<p>* I was assuming that they were generous in financial aid because my cousin got a pretty generous package with her 32 act (~$20k per year to go there out of state), but I guess there was more to it than just her act score?? I dunno*</p>
<p>If she got that much, it wasn’t likely based on her scores. It was likely based on need and maybe a little merit from her major. UMich has been known to give OOS students need-based aid, but to get merit, you need very high stats and the awards are competitive. Your cousin may have had a low EFC.</p>
<p>And I take back that 15k figure, probably 25k if you consider college fund too I’ve done a really good job saving over the years.</p>
<p>So are you saying that your parents will pay $15k per year and you can contribute $10k per year because you have $40k in your savings?</p>
<p>You would nead about 2/3 tuition scholarship for privates and pricey OOS publics so that your remaining costs are below $25k. You need to allow for some pad, because costs rise every year, and some scholarships (especially ones that are for set amounts) do not increase every year.</p>
<p>I was assuming that they were generous in financial aid because my cousin got a pretty generous package with her 32 act (~$20k per year to go there out of state), but I guess there was more to it than just her act score?? I dunno</p>
<p>It’s too late to edit my post…</p>
<p>You seem to be confusing “need based” aid and merit scholarships. </p>
<p>Financial aid is “need based”. Your cousin probably had a lowish EFC. And she may not have gotten $20k in grants from UMich. She may have gotten some Pell Grant, some work-study, some loans, a smaller amount from UMich for need and maybe some merit.
Was she an engineering major? If so, she may have gotten a women in engineering merit award. It’s very hard to get merit from UMich with an ACT 32 without some hook.
Is she a minority?</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like you have any “need”. So, a school that is “generous” with financial aid still isn’t going to give you money. </p>
<p>Merit scholarships are academic based.</p>
<p>If she got that much, it wasn’t likely based on her scores. It was likely based on need and maybe a little merit from her major. UMich has been known to give OOS students need-based aid, but to get merit, you need very high stats and the awards are competitive. Your cousin may have had a low EFC.</p>
<p>^With all due respect, that is not necessarily true. UMich COE certainly does award $20,000 scholarships to OOS students they wish to attract - I know several; and they were NOT need-based. They’re just not assessed in terms of traditional merit (eg. not score driven) but are used instead to attract candidates with exceptional characteristics.</p>
<p>My son was also the recipient of a generous merit scholarship as well, not need-based.</p>
<p>So it DOES and CAN happen – BUT that said, it is a crap shoot, and it is super-unpredictable, and it’s certainly not given out the way some privates issue merit money as almost a “discount factor.”</p>
<p>If the OP is interested in ENG, the OP should certainly apply to UMich, with eyes wide open that it MAY or MAY NOT be viable in the end ;)</p>
<p>You must have misread my posts. YES, UMich does award merit. I think everyone knows that. But, it’s unlikely that an ACT 32 (alone) gets a $20k merit award.</p>
<p>And, yes, it’s a crapshoot with UMich. There are kids with ACT 35s that got nothing from UMich.</p>
<p>im pretty confident my cousin is not at all need based, her parents are quite wealthy and from what you guys are saying i dont know how she pulled off that large of a merit scholarship!! she had extracurriculars but nothing thats really unique (show choir, NHS, key club are the 3 I think she was in). i know the difference between need-based/merit!! It is good to know that they do give merit scholarships, but it is not necessarily based on act score and more on the “other stuff”!!</p>
<p>“Ohio State is an amazing school. But everything is dependent on lots of things. Such as what are you planning to major in, what type of school you looking for big or small, what type of city you prefer urban or rural. Lots of what ifs”</p>
<p>if i were to go in state i would choose miami u instead of ohio state. First, 60,000 students on campus is a little overwhelming to me. I have cousins there (sisters of michigan cousin) and from what they say, ohio state is like its own city. They are very comparable programs, but about 20% of the graduating class from my highschool goes to ohio state each year and I really would like to get away from that if at all possible. the honors program at miami u also has a nice sort of “work on your own” atmosphere (i forget how they call it but they incourage you to take on your own projects) which is pretty unique and kind of cool. also, my mom is an alumni from miami so that also contributes because if it were up to her, thats where i would go! so, I know Ohio State is a great school, but I just cant see myself going there!</p>
<p>and finally, yes what i meant is that i have saved $40k for college (my parents have always preached that i put a lot in there, always made me put most of my b-day money in there) and my parents estimate they give about $15k per year.</p>
<p>Based upon your stats, under the revised scholarship program for 2013 admissions (which now gives big money to top candidates-a play from the Alabama playbook), you will be guaranteed no less than 1/2 tuition scholarship at Miami (Ohio) and would likely be eligible for a full tuition scholarship. Exact scholarship is based upon GPA, ACT/SAT scores and rigor of HS courses. You could of course also apply for the competative scholarships such as the Harrison. My son is at Miami and daughter has Alabama as her #1 prospect. I’ve been to both campuses several times. They are both beautiful, well maintained, with great honors colleges and generous scholarships.</p>
<p>it doesn’t appear that her ECs made a difference unless she got a Talent Award for performing arts. </p>
<p>Again, your cousin’s award may have been related to her major (like women in engineering), or may have been awarded a few years ago when UMich was awarding merit for an ACT 32. Right now, an ACT 32 wouldn’t likely get much/anything without some hook. An ACT 32 isn’t even top 25% at UMich. </p>
<p>Last year, a student from my son’s high school was awarded $10k from UMich for the SAT equivalent to an ACT 33/34. It was from the College of Eng’g and it was because they wanted more women. </p>
<p>Are her parents divorced? If so, then maybe only the mom’s income was used. </p>
<p>Frankly, it’s really hard to compare awards from one year to the next for a variety of reasons. First of all, people often stretch the truth a bit. Secondly, schools change their policies from year to year. And, some self-employed/business-owners fudge income numbers on FA apps. And, sometimes gender/major or ethnic/regional diversity comes into play.</p>
<p>Mom2, as I meant to imply, merit just really isn’t reflective of stats alone, or in some cases, at all. My son was technically in the mid-range of acceptance statistically even back in 09 but he came from a gifted-talented program that was well regarded (just about every kid from that school received merit – it was a very hard school with unweighted stats with outstanding recommendations and an obvious area of specialization. He did receive a smaller music scholarship as well, but was utterly surprise to receive a larger academic scholarship.
For every kid who receives merit, of course there are thousands at umich with stellar stats who do not. It really does seem to be holistically determined and used strategically to attract some students - sometimes for factors not necessarily within the student’s control, eg the program they’re coming out of.</p>
<p>This makes it difficult to advise students on these threads, because there is no real metric to assess likelihood, but at the same time, it’s always worth applying.</p>
<p>OP, you’d be best off treating a Michigan app as a gamble since you know you’re not interested in attending full pay. However, mind your hook and essays in your application materials to stand out, and don’t count on your stats – remember that the majority of kids who get in have similar stats. I would hazard to guess that intangibles such as letters of recommendation, accomplishments, essays and demonstrated interest have a good deal of influence in the merit department ;)</p>
<p>This says their freshman class had ~3400 students with no need and ~3000 of them got non-need based aid, with an average amount of $5500. (Granted if you are from OOS an average merit award in this range is small potatoes.)</p>
<p>DD was awarded very decent merit from several schools in South Carolina (Clemson, College of Charleston, and USC-Columbia) and her scores were nowhere near a 34.</p>
<p>A 34 at USC-Columbia would put you in the running for a McNair, which would give you free tuition+. Most of their lesser merit awards also get you in-state tuition, which is only around $11K, or greatly reduced OOS tuition of about $14K or so. R+B costs are pretty reasonable compared to many schools, around $8K/year.</p>
<p>UAlabama has been mentioned already.
I’m currently studying engineering here, so I’d like to add a few things.
We have a University Fellows program, which, if you get selected in, pays for your housing, plus some money each year. You also get to do research etc., and it’s something you should definitely apply to. And there’s a deadline, so keep an eye out for that (I missed out on that because I didn’t know about the program till too late:( ). The college of engineering offers scholarships ($2500 per year), which are fairly easy to get. So University Fellows + Presidential Scholarships (guaranteed full tuition waiver, if you keep up your GPA and get high ACT/SAT scores) + Engineering Scholarship pays for a majority of the cost of attendance.
However, UA is not nearly as good as the Ivies. Its engineering program isn’t bad, but it’s not good. I would strongly recommend you to visit campus and have a look yourself before you decide to go here.</p>
<p>This says their freshman class had ~3400 students with no need and ~3000 of them got non-need based aid, with an average amount of $5500</p>
<p>I find this stat very confusing or misleading. We’ve seen too many high stats kids post that they got nothing from UMich. I’m wondering how many of these awards are talent based (music scholarships, band scholarships, art/portfolio, forensic scholarships, etc) or some other “hooked” merit scholarships (like women/minorities in engineering).</p>
<p>UAlabama has been mentioned already.
I’m currently studying engineering here, so I’d like to add a few things.
We have a University Fellows program, which, if you get selected in, pays for your housing, plus some money each year. You also get to do research etc., and it’s something you should definitely apply to. And there’s a deadline, so keep an eye out for that (I missed out on that because I didn’t know about the program till too late ). The college of engineering offers scholarships ($2500 per year), which are fairly easy to get. So University Fellows + Presidential Scholarships (guaranteed full tuition waiver, if you keep up your GPA and get high ACT/SAT scores) + Engineering Scholarship pays for a majority of the cost of attendance.
However, UA is not nearly as good as the Ivies. Its engineering program isn’t bad, but it’s not good. I would strongly recommend you to visit campus and have a look yourself before you decide to go here.</p>
<p>I don’t know if there’s one or two typos in Post 32 or what.</p>
<p>University Fellows doesn’t do research. UFE does community service in the Black Belt area. Computer-Based Honors is the program that has research. Emerging Scholars is another research program. There are many other research opps as well. </p>
<p>Bama’s engineering is good; any eng’g program that is ABET accredited and within the Top 100 is going to be good. I know of eng’g programs at a few other schools that are ranked around 125 or so, and they’re quite good. </p>
<p>My younger son is a rising senior at Bama (Chemical Eng’g) and he’s had a very rigorous curriculum. </p>
<p>Wanana may want to edit or fix his post…it seems to contradict itself at times.</p>
with outstanding recommendations and an obvious area of specialization. He did receive a smaller music scholarship as well, but was utterly surprise to receive a larger academic scholarship.