Based on what I’ve read in AZ local news, likely yes, but one should contact the university directly to confirm if one has a student attending there currently.
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test scores were 1500. Wasn’t national merit scholarship
I saw that! Insane reduction. My son got the 32k 3 years ago. I was hoping for my daughter too. Oh well! Won’t be applying now.
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I’m thinking the residents who were funding those scholarships don’t believe they were unreasonable but necessary reductions. I don’t know how much the legislature is giving to the universities per student, but several states seem to have decided they just can’t do it anymore. Florida got rid of the state program for out of state NMF but kept it for instate. The state added funding for the ‘grandparent resident subsidy’ and that made the Florida taxpayers (with OOS grandchildren) happy. It is cheaper for the legislature as the OOS student is still paying some tuition (and R&B), and the standard for admission is still high so the rankings of the schools stay high. They also fund a specific number of the grandchildren subsidies, so the legislature can control the amount of money spent on the awards per year.
Look at other merit scholarships in AZ. Maybe the schools have money for specific programs that isn’t automatic but that a student could apply for and receive.
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Super interesting! Thanks so much for sharing all of that! My older son (who is four years older) got out of state tuition waivers at every FL school that he applied (Flordia State, University Florida, USF, FIU and FAU) which was INCREDIBLY nice, but that was 4 years ago. As you mentioned, times are changing, and cutbacks are deep. Sigh. I agree that the grandparent subsidy is genius, especially in a state like Florida! With my older son he cast a very large net so ultimately we found a full ride deal with housing. My daughter is slightly less competitive in the EC department though, and for the big scholarships leadership and exceptional ECs were essential. She is a great student and does a lot outside of the classroom activities, but she isn’t training with Olympic athletes or the President of several organizations. Fingers crossed all of us that we find the perfect schools for our kids…and that are a match for our budgets, lol! Thanks again!
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My D23 got a full ride from Central Michigan. She is going for teaching so the university brand name is not important plus they have ASL minor.
My D19 got basically full tuition from Miami OH.
Overall very happy to pay around $50K in total for both kids to go to undergrad.
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There were serious financial issues at Arizona announced back at the end of 2023 so some reduction was expected in merit. It’s mentioned specifically in the article below.
They were chronically over budget in 3/4 of departments, took losses in sports, over invested in R&D and were not keeping track of any of it so they depleted their reserves by over $200MM. They had to make serious changes.
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And serious changes they made! LOL! I saw that article in the Spring and already figured we would skip applying. They were SOOOO generous before, but look what happened. Yikes! I wonder if this is going to have an impact on enrollment. They are already a pretty expensive state school in my opinion. Our state school is only 9k a year, LOL!
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Replying late but have to send some love to your kiddo. My mom and sister received both their BA and MA in education from Central, and my Dad received his MA. My sister did her student teaching in Australia with a big group of ed majors, including her best friends she met in classes— at Central prices. All of them have received a lot of awards throughout the years. It’s a very reputable program in the region. Enjoy!
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Hi Folks to know how much need-based and merit-based aid a school provides you need to look at there Common Data Set. You can just google the school name + “Common Data Set”. Look at section H2 and use the following math formulas (which you can employ through a spreadsheet).
Percent of students given Need based aid = line D divided by line A (D/A)
“% given need (D/A)”
Percent of students given Merit based aid = line N divided by line A (N/A)
“% given merit (N/A)”
Add them together and you can see what percentage students get need and merit (and how many are paying full price).
Line D + N divided by A (D+N / A)
“% need + merit (D+N/A)”
And to see what percentage of people are paying full tuition – subtract the difference between these.
And as for the actual dollar amount…
Average Need amount = line K
Average Merit amount = line O
And definitely use their online detailed calculators
And call their financial aid and confirm all of the above
Using 2023-24 CDS data you can see schools like…
Hobart and William Smith Colleges cover 99.5% of students (they have an endowment of ~$420 million), a relatively generous school – if you can come up with the ~$40k per year
Smith college cover 68% total (they have an endowment of ~$2.5 BILLION, and only provide merit to ~6.6% of students – go figure to both of these figures given the endowment, i.e. 32% of students [parents] pay full tuition)
Skidmore is even less generous wherein only ~0.4% of students get merit which I believe is 20 students total
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the below offered DS very good merit aid. Most of these are public schools so the merit aid is for OOS students.
University of Alabama
University of Deleware
Auburn University (not as high as it used to be)
Montana State
University of Utah
Florida State
University of New Hampshire
University of Denver (private, but they offer up to $40K a year merit aid)
SMU (private with sizable merit)
other schools that I know have great merit aid but that he didn’t apply to: Ole Miss and University of South Carolina
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My son received merit scholarships at every school where he was admitted. Awards ranged from $3000 to over $55000. All renewable.
Ohio State offered an out of state tuition waiver “scholarship” which was really more of a pricing ploy they offer everyone, so not sure if that counts as much.
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It would be great if you could mention the schools where your son received merit scholarships, particularly any indication of if the school was more or less generous with its merit than the others.
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Off the top of my head, he got all of this. All of these scholarships are purely merit based and renewable all 4 years.:
Earlham College: $48,500 in renewable merit scholarships
Lawrence University: $55,000 in renewable merit scholarships
Ohio University Athens: $25,000 in renewable merit scholarships, plus partial housing voucher
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign: $3000 in renewable merit scholarships
Northern IL University: $9500 in renewable merit scholarships
University of Dayton: $42,000 in renewable merit scholarships
Iowa State University: $42,000 in renewable merit scholarships
University of Alabama: $28,500 in renewable merit scholarships
Mississippi State University: $25,000 in renewable merit scholarships
University of Illinois Chicago: $9500 in renewable merit scholarships
Ohio State University: no real scholarship, but did get the Out of State Tuition Waiver (was still gonna be too expensive)
Bowling Green State University: $12,000 in renewable merit scholarships
There are more but I can’t remember all of them
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Thanks so much for sharing. Your kid had some great offers here!
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Merit amounts are significantly changed in last couple of years. Please 2025 graduates and parents share the up-to-date merit amount received. Especially in Northeast region. thanks.
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S25’s merit offers:
Wheaton College (MA): $46k
UVM: $25K
Fordham: $12k
Clark: $36k
St. Olaf: $35k
Oberlin: $32k
Connecticut College: $38k
Dickinson: $45k
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All merit-based only, all renewable, test optional.
| Scranton w/ MS acceptance | $33,000 |
|---|---|
| RWU | $22,500 |
| Ithaca (Park) | $35,500 |
| Merrimack (with Honors) | $36,000 |
| Quinnipiac w/ MS acceptance | $28,000 |
| URI OOS w/ MS acceptance | $13,000 |
| Temple | $15,000 |
| UNHaven | $32,000 |
| Clark | $23,000 |
| Marist | $15,000 |
| WPI w MS acceptance | $23,000 |
| RIT | $19,000 |
| UVM OOS | $10,000 |
| American | $0 |
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Auburn 13000 a year
UTK 11000 a year
Ohio state 10000 a year
University of South Carolina 48000 over 4 years
TCU 108000 over 4 years
Clemson 0
IU 0
FSU 0
Miami Ohio 96000 over 4 years
May have been offered more at some places if had not declined
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UVM $25K
Kenyon $30K
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