply to Winthrop or CoC but Wofford offered him $20k while their COA is about $45k also. He wanted the big research university experience but also liked the fact that the Honors College offers smaller size classes, so he’s happy at USC. His private counselor tried to get him to apply to the Honors College at College of Charleston - said it was an excellent program. Good luck.</p>

<p>A friend’s D got the McNair scholarship at Univ. of South Carolina. It gets oos kids instate tuition and 15K per year.</p>

<p>PrincessBride, the current president of Brown University was once of those folks you so disdain. You need to edit yourself before we ask the moderators to edit you on our behalf.</p>

<p>ThePrincessBride has identified herself in other posts as female,black, and a nursing student at Ohio State with a 22 ACT . Hopefully, she is learning some empathy in her nursing courses.</p>

<p>Um…what? What is your problem, and why are you stalking me?</p>

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<p>Why do I need to edit myself?</p>