ACT 31 and 4.0 GPA
Solid high school curriculum
Plenty of extra curriculars and leadership experiences
good letter of recommendation and a good essay on app
*applying to the School of Agriculture
Not likely to get any, at least not the major ones like Trustee or Presidential, merit scholarship at Purdue. You need ACT ~35 to get those.
Apply early. Purdue has three scholarships the Presidential and Trustees and the Marquis (the Marquis is for Indiana residence only). Approximately 10-15 percent of their students are awarded scholarships.
http://www.admissions.purdue.edu/costsandfinaid/freshman.php
^^^Keep in mind that Purdue offers approximately 15% of APPLICANTS these scholarships. Not sure what Purdue’s yield is, but even assuming 1/2 of those 15% actually matriculate, Purdue is expecting only 7-8% of its freshman class to get these scholarships. If yield is less, that number could be even lower. If an applicant is offered one of these scholarships but chooses another school, the money is NOT awarded to the next in line.
Purdue’s yield rate is around 35% or 1/3. If you look at the admission result forum last year, some students with ACT 35 received nothing.
I don’t think they offer scholarships to 15% of applicant. It may be 15% of admitted students. They said they do disburse (not just offer) around 1300 scholarships each year though.
Purdue has a Net Price Calculator that is really good: http://www.purdue.edu/dfa/cost/estimator.html .
Fact is, Purdue is remarkably stingy with merit aid. However, relatively speaking, its out of state tuition is not bad at all even without a merit award, and the degree is very respected and valuable in STEM fields. In state, it’s an absolute bargain.
^ Purdue is not so stingy in merit aid for my D. It is far better than its neighbor, UIUC. With near a thousand decent size scholarship per year is far better than many schools. In addition, they offered another $10k/year on top of the $10k/ye presidential scholarship to my D to fill the gap last year. It is indeed one of the most generous schools in the mid-west.
@billcsho What were your D’s stats? What was her major? Was all the money from the univ or was some a dept award?
I have seen Purdue offer female eng’g students money from the dept to increase its numbers.
Stingy is in the eye of the beholder. Compared to UIUC, virtually any school will seem generous! lol
I have to echo Mom2 here. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. If you are one of the lucky FEW to get merit aid from Purdue, there are few better bargains around. And yes, Purdue is lopsided in its M/F ratio, so girls are more likely to be incentivized with money. Not taking anything from your D, billcsho, as you note it takes a very good student to get a merit award from Purdue, M or F.
But as noted above, most students will NOT get a merit award, and therein lies the stinginess. Not really an issue for instate kids because the school is CHEAP for them. It’s more borderline for OOS, but I’d argue it’s still a good value because OOS tuition is “only” $27k, and it’s cheap to live in West Lafayette.
UIUC is disgracing the state. An amazing school that is pricing it’s way right down the tubes. Doing the opposite of Alabama…chasing away the best and brightest from its own state.
Illinois gives about half of what Purdue does:
@bobwallace- PLUS UIUC is much much more expensive to begin with.
We’re in state and it didn’t make the short list. DD attended women in engineering day, and between the classes with 400 students and the FA person saying flat out that few get financial aid DD and 40S50W agreed that there are (for us) more desirable options than Purdue. We’re betting heavily that merit aid will be more reliable and predictable elsewhere. Actually, that’s a given.
@mom2collegekids She has 35/4.0 and was accepted into Purdue engineering as you said. I was just comparing all the schools that she got admitted. So the same stat for a girl applying to engineering. Purdue was indeed the most generous school in terms of total scholarship amount (not out of pocket cost though) in the mid-west. UMN-TC was right behind it but with much lower out of pocket cost. The stingy ones are UIUC and WISC.
@prospect1 UIUC engineering (~$50k) was around 10% more expensive than Purdue (~$45k). Originally, the gap decreased after freshmen year as UIUC fixed the tuition rate for all 4 years. However, Purdue also pledge to keep the tuition rate for the next couple years. Otherwise, the final cost would be only around 5% more.
The OP has the following stats:
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ACT 31 and 4.0 GPA
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Let’s not confuse him/her with awards that were for MUCH better test scores.
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(I got a 29 the first time and a 31 the second time). Thanks!
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What do you want your net cost to be? If you need to get costs down, then Purdue isn’'t likely going to be the school.
Purdue is $45k now!!! OK then Purdue’s merit is even stingier than I thought. I was under the impression that OOS tuition is $27k and room/board is roughly $10k…totaling $37k.
Isn’t it true that at Purdue scholarships are distributed evenly throughout its programs? For example, one student may be selected for a scholarship in the nursing or agriculture school but not in the engineering school (a more selective and competitive program). I was told this by a Purdue admissions counselor. Also, is the ACT score so heavily weighted that if you don’t have anything 35 and above there is absolutely no way you’re going to receive merit aid?? A friend of mine got the Trustee’s scholarship with an ACT 30 and strong academic profile otherwise. However, that was 5 years ago.
@mom2collegekids i don’t have a specific goal in mind for a net cost, my original goal was 1/2 half tuition which would be the Presidential scholarship.