Does any college located in NJ (excluding Princeton) offer full tuition or full ride scholarships or at least grants and scholarships or meet need to cover entire COA? Like TCNJ, Rutgers, Stevens, etc.
Check out the NJ STARS program. If you are in the top 15% of your HS class, you get full tuition to community college. Then, after graduating CC with a 3.25 GPA or better, you are eligible for NJ STARS II, which will give you a $2,500 scholarship to all state schools, and most privates in NJ (for family income <$250k).
@mjrube94 I believe the program you mentioned is only for NJ residents. The OP is an American living abroad.
TCNJ and Rutgers offer good financial aid for NJ residents on the lower end of the income spectrum.
NJ STARS is also a great option. If it is true you are an American living abroad, I am not sure if these options are available. You may need to rely on merit money and federal grants/loans.
@ManFromNeptune Depending on your stats, you might get some large tuition awards from Rutgers, TCNJ, or Rowan but unlikely to get a full ride. Rutgers-Camden has a “close the gap” program which is as described if institutional sources of aid don’t cover EFC, but it may be just for tuition, not total cost of attendance. This might be for NJ residents only. Check their website.
You would have better chances of merit aid from lower tier schools like Montclair State, William Patterson, and Kean. I believe that Stevens may require Profile, but not sure.
Just helped a lower income relative in NJ with college admissions, and there were no NJ FAFSA only schools that met full need for full COA. Some options offered up to full tuition or a bit more between Pell, state-level, and institutional grants. However, room/board/books/expenses at most NJ publics can cost 15K annually.
You should look to FAFSA only schools in the South, Midwest, or mountain West if you need full tuition or full cost of attendance packages. As an American living abroad, you also may be required to purchase local health insurance, which can add 2-3K annually.
Best of luck to you!
FDU (Farleigh DIckinson University) has a full tuition scholarship. I forget the stats required, but it’s listed on their website.
Look into Drew.
I echo Drew. It has good FA–not Princeton level, but still quite good. And lots of nice programs.
Here’s info for Stockton University (near the Jersey Shore). We toured last year and were impressed. It’s not top-tier, but it’s quite decent.
https://stockton.edu/admissions/scholarships.html
Rutgers should
As a low-income student I think my Rutgers & Montclair EFCs were about 10k-12k with room & board.
I went to a school in Philly & transferred to CC. But I’ll be attending Montclair or Rutgers in the fal!
What about Rutgers NB Presidential Scholarship? Is it $27,400/year plus free R&B for full 4 years? How does one go about bagging this award?
you should visit
The College of New Jersey
College of Saint Elizabeth
@ManFromNeptune are you in state? Not sure if that plays a roll. The person I know who got a full ride from Rutgers had a 101.4 GPA, 1500 SAT and was #1 in her class.
@ManFromNeptune According to my reading on the Rutgers website, that $27,400 includes R&B allowance, which corresponds to full COA for in-state students (excluding books, miscellaneous expenses, etc).
OOS tuition is an extra +16K annually. I couldn’t find any information on the Rutgers website about OOS tuition waiver or equivalent for Presidential awardees. You may want to contact them on that point.
Per information posted by Rutgers on line, awardees come from the top 1-2% of applicants. This likely corresponds to SAT of 1500+/NMS, very high HS class rank, strong course rigor, and unweighted GPA approximating 4.0. Go back to threads on the Presidential for previous years here on CC to get an idea of the stats associated with Regents/Presidential.
To be considered, must apply by Dec. 1.
No, I’ll be OOS. @NJWrestlingmom, what was the name of the scholarship that was a full ride to the girl you were talking about?
At Rutgers Newark, can a student be eligible for both HLLC scholarship and the RUNTOP together?
Yes, you can have HLLC & RUNTOP Together.
https://admissions.newark.rutgers.edu/paying-for-college/ru-n-top
I woudl check out Rowan https://admissions.rowan.edu/financingeduc/scholarships.html
They are trying to move themselves up in the rankings…they will be trying to get good students. https://admissions.rowan.edu/financingeduc/scholarships.html
TCNJ has already done that, so I don’t think they are as generous with merit aid.
Rutgers is worth trying of course. They are trying to get good students not to go out of state.
I agree with bopper. Check out Rowan, they offered my son a very generous merit scholarship. TCNJ wasn’t quite as generous but my son loves it there.
Good luck!
My D got offered a good scholarship from Rowan and Stockton (covered tuition). Got nothing from Rutgers. Stockton’s top one seems like it would cover OOS tuition as well.