Full rides

[hirashin]

Dear native English speakers,
I have a little question. What does "full rides" mean here?
A high school senior from Texas has not only been accepted to all 20 of the universities he applied to — he's gotten full rides to each of them.

Does it mean the student will be able to go to university without paying any fee?

Thanks in advance.
Hirashin

 

[johnnyG]

...
Does it mean the student will be able to go to university without paying any fee?...

Yes. Not just tuition and fees, but probably also room & board, books, other supplies, maybe even supplemental living expenses.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

It's short for 'full ride scholarship'.

 

[hirashin]

Thank you for the help, JohnnyG and Wonko.

Is it that in the U.S. you can go to any university without paying any money if you get very high grades on SAT or something?

 

[OoTmaster]

There are a lot of different scholarships and grants available. Some are for test scores, others are based off diversity, others based off financial hardship, others based on different sports. Full rides are usually either a combination of several scholarships and grants or sports based ones.

 

[Habaek]

Thank you for the help, JohnnyG and Wonko.

Is it that in the U.S. you can go to any university without paying any money if you get very high grades on SAT or something?

If I'm correct I think the U.S has a similar system to us(Canada)

Your question "is it that in the U.S you can go to any university without paying any money"

"The loans that are provided are the Stafford and Perkins loans regulated by the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly all students are eligible to receive federal loans (regardless of credit score or other financial issues). Federal student loans are not priced according to any individualized measure of risk, nor are loan limits determined based on risk. Rather, pricing and loan limits are politically determined by Congress."


I have a close friend who got her master's degree using student loan for tuition and nothing else.

Yes. Not just tuition and fees, but probably also room & board, books, other supplies, maybe even supplemental living expenses.

With just the information provided, we would only be making assumption. Full ride could be referring to just the tuition itself. By the way here's an idiom with similar meaning a free ride Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

 

[WonkoTheSane]

Thank you for the help, JohnnyG and Wonko.

Is it that in the U.S. you can go to any university without paying any money if you get very high grades on SAT or something?

I was granted a scholarship that covered all school-based expenses for my masters degree, but not including rent, food or other living expenses. It was granted on the basis of my performance in university (undergrad), my extracurricular activities, and the fact that the field I went into had a shortage of people. My scholarship was tied specifically to the university I attended, it would not have been available if I went elsewhere.

 

[hirashin]

Thanks for sharing your personal experience, Wonko.
The system of United States is much better than that of Japan. (Is "that of" necessary in this sentence?)
In Japan, even high school students with high achievement (or should I say "academic ability" instead?) don't always enter university for their financial reasons.
The government of this country will not help excellent students continue their studies.
(Please correct my English if needed)

 

[Habaek]

If anything they should put their resources into finding proper educators.

 

[johnnyG]

... The government of this country will not help excellent students continue their studies. ...

@hirashin Look at it this way--tuition and fees at my alma mater, the biggest state/public school in Illinois, is now listed as $15,868. At ¥106.5/$1 that's ¥1,689,942. And that's the in-state price, for a student who is a bonafide resident of Illinois.

If you come from anywhere else (out of state, or from abroad), tuition and fees run $31,988, and at ¥106.5 that's ¥3,406,722 just to get in the door.

And then you buy books, find a place to live, food, transportation, and so on.

Compare any 国立大学--for a year, tuition is about ¥540,000 (¥270,000 x 2).

Complain all you want about the Japanese education system, but that is a huge value, especially if you can get into a top or middle ranked school. A year abroad is also a deal, since you can often continue paying that low tuition while attending a good university in north America or Europe.

By keeping university costs down, the government is doing a lot to help a great many students. (and their parents!)

(our first daughter went to 阪大, second to 東大)

 

[Habaek]

You can't compare higher education in Japan to America.

I'm sure most people inspired to become a neurosurgeon wants to go to Hopkins not University of Tokyo.

 

[mdchachi]

Thanks for sharing your personal experience, Wonko.
The system of United States is much better than that of Japan. (Is "that of" necessary in this sentence?)
In Japan, even high school students with high achievement (or should I say "academic ability" instead?) don't always enter university for their financial reasons.
The government of this country will not help excellent students continue their studies.
(Please correct my English if needed)

Note, these scholarships in the U.S. are almost all private. The U.S. government doesn't help except for the low-rate loan program. There are many, many scholarships available from schools and private organizations for anything you can possibly imagine. Having good test scores. Being a good basketball player. Promising to help potato research. Having a disability and living near Toledo, OH. And many, many more. These range from a few hundred dollars to full-rides. See Scholarships By Type - Scholarships.com to browse all the categories.

 

[diligentcircle]

Scholarships are a nightmare to sort through. It's one of the big reasons why I never graduated college, and I almost didn't even give it a try. Your choices are basically work your butt off getting a bajillion different scholarships to hopefully cover enough of your tuition so you can afford it, or get a student loan, the debt to which you can never escape from (even if you file for bankruptcy) and which takes years or possibly even decades to pay off. It's not a pretty situation.