<p>Don’t worry about asking lots of questions, the process is complicated, particularly the financial end of it. And as a student doing it on their own, no one expects you to understand all of the details, ask away!</p>
<p>About gap years, what colleges want to see is that you’re doing something relevant. This could mean doing an internship, working, volunteering, etc. </p>
<p>I understand your concern about keeping up your grades, working and applying at the same time, I think it’s a valid point. And one thought I had about applying next year and then deferring for a year, there may be a problem with this approach when it comes to a large merit scholarship. While deferring attendance is usually not a problem, I’m not sure about merit, so it is definitely something you would want to ask a college at the onset, and colleges may vary on whether they find this acceptable or not. Just a thought.</p>
<p>Most private schools with large endowments DON’T give merit aid. However, many of these schools will give generous FA, particularly for low income students. </p>
<p>There are some wealthy privates that do give substantial merit aid. These schools may give you a large merit scholarship, though not full ride (which I generally define as tuition, fees, R&B), and then fill in with need based FA. For instance (my info is dated, so you have to check websites for the most recent information): </p>
<p>WUSTL: Danforth and Rodriguez - full tuition at the most
Rice: Several substantial but not full ride scholarships
Swarthmore: McCabe for amount of full FA
JHU: Hodson success for amount of full FA
Duke: Jefferson Scholar (not directly through the college)
Villianova: Presidential</p>
<p>And there are several small LACs that offer full rides or other large merit scholarships. And many of these are particularly interested in URM candidates as they have difficulty with recruitment and retention, often because of rural locations. For instance:</p>
<p>Davidson: Belk & Baker (both full rides)
Centre: Brown fellows - full ride</p>
<p>There are some public schools that will give full rides to OOS students (again check the websites):</p>
<p>Emory: Emory Scholar
UVA: Jefferson Scholar (not directly through the college)
UNC-CH: Robertson; Moorhead; Pogue (for URMs), perhaps others
Ohio State U: Morrill Distinction
Pitt: Chancellor’s
Indiana U-Bloomington: Wells
U Delaware: DuPont</p>
<p>These are just examples, my knowledge is particularly weak for LACs, colleges in the South and techy schools because they weren’t on my kids radar. Also, depending on what state you live in, there may be IS options that afford you a large merit scholarship.</p>