@4011959 FWIW my son got 22k from Tulane this year in the EA round (3.8 UWGPA/ 5/4 WGPA/ 1470 SAT). He expressed a lot of interest, others we know who do not with similar stats were rejected. Tulane has lowered their max merit from 35-32 but that being said still give a lot.Lots of students from our HS were admitted in EA.
Also, just re-read your post. The odds of getting your costs down to 25k at any of those schools would be extremely unlikely. I would proceed with a lot of caution.
We live in IL and heard that UIUC didn’t give out a ton of merit and my D19 didn’t want to go there so we went on the hunt for merit money. D19 has a 34 ACT and a good GPA not like perfect but good with tons of APs and ECs.
I learned from the process that as you down the rankings(usnews) the more merit money you get. It isn’t 100% perfect but close.
If you are looking at a school in the top 50 or maybe top 40 most likely your state flagship school will be cheaper. Unless you win one of the 5-20 bigger awards that schools give out. If you do the research you should be able to find some schools that you can get to have the COA at $25K if you have a ACT of 33+. Some will go cheaper.
Now the farther you go down on the rankings list the more merit you can get. D19 had a couple that were pretty low overall.
My suggestion is do the research on this board and on other websites. You can get a feel of what you child might get with his/her stats. But as others have said all this merit comes with extra essays. It becomes a job. Lastly when they talk about the full-tuition scholarship just know it is extremely hard to win those.
Be up front about the money with your child.
@4011959 Just finished admission cycle and based on what I’ve heard from our own experience and friends…
University of Pittsburgh - don’t know anything here
University of Miami - don’t count on anything, definitely unpredictable. Kids with 34s/35s got waitlisted, yet some students with score in low 30s got merit. Even with merit this school is ridiculously expensive
University of Florida - not sure
UNC - just getting in out of state is tough, don’t count on any merit. Our daughter’s best friend didn’t get in with perfect GPA, 35 ACT and great extracurriculars
BU - ?? more of a possibility??
UVA - ditto to UNC
BC - I believe merit hard to come by
Tulane - pretty much ditto to University of Miami. They are shifting more towards financial aid vs. merit. Our daughter got 23k with a 33 and otherwise pretty solid application
University of Richmond
Georgia Tech - I know someone with perfect 36 that got zero aid. Supposedly they give nothing to OOS
Maybe look into these: University of Georgia (although getting more and more competitive to get in), University of South Carolina - honors college is excellent and they give great merit. I have known of a couple kids to get decent $$ from Emory, but not sure how common that really is.
@doglover2001 Merit aid at Emory is very hard to come by but they do have excellent FA.
Thank you for the feedback
No question that merit scholarships are ultra competitive and require a lot of extra work.
From my own research I will add to the prior post by doglover2001:
University of Pittsburgh has a very generous chancellor scholarship (ultra competitive). They also offer different amounts as “merit” that could bring COA close to $25000
University of Florida could waive the OOS surcharge to top applicants
Tulane: Congratulations on your daughter scholarship. Could you share her scores?
Emory: I believe its even more competitive than the ones he has in his list
We had not considered University of Georgia or University of South Carolina… Certainly will check them out. Thank you for the tip.
BU has one highly competitive full tuition scholarship for a few students, then some competitive ones (top 3% of applicants) for $20k per year. But that brings COA down to $50k. So is that low enough?
Have you looked at Case Western? They had some nice merit scholarships. Not sure if it will get the COA low enough.
For those researching the topic, Prepscholars has a list with “84 colleges with full ride scholarships”
Just need to search for it within their website
Ivies and top LACs doesn’t offer any academic merit scholarships, they only give low income based financial aid or athletic recruitment buy out.
Some Ivy peers like Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, U Chicago, Northwestern offer limited number of exclusive merit scholarships. Unless there is some income, diversity or athletic component, these merit scholarships are extremely competitive.
Thank you MA2012
He got into the NHRP. That gets him 20k a year at BU. Nice, but probably not enough.
He did consider Case Western. They have some full tuition scholarships, but I believe Case is more competitive that the ones on his list .
Perhaps he should take a second look…
Is this college graduation class of 2024? Or high school graduation class of 2024?
What is your students SAT or ACT score…and what is the GPA.
You are a NY resident, You have a number of out of state public universities in this list. Please keep in mind…many public universities first meet the merit aid needs of their instate students.
For some of these colleges, you are looking for almost $50,000 in merit awards. That is a very large dollar amount. Merit scholarships in this amount are not particularly plentiful.
University of Pittsburgh- this school has some highly competitive merit awards. 75% ile isn’t likely going to get you one of those…but 90% ile might.
University of Miami- does have merit awards for high achieving students. But it’s a pricey school.
University of Florida- some merit aid for NMF from out of state.
UNC- if you get accepted, the school meets full need. Merit aid is more than highly competitive. Most aid is need based.
BU- very competitive merit aid. The Trustee is the best award, but pays tuition only. No full ride merit awards that I know of. Requires a separate application.
UVA- if you get accepted, the school meets full need. Merit awards are highly competitive. Most aid is need based.
BC- gives primarily need based aid.
Tulane- has gotten more competitive for merit awards…and less generous with them.
University of Richmond- some merit but competitive…mostly need based aid.
Georgia Tech- very competitive for merit aid, especially for OOS students.
You say he is looking for a better education than he can get at his instate options. I’m going to give my opinion…your student is fortunate to have the SUNY schools as his instate options. He would get an excellent education at Bing, or Stony Brook. Geneseo too.
What makes you think the other schools on this list will provide a better undergrad experience for someone interested in a medical field?
What is your definition of “low income” in this context?
There are a bunch of those top schools that don’t offer athletic scholarships…at all.
Yes, my student is fortunate to have the SUNY schools as his state option. UB would probably be his first in state choice. UB presidential scholarship could get him 15K per year, bringing his COA to about 10K, which is more than reasonable (that’s competitive as well). UB also has a fine med school. He will most likely attend UB and we will be happy with that outcome.
Having said all that, he would like to explore other options and I certainly support that.
To your questions:
He is a Junior in HS
SAT 1500. He will take it again
GPA 98.8% UW
Class rank 1/300
elena13
Thank you for your feedback. Your experience is consistent with others I have talked to.
Where did your son decide to go?
@4011959 You’re welcome. I do think Pitt is worth a try and would be great if your son is interested in the medical field. He needs to make sure his essays are very good. Yes, look at S. Carolina. I would also look at merit awards at Auburn for certain stats.
My S is still undecided. 
It seems like he’s down to Vanderbilt, Colgate and Georgia Tech.
I think you have to know the merit aid/financial aid philosophy of the state schools when applying. Some use merit to attract good students, others make sure instate students are covered, others use need based aid.
Florida has the Bright Futures program, so most of the instate students heading to UF (and FSU, UCF and even SFU) have a lot if not all of their tuition covered. Therefore, the state schools don’t have to offer a lot of merit scholarships. They have some need based aid to help low income student, but I don’t think a lot of that goes to OOS students (and OP said they are not low income). Now they also have the Benacquisto scholarships for NMF, both instate and OOS and those students all get a full ride. There isn’t a need to offer big merit as the top students are already enticed to go to UF.
UF offers 300 merit scholarships to freshmen per year out of the accepted students. They do not reissue those scholarships if someone is granted one and doesn’t attend. I’m not sure how many acceptances they issue every year, but say it is 10,000. 300 out of 10,000 is not good odds. FSU is more likely to drop to instate tuition than UF.
Georgia has the HOPE scholarships with a similar plan. They also limit the % of OOS students by law, so chances there are low too. They just don’t have the merit aid to give because they don’t need to attract OOS students and their own students are taken care of through HOPE. Tennessee has its own HOPE program, UVa has some merit but a lot more need based aid as they guarantee to meet need. North Carolina also limits the percentage of OOS students. South Carolina uses its honors college to attract the best and brightest and its scholarships are well funded.
The private schools offer merit, but they are so much more expensive than state schools that you have a lot of ground to make up to get to even with your state schools.
@4011959 They are all long shots, but if your son really wants to leave the state, it might be worth it to flag a few of the large merit possible schools if they look good to him. Do the research in advance to get a head start for senior year, as some app details are available early. If he is willing to put in the work, go for it. If not, he’ll be great in-state. You mentioned NHRP, so take a look at the fall fly in list. A few schools on this list do offer high merit, but you have to do the research to see if those scholarships are reasonable for your S’s profile: https://getmetocollege.org/what-colleges-look-for/2018-fall-diversity-visit-programs . Warning, most are private and most only offer financial aid. Wash U and Washington & Lee come to mind as possible private merit options.
@4011959 My D19 got Pitt COA down to under $25K(no books, transportation and personal exp). It is possible. You need to write great essays. We were hoping for a bit more though.
Hunting for merit is a lot of work. It helps to be focused and not was time on schools that you would never attend. Just too many essays.
gpo613
Thank you for your feedback.
Really appreciated!
Would you share your D stats? How much merit did she actually get from Pitt?
Pitt might be my S top choice overall…