Merit Scholarships

Most colleges and universities offer a variety of merit scholarships, some are for academic achievement, some for service achievement, some for promoting diversity, and others for specific talents and/or specific traits. We'll talk about each in turn--tonight's post will cover Academic and service Scholarships.
  • Academic Scholarships-These are offered both at public and at private universities. Often times, there are multiple levels of scholarships, ranging from full ride scholarships for the highest achieving students to partial scholarships. Some colleges require you to fill out additional forms and even to write an additional essay--but with the cost of higher education, it's well worth the extra time!!! Here are some examples from a few schools:
    • Case Western Reserve University (www.case.edu), a private University in Ohio offers several scholarships--including 11 highly competitive full tuition (currently $34,450) scholarships, Trustee's Scholarships ($26,800), President's Scholarships ($21,000), Provost Scholarships ($16,400), and so on.
    • University of California Los Angeles (www.ucla.edu), which is a public university, offer Alumni Scholarships of up to $15,000 (over 4 years) as well as the Regent's scholarship (top 1.2 % of students), which ranges from $5500 up to a full ride (depending on the student's need). Unlike most private university scholarships, which are need-blind (i.e. it doesn't matter how much or little your family earns, you get the scholarship), scholarships at public universities are often based on need; if you do not have demonstrated need, you would receive a smaller honorarium.
    • DePauw University (www.depauw.edu), a fabulous, but little-known small mid-west liberal arts university, offers all entering students with various GPA and SAT levels merit aid ranging from $2,000 to $12,000 per year, in addition to offering competitive and honors scholarships.
  • Service Related Scholarships-Some colleges and universities have started to take more notice of students who give back to the community and are involved in service and leadership. Usually they also require excellent academic credentials, and often, require that the student continue with service-related activities in college. Here are a few examples:
    • Boston University (www.bu.edu) offers the Martin Luther King (full tuition) scholarship, which is offered to academically "talented students with proven leadership abilities and a strong commitment to social justice and community involvement."
    • University of Puget Sound (www.ups.edu) offers, for example, the Walter Price Leadership/Community Service Scholarship.
    • University of North Carolina (www.unc.edu) has two of the most exciting service/academic scholarship programs around, the Robertson Scholars and the Morehead-Cain Scholars--these are comprehensive programs that include not only financial support, but additional academic, travel, internship, and study opportunities.
Next post will take up talent and diversity scholarships!

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