Schools That Award Lots of Merit Scholarships

I recently wrote a post that shared the colleges and universities that say that they meet 100% of financial need for the majority of their families. If you missed it, here it is:

List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need

The story prompted a mom to email me over the weekend with this question:

Have you ever published a similar list to the “Most Generous Colleges” one – but focused on the colleges that are most generous with their MERIT aid?
A Tool to Find Merit Scholarships

I tend to get this question when I am giving presentations for affluent parents. Their children won’t qualify for need-based aid, but they loathe the idea of paying full price. (And many of them can’t pay the sticker price.) These parents want to know what schools award merit scholarships, which are given without regard to need.

It’s easy to find schools that dispense merit scholarships. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if all public colleges and universities offered these awards. Thanks to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, I do know that 87% of private institutions dispense merit scholarships. The average tuition discount is 57%, which is an historic high.

Clearly, finding schools that award scholarships doesn’t pose much of a challenge . That said, there is an online tool from COLLEGEdata that can help you pinpoint schools that provide a large percentage of their students with merit aid.

I recorded the YouTube video below on how you can use the COLLEGEdata search tool to find schools that award a high percentage of students merit awards. This video will also be relevant to anyone looking for schools that are generous with need-based aid since I explain how you can sort schools by the percentage of financial need an institution provides.