<p>I’ve been searching for Merit Based Scholarships for a while, but most of them require me to sell my soul to a certain organization/major. Do you know of any with no/little strings attached?</p>
<p>I’m female, white, and born in Romania. I don’t qualify for financial aid. Neither of my parents’ workplaces offer scholarships.</p>
<p>bumpity bump</p>
<p>Depending on your major of choice, you might consider UT-Dallas. (BTW, we are originally from DuPage County, now living in Texas.)</p>
<p>UT-Dallas is located in Richardson, TX, just north of Dallas. Nice suburban area. Very similar to Naperville area.</p>
<p>Primary majors there are computer science and business. Check their website for more choices.</p>
<p>Your application to the University automatically gets considered for one of their many levels of merit-based scholarships. They have no football team there, and do not offer any sports scholarships at all. High School football is the place to be on a Friday night here in TX. Our HS stadium is bigger than some Universities!!! The only other kinds of scholarships they offer are for Chess. They have a national championship team there.</p>
<p>My son is in his 3rd year there on an Academic Honors Scholarship. The only higher one is if you are a NM Semifinalist or Finalist.</p>
<p>Here’s his stats:</p>
<p>ACT: 31
SAT: Math-800
Verbal-640</p>
<p>SAT II: Math-800
Physics-780
English-640</p>
<p>GPA: 3.94
17 %ile
(majority of top 10% are all IB students)</p>
<p>Academic Decathalon - 12th grade
Gold medal in Math at Regional level
Team placed 10th in state of TX</p>
<p>Earned Eagle Scout award</p>
<hr>
<p>Financial need is not necessary to qualify for the scholarships. If you don’t think you got the scholarship offer you were expecting, call the Univ and ask them to review the file again.</p>
<p>Here’s what my son received:</p>
<p>8 semesters of full tuition/fees
(Current tuition is about $4500/semester. Doesn’t matter how high
the tuition goes, it’s all covered. There is one small fee of about
$30 that is not covered by the scholarship.)</p>
<p>$1,000/year rent stipend at Waterview apartments on campus. Works out
to about $96/month on rent. Off campus apartments are actually a
better deal even without the rent stipend.</p>
<p>$1500/semester cash stipend
At the beginning of each semester he picks up a check from the
Bursar’s office for $1500. It pretty much covers his rent.</p>
<p>If you are a NM Semifinalist, you would qualify for the next level up scholarship. The first two items are the same. The only difference is that your cash stipend would increase to $2500/semester ($5000/year). I believe that’s the highest scholarship they offer, purely merit based. There are no limits on how many students can receive the scholarships either. They may run out of money if you wait until you actually graduate in May, but you should easily get a good scholarship if you apply early in the spring or fall of your senior year. </p>
<p>My son got this scholarship. His girlfriend got this scholarship. My son’s friend from Ac/Dec got a slightly better scholarship because he scored a perfect 1600 on his SAT.</p>
<p>My daughter only got a 1300 on her SAT, so UTD only offered her $2000/year towards tuition. With tuition running about $4500/semester, that scholarship wouldn’t go far. She did get a really nice scholarship from the Scholar’s College at Northwestern State University of Louisiana though. It will pay all of her tuition and dorm cost as well as part of her cafeteria cost. We chose a private room for her at a higher cost. Our (or her) total annual cost there is only about $1000 to cover her private room, some books, and part of her meal plan. Not too bad.</p>
<p>nice scholarship btw. But if you look at UT-Dallas, its a little better than a community college.</p>
<p>It’s also a difficult school to get in to. They are the most selective University in the state of Texas. Their average SAT score is the highest in the state.</p>