@uskoolfish well said.
@BobWallace I know you are kidding about the duke, Chicago apps but Well put. She has to put the portfolio together and apply. I want this to be a great experience for her and she is already all set on safety school with nmsf. So she has to now find the match and the reach schools except there are none in california
How about Santa Clara University. Yes, it is a Jesuit school, but the emphasis is on the Jesuit higher education values, not religion. Yes, there is a religion requirement but there are over 100 courses to choose from. My kid took Women in Religion, and a religion and Ethics course…both excellent by her report. We are not Catholic. Our kid loved SCU.
Your daughter could garner decent merit aid there, possibly. And there are less than 5000 undergrads. It’s called a university but has the feel of a LAC. And there are plenty of very smart students there.
Yes, Santa Clara has competitive full rides and full tuition. USC was already mentioned. Loyola Marymount also has a competitive full ride.
This is very useful. So far from this thread, I am compiling the list of California schools with competitive merit aid (non-need based) possibilities above the nominal $4K-5K range.
- Santa clara
- USC
- Loyola Marymount
- Scripps
- Dominican university in the bay area
Any more to add from CDS? I will start looking through and adding more as and when I find it
Lots of Catholic universities will have large merit awards, but often they don’t go to full tuition or full ride like Santa Clara and Loyola-Marymount. USD I think tops out at $25K/year, St. Mary’s $24K/year, USF @ $20K/year, etc.
Lots of other religious-affiliated colleges will have big merit awards, such as Pepperdine, Azusa Pacific, etc.
Pacific Union and La Sierra, of course, offer automatic full tuition for NMF, as noted in the list:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Add Cal Lutheran and Concordia as CA schools with competitive merit aid…
Jesuit schools are NOT Catholic. They haven’t been Catholic for years. In fact, you are apt to find secular views more strongly voiced at Jesuit schools than in a public college, which in many cases is under stricter moral guidelines than private schools. Just remember, a couple of crucifixes and some social justice causes do not a Catholic school make.
Have no fear of Catholic influence at 90% of previously religiously affiliated schools.
Excuse me. Jesuits are Catholics. In fact, the current Pope is a Jesuit.
Now having said that, the Jesuit universities are very welcoming of students of all faiths. They tend to emphasize community service and social responsibilities. But that doesn’t mean they are not schools affiliated with a religion.
In addition, the Jesuits have a strong commitment to education. Their colleges are quite well organized and structured.
But they are Catholic.
@thumper1 @BobWallace
I found this data on this website.
www.scholarshipstats.com
Lists all schools in every state with athletics and $ and scores. Has anyone checked the data and found this useful?
There’s a separate forum for athletics. The experts on that topic are over there.
Thanks. I will check out that forum.
I do see that there is an average aid (not athletic), % receiving, and sat scores column. Could be used to target schools. Don’t know if it is accurate.
I got a lot of help from this forum and wanted to post results of my DD college admissions so that it can help others. A lot of what was being said here is very true but there are some learnings that may help others.
Results for my DD (NMF) very high EFC were
NMF Full ride offers from U Alabama Birmingham + honors (NMF + other scholarships), U Kentucky + honors (NMF), U Idaho + honors (NMF), Washington state + honors (NMF + other scholarships)
The new learning was that colleges will tack on scholarships to their NMF offer for to make it a full ride for high stats kids
Full ride Merit from U Pitt and UCSD
Full tuition offer from UCLA
The above were a surprise to me as I was under the impression that UC have no merit based scholarships. She did not interview or compete from any of the above. So Definitely a false premise about UC.
Hope this helps some other parents.
I was wondering about the merit aid from UCLA until I reread your OP and saw you were from CA. That would make a big difference.
Would you please share with us the names of the scholarships from UCSD and UCLA. I had heard about students without need being offered full rides at some UCs but couldn’t find information about it on their websites.
The two were Dean’s scholarship from UCLA and the Jacobs scholar from UCSD. Never heard of them before DD was offered them. I think there are a lot of departmental scholarships that schools offer to sweeten the pot.
Jacobs Scholarship http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1427
@toughchoices Congratulations to you and your daughter, and thank you for the valuable information. I’m sure there are many people who will benefit from learning that there is at least some chance of significant merit money from a UC.
@AlbionGirl Thank you for the great link. Reading some of the descriptions of the winners broadened my view of what is considered leadership that can qualify one for the scholarship.
@BunnyBlue UC has merit based admissions and high stats appears to be a common link for jacobs and some of the others. There is stats/ info on Jacobs on the forum