Why does everyone think that full rides at state flagships are easy to come by?

Parents Forum
1

<p>It seems to be a default assumption on CC that every student with “Ivy qualified stats” (2150+ SAT, lots of AP classes, top 5-10% rank, good ECs, etc) can just walk into a full-ride at a flagship state u (which typically offer bigger merit money than non-flagship state u’s, I’ve found). However, in my experience, full rides at state u’s, especially flagships, aren’t that plentiful and are quite competitive–certainly rarer than the 30,000 “Ivy qualified” HS students that may apply each year. </p>

<p>For example, in the state where I went to college, between the two flagship u’s, there are about 48 scholarships that would possibly qualify as “full-rides” (tuition, fees, room, and board) for IS students, and those might not even cover the full costs. About half of those go to OOS students. Even though it’s a small state, I can guarantee there’s more than 24 to 48 “Ivy qualified” high school students graduating per year–and I’ve personally known some really spectacular HS students who got in top LACs but didn’t even make the finalist cut for those flagship scholarships. </p>

<p>The flagship u in my home state doesn’t even offer any full-rides–they do offer some full tuition plus scholarships, but again, those are few, have an insanely high GPA requirement, and wouldn’t cover room and board. The other flagship-ish u offers more formulaic full-tuition scholarships (available to anyone with anywhere between a 3.5 UW/1360 M+CR and a 4.0 UW /1600 M+CR) but nothing above full-tuition.</p>

<p>The (well-ranked) flagship state u’s in the state where I now live now offer very few full-rides, and those are only if you can manage to cobble together enough from a few different university pots of money with requirements over merit (e.g., being first generation or coming from a certain HS). Full tuition scholarships are a bit easier to come by but still not being handed out like candy.</p>

<p>All of these are fairly large, rural states where commuting would be geographically impossible for many/most students.</p>

<p>This isn’t to bash merit aid at state schools–I’m very, very grateful for my OOS flagship state u education and the large scholarship that keep my yearly expenses below $10k–but rather because I’m honestly curious where this assumption that every “Ivy qualified” student can simply elect to take the full-ride state u scholarship they will certainly be offered. :confused:</p>

2

<p>I agree wholeheartedly that many full tuition/full ride scholarships are very competitive, depending on the flagship U. However I don’t think I’ve seen this as an across the board assumption. What I have seen is urging students to look at their state schools as being among the more affordable options due to IS tuition. This is mostly true for those students who do NOT have NMF type stats.</p>

3

<p>I’ve not noticed that. I’ve noticed that people point out, typically correctly, that an Ivy qualified student will most likely be admitted to their flagship and that the in-state tuition is typically cheaper than any other situation is likely to be.</p>

<p>Our flagships are UT and A&M. AT UT my son was offered a one year, $1000 scholarship. Compared to the full-tuition or near full-tuition scholarships he was offered at several private universities and even at one OOS flagship, it was not much money and it left our state flagship being more expensive than other options.</p>

4

<p>I don’t necessarily think that full rides at ALL state flagships are easy to come by. Berkeley is very short on money, for example, and I doubt it’s a walk in the park to get a full ride at UVa either, assuming that they give those out. However, I think it’s easy to get money at a flagship. For example, my so-so state flagship has yet to tell me what my scholarship is, but Alabama gave me a full ride on account of my PSAT score. In general, they automatically give full rides to anyone having over a 32 on the ACT, which is most of the people going to top schools, and there are scholarship options beyond that.</p>

5

<p>I have to agree that full rides are hard to come by at state flagships. I bet you have to have well into 1400 cr & m sat to even get a partial scholarship at our state flagship. 1500 plus for full tuition. Full scholarships are few.</p>

6

<p>Pugmadkate, I’m in Texas too and same thing happened with our S. Extraordinary scores, grades and ECs. Full ride scholarship offered in Honors program at UNC Chapel Hill, serious scholarship offer from Boston U…and $0 from UT Plan II. </p>

<p>But of course he wound up at a top LAC in California with no scholarship money haha. It was a tough choice for him to make to turn down UNC’s offer. But I made it clear from the get go that we had the money saved to send him wherever he chose, that I didn’t want the decision to be about money but about best choice for him. </p>

<p>The truth though is he wouldn’t have gone to UT Plan II had they offered up scholarship money. He was ready to spread his wings outside the state he grew up in.</p>

7

<p>Privates off the best merit money, as they have it, and they use it to lure kids with top (5-10% or so) of kids to go their than higher priced school. It works too!!!</p>

8

<p>I have a 2380 and I’m in the top 2% of my class. I did not get the full tuition scholarship at my flagship. I got half-tuition, but so did everyone else in the top 10% with a 2100 (it’s actually just math+CR, but whatever). I applied for the full tuition/room/board, but that is very competitive and it’s unlikely that I’ll get it.</p>

<p>I think the issue is that I’m not val/sal or National Merit. It seems like those things are trivial, but when you start looking at scholarship qualifications… that’s how they comb through applicants.</p>

<p>My family has a high income, but since I have a brother in college (and a younger brother coming up), I will fortunately qualify for respectable aid at some “no merit” type schools, and the difference is not too big between those and my flagship. Now I just have to get in…</p>

9

<p>Psych- the same people who think it’s so easy to get the free ride think they will get into a T-14 law school and make law review, or get a 3.8 at that Flagship U so they can get into the med school of their choice, or still better, the parents who don’t want to pay for their kids college education so they can help them buy a house or help the grandchildren pay for college. Lots o wishful thinking goin’ on.</p>

10

<p>My state flagship is UMich, and anyone with any sense knows that a full ride to UM is incredibly difficult to get!</p>

<p>It is not easy to get full tuition scholarships to our other state schools, and it is really not easy to get a full ride to any of our state schools. There are a couple public U’s in our state with automatic full tuition scholarships for certain gpa/ACT combinations, but full rides are few & far between.</p>

11

<p>

Doesn’t sound difficult to me-in the sense that anyone getting into an ivy would get this.</p>

12

<p>No, most states don’t give beyond full tuition. That is still good since even though that costs money, it turned out to be less than most colleges thought we should pay. For D, she did get a very near to full ride scholarship at one school but she didn’t like it at all. We weren’t going to force her to go to a school that she had good reasons to dislike. So we are paying room and board plus misc. We will see if she picks up more money next year as she has a perfect GPA this semester. But our daughter’s happiness was worth the 12K we are spending for her housing and food.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>I think this one, like Alabama and maybe a few others, are ones where good merit money is pretty much an assured or nearly assured thing–but I think those are a lot fewer and farther between than many CCers think. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen posters speak dismissively of “a full-ride at your flagship state u”, as if they were handed out automatically with a 2150 SAT. At most flagship state u’s, I think even full tuition scholarships are pretty competitive–and they may not cover sometimes expensive fees, much less room and board.</p>

14

<p>Our flagship only offers 10 in-state full rides (plus 10 out of state) per year out of a class of 5,000. They also only accept 300 students into the Honors College. Everyone in the honors college gets some form of scholarship, though it may be small. My son’s bf got a full ride but didn’t get into the Ivy he applied to (wait listed), the boy at their HS he beat out for the full ride did get into an Ivy. That same kid didn’t get a top scholarship at UVA either. I think when it comes to full rides the flagships are looking for something different and the competition is pretty stiff. My son’s bf was class prez, very outgoing. The boy he beat out was brilliant but less personable.</p>

<p>The difference is at our flagship tuition plus r&b is around $18,000 a year. With a certain GPA you are guaranteed $7,500 a year scholarship plus the school offers some money. So you can end up only paying $8,000 a year, substantially less than the $40,000 -$55,000 per year price tag of many Ivies and private schools.</p>

15

<p>*but Alabama gave me a full ride on account of my PSAT score. In general, they automatically give full rides to anyone having over a 32 on the ACT, which is most of the people going to top schools, and there are scholarship options beyond that. *</p>

<p>Just to clarify…</p>

<p>there’s a difference between a “full ride” and “full tuition”. Alabama gives free tuition (not a free ride) to those with an ACT 32+ and a 3.5 GPA who apply before Dec 1st. And, that is rare for a flagship. Bama typically enrolls about 500 frosh each fall with that scholarship. Those are very expensive scholarships, so many won’t offer that.</p>

<p>There are few, if any, flagships that are giving assured full ride scholarships for (non NMF) stats. As a matter of fact, when students post asking for full rides, they are often told that wihout NMF status, there are few full rides anymore for merit. A student has to look at lower tier and/or regional schools to find those. </p>

<p>I think what the OP is talking about is that if a person has ivy-like stats, then there is likely a flagship (not all or most or any) that will give that person a large scholarship (maybe full tuition, half tuition, waive OOS tuition, etc). I don’t see posts where people say that full rides at flagships are easy to come by.</p>

16

<p>Could we agree that full tuition (at bama at least) is easy to come by then?</p>

17

<p>Could we agree that full tuition (at bama at least) is easy to come by then?</p>

<p>Absolutely! If you have the stats and you apply by Dec 1, you get the full tuition scholarship. </p>

<p>But…that’s not a full ride and for those who are NOW posting that they can’t afford their top schools and they need to find affordable options, it’s harder to recommend those big merit schools since a good number had Nov 15 - Dec 15 scholarship deadline dates.</p>

<p>there are 2-3 current threads about parents won’t pay or similar, and yet a full tuition scholarship would likely solve the problem for these high stats kids students. The problem is that many schools’ deadlines have passed, so it’s hard to come up with schools’ names (that are reasonably familiar to these kids) to recommend.</p>

<p>I wish schools didn’t have these early deadlines, but I guess the assured ones have to have some cut off date and the competitive ones need time to sift thru and down-select.</p>

<p>The only exception Bama makes is for NMF and NA students…they can apply and get the big NMF/NA scholarship up til about May 1st.</p>

18

<p>S1 had a full ride to big state u. but only because he had a ROTC scholarship that he was able to stack with the merit money he was awarded by the university.<br>
His state u. required applying by Nov. 1 to be considered for merit money.</p>

19

<p>I have noticed that a lot of the private LACs around here will offer ‘full rides’ to students who are way about the average stats.</p>

<p>I’ve also noticed that when people say their kid got a ‘full ride’ it is often a combination of financial aid ( needs based scholarship) and academic scholarship.</p>

20

<p>In my state, NJ, Rutgers New Brunswick is very generous with merit aid. You need a 2250+ and 4.0 for the full ride presidential scholarship and I was under the impression that it was purely merit based (essays, extra curriculars, etc don’t matter). I know about 200 kids enrolled with the presidential last year so I’m guessing at least 400 get it. </p>

<p>I got it and several of my classmates did too, but maybe that’s because I come from a big school. I knew I was most likely going to get it so I wasn’t that surprised when I did… but it is definitely a great deal (tuition room board fees and stipend. my parents wouldn’t pay a dime for college) and it is a solid safety school for me now if my bs md programs and ivies don’t work out.</p>