Filling out the FAFSA is a good first step in any student’s quest for institutional financial aid. The government form calculates your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and helps to determine whether you’ll qualify for many types of need-based funding, including aid from your college or university.
[Find out three ways the government overestimates your ability to pay for college.]
But students and families who aren’t deemed financially needy may still seek help covering college costs, and options may remain to snag money from your school. Merit-based aid—scholarships or grants that may be given for demonstrating, for instance, a stellar academic record or a special talent—can also help fund your education.
For the 2009-10 school year, 1,083 colleges and universities that report data to U.S. News awarded merit scholarships or grants to students who didn’t demonstrate financial need. On average, about 14 percent of students received non-need-based merit aid. At Louisiana College, the school that awarded merit aid to the highest amount of its non-needy population, 88 percent of non-needy students received some amount of the funding in 2009-10.
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These percentages don’t include financially needy students who were given merit aid, or students who received athletic scholarships or tuition breaks. Schools that were designated by U.S. News as Unranked were not considered for this report. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because the program did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.
The list below comprises the 10 schools that awarded any amount of merit aid to the highest percent of their students without financial need for the 2009-10 school year, based on data reported by the schools to U.S. News.
| School name | Students who received non-need- based aid for 2009-10 | U.S. News rank & category |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana College | 88% | 49, Regional Colleges (South) |
| Cooper Union (NY) | 68% | 2, Regional Colleges (North) |
| Free Will Baptist Bible College (TN) | 61% | 54, Regional Colleges (South) |
| University of Central Oklahoma | 54% | RNP*, Regional Universities (West) |
| Hawaii Pacific University | 52% | 68, Regional Universities (West) |
| Cumberland University (TN) | 50% | RNP, Regional Universities (South) |
| New College of Florida | 49% | 99, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Denison University (OH) | 47% | 51, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Mayville State University (ND) | 46% | 64, Regional Colleges (Midwest) |
| DePauw University (IN) | 45% | 51, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? See the full list of schools where the most students receive merit aid.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,700 colleges and universities for our 2010 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News's data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News's rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools.
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