Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
No merit aid at Michigan.
Wake Forest awards it to less than 3% of incoming class https://financialaid.wfu.edu/merit/
Villanova does https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants.html
BC says they award 15 merit scholarships per year.
+1
If by "really good schools" PP means, "schools ranked in the top 30 by USNWR," then with limited exceptions, none of them give merit money.
My DC was admitted to BC, but was not invited to compete for one of the 15 full merit scholarships. (BC selects a larger group, invites them to campus, and has them compete for those scholarships.) DC has a perfect GPA in an MCPS magnet (all As, all four years), SAT=1580, has hundreds of volunteer/service hours, is an athlete, and invented and marketed an app for use by disabled people (omitting details for privacy). We hoped that DC would at least be invited to compete for a scholarship at BC, but nope.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:And are any of them in VA?
My Classes of 2019 thru 2023 kids, nieces, and nephews received substantial merit aid covering 4 years/8 semesters* -- from 50% of tuition to "full rides" (100% of tuition, 100% of standard room&board, and stipend) -- from Duke, GWU* (*merit scholarship is for 5 years/10 semesters), Tufts, Vanderbilt, WUSTL, UMBC, and UMD. Some of these colleges required a separate merit scholarship application (e.g., Vanderbilt) but some awarded the scholarship based on the admission application (e.g., Duke). I don't know of any VA colleges but I believe that a neighbor's kid turned down the Banneker-Key scholarship at UMD in favor of a comparable full ride scholarship to UVA (Class of 2020). Hope this helps and good luck.
Anonymous wrote:University of Florida gave my daughter a full academic scholarship.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:And are any of them in VA?
My Classes of 2019 thru 2023 kids, nieces, and nephews received substantial merit aid covering 4 years/8 semesters* -- from 50% of tuition to "full rides" (100% of tuition, 100% of standard room&board, and stipend) -- from Duke, GWU* (*merit scholarship is for 5 years/10 semesters), Tufts, Vanderbilt, WUSTL, UMBC, and UMD. Some of these colleges required a separate merit scholarship application (e.g., Vanderbilt) but some awarded the scholarship based on the admission application (e.g., Duke). I don't know of any VA colleges but I believe that a neighbor's kid turned down the Banneker-Key scholarship at UMD in favor of a comparable full ride scholarship to UVA (Class of 2020). Hope this helps and good luck.
Anonymous wrote:And are any of them in VA?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
No merit aid at Michigan.
Wake Forest awards it to less than 3% of incoming class https://financialaid.wfu.edu/merit/
Villanova does https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants.html
BC says they award 15 merit scholarships per year.
+1
If by "really good schools" PP means, "schools ranked in the top 30 by USNWR," then with limited exceptions, none of them give merit money.
My DC was admitted to BC, but was not invited to compete for one of the 15 full merit scholarships. (BC selects a larger group, invites them to campus, and has them compete for those scholarships.) DC has a perfect GPA in an MCPS magnet (all As, all four years), SAT=1580, has hundreds of volunteer/service hours, is an athlete, and invented and marketed an app for use by disabled people (omitting details for privacy). We hoped that DC would at least be invited to compete for a scholarship at BC, but nope.
Jesus. Invited to campus to compete for scholarships?! Sounds like the Hunger Games.

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
No merit aid at Michigan.
Wake Forest awards it to less than 3% of incoming class https://financialaid.wfu.edu/merit/
Villanova does https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants.html
BC says they award 15 merit scholarships per year.
+1
If by "really good schools" PP means, "schools ranked in the top 30 by USNWR," then with limited exceptions, none of them give merit money.
My DC was admitted to BC, but was not invited to compete for one of the 15 full merit scholarships. (BC selects a larger group, invites them to campus, and has them compete for those scholarships.) DC has a perfect GPA in an MCPS magnet (all As, all four years), SAT=1580, has hundreds of volunteer/service hours, is an athlete, and invented and marketed an app for use by disabled people (omitting details for privacy). We hoped that DC would at least be invited to compete for a scholarship at BC, but nope.
Jesus. Invited to campus to compete for scholarships?! Sounds like the Hunger Games.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
No merit aid at Michigan.
Wake Forest awards it to less than 3% of incoming class https://financialaid.wfu.edu/merit/
Villanova does https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants.html
BC says they award 15 merit scholarships per year.
+1
If by "really good schools" PP means, "schools ranked in the top 30 by USNWR," then with limited exceptions, none of them give merit money.
My DC was admitted to BC, but was not invited to compete for one of the 15 full merit scholarships. (BC selects a larger group, invites them to campus, and has them compete for those scholarships.) DC has a perfect GPA in an MCPS magnet (all As, all four years), SAT=1580, has hundreds of volunteer/service hours, is an athlete, and invented and marketed an app for use by disabled people (omitting details for privacy). We hoped that DC would at least be invited to compete for a scholarship at BC, but nope.
Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Other than to allow proud moms and dads to brag about junior’s scholarship, leaving to the listener an impression of a vast sum.
Wut?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Nephew got a full-tuition merit scholarship at Temple. 1540 SAT, 3.8+ GPA.
A few years ago, Temple was exceedingly generous with merit aid, offering guaranteed scholarships at reasonably attainable benchmarks, for both in-state and out-of-state students. That policy helped them snare a lot of smart kids... it also put them $25 million in the red on their budget one year. So they've tightened up. But there is still a lot of money to be had, even at the full tuition level, for kids who apply EA.
Thanks for sharing the name Temple. Bummer they are running low on money.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?
No merit aid at Michigan.
Wake Forest awards it to less than 3% of incoming class https://financialaid.wfu.edu/merit/
Villanova does https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/enroll/finaid/scholarships_grants.html
BC says they award 15 merit scholarships per year.
Anonymous wrote:What about really good schools like Villanova, Wake Forest, Boston College, Michigan — can a 4.0uw, 1550+ student that has no special EC to get into Ivy or top tier get merit at any of those schools or do they need to look for private scholarships?