Any hope of a merit scholarship with these stats?

Paying for College
1

I had assumed my daughter would go to the University of Washington as it is a 10 minute drive from our house and a great school. I have enough saved to pay tuition for the state school for her.

However, she has decided she wants to go somewhere more interesting and out of state tuition is very high…especially in California, which is where most of the school she is looking at are.

I have a second child one year older than her that is in college as well, so coming up with tuition beyond the 50k I have saved is going to be a struggle. Our family has a combined income that would make needs based aid all but impossible.

She is first in her class of 600 with a weighted GPA of 4.65. She got a 2260 on her SATs last year, but retook them this year…so it might be better…we don’t know yet. She doesn’t have a lot of extra-curriculars because she has a disability that keeps her from doing much physically and has a lot of drs appointments and treatments that made after school activities and volunteer work very difficult on top of her rigorous courses. She is in ASB and writes/performs original music, but it isn’t in any organised program.

Does she have any chance of a merit scholarship or are we looking at 150k in debt?

2

At UC"s??

No, she probably would not get any merit, unless maybe a little bit at a lower tier UC. You’d still have a high annual bill. CSU’s aren’t good with merit, either.

Calif schools, at least the ones she probably knows about, aren’t great sources for merit. They tend to focus on need.

She would get a bit of merit from Santa Clara, but your annual bill would still be about $35k per year.

Calif is not a great place to look for merit if the goal is to have a net cost of - say - $25k per year or less.


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are we looking at 150k in debt? <<<

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Hope not! That would be crazy! Lol. And risky to your family!!!

I’ll be frank with you. I would tell my child how much I can pay (w/o big debt) and tell her that it’s her job to find schools that, with merit, will be affordable.

Look at it this way,… Your child has a whim to go OOS. Fine. But that should not mean that you have to indulge that by putting your family into financial risk because of her whim.

You have another child in college. I can’t imagine paying $50k for the first child to go locally, while going into HUGE debt for the second child just to have an adventure.

I would imagine that the first child might suddenly have adventure-ideas of his/her own once he/she sees you borrowing big for sibling’s dreams!!!

Merit is mostly based on test scores, GPA is secondary. ECs aren’t usually considered much at all.

There are schools that will give her free tuition for her stats, but not in Calif (at least at schools she’s probably wanting). There are probably some very small privates that might give her free tuition, but those probably aren’t what she wants.

What is her major and career goal?

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@lstirl ,

Listen to @mom2collegekids. She tirelessly gives this advice to thousands of newbies on CC. It is worth heeding.

4

What colleges is she looking at in California…and WHY? The UCs give no need based aid to OOS students, and any merit that is available would be highly competitive and still would leave you with a HUGE bill. HUGE.

The CSUs might give her some aid, but as noted above, your bill would still be huge.

Any chance she could find a college that participates in the WUE exchange?

Also, if she lives in the dorm, it doesn’t matter if she is three miles away or 3000 miles away. She doesn’t have to come home every weekend.

5

Others that regularly post on this forum are far more knowledge, but here is a link to a discussion that includes lists of merit based scholarships. With your daughter’s stats, I would think that you can find some schools that would be affordable, but probably not in California.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

6

Why would you take on $150k in debt because your teenager wants something you can’t afford? Tell her your budget and don’t let her apply to unaffordable schools. There are colleges with guaranteed merit (see post 4). Have her check into those and run the Net Price Calculator of any that look promising.

7

In addition to the cost of going OOS, this would seem to be even more of a reason to go to the affordable state flagship that’s 10 minutes from home.

My kids went to “the other UW”, 10 minutes from home and lived on campus. I can’t tell you how many of their high school classmates had the same attitude (wanting to go somewhere exotic, out of state) but ended up transferring back to UW-Madison because it’s just that awesome.

8

She may get some merit at Santa Clara

9

I know kids with her statsgetting full rides at Santa Clara… there aren’t many schools inCalifornia that give good merit aide. University of San Francisco? University of San Diego? Loyola Marymount or Pepperdine likely won’t give much. If she’s willing to branch out to other states she can likely get great aide.

10

What the others said.

My kids are a year apart. We’ve made it clear all along that we will pay for the cost of instate schools (we are south of you so that’s OSU or U of O) and if they wanted to go out of state then they have to get merit to make up the cost difference. We said no loans, but of course we couldn’t stop them if they decided to do so.

The oldest is at Pitt on a full ride. He gets asked all the time why on earth he chose Pitt. Many Pitt students are from instate so they cannot understand why he’d leave Oregon to go to Pitt. He wanted to go out of state and Pitt had a good option for his area of interest but he does tell people that a lot.

The younger son is in application mode. He doesn’t get twice as much just because his brother earned a full ride. He still has the same constraints. Believe me, that question came up. We aren’t making him apply instate because he has already been accepted to a school he loves with enough merit to make it cheaper than an instate school (with the presumed maximum merit.)

We are avoiding loans. If we had to do loans, we’d only do the federal max of $27k (i.e. the kids would borrow that max.)

11

Merit scholarships depend entirely on the school, and you haven’t named any of the schools you are looking at.

I agree with the others

  1. Do not take 150K in loans for your kid to go to ANY college
  2. If you have any concerns about her finding medical care or keeping up with appointments or treatments in a new city, keep her close to home.

Some majors in the Cal-state system are in WUE, but I would cross all of the other California public campuses off your list.

12

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know kids with her stats getting full rides at Santa Clara… t


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that would be rare or some of the aid is need-based. SCU does have a few free rides, but stats aren’t enough to win.

Nearly all of my nieces and nephews have applied to Santa Clara over the years with high stats. The most any of them got was a $27k per year merit award.

The OP’s DD has a 2260 SAT. Probably something like a 1490 M+CR. Excellent score, but not likely getting “free ride” or even free tuition at SCU without some other hook.

13

Thanks! She wants to major in biomedical engineering. Also, California was her first choice because it was closer to home. She seems to really like cal poly. I wish Hawaii was a better school because it is in WUE.

I just wish I knew more about colleges or had more time to research. Like I said I had always assumed she would stay here.

None of the schools on the guaranteed merit list appeal to her.

Any school suggestions? Thanks again for everyones help.

14

You might want to run the net price calculator for Chapman.

15

Cal Poly SLO is a great school for Engineering but it will cost you around $40K/year with no FA and most likely no merit aid. As stated above, California publics are going to be full pay.

I agree with the other posters, let your daughter know what kind of budget you have and let her select schools that fit the budget. No school is worth going into debt especially if you have another waiting in the wings. Sit and run the Net Price calculators for the schools on her list and then discuss the costs. Hopefully she will understand how expensive a college education is today.

Good Luck.

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com

16

@mom2collegekids there could be need based aide in there too. The kid I know had a 4.45 GPA, 2200+ sat, lots of EC’s. UCLA was her first choice and she didn’t get in, but got a “full ride” to Santa Clara, could be a combination of need and merit aide.

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We talked more. Other states are fine as long as they have her major.

18

Worst case scenario, she stays close to home and is a top student in one of the best biomedical engineering departments in the country:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-biological-biomedical

http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/rankings/biomedical-engineering-degrees-2016/ (see #12)

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/biomedical-rankings

http://www.phds.org/rankings/biomedical-engineering

The above lists may include some other schools your daughter could consider.

Perhaps the Honors Program would make the experience at UW more appealing to her:

http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/

Good luck!

19

Of course they don’t. If she gets into a financial safety, she won’t be able to go to one of her more expensive dream schools. I wouldn’t let her submit any apps until she completed apps for two financial safeties. I’d run the Net Price Calculator for every school and I wouldn’t let her apply to any that are unaffordable.

20

Any of the ones on the lists known for merit scholarships?