2010 Merit Anecdotes

[Momto4inSoCal]

<p>My student… (Current college freshman)</p>

<p>Final College Choice…</p>

<p>Top Tier school per USNWR rankings… (ranked in the 50 -75 group)
COA $48,750 (tuition, room, board) no books, fees, travel etc…
Merit aid $30,000
GPA 4.867w 4.0uw SAT 1920
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Co-Valedictorian </p>

<p>These were the other schools she was offered admission/merit aid;</p>

<p>Southern Methodist University COA $44K, Merit Aid $16,000.
Tulane University COA $49K, Merit Aid $20,000.
Drexel University COA $49K, Merit aid $16,500.<br>
Chapman University COA $47K, Merit Aid $26,000.
Texas Christian University COA $48K, Merit Aid $17,000.
Westmont College COA $44K, Merit Aid $16,000.<br>
Point Loma Nazarene University COA $34K, Merit aid $8,000.
University of Evansville COA $34K, Merit Aid $18,500.
Arizona State University Barrett, The Honors College COA $25K, Merit Aid $8,500. </p>

<p>UCLA—admission and COA $25 (in state),Merit Aid $0!
UCDavis—admission and COA $25k (in state),Merit Aid $0! </p>

<p>Hope this helps and good luck to all the “waiting students and parents” out there.
Senior year is an exciting time. Enjoy your child! :)</p>

[freecycle]

<p>Not sure about tiers here, but DD accepted high prestige school – COA 54K, no FA, no merit aid.
Also accepted a lesser prestige school, maybe one tier down from above – COA 51K, 20,000 per year merit aid with admittance to honors program.</p>

<p>ACT 32 gpa 3.87UW, 4.45 W</p>

[EricLG]

<p>Nice datapoint freecycle, thanks! And congrats to your DD.
Can you specify the colleges a bit more ? If you do not wish to name the colleges, perhaps noting a peer institution would help.</p>

[mom2collegekids]

<p>I think another data point to mention is whether the merit was a competitive scholarship, was it the result of a successful interview, or was it an assured scholarship based on stats.</p>

<p>If it was the result of an interview weekend, including the number of participants and awards would also be nice to know.</p>

[spideygirl]

<p>mom2collegekids:

Well, I don’t know how many math whizzes can’t get great jobs if they want to. After that MS or PhD graduation, no one is going to care that the undergrad was from a flagship instead of a top private…My little bro called me this morning …he’s a director for Canon USA. He went to a Cal State for undergrad and USC for grad school. He’s making a very high income. My other brother did the same CSU/USC for undergrad and grad. He’s a VP for DirecTV. My H went to Big 10 schools for undergrad/grad. He’s done just as well. It’s just not true that a person has to spend $200k for undergrad to nab a high paying position.

</p>

<p>It is a fact that there is discrimination in favor of elite schools for the very best Wall Street training programs and investment houses. That is what I was talking about in my post. It does not mean that math whizzes who attend no-name undergrad institutions will fail to secure high paying jobs. </p>

<p>I have a friend who works for one of these financial institutions and fills these spots. He will not even interview someone who does not have certain schools on the resume. A person going into this type of business can look at real salary statistics which support the choice to attend the elite undergrad in favor of saving a few hundred thousand in the short term. The difference will likely mean millions and millions of dollars.</p>

<hr>

<p>Regarding the OP intentions, I think it will be most helpful if posters name the institution. That would make this thread quite useful to families researching potential options.</p>