<p>I currently live in Alaska and will be graduating high school in 2015. I am hoping to go out of state and have been looking at merit scholarships since I have high test scores and a high GPA. Will being from Alaska in any way improve my chances of getting in to college and receiving merit aid? I know colleges probably want students from all around the country, but how much of a difference will it really make?</p>
<p>I’d say merit is more likely going to happen due to standarized test scores, GPA, and ECs not geographics, although it may make you initially more appealing for geographic diversity for terms of admission. The University of Alabama and a couple of other schools (look them up, stickied on this forum) happen to have great merit aid</p>
<p>@shawnspencer Many people have already mentioned U of Alabama as well! I have 1390 (CR+M) and I know Alabama offers full tuition at 1400! I wasn’t planning on retesting again however. Do you know if it’s strictly 1400 or if because they may want a student from Alaska they may consider offering me a full tuition with the 1390?</p>
<p>I’m not positive, you could always ask the admissions office! That just happens to be one that pops up regularly on this site and I thought I’d share with you.Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks! @shawnspencer </p>
<p>It should be strictly 1400 or higher for full tuition (at least that’s what they said when we visited a few months ago).</p>
<p>Scholarships that list a number are almost always a hard cutoff - there is no wiggle room. If they meant 1390, not 1400, they would say 1390.</p>
<p>Okay I figured that would be the case. I guess I was just hoping 1390 would be eligible! After all, 10 points is only a matter of getting one more question right I believe. Maybe I’ll consider retesting though in hopes of gettin that extra 10 points!</p>
<p>It depends on how much merit you want. There are schools that give merit to draw geographically diverse students. Lots of the LACs that give merit aid in the 20-60 ranking range would.</p>
<p>@intparent what do you mean by 20-60? :-/ Also, do you know of any schools in particular that do that?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16451378/#Comment_16451378”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; is a list of big merit scholarships that are given for stats.</p>
<p>On Alabama specifically, those 10 SAT points are worth over $31,000 over four years, according to <a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html</a> . You may also want to try the ACT, since some students do better on the ACT than the SAT.</p>
<p>Alaska is in the Western University Exchange, so some (not all) public universities will be available for 1.5 times the in-state tuition. See <a href=“Save On College Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE)”>http://www.wiche.edu/wue</a> .</p>
<p>I think getting students from all states seems more important for privates. The publics that give automatic merit just want scores in those buckets for ranking and publication purposes. So if you aren’t 1400 you won’t increase the amount of students in that bucket, it doesn’t matter where you are from, they want that bucket and they pay for it. But you can always apply and see what they offer. It isn’t written anywhere that only those students get that offer is it?</p>
<p>For other unis, how much merit do you need? Getting 10 or 20 from a college that cost 55 or 60 going to help you?</p>
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<p>Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I mean ranked 20-60 in the US News and World Report annual rankings in the liberal arts college section.</p>
<p>@intparent Oh okay I see what you mean!
@ucbalumnus Thank you! I have heard about WUE and that will be a possibility however I don’t know if I can get merit scholarships if I’m also getting the reduced tuition of WUE. And I guess it looks like I might have to retest to try to get that extra 10 points.
@BrownParent I’ve seen some universities, like Alabama, where 1400 gets you the full tuition, but don’t some schools have different standards? Like 1350 or something less than 1400 means eligible for full tuition? And yeah 10 or 20 from a university that costs 50 or more really isn’t going to help at all.</p>
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<p><a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; lists schools with various thresholds for full tuition or higher scholarships, some of which are lower than 1400 SAT CR+M or 32 ACT.</p>