I think there is a difference between merit and full-ride, particularly at OOS or LAC.
My daughter is only a junior so I don’t know what Purdue is offering but their presentation to a women in technology summer camp made me think we wouldn’t be getting any scholarships from Purdue.
At a LAC with good engineering the top level of published merit which my daughter already qualifies for - the amount of scholarship is 1/3 of the total cost, which is still a bit too much for us - still twice Purdue full price for ISS. I would think the LAC would show us more $ because why would any top students go there?
Our personal situation is that my daughter is very smart and hard working with great ECs but she doesn’t have a competitive bone in her body and I am trying to find the best fit for her. I expect her ACT will get to at least 33, 4.2 gpa. More than 50% honors/AP courses. She is actually stronger in English/Reading than math/science but it is very close.
We will apply at Purdue and IUPUI as our ISS and the rest will be LAC with true engineering. We won’t apply to any other OOS schools, it just doesn’t make sense/cents to us.