Could I get a full ride anywhere?

tk21769
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:11:01 +0000

Is it correct to assume you think you won’t qualify for significant need-based aid, but your family is not so wealthy to easily afford full cost at a top private school? If that is your situation, then you need to consider how much less than full cost your family is comfortable paying.

The most famous, selective northeastern schools generally don’t award merit scholarships. They don’t need to do this in order to attract many more strong applicants than they can accept. However, many excellent midwestern or southern schools do give merit scholarships (though not necessarily full rides).

The University of Chicago awards merit scholarships to about 10% of admitted students. These do include some full tuition awards, but these go to the strongest applicants in a very competitive pool. Tulane is a less selective school that gives merit aid.

I think you’d have a good shot at a $5K-$10K merit scholarship from a selective midwestern LAC such as Macalester, Oberlin, Colorado College or Grinnell. Some of these schools are thousands of dollars cheaper than the New England LACs to start with. They tend to be a little less selective than the top New England LACs but offer a similar educational experience.

To review how much merit aid a school awards, google for the “Common Data Set” of any school that interests you, then go to the tables in section H1 of the downloaded document.