We feel very fortunate that our son was accepted to Tulane and got a $20k scholarship. We will not be getting any need based money. The issue that we have is that the University of Florida would not cost any money because of the Florida pre-paid program. He would also receive Florida Bright Futures scholarship money and another $9000 a year in scholarship money. Does anybody have any suggestions about talking to Tulane about these issues and asking for more money without sounding like a jerk.
One more thing. We are going to preview day on Friday. If anybody has any suggestions while we are there.
Unfortunately I am not very optimistic, given the circumstances you outline. The chances of getting more merit money are less than slim, and the chances for need based grants are low as well. Not only because you seem sure you won’t qualify for need based aid, but also because you would be so late to the process even if you were wrong and submitted the forms now. You could talk to Tulane, and I am sure you wouldn’t sound like a jerk, but I just don’t think you would get anything from it.
I would only hold out some hope if your statement
I am taking this to mean that you prepaid the money into a fund run by the state of Florida. I was under the impression that, should your child decide not to attend a Florida public school, the money could be used elsewhere. I know this has been discussed on CC but I never paid much attention to the details. If I am right, how much are we talking about in that fund? Enough to make Tulane affordable on a cash-flow basis, or with reasonably small loans (<8K per year is my definition of reasonable, but maybe not yours)?
If I am wrong and that money is either not accessible to be used for Tulane, which I would find surprising, or it just isn’t enough to matter (less surprising), then it seems to me attending FL is, if not a no-brainer, something pretty close. IMO no school, not even HYPS, is worth going into serious debt to attend. And it certainly isn’t like Florida is a second rate school. True, the average student is not going to be as academically inclined as at a school like Tulane, but there are so many great students and teachers there.
If your son does end up there, and just remains focused and balanced between school and social, and most importantly takes advantages of any special programs they might have for the best students, he would no doubt have a fantastic college career. All of you would come out with a lot more money left for whatever comes next. He would just have to be prepared for that first year being a little “corporate”, by which I mean the large lecture classes and the occasional feeling of being “just a number”. But that is where getting involved in both academic and socially oriented programs that interest him come into play. Those help students make friends quickly and feel more individual among the large student body. That would even be true at Tulane to some degree.