Hi All,
I know that there are many schools that provide full tuition, but which schools will give a full ride (tuition, fees, room, board and books) to national merit finalists? A lot of information online is vague and outdated.
Some quick background info: NC resident, junior, 3.4 UW(out of 4), 4.6W(out of 6), 1520 SAT, and interested in a good premed school(research/clinical experience oppurtunities, no deflation, good advising).
Thanks.
Well, you are going to have to make finalist first. Do you have any D’s on your transcript? How many C’s?
Texas Tech is the only true full ride for national merit that pays everything even transportation and a stipend for incidentals
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/scholarships/NationalMerit.php
Here’s a list of schools that offer very good deals for national merit, it may not be up to date, check with the school you are interested in as schools change their scholarships from time to time.
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^^Depends on the state and the year.
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As I understand it, they want a specific number of NMF in each state based on the previous years number of graduating seniors. They use the cut off for your state to get as close to that number as they can and then use grades to “fine tune” to get to their target number for your state. Some states some years ONE C could keep you from progressing to finalist.
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Some quick background info: NC resident, junior, 3.4 UW(out of 4), 4.6W(out of 6), 1520 SAT, and interested in a good premed school(research/clinical experience oppurtunities, no deflation, good advising).
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What was your PSAT???
Look at UT Dallas
Other places, like UAlabama give more than free tuition, but not a free ride.
Do you have any semester C’s?
As for the “no grade deflation”. That could also include weeding. Virtually all schools heavily weed the premed prereqs, so grade deflation is common in those classes.
Schools just have way too many freshmen premeds and they have to get those numbers down. That’s why we often recommend that you go to a school where your stats would put you within the top 10% of the school.
@mom2collegekids the OP edited out the responses where they stated they had 2 C’s and no D’s NMF is kind of ify for this kid.
What do responses posts 3 no 5 mean?
@dwmtm2015 I think you should have a plan “b” incase NMF doesn’t work out. I think @mom2collegekids suggestion of UT Dallas might be a good plan B school, they offer good merit for high stats kids. If you can get their highest level of AES award you’d be out of pocket about $5K a year.
Are those 2 C’s semester grades or quarter grades?
Find out how your school reports transcripts…many only put semester grades…and many only put a year-end grade.
Bump
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Banking on National Merit paying for (most at least) of college.
OP, 3scoutmom provided you the link to the colleges offering scholarships to National Merit Finalists. You will need to look at each of those schools separately to make sure they are still offering it. There is a bill going through the Florida legislature whereby, at least for next year, state schools in Florida could be a full ride for OOS National Merit Finalists. It’s not been signed by the governor yet.
However, I do not think you should rely solely on getting a NM scholarship somewhere. You may not make it with 2 C’s on your transcript.
@suzy100 I thought that bill in FL was just for full tuition (maybe books too?) I didn’t see that room and board was included, that would make it a full ride for OOS. Did I miss that?
University of AZ has a generous NMF scholarship but I believe it requires a 3.5. We haven’t seen your PSAT yet so"
But, if you pass that hurdle, you need a 3.5 for many of the scholarships, especially if you are chasing more than full tuition.
I believe it’s for full COA. I think the applicable language is here:
“2. An eligible student who meets the requirements under paragraph (4)(b) (out of state student), who is a National Merit Scholar, and who attends a Florida public postsecondary educational institution shall receive a scholarship award equal to the institutional cost of attendance for a resident of this state less the student’s National Merit Scholarship. Such student is exempt from the payment of out-of-state fees.”
@suzy100 cool! I thought full tuition was good but ful COA is GREAT! Thanks for pointing that out.
Bump //////////////////// Banking on National Merit paying for (most at least) of college.
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Are you low income?
Anyway…answer the question. Are your C’s quarter grades or semester grades?
You can’t “bank on NM,” if those Cs will keep you from making NMF.