I have not found any discussion group focused on this topic.
I guess getting substantial merit scholarship at a top university is almost as competitive as getting accepted to an Ivy.
Am I wrong?
Getting substantial merit at some schools is easy and sometimes automatic, but in most cases there is a limit supply of merit aid, and yes it is quite competitive.
Thank you for your comment.
My son is looking at schools where his scores are above the 75 pct.
His list:
University of Pittsburgh
University of Miami
University of Florida
UNC
BU
UVA
BC
Tulane
University of Richmond
Georgia Tech
And yes, we are in the east coast and he has no desire to go west.
New Orleans might be a stretch and Richmond might be too small…
The very top universities don’t give merit because A) they don’t have to and B) everyone that gets accepted would qualify for merit anyway.
If you need merit you need to look at schools that give merit (and the amount of merit you need). You also need to look at the total COA not just the amount of merit.
If you need merit make sure you apply to at least a few schools with assured merit. I have three kids and no “need” according to the schools, so far my two oldest have done very well with assured merit at schools that were great fits for them and I have high hopes for my youngest (college class of 2024) as well. For our family, we have found National Merit the best bet for assured merit for the schools they wanted.
You are correct about the very top universities. They are out of his list.
Every school he is considering offers substantial merit scholarship, none is “assured” though.
Obtaining merit at these schools will be very difficult. If that doesn’t happen, he will go to a first rate state school.
@4011959 state school are unlikely to give merit to OOS students unless they offer assured merit. University of Miami offers some good merit but unless you get some of the very competitive merit like Stamps, it’s still going to be expensive. You really need need to figure out how much you can/are will to pay for four years of undergrad including transportation not just for your student but also for you to attend various events. If your student is National Merit UF and U of Miami might be good options.
@4011959 - BC merit is extremely limited (15 applicants per year). It now also only includes tuition and requires significant summer participation. You might know this, but if others are using this thread as potential research.
Some of the merit at state schools goes way down for OOS applicants. They can also be major dependent. For example, it’s very hard for OOS engineering majors to get money from GT regardless of stats.
I would also encourage your to look at major specific stats and not the overall stats for a given school when determining safety/match/reach. Also, look at OOS acceptance rates vs instate as they can vary widely.
@4011959 The large merit scholarships at most of the schools on your son’s list are ultra competetive, particularly at UVA, UNCCH.
Winners of these big merit scholarships will have stats competive for top 10 schools, and will be well above the 75%iles, will have excellent ECs and leadership roles, etc., especially if big merit is needed to attend.
Winning big merit will likely require applying to colleges several tiers lower than “match” schools for your son. Colleges generally offer their big merit $ to very high stats students who help boost their student profiles.
I have 2 URichmond grads, who has great experiences while there, and were also Richmond scholars. They had 3.9+ UW HS gpas, lots of APs, NMFs, one had a 35 ACT, the other 1600 CR+M SAT, so way over UR’s 75%ile. One of them also was accepted to UNCCH, with good need based aid, but no merit.
UNC and UVA have a very small number of merit scholarships for OOS I believe. They do meet need based on CSS profile.
Pitt gives some merit to OOS, but you might need ACT over 33 or SAT over 1490 and top grades and class rank.
It’s worth a try. But I would apply early.
Tulane is changing it’s tactic and has significantly reduced the number of full tuition merit scholarships, and reduced the amount they give in merit based in favor of granting more need based aid. Admissions at Tulane this year was particularly brutal - I think they are around 13%. Most students who were admitted got in during the ED rounds. Even with a full tuition scholarship, Tulane will run $25K per year for room, board and fees. Most getting merit scholarships were getting in the $20-30K range, most $27K and below. With this year’s tuition at $76K, that’s a lot to come up with even with the merit award.
Here’s what I’ve learned…the college admissions process is difficult. Getting accepted to an out of state - state school is difficult enough. Getting into top schools is difficult enough. That’s without even talking about merit. Many places have merit scholarships, but offer them to few students. Even with merit, private schools or out of state schools can still be quite expensive. For example: Not sure what state you are in, but Georgia Tech had a 14% acceptance rate of out of state students in early action…and 40 out of state students get provost which is an out of state tuition waver. (my son was one of these, but cost was still 28,000 a year with that waiver)
My son is staying in state now but he was accepted to some amazing schools like Duke and Georgia Tech…he received amazing packages, but still expected to be out of pocket a large amount. Didn’t make financial sense for him even though he had dreams. Prior to this experience, I overestimated what he would be offered.
I would definitely determine what you can afford as a family and make a plan without banking on merit. Decision day is May 1 and my son made his decision April 3 after receiving all financial packages. It made for a long process when he received his first offer in October. But as the acceptances come in, it helps if you have some up front discussion.
You can research that some of the schools on his list are known for not giving much merit. I am not familiar with some others.
You might also keep in mind that applying for competitive merit is a lot of work - applications, essays, videos, references, interviews … and you need to watch those deadlines! Plus, as mentioned earlier, many have additional strings attached in addition to maintaining a certain GPA.
Even at URichmond, which gives out 25 full ride Richmond Scholar scholarships with a class size of approx. 800, odds are slim, when you consider that 3500+ students were accepted last year.
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate the feedback.
We live in New York State and will be able to afford a top SUNY school where my son will get an excellent education. He knows his SUNY options.
This post is about the places he dreams to go and how difficult will be to get substantial merit scholarship at any of those schools.
To go OOS, his tuition will have to be reduced to what we would pay at SUNY, about $25k per year.
Any thoughts, comments, or personal experiences will be appreciated.
It is great that you already have some excellent, affordable in state options, and are discussing financials! What are you son’s academic interests? Size/location preferences?
Your original comment is accurate based on our experience - and the big merit scholarships at top universities are sometimes more difficult to get than entrance to an Ivy. My S19 tried for big scholarships at some of the same schools on your list and some others (U. Richmond, Emory, Vanderbilt, Pitt). He has full tuition scholarships to UGA and Georgia Tech based on being in state, but you already know that GT is very competitive just in terms of getting accepted OOS. He did get a $25,000 scholarship from Pitt and from what I read on various threads, that was pretty rare to get that much (he was not a finalist for their largest scholarship). While he did get into Emory, Vandy and Richmond, he was not a finalist for any of their big scholarships. He also was accepted to Brown and Colgate (and received many wait list offers), so you can see that even though he beat the odds with Brown’s Regular Decision rate of 4.8% (and Vandy’s 6.3%) he did not get big merit from the “top” schools. He had excellent grades in IB Diploma and 36 ACT plus several strengths but no hooks. Good luck to your son!
@elena13 's S’s experience is not atypical.
Getting full tuition and/or full ride scholarships at a top 10 or top 20 school is more difficult than getting accepted to HYPS. Many require separate applications and scholarship visits/competitions.
None of the ivies offer merit.
Top schools like Vandy, Wash U, USC, Grinnell, Tulane, etc. offer some full tuition scholarships and schools like Emory, Duke, Davidson and UVA offer full rides, but these – especially the full rides – are few and far between (e.g., Duke offered 8 full-ride AB scholarships among to 41,000 applications they received; I’m not sure how many Roberstons are awarded to Duke students, but there were 40 finalists this year; UVA awarded 36 Jefferson scholarships last year; Davidson’s Belk is awarded to 8 students; I’m not sure how many Emory Scholars there are, but I saw a picture featuring of Woodruff Scholars with 17 students in it (not sure if that’s one class or the entire group). Emory had over 20,000 applicants. UNC has both the Robertson and the Morehead-Cain but not a lot of students get them.
There are other schools that give so few big merit awards that they are barely worth mentioning (e.g., UChicago and UMich participate in the Stamps program, but I think they offer two scholarships each. Swarthmore has a full tuition scholarship, but it’s only offered to four students – two are for Philadelphia or Delaware students).
USC is generous with aid, but among the more than 60,000 applicants that applied, they award the following:
Full-tuition scholarship (Mork, Trustee’s, Stamps) - ca. 125 awards
Half-tuition scholarship - ca. 200 awards. It’s unclear if this is in addition to or if it includes the automatic half-tuition NM scholarships.
Wash U and Vandy also have a few full tuition scholarships, but they don’t give out a lot of them and several are diversity and/or leadership-related. All require amazing ECs and stats.
I’ll let you do the math, but the odd are not great for any of these. These types scholarships are generally awarded to lure students away from HYPS. For the record, my D – who was accepted to HYP and S – got several of the full-tuitions scholarships I mentioned, but none of the full-rides.
I feel like I have spent years looking for info on schools but I have rarely seen any stats for accepted students by major. Can you tell me where you have seen these? I don’t recall seeing that info in the common data sets (but could be in some schools, not others)?
He would prefer a mid to large school somewhere in the eastern side of the country. He would consider any school that would offer him a better academic experience than his in state options. He understand that for that to make sense he would need to get substantial “merit”. We do not qualify for any need base scholarship.
He is interested in a health related field. Medicine or Dentistry. Either one will require several more years of postgrad education with additional expenses. Thats the reason we are paying top attention to COA.
How did your children enjoy Richmond?