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I have put together a small page of links to colleges with great scholarships for NMS finalist. This is a work in progress, but a good start. Feel free to list some others I'll add them http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondhome/National_Merit.html

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 11:59 am: Edit

The University of Tulsa!!!

General Page

http://www.utulsa.edu/

Admissions

http://www.utulsa.edu/admission/

Scholarship

http://www.utulsa.edu/admission/financialaid/scholarships/

Nat'l Merit Page

http://www.utulsa.edu/presidentialscholars/

Honors Program (Yay)

http://www.utulsa.edu/admission/academics/honors/

Tulsa Undergraduate Research Challenge

http://www.utulsa.edu/admission/academics/turc

The most amazing place to live

http://www.utulsa.edu/admission/residence/honorshouse/

By L_J (L_J) on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 09:42 am: Edit

added another dozen more to come

By Mjcps (Mjcps) on Saturday, September 25, 2004 - 12:42 pm: Edit

Lj: Thanks for the info. How did you come up with all that?

By L_J (L_J) on Monday, September 27, 2004 - 08:53 am: Edit

nothing more complicated than a simple google search I think there are more than 60 links with more to come

By Strick (Strick) on Monday, September 27, 2004 - 09:34 am: Edit

Great list, thanks for the work.

Always interesting to see how different schools approach this. Some apparently offer a great scholarship to any who apply and in other cases it's limited in amount or in the number they award.

By L_J (L_J) on Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - 08:58 am: Edit

more than 70 full tuition scholarships for National Merit Finalist and still growing

By Vadad (Vadad) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 11:11 am: Edit

Check Central Florida

By L_J (L_J) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 05:35 pm: Edit

thanks Vada that makes the total 77 (I think)

By Slk (Slk) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 05:44 pm: Edit

Does anyone know of a more comprehensive list of midwest schools that offer full or close to full NM finalist scholarships? LJ's list above is a good place to start, but I suspect there's alot more schools that provide generous scholarships. Like Doane College in NE gives an automatic full-ride. Also, I suspect many schools cobble together attractive packages without the label "National Merit" affixed... anybody have leads on that?
I'm specifically looking at NE, SD, MN, OK, KA, IA (for those who have different notions of what "midwest" is). We're South Dakotans.
Thanks, ~SLK

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 06:01 pm: Edit

MN is pretty lacking in full rides, unless you want to go to Morris (which, unnless you want to be a farmer, you really shouldn't). As for LJ's list, it seems quite comprehensive to me (from my months of scholarship hunting!)

However, as I said before, the University of Tulsa, a private school in OK, is, in my opinion a place EVERY National Merit Finalist should look. Throughout the process of selecting a college, I was really torn between going somewhere where I would get a good private education and somewhere I could go for free. Here at TU, I have found the best of both worlds-a place where I feel intellectually challenged and a place where I can get my Undergraduate education for free. Some quick little tidbits of information about TU:

*Ranked 90th school in the nation by US News and World Report

*Ranked 9th for happiest students by Princeton Review

*Tied with Princeton and Duke for first in the number of Goldwater Scholars awarded in the past 7 years

*tied with MIT, Standford and UC Berkeley for most National Science Foundation Graduates in 2000

*One of Jay Matthews' top 100 "outstanding but underappreciated" colleges (author of Harvard Schmarvard)

*2nd only to Notre Dame in graduation rates of student athletes

I'm sure I sound like a walking advertisment for TU, but I just really love my school. I'm so glad that I'm able to recieve such a quality education while still taking advantage of the amazing NMF scholarship.

I know how difficult this process is, feel free to email me with any questions!

~Ashley

By Tokenadult (Tokenadult) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 09:41 pm: Edit

Can't a person who is admitted to an Ivy with guaranteed meeting of 100 percent of financial aid go to college for something little different from "free"? Try out the financial aid calculators on some of the Ivy sites to see what I mean.

By L_J (L_J) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 10:13 pm: Edit

Yes they can! When I get done building the list of full tuition National Merit Finalist scholarships I might do a list of full tuition for a composite scores of 30 and higher ACT scores, then a list of full tuition for SAT scores of 1400 (or will it be 2100) and higher. To finsh off my list making I'll make a list of schools who promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need. I should finish spring of 2008

By Sybbie719 (Sybbie719) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 01:56 pm: Edit

First of All, The Ivies do not meet 100% of your financial aid.

They meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need which is usually broken down in the following manner:

Cost of attendance
Minus:
Prent Contribution
Student Contribution

=demonstrated need

The need is met with combination of the following:

Grants/ scholarships
Workstudy
Loans


There can also be a big disparity between what you and the school perceives demnstrated need to be.

While Princeton belives that you should have not debt and the demonstrated need is met through workstudy & scholarship (no loans, it does not mean that they will give you the parent and student contribution if you don't have the money so you may still have ot borrow to come up with this amount.