DD is signed up for the raise me site for merit scholarships.
Interestingly, Clarion & CALU are offering scholarship money. The other 12 are not.
However, Pitt is also offering scholarships, and DD is almost up to what DS was offered 2 yrs ago, and his stats were significantly higher, however, I’m sure tuition has increased in the past 2 years as well.
The Pitt branch campuses are also listed.
I don’t remember any of the above schools doing so when she first signed up a year or so ago. I can see Clarion & CALU as they are not doing as well as the other state schools, but Pitt surprised me.
I also started an account at the raise me site - I might be wrong, but doesn’t it essentially mirror what you’d get anyway? Like, if you get $5k at raise me, whatever you’d get from the school directly would be reduced by $5k?
The only thing I think you can be assured of @Gatormama w/ the raise me site is the awards on there are guaranteed.
Maybe kid would have gotten that amount anyway, but maybe not.
From someone who used it before, they said all the awards from the schools they applied to from there all offered their kid more than on the site.
I was looking at York College of PA as DD did not qualify for the higher merits because her GPA wasn’t high enough. Found out that some of the colleges actually limit their awards on raise me,but that isn’t indicated anywhere. DD actually maxed out on York already, so not going to get the higher awards through raise me either, so they are off the table.
Pitt and it’s branch campuses were a surprise to me. As stated above, DD is close to what her brother was awarded from Pitt, and he is on full tuition plus engineering at Bama. Her stats are no where near what his were. So maybe a school like Pitt that isn’t known for giving good merit aid would be a good one to try as you could get some guaranteed merit. ? Of course, maybe they have limitations as well, not stated at all.
I wish Bloom, SRU, or West Chester were there, Even a couple of grand of merit would be terrific, but since they are doing better than the others, they don’t really need to.
At this point I plan on finishing it up and applying to some of them to see how it works out, but not really seeing the benefit of using it at this point.
Since we frequently delve into neighboring states, I was wondering if anyone had any input on Ohio U. in Athens? It seems to have a decent financial aid program if you make the honors college.
@Gatormama I have a friend whose D went to Ohio U to study engineering because of the great aid. The mom talks only positively about her D’s experience there. And her D got a great job waiting for her at graduation.
It sounds like a great place if you like the outdoors. They stayed in cabins with hot tubs and went boating on their trips out to visit her.
Ohio U…great college feel in a great college town. Daughter did not get into honors college but cost was about $24,000 with decent aid for her stats. Did not offer her swim money or I think she would have strongly considered. Lots lot of majors…highly recommend taking a look.
Thanks, guys - I also liked the plethora of majors, considering my d’s scattershot approach to possible career paths.
Also what I like is this - not sure where I cut and pasted it from (probably here someplace) and I’m not sure how accurate or up-to-date it is - would welcome confirmation or correction:
Ohio University splits tuition into two pieces: “tuition” (approx $11,500) plus an “out of state surcharge” (approx $9000). If you are admitted to the Honors Tutorial College, your “tuition”)in-state amt) should be covered, leaving only the out-of-state surcharge. BUT you also qualify for the Ohio Trustee Award which covers part of the out of state surcharge. It’s a sliding scale from $1000 to $7000, depending on academic merit. But since it starts with an ACT score of 22 (or SAT 1020), if you have a much higher score, your entire tuition bill will be only a few thousand dollars, better than having the out of state portion covered. These are four-year renewable scholarships. The Ohio Trustee Award applies whether you are admitted to HTC or not, and there are other merit scholarships as well.
@Gatormama, the biggest issue revolves around DD’s major/career path as well. IF she goes into education, she would probably be better off staying in PA for now. I think it is a state where teacher’s salaries are relatively high and she could pursue a masters in TESOL. Going out of state, that might not be as easily accomplished. She really does want to teach English overseas, as of today, but she still hasn’t figured out her path to get there. Adding limited finances and I keep coming back to our state schools. I looked at OU’s website and really couldn’t figure out what our bottom line might end up being. I will take another look at it, maybe tomorrow.
I think your daughter is only a junior this year? Mine is senior, so crunch time!
@laralei , It is very hard to estimate a bottom line with Ohio U. I even talked to admissions and they couldn’t help me, perhaps due to a holistic evaluation for scholarships.
Thanks @bester1 for the Ohio costs. I think @Gatormama, was trying to figure out costs IF there were scholarships involved and the ones available there. I know I was.
I like the IUP news. DD heard, from her friends at school, sound familiar to anyone, that IUP is a bad school. I looked at the link and poked around on the website and maybe DD would qualify for some scholarships there, if she gets into Cook Honors. Guess that is another one to look at as well.
We live within hailing distance of ESU, and my D has said that if that’s the only school she can get into, we should just shoot her now. So I hear ya, @laralei, on the “friends at school” rap.
I haven’t been impressed with the school, but I gotta say, and this made me laugh out loud: I think it’s the only PASSHE school that offers marine biology. AND WHY???
@ laralei and @ Gatormama…LOL…I know and I lived that last year. IUP has 13,000 students, great college town and lots of academic opportunities. Offered her money to swim there. My daughter would say “they let just about everyone in” and I would say “the role of a true state school is to give people those opportunities” and she would say “everyone at the lunch table will think I am an idiot”…it went on and on and on. I did manage to take her on a visit/tour one day…if I promised not to tell anyone…ha! She admitted that it wasn’t too bad but would never go there…I am not sure where all of this college snobbery has come from. After several attempts she did manage a 26 ACT and had a 3.3 (I think) but she was not an outstanding student by any means…good and solid…perfect for Bloomsburg, West Chester, IUP…you get the gist of what I am trying to say. Good luck!!!
Thanks for the link to OU’s scholarships. I think DD would have to be awarded a significant amount to qualify, but she has a friend going there, so might let her apply, with understanding that is likely a long shot.
I took care of the the state schools not being good enough by telling her she can always start at Community College, we do have a satellite campus within driving distance. Suddenly the option of Bloom, or SRU, or any of the others and being able to dorm there became much more appealing!
The OU scholarships look somewhat doable, IF D gets her dang GPA up. She got two Cs in freshman year and those have just cratered her stats. It doesn’t help that we are insisting she do 4 years of Chinese, and she and the teacher are like oil and water. It’s a constant battle. Sigh.
@Gatormama, I hear you on the language front. DD does not like her Latin teacher, and she is very far above the level of the rest of the students. She is bored to tears; even the teacher told her she could probably teach the class. However, after already taking 3 years, I encouraged her very strongly to take the 4th year of Latin as well. With one more year, she would receive a “cord” and possibly a small scholarship, very small, but still!
Is your daughter good at Chinese? Mine thinks she wants to study it in college. With the state schools, opportunities are limited. Can’t let it be a deal breaker, especially if it ends up being more difficult than she thinks.
She’s not particularly good at it, though I think that’s because she expends so much effort disliking the teacher. She doesn’t want to pursue it in college, even though I keep telling her it’s a hugely marketable skill. I’ve begged her to apply for the NSILY program; she flat-out refuses. BUT - ugh - she would love to go on the class trip to China because it’s a good time with her friends, not because of any love of Chinese. Since the trip is close to $4k, that ain’t happenin’…
Nonetheless, we believe it’s good discipline to stick with something you’re not particularly enamored of. Also looks good on the transcript, even with the non-As…
