You can afford to go to college: Automatic guaranteed scholarships are out there

Post By: COYD Staff

There are essentially 4 types of scholarships: merit-based, need-based, automatic merit-based, and automatic need-based. Today we will be discussing guaranteed, non-competitive, automatic scholarships. Automatic scholarships are essentially scholarships that are given to students who fulfill certain criteria. It takes out the “subjective” nature of the scholarship. An essay or personal statement is not necessary. If you fulfill a certain criteria (SAT score, total household income…etc.), then you are awarded this automatic scholarship. More and more students are looking for schools who offer this type of scholarship so that they know that they have at least one school they can afford to attend amidst this shaky economy.

Below are several competitive public and private schools who offer automatic merit-based and need-based scholarships:

NEED BASED

Private

Columbia University: <$60,000 full tuition, room and board
Dartmouth College: <$75,000 full tuition
Duke University: <$40,000 full tuition
Harvard University: <$60,000 full tuition, remove home equity from determining assets
MIT: <$75,000 full tuition
Stanford University : <$100,000 full tuition
University of Pennsylvania: <$90,000 full tuition, <$40,000 full tuition and room and board
Yale University: <$60,000 full tuition

Public

University of Texas: <$25,000 full tuition
University of Virginia: <200% of poverty line, full tuition

MERIT-BASED

National Merit Finalist, Full tuition

Private

Abilene Christian University
Baylor University
Bradley University
Drexel University
Northeastern University
Wesleyan College
Westminster College

Public

University of Alabama
Alabama State University
Auburn University
University of Arizona
University of Central Florida
Florida A&M University
University of South Florida
University of Idaho
University of Kentucky
Louisiana State University
University of Maine
University of Minnesota-Morris
Truman State University
University of Mississippi
Mississippi State University
U of Nebraska-Lincoln
Ohio State University
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma State University
University of Memphis
University of Houston
University of North Texas
Texas A&M University
University of Texas-Dallas
Texas Tech University
University of Texas-Tyler
Washington State University
West Virginia University
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh