Which universities give out the most full-ride scholarships?

I'm hoping to find universities that frequently offer full-ride scholarships. If you know of any schools that are particularly generous with full-ride opportunities, I'd love to hear about them!

There is a notable selection of schools known to offer quite a few full-ride scholarships, either based on merit or financial need.

On the merit side, the University of Southern California has the Mork Family Scholarship, which is a full tuition plus stipend scholarship, as well as the Trustee Scholarship, which covers full tuition. Both are highly competitive and offered to a handful of students in every incoming class. Other schools with robust merit-based full-ride scholarships include Vanderbilt University with the Ingram Scholarship Program and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship, and Duke University with the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program.

University of Alabama and Arizona State University are known for giving out lots of full-tuition scholarships to out-of-state students who have strong academic records.

For need-based scholarships, schools like Harvard University and Stanford University are known for generous financial aid programs that can function like full-ride scholarships for lower-income students. For example, at Harvard, families who earn less than $65,000 per year pay nothing towards the cost of attendance.

Also, the QuestBridge program partners with a number of schools (like Williams College, Bowdoin College, and Amherst College among others) to provide full-ride scholarships to low-income students.

Lastly, you may want to consider schools in the service academies (like the United States Naval Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, or the United States Military Academy at West Point) as all admitted students essentially receive a full ride, but they do come with service commitments after graduation.

Remember to take into account not just the tuition, but also fees, room and board, books, and travel costs when thinking about a "full ride". While some scholarships cover tuition only, a true full ride should cover these additional expenses as well. And always see if the school you're interested in has additional scholarships you can apply for, because sometimes there are opportunities that fly under the radar.