Has your kid or any kid you know won a full-ride scholarship to an elite college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a kid who got a full ride to duke for football

OP here. I know kids get athletic full rides, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I am curious about who wins the full-ride academic scholarships (yes, many offered by foundations) at elite schools (ones much harder to get into than, say U Arizona or U Alabama or even UMD).

you said scholarship not academic. The majority of full ride scholarships are athletic. Even schools that don't give athletic scholarships will find ways to give favored teams merit aid where available

[Anonymous]

I just posted this to another thread. There are full rides to desirable schools, including Vandy, Emory, UofC, UMich, GeorgiaTech, Duke, UNC, American, UTAustin.

Not HYPSM, but very good colleges that are hard to get into:

https://collegeapps.com/full-ride-scholarships/

[Anonymous]

OP is correct. I was a finalist for a full scholarship on MERIT ONLY to U Chicago. Needless to say, I didn’t get it, but it does exist.

[Anonymous]

How about Stamps scholarships? Does anyone know a kid who won one of these?

Some of these are full ride: https://www.stampsscholars.org/our-program/

[Anonymous]

Doesn't Harvard automatically offer a full ride to anyone whose family income is less than a certain threshold?

[Anonymous]

DC's law school classmate was a Gates Scholar -- full ride at a top school. She is an amazing young woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elite college? No.
SLAC? Yes

Which SLAC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't Harvard automatically offer a full ride to anyone whose family income is less than a certain threshold?

Yes, but that's FA, not merit aid. These full-ride scholarships to highly ranked schools (read upthread) are not based on financial need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's law school classmate was a Gates Scholar -- full ride at a top school. She is an amazing young woman.

How did she get it? Is she an URM? I think Gates has restrictions. What makes her amazing, and where did she go to college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not talking about Banneker-Key. I mean the biggies, like to Duke, Hamilton, Johns Hopkins, U Chicago, UNC Chapel Hill, etc. as well as the foundations (Stamp?) that offer four-year full rides.

I'll start. I know one kid who got a full ride a few years back to U Chicago. I can't remember the name of the scholarship. He played an instrument at a near-professional level and was studying an unusual language (like Serbo-Croation?) which he'd learned in high school, had lived in the country and did some other community service like starting a food pantry in a poor neighborhood which he stocked by getting donations from his private school friends' parents. Top grades and scores of course from a private school.

I'm curious if any kids who are not so accomplished on paper ever win these awards? Good grades are a given, but does ingenuity or intellectual curiosity or creativity count? Do any geniuses who sit in a corner and solve math problems in their heads ever win? Or kids who create amazing art (or science projects) in their basement studio or on their computer ever win?

I know kids who got Questbridge scholarships to attend truly top schools, but while competitively awarded these scholarships require financial need, and are usually given to URM, first generation or the like (and those kids would have qualified for full FA anyway).

I know several kids who have received full rides at good but not the very top schools, although in most cases need is considered along with merit.

[Anonymous]

My nephew received a full ride to Brown in 2015, graduating in 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nephew received a full ride to Brown in 2015, graduating in 2019.

This was financial aid, not a merit scholarship.

[Anonymous]

My kid got the Stamps scholarship, which is full ride. But the schools that participate in Stamps, while strong, are not super elite. I know that UChicago used to participate, but not anymore.

[Anonymous]

No one wins a merit scholarship, they EARN it. Even the way you pose the question is insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew received a full ride to Brown in 2015, graduating in 2019.

This was financial aid, not a merit scholarship.

No it was merit. He had a 4.0 unweighted and a super high SAT. I don’t know what the scholarship was called, but it was based on merit.