<p>In talking to a friend who has one child in my ds's public HS and another in a private HS, she credited the private HS's GC with "finding so much money for these kids." When we talked actual dollars, the amount given students at the public HS was actually comparable to the money given students at the private HS, given the difference in the size of the graduating class.</p>
<p>I asked her why when talking about the private school she attributed the scholarship success to the GC, but when talking about the public school she didn't. She couldn't really say, which made me think two things: 1) Either she just couldn't articulate exactly what the GC does that makes her so valuable, or 2) When parents are paying a lot of money for a service, there is a perceived "value" that may not really be there. That's my cynical side talking.</p>
<p>I guess my question is to parents with kids in private school: What specifically are the GCs at your schools doing that is a great value-add when it comes to scholarships? </p>
<p>My friend did detail things in the college-selection process that certainly were different than my experience in the public HS -- more meetings, more detailed meetings, assuming the role of "nag" about getting things in in a timely manner. All that does seem valuable, but she couldn't give me a single example of why she thought the private-school GC was so gifted at finding scholarships and grants. I'm just curious.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the answer might vary not just across different private schools (obviously) but on whether the student is seeking scholarships on the basis of (or consideration given for) financial need or pure merit. (And yes there are still students at private schools on financial aid, so the GCs presumably work with those kids to find financial need based college scholarships.) </p>
<p>Since seeking financial need scholarships and assistance is a more private endeavor and our family didn’t meet the criteria for need-based scholarships, I can’t answer that question on a first hand basis and any comment would be speculation. </p>
<p>However, I can answer from a pure merit based perspective: My son got handed a list of 10-15 possibilities for merit based scholarships that fit his profile, and was told “here it is, go for it.” Most were small $ from community groups, and a couple were related to the 2-3 merit based scholarships available at schools he had applied to. Beyond that, I cant say that anything more was done.</p>
<p>At my sons private school there was no effort to find merit $$ for students. Maybe it was a reflection of the wealth of the majority of the parents there, and the Ivy/Stanford or UC bias, but no one, before my son, had ever passed up Ivys and other top private colleges for a full tuition scholarship at a “lower” ranked U. I think he was the first to actually win one.
It was up to us to find out what it took to be in the running for big merit $$- thank god I found CC when I did!</p>
<p>Was she talking about need-based or purely merit-based scholarship $$, not connected to the college being applied to?</p>
<p>As written before me, my impression is that the amount of scholarship $$ available to full-pay-type students is not worth the effort (essays, interviews, etc) of pursuing, especially if these students already have a full plate of academics and activities.</p>
<p>Have to agree with all the above and the only thing that I can think of, that makes sense is that at my kids schools, the GCs run workshops on how to fill out FAFSA appropriately and do encourage parents that think they wouldnt qualify to fill it out. In a very few cases, people have been pleasantly surprised by the results. Perhaps at your friend’s school they have those too and she was impressed.</p>
<p>We didn’t see anything specifically done by the GCs at son’s private college prep school but we never really asked for help with this. Having said that, there were tons of kids in my son’s class that received merit-based scholarships. Our students tend to have a much higher per student scholarship ratio than the public schools simply because the kids are more motivated students and many of the colleges recognize that the level of academics is higher at our school than the local public schools and are willing to try to ‘woo’ these students to their school with scholarships. My son was offered at least 6 merit scholarships but we didn’t have to do anything extra to get them.</p>
<p>I will add my friends who have kids in the public hs’s in our area say that the GCs do very, very little in general. Our GCs met with the kids individually at least every other week throughout the application process. Since it’s a college prep school, everyone is expected to apply and get into college, so they have a lot vested in making sure that happens. I suppose if one were to ask for help in securing scholarships, they would do that.</p>
<p>I have a pretty good idea what the public school in my district does as my son attended until 9th grade and knowing lots of people whose kids attended the public HS.I never heard any conversations about merit aid or FA in general. It’s my opinion from what I have heard that the GC’s at the public HS don’t go into that with the students (forget the parents, who are totally left out of the loop there) and when money is an issue they steer kids to SUNY schools. </p>
<p>At my son’s private school it was totally different, not only did the GC do all the things mentioned in Youdontsay’s post, they had a class beginning in January of junior yr going through until Dec. of Sr. year where they worked on everything needed to apply from their essays, brag sheets, apps, etc. In addition, the GC had two meetings just for parents on applying for FA/Merit Aid, the CSS & FAFSA and EFC.</p>
<p>We were also told that no matter what our income we should apply for FA at every school even though our EFC was on the high side. </p>
<p>My son applied to 9 nine schools and except for SUNY Binghamton was given Merit Aid and/or FA at all of them. In total he was awarded over $600K for 4 years in grants (DH did a spread sheet.)</p>
<p>The school he chose, which was his first choice, gave him an astonishing grant in the amount of $41K/yr! His second choice gave him $30K in merit (he had to write a short essay for that which took him about an hour) and his third choice gave him $27K/yr in merit.</p>
<p>When you talk about “grants,” are you referring to scholarships offered by safety-type schools that are automatically offered once the application is reviewed?</p>
<p>My D received these types of scholarship offers that did not require her to take any action other than apply. Some of the colleges also offered special scholarships that could be applied for (like for legacies, etc), and those were set out in the application materials so did not require any special research to find.</p>
<p>Are you saying that your GC was able to identify “grant” sources that you or your S would not otherwise have come across without a lot of extra research?</p>
<p>Things are very different from Emilybee’s (structured and aggressive) experience at the BS and the private we have most recently been through this with.
Everything is up to the kid- to make appointments, to ask questions to ask for help. No special classes for essays, etc.
One school does offer an optional seminar on how to fill out the UC apps- I guess they got tired of having to explain it individually over and over again!
No mention of the word “merit Scholarship” -just acknowledged the NMSF award and handed D the package…</p>
<p>The schools all differ so much in the admissions counseling. And these things change over time, as the GC’s come and go pretty frequently.
IMO. this factor can make a fairly big difference in the results, and presents still another variable that the AdComms “should” be aware of.</p>
<p>He was offered merit aid at all his safety and his match schools except for SUNY Binghamton, which for in state, was considered a reach. He was accepted and is attending his reach school (top 25 LAC) and he didn’t do anything but apply, visit and interview (important for that school to show the love.) That school doesn’t give any merit aid only FA. </p>
<p>The GC advised the students and their parents not to bother with outside scholarships. Not a big payoff for the amount of work and many schools simply reduce the amount of aid they would give. </p>
<p>No, I am not saying that but when discussing his list the GC knew off the top of his head which schools give lots of money and for students who really need scholarships or they won’t be able to attend he works very closely with them to come up with a list of schools to apply to that give a lot of money. Also, being told to apply for FA no matter what was great advice. I think there are people who assume they won’t get anything and so don’t apply. We were told anyone making under $300K should definitely apply. </p>
<p>The $30K/yr scholarship was in the application material of the school and the $27K/yr also, but the essay was only required for the $30k/yr one and he applied but didn’t get it. </p>
<p>The other schools only required applying to be considered for merit and the amount given was based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores. </p>
<p>Besides all the assistance the GC gave, imo, it’s important to remember that GC’s at most private schools spend a great deal of their time visiting with adcoms on campus. Our GC traveled often to colleges and meetings of adcoms around the country, something most public schools cannot afford to do. Because of his close relationships at so many schools we didn’t have to do stuff like send S’s scores directly from College Board - thecolleges accepted his school just putting the scores on his transcript. Saved us a nice chunk of change.</p>
<p>At our local public high school, there is a classified employee who is in the Counseling Department who handles a lot of the nuts & bolts of helping kids/families with the application process (testing, fee waivers, college catalogs, applications, FAFSA, scholarships, etc.). This frees the GCs to advise specific students about their special situations.</p>
<p>She compiles a bulletin every month of the scholarships that come to her attention, either nationally or locally. She is the point person that local groups contact to award scholarships. She is a great resource.</p>
<p>Having said that, most of the scholarships awarded come from the colleges themselves, whether through merit money or athletic scholarships. The money from the local scholarships comes in $100-$1,000 chunks…not particularly useful for someone who is going to a $50K school, but can be quite a godsend for someone who is attending a local college and living at home.</p>
<p>Every year, there are 1 or 2 kids who are VERY motivated to fill out scholarship applications (which can be a lot of work) and who have a “story” to tell–low income, family situation, compelling community service, etc. Since need is a big factor in many of the private scholarships that are given to our students (we have a number of students whose parents make less than $30K, for example), middle to high income families don’t often get the big scholarships.</p>
<p>Ellenenope, Very nice except I was in a panic when I read everyone on CC talking about needing to get the scores sent in asap so I asked boychild and he said we didn’t have to do that. But I still kept seeing all the people on CC in a panic about getting the scores in and not trusting boychild had the right info I called the GC, who told me that the colleges accept the scores from him and not to worry.</p>
<p>D1’s private school counselor’s advice on FA, “don’t apply if you don’t have to.” I don’t remember one discussion on FA. I don’t think those counselor’s focus is getting FA aid for students, their main focus is to get students into top ranking colleges.</p>
<p>^ I don’t see why getting the kids into top ranking colleges has to be mutually exclusive of FA - especially since the top schools are the ones who are the most generous with institutional aid.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if your friend is merely a victim of her school/GC’s own PR and self-promotion campaign. To say something like “our students are offered over $Xmillion in scholarship money every year due to our outstanding Counseling Department!” sounds amazing but doesn’t really mean much if a parent has nothing to compare it against, or if it is not put into context.</p>