<p>Proud Mary, based on your son’s experience and that of our friends, it really looks like they have cut back this year. My son also is pretty sold on Clemson, but we will have to see if they have any further ability to offer more aid before we can really finalize, similar to mamagx3. We have other friends whose children were not nsp finalists, and were offered oos, but were also hoping for more in the spring. Looks like that might not happen, either. It will surely give many families something to weigh as an important factor in their decision.</p>
<p>Have many of you, or your sons/daughters, received better offers from schools ranked higher than Clemson?</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about Clemson’s not-so-great financial offer. Hopefully you will get something down the road to make up the rest of that money. I definitely understand about not going to Clemson if you had a better financial offer because I would do the same thing if I were in your position.</p>
<p>My son has received a better offer from 1 school higher ranked than Clemson, 1 from a school just below Clemson, and is waiting to hear from 2 others.</p>
<p>Found out where the money for scholarships went:</p>
<p>[Swinney</a> to earn at least $800,000 as Clemson football coach - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/acc/2009-04-23-clemson-swinney-salary_N.htm]Swinney”>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/acc/2009-04-23-clemson-swinney-salary_N.htm)</p>
<p>Trying to be funny here so don’t blast me LOL</p>
<p>HAHAHA well none of Swinney’s money is from tuition money (from sources like IPTAY, private donations etc…)</p>
<p>and Dabo is among the lowest paid college coaches in college football :)</p>
<p>Too bad some of those private donors think football is more important than education.</p>
<p>1chessmom, did you ever hear back from financial aid? </p>
<p>My son is frustrated that they may take until end of April to notify…way too late. I imagine Clemson loses a decent number of strong students due to such late notification.</p>
<p>The message we received was that further scholarship aid will be unlikely, no specific final notification date given. It appears that the budget cuts and the effect of the economy on their endowments has really affected their ability to offer aid at the levels they have in the past. There are links to outside scholarship searches that they recommended we check ou: [Private</a> Scholarships](<a href=“http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/finaid/Private%20Scholarships.htm]Private”>http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/finaid/Private%20Scholarships.htm)
Needless to say we have been working on that all along, and now it is too late to probably pursue new ones. I am not sure what happens when students who are offered packages decide to go elsewhere…do they then just hold on to those funds to try to grow them for the following year’s students, or do they offer those funds to students applying this year? Anyone know?</p>
<p>I understand your son’s frustration…we are too, as are several of my son’s friends who have applied there, got OOS waiver, but were hoping for more. While other offers are coming in, we don’t know exactly where we stand, but I guess we can’t assume that anymore will be available.</p>
<p>Well It looks like my D won’t be going to Clemson. We kind of figured that no more merit aid would be offered, and I can’t see her getting need-based aid to make up the rest.</p>
<p>mamgx3, I think there are probably a lot of us relooking at the situation. My son is still considering, but his other stronger offers are making him reevaluate everything. He really liked Clemson…</p>
<p>Best wishes to your daughter in her decision!</p>
<p>Thanks, 1chessmom! She is up for a full tuition scholarship at one of our in-state schools and applying for a departmental scholarship too, so at this point, her in-state choice is probably where she will end up. However, we won’t know for certain until we see the paperwork.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son too!</p>
<p>My son also received the OOS waiver. We were thrilled that he was admitted to Clemson. Son is starting to receive his other offers now from schools that may not be higher ranked than Clemson, but are Tier II private engineering schools. They have been less than generous as well. Clemson would actually be the more affordable. Thankfully, my son was named a NMF and has received a number of full rides, so he is actually getting to choose from a number of affordable schools. Had he not been lucky enough to get NMF, we’d be in the same boat as the rest of you. While he may not attend Clemson for undergrad, I think it is an excellent school and one he can shoot for for grad school.</p>
<p>Montegut- what were your son’s stats? I have a 33 ACT, 4.0 gpa, rank 2 of 425. What do you think my chances are of getting the OOS waiver?</p>
<p>I have a friend who just called Clemson the other day to ask about OOS. She was told that the cutoff is 31 ACT, but she did not mention if there was a grade or other requirement. If you have received an acceptance letter, but not any info about OOS, I would call them.</p>
<p>there is no GPA cutoff but there is a class rank requirement in that you need to be in the top 10% of your high school class.</p>
<p>^ yep, the class rank did DS in, 34ACT but not top 10%, that would be 4.06 at his school. Non OOS-waiver takes Clemson out of consideration :(</p>
<p>^you can thank US News for not getting your DS a scholarship at Clemson. If there was a GPA criteria for US News (there’s a criteria for % of students in the top 10% of their high school), I’m sure Clemson would give your DS a scholarship.</p>
<p>The ranking criteria is just a silly thing. In my S school they rank based on UW GPA. Guess what? Basically a majority of the kids in the top 10% have taken very few AP or Honor classes. Those kids with an aggressive curriculum are left out hanging and kept out from possibly competing to get these kid of scholarships… It is sad for Clemson not to realize these kind of things.</p>
<p>well Clemson has clearly stated that it’s goal is to get into the top 20 public schools in US News. That’s probably the biggest thing I dislike about Clemson, this top 20 initiative, they need to do what is best for the university not a magazine and if they do that the rankings will follow</p>