Some of the nuance is splitting hairs, sure, but I do think the ambiguity of “full ride” causes unnecessary confusion. If your college budget is, say, $15k, then the difference between an alleged “full ride” that leaves you $18k in billed costs vs. a “full ride” that leaves you $0 in billed costs is a massive one - yet people seem to use the term interchangeably, as if these were the same. For the sake of clarity, I would much prefer that we switch to “full tuition” and “full COA” when referencing aid awards.
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I am personally not preoccupied, just commenting on the fact that there doesn’t seem to be one standard definition in terms of common usage, and I find it interesting to know the granular differences between how people define it.
IRL people describe need based aid as “academic scholarship” and athletic scholarships as “merit awards” or even less helpful “They wanted Johnny so much they are PAYING him to attend”.
None of these are remotely accurate but who cares? I have a friend who is now describing a mutual friend’s advanced colon cancer as “digestive issues”, so expecting people to use precise language is kind of a waste of time and energy.
No?
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I’m the original poster. In my mind “scholarship” means something awarded on merit. So, I was asking about those big scholarships like 40 Acres, Jefferson, Banneker/Key, Stamps, etc . . . But I’m not asking for my particular kid. He has always been fascinated with how people do amazing things. How do you learn to ride the skeleton well enough to get an Olympic gold? How do you prepare to climb Everest? How do you win a Nobel Prize? etc . . . If there’s a book about someone who did something like that, he wants to read it. And his curiosity is contagious so now I’m asking. That doesn’t mean I think my kid will win one of those scholarships, or the Nobel Prize or the Gold Medal in skeleton, or that we’re making it a goal. I just caught his curiosity so I came here to ask.
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Another option for getting a full tuition scholarship can be having a family member be an employee of a college. I know a few parents who took various jobs at colleges in anticipation of their kids going off to college. For example I know a previous stay-at-home mom who read the fine print of the benefits packages of all the private colleges within commuting distance of her home. She found one that was itself a good match for her kids, and which also offered nearly full tuition coverage reciprocity at a few other excellent colleges in the region. It did require that she be at least an 0.8 FTE employee, and be working for a full 12 months before receiving this benefit. So she applied for a 0.8 FTE secretarial job and got hired. The job is not great paying by itself, but when you factor in that her 2 kids are now attending one of these (very expensive!) colleges on the tuition reciprocity, it is adding more than $100,000/yr to her “pay.” Another example is of a classmate of mine in college whose father was a janitor for the school–I heard her COA was $0.
But you really have to read the fine print!! Not all colleges offer tuition reimbursement. Some offer none at all! And of the ones that do offer it, it may be only ~half tuition, hard to get, or cover only a very limited set of schools which may not appeal to your student.
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And some of these tuition awards for children of staff are taxable income. So nowhere near as lucrative as they may seem at first blush. Agree you need to read the fine print.
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Yes, there are definitely fewer than there used to be, but full-ride scholarships for National Merit finalists are still out there. There are a few families here on CC where 2 or even 3 of their kids have attended college on National Merit full ride scholarships!
To have a National Merit full ride scholarship work out for a given student, a couple of factors need to be in place:
- The student needs to be interested or at least willing to attend a school that offers full rides for National Merit, and the school needs to have decent programs in the major/s the student is considering.
- the student needs to make the cut-off score (aka selection index) on the PSAT/NMSQT for the state where they attend school. This cut-off score varies by state, but in general it is about the top 1% of test takers. The PSAT is not like the SAT where there are multiple testing dates per year. Instead high schools offer it just once a year in a big mass testing, usually (but not always) done at a student’s own high school in October of their Junior year (PSATs done in other years don’t count.) The PSAT is usually explained to students as being a “practice SAT” so many students don’t take it seriously at all. But if your child is generally a strong test taker (say consistently testing at the 90th or 95th percentile or higher on standardized tests) they may be within striking range of the Selection Index cutoff. So if that is the case, they might (or might not of course) decide to prep for the PSAT in the summer between 10th and 11th grade. Very few students deliberately study for the PSAT, so this can be a chance for a student’s studying to really pay off. And the other benefit is that since the PSAT and the SAT are so similar, prepping for the PSAT also automatically preps you for the SAT. Some of the CC families that have had multiple kids go to school on National Merit full rides have done this.
For anybody interested, here is a thread that describes some of the schools that offer full rides (or close to it) for National Merit scholars:Big merit NMF/NMSF schools and their specialties
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When he was on campus, he was short a bit more for the meal plan. He’s off campus now, in an apartment paid for by the university, and is less short on food, but still short. In any case, it’s been under $1200/year, excluding transportation costs.
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There is a difference between expecting people to use words in a certain way and being curious about the range of meanings under a concept umbrella.
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To answer OP’s question, the kids that land full tuition or full ride (R&B included) scholarships generally are nearly the top of their class, have a near perfect GPA in challenging classes, outstanding test scores, and have often done some other cool things as well. Some of the big name scholarships you mentioned have a need component as well.
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I agree with this too. I know a few students on full rides at Central Michigan. I know others who received full tuition, including my daughter. It’s not a flashy name brand, but it’s a solid college with all the experiences of going away to college. It is competitive and the application is due pretty early in the cycle, but it is attainable.
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Not that long ago, athletes on a ‘full ride’ (football, basketball) did not have extra food or travel covered by their scholarships. Around 2018 schools could add a stipend to the Tuition, room and board scholarships but that was limited to the COA calculated by the school. A student who had to fly from FL to NJ might have the funds for travel but maybe not the one traveling from FL to HI or Guam.
Now it is totally different and with NIL money there is more disposable income. But there was a (long) time when full ride meant tuition, room and (some) board. They could eat in the cafeteria, but didn’t have cash to buy pizza and tacos.
Consider all the ways you can get to ‘full ride’ by stacking other scholarships - merit, talent, need, one-time awards…it doesn’t all need to come from one source. Also, most students can work to earn some money to ‘pay as you go’ My nephew has a lot of scholarship money, but over Christmas break he makes a lot reffing hockey games and doing other jobs around town (he happens to live in a resort town, so every business needs help over the holidays).
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I’m one of those parents with 3 National Merit kids and just want to point out when you kiddo gets a full ride, they will owe taxes on the amount of scholarship that is above the cost of tuition, books and certain required fees and this is taxed is at the parents tax rate.
Not that I’m complaining, I’d much rather help my kids out with their taxes than pay $$$ tuition, but just something to be aware of.
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This! Mine didn’t get full rides, but enough scholarship money that we owed taxes on ~10K. Until tax time that first year, I had no idea. I thought I’d be getting tax credits back and instead I owed a couple thousand. That was the only year I paid someone to do my taxes because I wasn’t sure if I was reading it right. I was, and then I also owed the accountant! Argh!
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If your scholarship was less than the total, your accountant did it wrong.
They use software like everyone else.
Turbo Tax always does the same to me and then I check for hours for the little check box I needed to do - to have that not happen. And the tax owed comes right off.
I literally go through my daughter’s thing like 5 times til I find it.
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The scholarship was above the total for tuition and the deductible expenses by $10K.
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oh, ok.
i’m a std deduction guy - but every year turbo tax frustrates the heck out of me on this - but i know it’s wrong and eventually find the right box to check that takes the tax off.
When you said didn’t get a full ride, not sure there should be taxes but I don’t deduct so…guess it works differently then.
I missed this thread back in December, but now that it’s popped back up I’ll add a couple thoughts.
Since your son is interested, I suggest he read the missions of the foundations supporting full-ride merit scholarships. Stamps, Robertson, Jefferson, Belk, Johnson, etc. Of course, read information on full tuition and full ride scholarships offered by any school. In our experience there was a common theme beyond academics: these programs are looking for leaders of character who contribute to their communities.
Whether your son applies to competitive scholarships down the road or not, this information may inform his decisions and activities over the next few years. Demonstrating leadership and service in a college application will hold value but more importantly will help develop skills that will be beneficial in life.
If they lead to a scholarship, that’s a bonus.
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If COA is $50k and of that, tuition/fees/books is $35k and you get $45k of scholarships, you will owe taxes on $10k. Not a full ride, but scholarships over qualified expenses are taxed. And they may be taxed as part of the Kiddie tax (form 8615) which is at the parent rate.
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Others have covered this but here’s a good resource for understanding taxation of scholarships:
OP might find it worth a look too if scholarships are expected. Many families are surprised by the way scholarships are taxed.
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