Selective schools with merit scholarships

[Anonymous]

Look up common data set of previous year for your desired colleges. Among elite colleges, look up Hopkins, USC, Rice, Vanderbilt as they do give merit scholarships though only to a small percentage and mostly small amount, other than a handful of large scholarships. Lots of need based aid though.

[Anonymous]

By the very nature of selective admission, this question most likely will be moot after decisions are made. Why not focus on safeties with merit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where can I find a list of selective schools with merit scholarships?

For example, I know about:

Duke
WashU
Vanderbilt
Emory
USC
UVA
Wake
UNC
Tulane

Wake, Tulane, and USC are the only schools on this list that give merit aid to more than the tiniest percentage of students…

Not true AT ALL for Wake. My kid has an Arts partial merit there. The true merit full rides offered are about 20 per year, from 50 finalists, then there are a handful of others for debate and art which are partial merit. They have some nameed NEED based “scholarships” but these are not merit, you have yo demonstrate need and do a fafsa. The true merit awards are about 3% of the incoming class, and less than half are full rides. It is much more rare than Vanderbilt, unc, usc, tulane, emory including oxford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to prioritize. You either want/need merit. Or you want prestige. Unless your DC is NMF merit and the top 1-3 students in HS, getting merit at your list of schools is a crap shoot, and even then unlikely.

Ofc. Understood. Not my first rodeo.
Unique situation.
Nephew will be a freshman.
Already scored a 36 in some gifted and talented ACT test he took this spring for a program.
Genius level kid (and I have an Ivy bound kid - he’s next level - but there’s also so much sadness in his life).

My sister is in a contentious divorce. while her ex is very wealthy & is obligated to pay for college I think he’ll just delay (like he’s doing for boarding school - kid got in - including one on scholarship and he refused to allow him to go bc he shares legal custody). Funds are not currently set aside for college bc her ex said he’d cash flow it (big law partner).

Anyway, assuming he stays at his current public school, just thinking ahead to options down the road for him as a backup. He’s submitted a bunch of published work already (short stories and poems) and he’s such an insane writer.
His teachers have already said he’s the smartest kid theyve ever seen and he needs more than what he can get there.
They currently live in a somewhat remote non-DMV area.

Don’t want to reveal too much.

Advise the nephew to take the most challenging classes at the HS and work his butt off for As. A big law partner will likely be happy to pay full for a T20

[Anonymous]

Richmond Scholars, full ride

And look up all the Stamps Scholarship partner schools.

[Anonymous]

So unfortunate to be a bright kid with a father who's Big Law and being awful in a divorce.

Any chance the kid could claim abandonment? For the FAFSA? That way it's just the mother's income and you can get financial aid. All the best privates have really good financial aid.

Realistically, merit isn't happening at the better schools. You'd need to go way down for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BC has a full ride. I think they give 20 of them.

BC's Gabelli presidential scholarship is full tuition, not full ride (does not include room and board).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JHU does.

Hopkins gives merit to 4 percent of students. Why do people post with no support?

Geez, why do people complain on threads irrelevant to them. Anyone who asks for selective schools that give merit knows that such scholarships are extremely competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to prioritize. You either want/need merit. Or you want prestige. Unless your DC is NMF merit and the top 1-3 students in HS, getting merit at your list of schools is a crap shoot, and even then unlikely.

Ofc. Understood. Not my first rodeo.
Unique situation.
Nephew will be a freshman.
Already scored a 36 in some gifted and talented ACT test he took this spring for a program.
Genius level kid (and I have an Ivy bound kid - he’s next level - but there’s also so much sadness in his life).

My sister is in a contentious divorce. while her ex is very wealthy & is obligated to pay for college I think he’ll just delay (like he’s doing for boarding school - kid got in - including one on scholarship and he refused to allow him to go bc he shares legal custody). Funds are not currently set aside for college bc her ex said he’d cash flow it (big law partner).

Anyway, assuming he stays at his current public school, just thinking ahead to options down the road for him as a backup. He’s submitted a bunch of published work already (short stories and poems) and he’s such an insane writer.
His teachers have already said he’s the smartest kid theyve ever seen and he needs more than what he can get there.
They currently live in a somewhat remote non-DMV area.

Don’t want to reveal too much.

I think the other people here are being too negative. It sounds as if your nephew might very well be in the running for the “named scholarships” at the schools you listed.

Thoughts:

- He needs to apply to a wide range of schools and see what happens.

- Because he may need a lot of merit aid, he needs to have an open mind about safeties. If he applies to Tufts, for example, maybe he should consider Brandeis and Clark.

- He needs to think about his state flagship options carefully, and he ought to read up on ROTC and the military an academies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to prioritize. You either want/need merit. Or you want prestige. Unless your DC is NMF merit and the top 1-3 students in HS, getting merit at your list of schools is a crap shoot, and even then unlikely.

Ofc. Understood. Not my first rodeo.
Unique situation.
Nephew will be a freshman.
Already scored a 36 in some gifted and talented ACT test he took this spring for a program.
Genius level kid (and I have an Ivy bound kid - he’s next level - but there’s also so much sadness in his life).

My sister is in a contentious divorce. while her ex is very wealthy & is obligated to pay for college I think he’ll just delay (like he’s doing for boarding school - kid got in - including one on scholarship and he refused to allow him to go bc he shares legal custody). Funds are not currently set aside for college bc her ex said he’d cash flow it (big law partner).

Anyway, assuming he stays at his current public school, just thinking ahead to options down the road for him as a backup. He’s submitted a bunch of published work already (short stories and poems) and he’s such an insane writer.
His teachers have already said he’s the smartest kid theyve ever seen and he needs more than what he can get there.
They currently live in a somewhat remote non-DMV area.

Don’t want to reveal too much.

I think the other people here are being too negative. It sounds as if your nephew might very well be in the running for the “named scholarships” at the schools you listed.

Thoughts:

- He needs to apply to a wide range of schools and see what happens.

- Because he may need a lot of merit aid, he needs to have an open mind about safeties. If he applies to Tufts, for example, maybe he should consider Brandeis and Clark.

- He needs to think about his state flagship options carefully, and he ought to read up on ROTC and the military an academies.

That right there is some high quality advice. He can put himself in powerful position of self determination with these paths. Gold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to prioritize. You either want/need merit. Or you want prestige. Unless your DC is NMF merit and the top 1-3 students in HS, getting merit at your list of schools is a crap shoot, and even then unlikely.

Ofc. Understood. Not my first rodeo.
Unique situation.
Nephew will be a freshman.
Already scored a 36 in some gifted and talented ACT test he took this spring for a program.
Genius level kid (and I have an Ivy bound kid - he’s next level - but there’s also so much sadness in his life).

My sister is in a contentious divorce. while her ex is very wealthy & is obligated to pay for college I think he’ll just delay (like he’s doing for boarding school - kid got in - including one on scholarship and he refused to allow him to go bc he shares legal custody). Funds are not currently set aside for college bc her ex said he’d cash flow it (big law partner).

Anyway, assuming he stays at his current public school, just thinking ahead to options down the road for him as a backup. He’s submitted a bunch of published work already (short stories and poems) and he’s such an insane writer.
His teachers have already said he’s the smartest kid theyve ever seen and he needs more than what he can get there.
They currently live in a somewhat remote non-DMV area.

Don’t want to reveal too much.

There's still very very low odds at these scholarships, as they tend to be based on impressive-sounding achievements rather than raw intelligence. He should look into writing competitions for highschoolers, completing nanowrimo, publishing a book, etc.

If he was a STEM kid (as in, interested in voluntarily spending hundreds hours on a stem subject) I would recommend Olympiads. Maybe check out the USAMTS, as it appeals to a lot of kids who don't like traditional maths.

You should also get the book "how to be a high school superstar" by Cal Newport.

Another option is Dual enrollment - have him take the composition CLEP if it's accepted so he can start upper-level English at CC/state university

Also make sure he develops good relationships with his teachers and applies to the governor's schools

[Anonymous]

UAlabama is a good safety - full ride plus with 36 act and 4.0+ weighted gpa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UAlabama is a good safety - full ride plus with 36 act and 4.0+ weighted gpa

[Anonymous]

Another vote for Washington & Lee Johnson scholarship. Offered to 10% to incoming class. Full ride(tuition, room & board and a $10K summer stipend). Your nephew is exactly the type of student they offer this scholarship to. If interested, he should start showing demonstrated interest to the school as they like to see that. The deadline for applying to the scholarship is Dec 1. They also offer a few other merit full tuition scholarships if you qualify.

https://www.wlu.edu/admissions/the-johnson-scholarship/

[Anonymous]

Grinnell