My son as a 36 on his ACT, 4.0 unweighted GPA, has taken most AP and honors courses offered at his school and will likely be a NMF. He has decent extracurriculars and community service. He would have a full ride to Ole Miss or MS State and is interested in computer science, engineering and entrepreneurship. We are looking for OOS options that would offer good merit scholarships and strong programs in these areas. He prefers a school with a high percentage of OOS students with no more than around 30,000 students, preferably in the southeast. Any help is appreciated!
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University of Alabama (check all campuses) is an option.
Clemson offers merit aid but might not meet your price point…what IS that price point?
Have you looked at the thread with schools offering National Merit packages?
Have you looked at Tulsa?
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We would like to keep tuition, room and board under 25K per year after merit aid.
@momofboiler1 would this be possible at Purdue?
The Stamps scholarship at Georgia Tech is a full ride. It’s obviously super competitive, but would be worth a shot.
https://stampsps.gatech.edu/about/what-to-expect
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In addition to the big state schools that are in the thread linked by lkg4answers, a high stats student may have a shot at some of the very competitive big merit scholarships at schools like Vanderbilt and Duke. They should be considered a very high reach but may be worth applications.
The engineering student I know with stats like your student ended up at TAMU but that was several cycles ago.
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Purdue is stingy with merit money, especially for out of state applicants.
There is the Trustees Scholarship though which is worth $16K/year, which would bring Purdue close to the stated budget. Might be worth a shot for such a high stats student.
OP - just make sure your child hits the EA deadline for merit consideration.
He really like Wake Forest, but their engineering program is very new, and I don’t know that a merit scholarship would make this feasible.
I don’t know anything about Wake…Sorry!
The other big merit scholarship at a school strong in CS/Engineering would be at UMD: Banneker/Key Scholars - University of Maryland Honors College
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If he applies to UMD, he really must apply early action. The school accepts 90% or more of its freshman class in the early round…but good suggestion.
All good suggestions- as long as @Momclass2025 knows that the full ride merit scholarships at Duke, Vandy, GT and UMD are extremely competitive (meaning, cannot be counted upon).
@Momclass2025, “top engineering programs” and “exceptional merit aid” don’t go hand-in-hand, so if you’re seeking merit you usually have to go a tier or two down.
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I would suggest you look at University of Delaware.
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I don’t think he is looking for the very top tier, but a well respected program - Auburn is one school he is considering.
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I think, when you want at $25K, you have a limited amount of schools.
Alabama is going to be your best package for a big school. Tulsa is a fine university and free but he wants bigger. Auburn, I don’t think will hit the price - you only get $1K per year. UAH will on auto merit - but it’s smaller. Bama is a very good engineering program (my son had zero issues with good employment opportunities) and the campus is gorgeous. Ms State is another - but you are in state.
You might check - it’s too big - but UCF, FSU, and USF. I know FSU has a good National Merit program but - their engineering campus is a few miles off the main campus.
Schools like U of SC get aggressive - but I don’t know if $30K aggressive.
When I hear entrepreneurship, I think U of Houston - and they’ll be solid for engineering.
Looks like they have a strong package for NMF, not sure if out of state (it doesn’t say)… But they are an entrepreneurship leader I know.
Here’s a bunch of links, some of which might be of interest. I took a little liberty with the term Southeast - in that regard, I think Bama, UAH, and UAB are your best bets - and the Florida schools. Even without National merit, FSU would be $25K with an OOS waiver, as an example.
Others have mentioned competitive scholarships - and they’re great but hard work and an unknown. I believe in most cases, these national merit are automatic (Florida schools might be an exception).
Good luck.
National Merit Scholarship - University of Houston (uh.edu)
National Merit Scholars | Afford (ua.edu)
Scholarship Package & Benefits - UT Dallas Honors College
National Merit Scholars | Undergraduate Admissions | TTU
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Bama checks all those boxes. 60% OOS students, very high achieving, practically a full ride with those stats. Honors program is awesome, engineering and computer science are great. Biz school is good too. My son LOVES it.
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And I think it’s important to know when we talk about tiers - and I get it - certain schools rate higher - but a lot of that is magazine stuff and ranking - it doesn’t mean the schools are “lesser.” Most schools are as good as a kid makes it out to be. The Bama engineering quad is as nice as there is. My kid had two internships (same company) and 19 offers by xmas Senior year - and outperformed Ga Tech kids in his internship by virtue they did not receive an invite back and he did. No question some schools will have kids with higher stats and some receive higher rankings in 3rd party publications - but I think lesser or better are a bit unfair. I think a lot depends on what a kid puts into school - mine not a lot extra but others like his college girlfriend were heavily involved and took advantage of so many opportunities. It worked for my son career wise but educationally it was just school…because he didn’t seek extra - but for her, experience wise it was wonderful. At most schools, the wonderful experience is there - if you want it and go get it!!
If he liked Wake Forest, a school like UAH (would make budget) is closer in size - and it might be a better fit. I’d have to look at OOS metrics and costs but schools like Tennessee Tech or Louisiana Tech might be a better “fit” vs an overwhelming school like a Bama.
The price is right at Louisiana Tech:
Available Awards: Unlimited awards which pay tuition, fees, on-campus housing, and meals for four years.
Maintaining Scholarship: Student must remain full-time and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0
Application Deadline: Apply for admission according to National Merit deadlines
Tenn Tech is $30K-ish but I’m sure there’s merit aid.
Just a few other options.
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