Top 10 Public Colleges Giving Out the Most Merit Scholarships

Public Colleges With Most Merit Scholarships

Top 10 Public Colleges Giving Out the Most Merit Scholarships

Published November 7, 2019

Public Colleges With Most Merit Scholarships

It might come as a surprise to some parents that public universities do give out merit scholarships.

We decided to look at merit scholarships awarded by public universities. In general, these awards tend to be smaller compared to private colleges, but so is the cost to attend at public universities vs. private schools (at least if you receive instate tuition).

Using our College Insights tool, we filtered schools by public status and then sorted them based on the size of the average merit aid award given to students without any financial need.

Public Colleges With the Most Merit Scholarships

  • University of Vermont
  • University of Alabama
  • Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • Coastal Carolina University
  • University of Montevallo
  • University of Hawaii at Manoa
  • College of Charleston
  • Miami University
  • Ramapo College of New Jersey

Listed below are the top 10 schools that award the largest average merit aid amounts to students without financial need, along with the percent of students without need who receive merit scholarships.

This list was based on Common Data Set information that schools publish on their websites.

What’s interesting is range of percentages of how many students receive merit scholarships, ranging from 11% to a high of 92%.

In addition to looking at the average merit scholarship amount, it’s also important to review graduation rates, SAT/ACT 75th percentile, % of students without need receiving merit awards, and in-state and out-of-state costs.

It’s important to remember that just because a college offers merit aid, it doesn’t mean they offer it to a large percentage of students without need.

In addition, it’s important to consider graduation rates. Most schools only offer merit aid for four years, so graduating in five years or longer can add significant expense.

Our data is based on 2021 – 2022 Common Data Set files.

 

Top 10 Public Colleges with the Most Merit Scholarships

NameState% Freshmen w/out need Receiving Merit AidAvg Merit Award for Freshmen w/out need
University of VermontVT89%$16,722
Missouri University of Science and TechnologyMO92%$15,939
The University of AlabamaAL67%$15,587
Coastal Carolina UniversitySC83%$14,894
New Jersey Institute of TechnologyNJ74%$14,023
University of MontevalloAL99%$13,691
University of Hawaii at ManoaHI68%$13,042
Miami UniversityOH82%$12,084
College of CharlestonSC63%$12,479
Ramapo College of New JerseyNJ27%$12,473

 

Find Merit Aid. Build the Perfect College List.

College Insights helps students and parents search, find, and compare over 2,000 colleges.

Filter the information that’s most important to your student as you work together to find merit scholarships and build your perfect college list.

Search by:

  • academic stats (GPA, test scores)
  • admissions stats (early and regular decision, yield)
  • cost of attendance
  • crowdsourced college offers from families
  • deadlines (early and regular decision, financial aid)
  • location
  • major
  • merit-based aid from colleges
  • need-based aid
  • race/ethnicity
  • school size
  • 4 year graduation rates
  • and much more…

Having this information all in one place saves you time otherwise spent searching individual college websites.

It also gives you the ability to filter, sort, and compare ANY criteria or combination of criteria that’s important to your family.

You can quickly and easily use College Insights to find colleges where your student is at or above the 75th percentile of applicants and more likely to receive merit scholarships.

Create a free College Insights Account and explore college data and merit scholarships for yourself.

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