Schools known for good merit aid

[mamacita]

Rhodes has good merit aid
Sewanee has good merit aid
Duke/UNC Robertson scholarships are fabulous

Look at the state schools with great honors programs; many of them have fabulous aid packages as well. UGA and Indiana come to mind. University of Oklahoma and Arizona State ( especially math, science )...

The hunt for aid requires expanding the list of possibilities beyond the reach, match, safety list. Students who are hunting for aid need to look at the match of the best possible program with the best money package. In reality the reach, match, and safety schools may accept the student and offer no aid. For many students, that puts them into a new category: impossible. Money needs to be a factor early in the hunt.

[yulsie]

Goucher - excellent merit aid, up to full tuition for the right stats!

[palermo]

Do you have any idea what the stats are of those who receive the full tuition scholarships at Goucher? That is one of the schools my son is looking at. Thanks

[fredo]

sideways: Denison was the school I really wanted my daughter to go to. Ultimately, she decided it was too far away.

Two more merit schools: Wittenberg and Univ. of Dayton.

I don't think IU gives merit aid to in-state students, by the way. My daughter was accepted last year into their Honors College and she didn't receive anything. I guess they figure Hoosiers will pay a small enough amount if they go there anyway (the exception being Wells Scholars which are full rides but only given to about 25 kids a year, I think).

My D had a 3.2 GPA (and not so great class rank of 35%), 1370 SAT, solid EC's (but nothing truly outstanding) and received merit offers of between $7000-$12,000/yr at DePauw, Wittenberg, Denison and Dayton.

[kinshasa]

Link to Goucher merit-based scholarships:

http://www.goucher.edu/admissions/te...m?page_id=1377

[Lhasa]

http://www.valpo.edu/finaid/merit.htm

from the website:

Valparaiso University is pleased to reward students demonstrating exceptional high school achievement with academic scholarships. All admitted students will be automatically considered.

Academic Scholarships range from $6000 to full-tuition, and are based on standardized test scores (ACT or SAT) and a recalculated high school grade point average. Valparaiso University recalculates all grade point averages on a 4.0 scale using English, mathematics, science, social science and foreign language grades only for scholarship purposes.

PLEASE NOTE:

• First priority will be given to those who apply by the Early Action date of November 1, 2004, and then preference will be given to those who apply by January 15, 2005.

• Scholarship Funds are limited , so apply early!


Students competing for the Founders Full Tuition Scholarship must be in the top 5% of the high school class with a 3.85 grade point average, have either a 34 composite ACT or a 1510 composite SAT, and submit a complete admissions application, including transcripts and standardized test scores. Priority will be given to those who apply by November 1. A separate scholarship application will be sent to students who qualify.

------------------
VU also guarantees at least on-campus room and board through federal, insititutional, or private grants for Indiana residents who receive the Lilly Foundation Scholarship through their county foundations. Since the Lilly is full-tuition for 4 years, this would make for a nearly free ride.
----------------
S was awarded $6K Presidential scholarship, with middle of the mid-range stats for this school. This is equivalent to slightly more than 1/4 tuition.

S applied by Jan 15. Merit award came automatically.

The website says that FAFSA is necessary only for need-based aid here.

[carolyn]

A word of warning about Goucher - they have been very generous with merit aid in the past (doling it out to people with relatively low scores) but that may bechanging. They have raised their tuition for next year quite a bit and Goucher's President has said that they are considering cutting non-need merit aid and make more need-based grants to cover the difference. However, Goucher's plan is to increase size from about 1300 to 1500 in the next two years and they are trying to raise their stats of admitted students and add diversity (gender, racial and geographic) at the same time. Therefore, if you're towards the top or above their stat range (3.2 GPA/1200 SAT median), a male, a minority, or from outside the northeast/middle atlantic (where Goucher pulls most of its students from), I think you will still find them generous with merit money. They also have a number of talent-based scholarships in art, performing arts, and music that are quite generous and those apparently will not be changing. You don't need to major in the arts to receive one.

[dadofsam]

University of Maine
In addition to offering scholarships up to full tuition for Maine residents, also offers merit scholarships to non-residents and irrespective of residence:
For example:
Title: Presidential Scholars Award
Eligibility: Nonresidents who minimally rank in the top 10% of their graduating classes and have minimum SAT scores of 1250.
Deadline is December 15.
Award: $7,500 per academic year, renewable for up to 7 semesters
Title: Dean's Scholar Award
Eligibility: Nonresidents who minimally rank in the top 20% of their graduating classes and have minimum SAT scores of 1150.
Deadline is December 15.
Award: $3,750 per academic year, renewable for up to 7 semesters
Title: Tuition Scholarships for Outstanding Academic Students and National Merit Finalists
Eligibility: Awarded to outstanding academic students regardless of residence and National Merit Scholarship Finalists who identify UMaine as their first choice
Award: Full tuition for those credits required to complete a first program of study, or eight semesters of full-time enrollment - whichever occurs first.
Title: Distinguished Scholar Award
Eligibility: Students who distinguish themselves through class rank and standardized test scores.
Award: Awards of $2,000 per academic year, renewable for up to seven semesters.
Title: Distinguished Student Award
Eligibility: Students who exhibit diversity--culturally, personally, or through achievement in the visual and performing arts.
Award: Ranging from $2,000 to $8,000, renewable for up to 7 semesters.

The website is at go.umaine.edu/scholarship

[oldman]

Univ Georgia gives out -of state tuition waivers rather readily for those in the honors program. It is a large program and you do not need blow out SAT's ,etc. to get in.

[scherlo]

My daughter received merit scholarships from several U of CA, but not very much, 40,000 from Occidental, and full tuition from USC (120,000). USC gives out 175 of these scholarships and have many more merit scholarships of lesser amounts.

[asdad]

$120,000 is not very much?

[sideways]

I think she meant from the UC's themselves.

[Eagle79]

1) Go to USNews
2) Look at each school you are interested in
3) Check the Tuition & Financial Aid tab
4) Check the table at the bottom of the tab for Merit Aid

For example:

Tulane:
(% awarded aid) $16,402 (28%) $15,306 (29%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $24,738 (3%) $28,469 (3%)

To me that means that if you are in the top 28% of the applicant pool then you will probably get around $16,402. If your child is in the top 10% of their class and has an SAT score above their 75th percentile I would expect that they would get that type of merit award.

Do the same check for all the schools that you are referencing, i.e. BU, Emory, Grinnell, WUStL. To save you some time here are a few of them:

WUStL:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,813 (16%) $9,231 (14%)

BU:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $11,902 (16%) $14,324 (13%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $27,699 (1%) $28,275 (1%)

Emory:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $12,428 (5%) $16,422 (6%)

Grinnell:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,370 (24%) $8,890 (28%)

To me you are looking for 2 things, the size of the average award and how broadly it is awarded. Using those 2 criterea Tulane probably has the broadest and deepest merit aid program. However, that is not the only reason to pick a school.

Of course there are a number of other schools that give merit aid for certain of their honors programs but those are not broadly administered. For example, Boston College Presidential Scholars Program, Villanova, same thing.

Anyway, good luck to all.

[sillystring7]

Last year, D received (all for four years):

Fordham -- tuition and room
Loyola New Orleans -- tuition and room
Tulane -- tuition
UNC-Chapel Hill (out of state) -- tuition
NYU -- $8,000
Davidson -- $5,000
WUSTL -- $18,000
Emory -- tuition
UChicago -- tuition (attending)

and our state school:
University of Texas -- $1,000

[arizonamom]

I have to put in a plug for Willamette. they are generous with merit and finaid. On top of that the school will subsidize the entire loan, ie pay the interest until 9 months after graduation. They have a full tuition community service/leadership scholarship as well as the above. It is a hidden gem college that would be rated higher then 51 if it were in the east.