1 - Make sure you are clear whether you are being offered a full ride or full tuition. The two can be very different in terms of dollars. Room, board and other fees can be as much as tuition itself. So just make sure when someone says "full ride" you understand if it covers all expenses or just tuition.
I will use Ds school to explain some other things you need to watch out for when figuring out costs to attend and scholarships. Oklahoma City University offers full tuition to National Merit Finalists. Tuition for next year is approximately $27,000 (room, board and other fees are additional). OCUs other academic merit scholarships are spelled out on their website. Students can get academic merit $ anywhere from $1700 - $8000 per year depending on their ACT score and GPA. Many students also receive a talent award which will vary from person to person. Merit and talent awards are stackable. There are other scholarships available as well that are also stackable in addition to merit and talent. This was important to us as we found at some schools you were not allowed to stack scholarships. You had to choose whichever scholarship offered you the most $ but you couldn’t combine them. This ended up making the offer not nearly as attractive as the schools that allowed you to stack scholarships.
The Clara Luper Scholars at OCU is basically a full ride. Students in that program receive funding that covers whatever tuition is not covered by federal and state grants and will also pay for standard room and board. But pay attention to what is required of you for any federal and state grants.
One nice thing at OCU is your tuition is guaranteed for 4 years so you don’t have to worry about large tuition increase surprises each year. You might check with the schools you like to see what their history of tuition increases is so you can plan for your 4 years accordingly.
Like most schools, at OCU, there are many other scholarships available so talk to the financial aid office of any school in which you are interested to make sure you are being considered for all scholarships for which you are qualified. Many require additional applications and paperwork and often have early deadlines so get on those as soon as possible.
Another thing to be aware of – if you receive any sort of outside scholarships (local, regional or national), be aware that many schools will deduct that amount from the amount they were going to give you in scholarship. It changes what they feel your need is. So again, make sure you talk it through with the financial aid office and really understand what your bottom line cost to attend will be.
Also make sure you understand what all the options are for room and board. Schools today have many different options for each and they can really vary in price.
And make sure you understand if there are “additional” fees required for any of your classes. There can be accompanist fees, lab fees, administrative fees… these can all really add up. So just make sure all dollars are accounted for so you have no surprises.
Lots to think about when figuring out your actual cost to attend!