Michigan
Worth it for in-state families under the $125K income-and-assets line, who get full tuition plus mandatory fees guaranteed. For everyone else — especially out-of-state and international applicants — there is no automatic merit table to optimize toward.
Michigan does not run a stats-based merit ladder. Every institutional award here is eligibility-gated or need-aware, not triggered by your GPA or test score. The one firm, computable dollar commitment is the Go Blue Guarantee: full undergraduate tuition plus mandatory fees for Michigan residents whose family income is at or below $125,000 AND family assets are at or below $125,000 — renewable up to four years (eight terms), excluding housing, meals, and books. Out-of-state applicants facing the $84,164 cost of attendance should treat any expectation of an automatic OOS award as fiction; OFA's named scholarships (Tappan, Fairfax, Presidential, HAIL) are need-aware and require FAFSA plus CSS Profile by the priority deadline (March 1 for EA/RD, Nov 15 for ED), with the My Scholarship Profile completed by Feb 15. Outside scholarships are handled loan-first, which is protective: they cut loans and Work-Study before touching grant aid. The real catch is the pipeline carve-out — accepting Detroit Promise, Wade McCree, or Detroit Compact reduces eligibility for the U-M Grant and the Fairfax, Tappan, Presidential, HAIL, and Wolverine Pathways scholarships.
Ohio State
Worth optimizing for if your student is a high-stat non-resident chasing the stackable Buckeye path. A long-odds reach if you are banking on the full-COA perfect-score award, which is Ohio-resident only.
Ohio State is the rare flagship where out-of-state applicants get a published, stackable automatic path. National Buckeye (up to $13,500/yr) is the only OSU merit award that combines with another institutional scholarship, layering on top of the Maximus/Provost/Trustees band ($1,000-$3,000/yr) for a best-case non-resident automatic ceiling of up to $16,500/yr, roughly $66,000 over four years. That ceiling needs two things at once: Buckeye AND the top Maximus tier. If the second award lands at the bottom Trustees tier, the stack only adds $1,000/yr. Within the Maximus/Provost/Trustees band itself, the marginal lift from bottom to top tier is +$2,000/yr (a tripling, $1,000 to $3,000). The cost-of-attendance cap bites: outside scholarships are folded into the package and reduce institutional aid if the total exceeds COA. The full-COA President's Ohio award (full COA + $5,000 enrichment) demands a perfect 36/1600 on a single test date, superscoring does not count, and is Ohio-resident only. Nov 1 is the automatic merit deadline; Stamps Eminence needs a separate Nov 10 application or it is forfeited.
