Still not sure. My son is looking at uw madison, u Minnesota tc, ga tech, rice, u chicago, mit, cornell, bu, maybe a few more.
Help is appreciated.
It varies by college, whether or not merit scholarships require separate applications. At least two of the schools you list do not give merit aid at all.
UW-Madison does not use the Common Application, there are separate scholarship applications, need is generally a main consideration, most scholarships are only for WI residents and are single year amounts of $500 to $2000.
If you are not a Wisconsin resident and want merit to afford a $46k COA then don’t look to UW-Madison.
There are a few exceptions (generous multi-year scholarships) for URM, or spoken word or hip hop artists.
As a general rule, I would always err on the side of assuming that your application for admission does not double as an application for scholarships.
MIT and Cornell do not give merit awards at all. BU gives some based on the strength of your application…but not guaranteed. You would need to apply separately for more generous BU scholarships.
University of Chicago and Rice give very few merit awards…mostly need based.
For the others…are you in state residents for any?
And for ALL application information will be found on their websites. I will say…keep a very close watch on DEADLINES for both admissions and scholarship applications. At some places your application for admission is also required to be submitted early. Separate scholarship applications are usually due before December 1…YMMV by school.
Also, how much merit aid do you need? and what are your student’s stats? How much can you pay annually for your child to attend college?
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My lazy boy has weak ECs comparing to most of people in cc. He is not very outgoing. He might not have great recs.
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Then your son needs a new list if he’s wanting merit from schools that don’t award strictly for stats.
There would be no reason for UChi, GT, UMinn and UW to award merit to your son. These are top schools who have a lot of high stats applicants. They’ll use ECs, LORs, etc, for down-selection for their limited merit awards.
What do you want your end costs to be?
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What can be his safeties? He likes to have major in physics / astrophysics / engineering. He is ok with big schools or medium size schools. So far our list consists of –
MIT
Stanford
U of Chicago
U of Wisc Madison (home state)
U of IL Urbana- Champaign
U C Berkeley
Cornell
Purdue
Ohio State
U of Indiana
Rice Univ
Case Western Reserve
Georgia Tech
Harvey Mudd
Too many reaches and need some matches. Any idea?
ACT 35
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Purdue will likely give $10k per year. Maybe a little more. Purdue has gotten stingy with merit.
Indiana likely around $10k-15k
Ohio State should give a nice award.
Case may require “interest”.
Berkeley…none.
UIUC …none or little
GT…none
Rice…none
UChi…none
MIT, Stanford, UChi, Rice, Cornell, HMU, …likely rejected for lack of ECs and LORs.
UW-Madison College of Engineering
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/current/coe-current-undergraduate-scholarships.html
UW-Madison Chancellor’s Scholarship (see qualification list in #3)
Thanks. A lot to think about. At the end, it is his decision where he will apply. He is very good with big decisions.
You can forget about UIUC for any aid from OOS.
For Purdue, they do have a significant number of merit scholarships granted each year even for OOS students and no separated application is needed (must apply EA). The Trustee scholarship is $12k-$16k per year for OOS (150 awards including OOS) while the Presidential Scholarship is $5k-$10k per year for OOS (~1100 awards per year including OOS).
ACT 35 would be at the threshold for Presidential Scholarships but many did not get it last year with that score though. Weak EC would hurt his chance on merit scholarships. A girl applying to engineering may also improve the chance for scholarship. My D with 4.0/35 got the $10k Presidential Scholarship last year plus another $10k/year scholarship with a need component.
Hopefully you have let your S know how much you can afford so even if he gets in to a school like UIUC he will know whether that option is realistically on the table.
UIUC is on the list simply because both my husband and I attended there (my sister and most of our friends as well).
All the info is valuable. My son has a lot to think about. He is a junior but is leaving/graduating after next year. That is why he lacks of ECs. He only decided to graduate in MAY and pulled off ACT and 2 SAT subject tests since then. He has to double up his English next year and a few APs. He should make NMSF per his GC.
Either way, we fully support his decision. Financially we would like to keep it under 50k per year.
If you can afford $50k per year, then you are not likely to get any need based aids. However, many of the schools on your list would be affordable to you.