The easiest way to graduate from college debt free is by winning a full ride scholarship! Full ride scholarships are great because they award students tuition, room, board, and oftentimes money for personal expenses such as a laptop, books, and even a stipend to pay for research or study abroad experiences.

So how do you win full ride scholarships?

Apply to a college that awards full tuition, room, and board scholarships to prospective students. However, there are also private scholarships that award full tuition, room, and board to students. The benefit of these private scholarships is that they are not generally tied to a specific college or university. Some of these private scholarships are:

• Cameron Impact Scholarship
• Questbridge Scholarship

Below you will find some of the top colleges and universities that offer full ride scholarships for students:

Auburn University (Auburn, AL)

• Offers the National Scholars Presidential Scholarship to National Merit Finalists and National Achievement Finalists, which award full-tuition scholarships to both in-state and out-f-state students.

Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA)

• The Presidential Scholars Program is a full-tuition merit scholarship to 15 students

Duke University (Durham, NC)

• Duke University offers nine merit programs which include full-tuition scholarships

Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX)

• SMU offers merit scholarships up to full tuition & room/board!

University of Miami (Miami, Florida)

• University of Miami offers full-tuition merit scholarships including the Isaac Bashevis Singer Scholarship and the Ronald A. Hammond Scholarship

University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill

• UNC-CH offers several full-tuition merit scholarships for both in-state and out-of-state students.

University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)

• USC offers a number of full-tuition scholarships to incoming freshman.

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)

• UVa’s Jefferson Scholars program offers in-state scholars $26,000 each year, and out-of-state or international students over $53,000 per year.

Tulane University (New Orleans, LA)

• Tulane offers over 130 full tuition scholarships awarded that require a separate scholarship application (that is due on December 5th)

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)

• Vanderbilt offers full-tuition awards plus summer stipends for study abroad, research or service projects to 250 students.

Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, NC)

• WFU offers several full ride scholarship opportunities to prospective students including the Reynolds Scholarship.