College Mike

Usually if you look for a private college they will have more money to give. In Michigan Kalamazoo College give a lot of financial and merit aid. I've even seen state schools like MSU give out a ton of merit money.

cpq1xtbu

I searched this thread and didn't see this mentioned. Southern Methodist University gives large merit scholarships. One is the Presidential Scholarship which is a full ride +. There is also a full tuition scholarship, but I've forgotten what it's called. Both scholarships require an interview with faculty.

Jackster

Stevens Institute of Technology has a lot of Merit based grants and scholarships to offer.

SF49ers

The Citadel is a fantastic school and has over 25 full-ride academic scholarships. Just make sure to apply early.

myjennygirl91

WashU, Cornell this year, Harvard, Caltech?

myjennygirl91

and maybe Yale?

myjennygirl91

i know stanford does not provide good financial aid

csleslie51

This thread has been running for awhile. To update it, which schools gave the best aid this year (merit and/or need based or combination)?

sharonohio

U of Richmond has full tuition scholarships (I believe this year there were 45) that are merit based. My daughter received one of these this year.

MD Mom

Forgive me if this has been posted before, but Harvard (and I think Yale and Columbia) came out with policies to aid middle and upper-middle class families in the last couple of years. The letter from Harvard (I ditched the others) says that students whose families make up to $180K pay 10 percent of income for tuition down to $120K. It continues to drop and families under $60 pay nothing. I do not know whether this is tuition only or room and board too. I am certain that this has really boosted applications.

Pitt gave nice merit scholarships this year (full tuition); I have no idea how many. University Maryland (in state) also offered full tuition. Schools recruiting NMS with full tuition and more: Oklahoma, Arizona State, UT-Dallas, Texas A&M, University of Central Florida.

minimom

Willamette (most generous merit and need-based scholarships), followed by Whitman and UC Santa Barbara.

theGame

Wesleyan U has a lot of scholarships/financial aid too

sapmich

Merit scholarships for B+ student with 29 ACT in 2009:
Best: University of Puget Sound (12k), Northeastern U (10k), Kalamazoo College (8k), Eckerd (13k)
Less: UVM (3k)
Nuthin: Tulane, Lewis & Clark, George Washington U, BU, American

Benny07

Washington& Jefferson, Allegheny, and Hampton-Sydney give merit-based scholarships and will match comparable schools.

cyberadius

Sone was offered almost a full ride at Univ of Oklahoma (honors) and invited to offer for full ride at ASU. U of I offered only a token scholarship. Decided to go to Northwestern. FA package added up to ~ 45% of sticker which essentially matched U of I cost.

from what I have seen is that most top tier colleges will match EFC. Private colleges tend to be more motivated to adjust FA pkgs for students. Hope this helps.