Match Me: Looking for full ride/tuition with high test scores for Finance [NC resident, home schooled, 3.97 GPA, 1580 SAT]

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Demographics
US Citizen
NC Resident
Homeschooled
Male, non-underrepresented

Cost Constraints / Budget
Need Full Ride or tuition to make it worth it over UNC Chapel Hill
No/little financial need

Intended Major(s)
Mathematics and Business/Finance
Preferrably very good business school/finance program (doesn’t have to be amazing/Ivy)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
uwGPA: 3.97 (1 B)
Weighted: 4.4 (5 point)
SAT: 1580 (non-super)
ACT: 35

Coursework
1 AP Calc BC 5 10th grade, 13 Dual-enrolled at community college, everything else Honors

Awards
AIME qualifer x3 (will qualify again in Senior), best score 7

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Varsity and Club Soccer all 4 years, All Conference MVP x1, Team x3
Soccer Referree
400 hours volunteering/service projects
Team leader for an international business program
HS ministry leadership team

Essays/LORs/Other
LORs: Relatively strong (though I haven’t seen them obvi)
Essays: Not the best writer but solid

Does anyone know any schools with excellent undergrad business programs where I can get a good scholarship? I know UNC Chapel Hill with in-state tuition is the clear choice but I’m looking for other options. Thanks for any advice!

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Apply for Robertson at Duke perhaps.

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There’s programs at schools like Davidson (won’t have finance), Washington & Lee, SMU - that are full rides. Others have too - such as UGA I believe.

Or you can go to an auto merit school - like Alabama and it’s Culverhouse School - where you’d be $4K a year for tuition (after $28K off) - so under $20K all in - and you’d qualify for enrichment activities, etc. You could also get additional scholarships that are competitive.

The thing you have to decide about UNC because it’s a great school is - unless you’re one of the few with direct admit to the b school, you can’t simply study finance as KF is not direct admit.

Best of luck.

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Don’t know about excellent scholarships…but what about Kelley at Indiana?

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Emory offers some full tuition scholarships.

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Did you take the PSAT? If so, how did you score?

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The full ride scholarships that we looked at are Davidson, Emory and Vanderbilt. Duke is another option that S was not interested in.

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While you have a good chance at Chapel Hill, do you have any safety schools on your list that meet your budget (other NC publics)? Also, for a school other than Chapel Hill to be desirable, what is your budget - are you looking for something that would be less than the $27k it would cost at UNC?

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The university of South Carolina has numerous generous scholarships including some full rides for out of state students. The Darla Moore school of business is very strong. International business is a national leader and finance is stellar.

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What are you looking to do professionally with your finance degree? Of course it’s fine if you don’t know yet😀

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I didn’t know about the Robertson program before, it looks difficult but possible. Thanks for the info!

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My PSAT was 1520, if all goes according to plan I’ll be NM Finalist. The only problem is that most of the schools that offer decent money for NM also don’t have a good reputation in the Finance industry so I was looking for other options.

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Yeah, I have UNC Charlotte as a sure safety and I’m also looking at Alabama (should be free for 5 years with NMF).

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Finance is a very wide industry. What are your interests in finance - corporate, investment, or otherwise.

Life is a trade off - yes, if you are NMF, the Tulsa (full ride), Alabama (near full ride and a 5th year), UTD, Maine and others buy kids in. Harvard doesn’t need to.

You will find examples of kids in all industries from all schools.

Obviously not the concentration you’ll find from some schools.

But even at those schools, certain industries are hard to crack.

Even at UNC, studying finance isn’t assured because you have to apply after you are a student.

But you asked for low costs or full rides - so some have been given.

As for “assured” low cost, outside of the NC schools, you have to go to someone who has auto merit - Bama Culverhouse is a solid school. You have UAH, Mississippi State. Those will be low tuition…very low. U of Arizona Eller is solid and low cost but budget issues may cause tuition hikes.

There are others with variable scholarships - U o SC was mentioned, Miami of Ohio, U of MN, etc. Fine schools - but you won’t know the scholarship amount in advance of applying.

But based on what you asked for in the first post - auto merit or NMF schools won’t have the “pedigree” of UNC and the full rides are difficult to get - so you’d have to put forth a lot of effort and you may get lucky…but they are all high reaches. W&L does seem to be amongst the best of them - in part because - 10% of the class gets the Johnson (full ride) and there are then additional full tuition scholarships. And in business overall, its rep is very strong.

But again - not sure what you are looking to do and I surmise at 17, you truly aren’t either.

Best of luck.

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My top candidate is quantitative finance, something to do with Asset Management (private equity, investment banking, or hedge fund, commercial banking is another option) and those industries care a lot about where you went to school. I know I’m not quite Ivy material with my budget so I’m hoping for a school with a great but not stellar reputation (BC, Emory, IU would be ideal).

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You might want to consider Fordham. It’s not a guarantee for NMF, but they do have some full tuition scholarships, I believe.

At IU there is the Wells Scholars program that is a full ride. It’s extremely competitive (the people who receive it are generally turning down Top X offers for it), but you’d have a shot.

SMU is another school that you might want to consider with a shot at Big Merit that would probably be easier to get than at IU or BC.

BC also has the Gabelli Scholars program that covers full tuition. Again, very competitive to get, but you’d have a chance.

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A 1520 is a perfect score. With that score, you will be a NMSF and qualify for Tulsa’s full-ride plus package. Chances are, you will become a NMF. If so, you might check out this forum National Merit Scholarship and this thread in particular Big Merit NMF/NMSF Schools and their Specialties.

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My S24 is interested in quantitative finance. My understanding from experts is that this does not require a finance degree but math and CS (he is probably going to study physics). Most get a masters or PhD in their field. @Catcherinthetoast is an expert so I would listen to what they have to say

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You have impressive stats and scores please don’t underestimate yourself. Just make sure you have a balanced list of schools.

You are correct that is does make a difference what school you attend in these areas of finance. There are exceptions but the vast majority of I banking analysts get their internships and jobs by attending target schools and leveraging the alumni networks of their schools.

I think your best bet financially and career wise is UNC and working hard to get into Kenan-Flagler. You can take a punt on Robertson at both Duke and UNC. Either one would be a “golden ticket” as the Robertson is well known and will open doors although it is extremely competitive.

Additionally, I would look at Fordham, Holy Cross, Kelley or Geis. I would avoid schools with lesser alumni networks, minimal perceived prestige or a limited geographic placement history. I am not suggesting these biases are justified but they do exist.

Agreed. We see many applied math, CS, physics type kids in these roles. I previously posted that while Econ and finance majors tend to be overrepresented it is largely a function of how many of them apply.

I am a career I banker so happy to answer any specific questions.

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