Schools known for good merit aid

[asdad]

When we are considering finaid, we do not count loans.
I agree about Willamette. I really liked that school.

[silverlady]

St. Louis University gives 30 full tuition Presidential scholarships every year. They have almost 200 finalists for the award, and those who don't receive the Presidential scholarship receive 1/2 tuition scholarships.

[DVMMOM]

Isn't the question really, "What schools are most likely to give my student merit aid?" Surely a more useful answer involves a discussion of why virtually every school gives merit aid and what is the best strategy for getting it.

There have been many threads touching on this issue. Our experience, and many of the experiences I have seen shared on cc, include the following:

Know your hook (the thing that makes you desireable ) and research the schools you are considering to see if this is an area where they are trying extra hard to maintain or improve. Is this school a bit low in average SAT scores when compared to others in its category? They might be willing to use merit aid to attract very high SAT score holders who will improve their stats. Another school might be trying to enhance its ethnic diversity or international population. A third might be looking for science students or french horn players.

If merit aid is critical, don't apply "above yourself." Make sure that your applications include many in the so called match and safety zones. There are lots of wonderful, lower name recongnition and lower selectivity schools out there. Don't be a snob. If you need or want the money, you must be at the very top of that school's applicant pool. The down side of this strategy is the fear that the education at said school may lack the rigor and status of a more selective school. Do your research. A well developed honors program is reassuring. Placement tests for entering freshmen and remedial courses for those who don't place suggests that more classroom rigor might exist than the stats indicate.

Apply frequently and often! If you are hoping for merit aid, double or triple the number of applications. Merit aid is unpredictable. It is common to hear of a student given substantial merit aid at the more selective of two schools while the "lesser" gives none or very little. If you cast a wide net, and you have followed the above steps, you may get some really wonderful surprises.

Don't be shy! If the prefered school doesn't pony up, don't give up. Call the admissions office and let them know how much your son or daughter wants to attend and let them know that their competition has offered substantial merit money. Sometimes you can broker a deal. (probably best not to tell your child you are doing this - most are mortified - but heck, that's why they have parents, right? If it works, you are allowed to boast about it after the fact.)

[jmmom]

Excellent ideas, DVMMOM.

[processedout]

The above is converging on a pretty comprehensive list. I'll toss in one that's maybe a little out of the mainstream...

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) has a very prestigous program called the Meyerhoff Scholars. The Today Show did as segment on it a while back with the UMBC president. The Meyerhoff program is probably unequalled in getting its students into the best terminal degree programs in the country in science and engineering. The two top prep schools I'm familiar with rate Meyerhoff on par with the top Ivy and high end techie school (e.g. MIT) programs. Needless to say, it's very competitive. There's a required overnight stay that includes a series of interviews for the finalists.

That said, the scholarship is a full ride in the true sense of the term (tuition, room and board, fees, books, etc). My youngest went through the process and was selected. Unfortunately, for me, she chose to allow me the opportunity to use her college fund elsewhere.

Anyway, for anyone looking for something unique that comes with a very nice financial reward, it's worth looking into.

[MotherMoo]

http://www.asu.edu/feature/includes/...dmore/bhc.html

The Barrett Honors College is featured in the Reader's Digest "Best in America" publication in print this week and online at www.rd.com. This is very exciting news! Please visit the site, click on "Arizona" and read about our college! For more information about the award please also visit the ASU website at http://asu.edu .

National Merit Finalist Scholarship
National Achievement Finalist Scholarship
National Hispanic Finalist Scholarship

Residents:
$12,500 annual award renewable for three additional years provided you satisfy Renewal Criteria.
$50,000 total four-year value.
Nonresidents:
$21,500 annual award renewable for three additional years provided you satisfy Renewal Criteria.
$86,000 total four-year value.
If you are sponsored by a corporation, corporate sponsored funds are already included in the total award offered by ASU.

http://honors.asu.edu/
search for - Entering Freshmen Scholarships

[LuckyMe]

The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma WA is an excellent school and is offering substantial merit scholarships to highly qualified students. Their merit scholarships have attracting many well qualified students who were either rejected from their top choices or accepted, but were not given enough financial aid.

[vadad]

Wake Forest (very generous programs, particularly Reynolds and Grayling Scholars which are full rides, but a bunch of others, too).
Davidson (Belk and Baker Scholars are full rides, and they give out a lot of additional merit aid every year.
William & Mary has a full tuition ride for 4 students under its new College Scholars program.
D2 also was offered very generous merit aid from Rice last year.
UNC's Robertson (sp?) Scholars and UVA's Jefferson Scholars also give full rides.

[newmassdad]

Now for a more complex question:

What schools have good merit aid, AND have need blind admissons AND meet all need - don't gap?

Anyone have any good examples?

[cathymee]

This is my first post after lurking for years.I just have to plug the Honors College at ASU. DD is about to graduate from there.She has attended on a National Merit Finalist Scholarship.It's worth (in her case) full tuition -out of state -plus 3,500 a year. Current enrollee's are getting 5,500 a year. The extra has been enough to pay for housing both on campus 2 years and off 2 years.She's had to maintain a 3.5 (out of state, in state its a 3.25) and do 20 hours a semester of community service (easy to do they have numerous opportunities handed to them through the honors college and many other sources.She's just finished her honor's thesis working with a music grad school faculty member who never worked with an undergrad before and did a summer honor's only study abroad in between freshman and sophomore year-6 weeks, 6 credits with honor's faculty teaching them in various cities.She's been able to add a women's studies minor which wouldn't have been possible at a conservatory.
The honors college is self contained as far as dorms,classrooms and faculty offices are concerned.
DD was recruited and it was a happy match.She was looking for music performance, decided free standing conservatories weren't for her (she felt too confined).She never considered ASU but it showed up on a top 25 music school list,she found a studio teacher she loved plus the National Merit plus Honor's College.
Just an aside note:she's been accepted and will attend a PHD program (fully funded) in Musicology next fall at one of those upper tier private U's everyone on here is always talking about. ANd she warns that of all the people she knows who came in with a National Merit, she's the ONLY one who has kept it all 4 years w/o probation at some point.Even at ASU its hard to keep a 3.5!!

[pattykk]

newmassdad: Grinnell, Chicago?

[pattykk]

also Kenyon, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, not sure about Hopkins

[vadad]

Newmassdad: All of the schools I listed except (maybe) W&M.

[texas137]

I agree with DVMMOM - "what schools give good merit aid" is the wrong question. We are amassing a large list of schools here, but the relevant question is where should a particular student apply for good merit aid, and that totally depends on the qualifications of the student. For instance, both Duke and Caltech offer around 16 full rides every year to their top applicants, and U. Chicago has several full-tuition scholarships. But most students who apply are not even going to get into those schools, much less be at the top of the applicant pool. So for the vast majority of students, these are not "good merit aid" schools at all. On the other hand, if a student has multiple medals from int'l math or science olympiads, they are going to look to schools exactly like that for merit aid, and not bother with the vast majority of schools we are listing here.

Here's my answer to this question... The Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, and Northwestern do NOT give merit aid. Virtually every other school in the country does if they want you badly enough and think they can lure you there with money. So a student who desires good merit aid needs to start with their own credentials and figure out what sort of schools they would normally get into and attend. Then they need to look at schools a full tier below that, where they would be at the top of the applicant pool. Don't restrict your thinking to schools who give a formula for merit aid or who publicize certain merit scholarships on their website. Some schools are willing to be very generous towards top students they think they can lure, but are not that upfront about it publically.

[dstark]

cathymee, ASU was sounding good until you mentioned almost everyone had trouble with the 3.5 gpa.