For anyone who’s full pay or close to it and looking to add last minute schools in search of merit aid, here’s a list of schools that have Jan 15 RD deadlines (unless otherwise noted).
My somewhat arbitrary criteria for inclusion are (1) merit aid given to more than 50% of students with NO financial need; (2) the average merit award is over $12,000; and (3) a 6 year graduation rate of 80% or higher (as a rough proxy for quality). My source was either the Common Data Set or collegedata website.* I didn’t include public schools, because the CDS doesn’t distinguish between merit $$ for in-state vs. OOS and they can materially differ. Plus, there are already threads that have great info on public schools giving merit.
Do pay attention to the cost of attendance. There’s obviously a big difference in schools with a COA of $68K vs. a COA of $50K giving $15K in merit aid. And run that net price calculator! I certainly may have missed some schools (or made mistakes), so apologies in advance. And don’t forget that you’ll likely need to find a way to show interest for most, if not all, of these schools. Good luck with all your applications!
Case Western – 67.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $23,479 average merit aid
Centre – 89.4% with no financial need received merit aid; $20,689 average merit aid
Clark (2/1) – 77.9% with no financial need received merit aid; $18,160 average merit aid
Denison – 90.4% with no financial need received merit aid; $23,414 average merit aid
DePauw – 86.4% with no financial need received merit aid; $17,350 average merit aid
Fairfield – 52.2% with no financial need received merit aid; $14,445 average merit aid
Furman – 67.4% with no financial need received merit aid; $20,472 average merit aid
Gonzaga (2/1) – 93.4% with no financial need received merit aid; $14,445 average merit aid
Grinnell – 61.7% with no financial need received merit aid; $17,026 average merit aid
Gustavus Adolphus (rolling) – 99% with no financial need received merit aid; $20,598 average merit aid
Hillsdale – 97.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $13,159 average merit aid
Lawrence – 91.8% with no financial need received merit aid; $22,044 average merit aid
Muhlenberg (2/15) – 80.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $12,817 average merit aid
Oberlin – 76.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $14,434 average merit aid
Rhodes – 93.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $22,703 average merit aid
RPI – 66.2% with no financial need received merit aid; $17,920 average merit aid
Sewanee (2/1) – 67.0% with no financial need received merit aid; $12,275 average merit aid
SMU – 54.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $23,323 average merit aid
St. Lawrence (2/1) – 70.1% with no financial need received merit aid; $19,174 average merit aid
St. Olaf – 80.2% with no financial need received merit aid; $14,942 average merit aid
St. Joseph’s (2/1) – 68.2% with no financial need received merit aid; $12,083 average merit aid
Stonehill – 95.9% with no financial need received merit aid; $17,418 average merit aid
Trinity U (TX) (2/1) – 81.7% with no financial need received merit aid; $19,042 average merit aid
Tulane – 62.0% with no financial need received merit aid; $25,779 average merit aid
Wofford – 65.8% with no financial need received merit aid; $16,243 average merit aid
WPI – 98.5% with no financial need received merit aid; $16,002 average merit aid
*For the 6 year graduation rate, I used either 1 or 2 classes for the figures. For the merit aid percentage, I had to do some math – the percentage shown in the data is not that helpful. If a school has 10,000 students and 3,000 get merit aid without financial need, the school reports 30% in their CDS. But that’s not that helpful. If 6,000 students get financial aid, then that means 4,000 don’t. And of those 4,000 who don’t get financial aid, 3,000 of them (or 75%) get merit aid. I use the 75% figure to determine percentage with no financial need who get merit aid. The denominator is the number of students who don’t get financial aid, not the entire student body.
Other schools that almost made the criteria include Whitman, Union, Sarah Lawrence, and Knox, among others.