With the cost of college continuously on the rise, many college-bound students and their parents are desperately looking for ways to reduce the cost of college without sacrificing an exceptional education experience. Unfortunately, many of the “brand name” schools that students hear about offer the least financial aid to incoming freshmen. 

One way that students can lower their anticipated college costs (and still go to a great school) is by looking for automatic merit scholarships.

What is an automatic merit scholarship?

An automatic merit scholarship is one that a college provides “automatically” based on the student meeting specific criteria. The student doesn’t need to compete to receive a scholarship.  Many colleges offer automatic merit scholarships as a form of tuition discounting to attract top students. This may sound too good to be true, but plenty of schools offer academic scholarships and grants for students who have exceptional grades or test scores. 

Most automatic merit scholarships are based on a combination of the student’s GPA or a combination of ACT score or SAT score and GPA. Many colleges use a grid to determine automatic merit scholarships. These often range up to full-tuition scholarships, or better — scholarships that include the cost of tuition plus room and board, or additional education-related expenses (think: text books, laptops, etc.).  

How To Find Colleges That Offer Automatic Merit Scholarships

You could spend time looking up different college websites and looking around on those websites to see if they offer automatic merit scholarships.  I’ve done that.  It takes a tremendous amount of time!

Instead, an option is available to you to save time and find what you need:

There is no need to scour the internet for hours while trying to pick out your student’s financial opportunities from behind pages of old, confusing university websites. Instead, we utilize a college-based scholarship search tool that can save you time and give you more detailed search results than you could accomplish by hand. You’ll see every National Merit Scholarship opportunity, as well as additional private scholarship options. You’ll also be able to better compare the *actual* cost of colleges on your student’s “to apply” list to get a better idea of how far your dollar will go. With your student’s preferences, academic information, and a few minutes, develop a comprehensive list of financial opportunities to make your student’s college experience more affordable. Sign up for a free consultation today!

Automatic merit scholarships are a great way for families to save money on a college education.  Keep in mind that not all colleges offer automatic merit scholarships, especially the most prestigious schools in the country.  Also, keep in mind that colleges vary greatly as far as the GPA value and ACT score or SAT score required to get a good automatic merit scholarship.  If you are willing to keep an open mind and explore colleges you’ve never heard of before, this can be a great way to find affordable colleges.