<p>And don’t worry about what other parents have decided to do, such as pay $60,000 for a private school. It’s an individual choice about what to pay and more expensive is not always better. If the University of Maryland works for your family, so be it. You sound more than willing to help with college and that is great.</p>
<p>@OP</p>
<p>Regarding “One needs top HYPS stats”. Here are the 75 percentile scores (2011) for them, which are needed to compete for substantial merit scholarships at other top private/OOS public colleges (that are perceived better than UMDCP)
Verbal: 800 H, 800 Y, 790 P, 760 S
Math: 790 H, 780 Y, 790 P, 790 S
Writing: 800 H, 790 Y, 790 P, 780 S</p>
<p>In addition, she needs to have rigorous course load (AP, IB), top grades, great ECs, ideally major writing awards (i.e. scholastic national gold or sliver, youngarts national winners), and outstanding essays (some scholarships require additional application essays).</p>
<p>Don’t worry about what is said on here about you and your finances - many here are eager to spend other people’s money. Refusing to pay $250K for a snooty school is perfectly reasonable.</p>
<p>HYPS means Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford. There is a cadre here who think you might as well slit your wrists if you don’t go to one of those, or some other set of “ranked” schools.</p>
<p>It is correct, however, that the merit scholarships at most of the schools named in this thread require very high stats, plus other notable accomplishments.</p>
<p>To xrbbaker:</p>
<p>I’m not sure if anyone answered your question earlier, but yes, you are the “OP” which means Original Poster.</p>
<p>I do agree that it may not be worth the $ and just because one has the $ doesn’t mean he or she has to spend it. I guess the rub is the OP, based on information shared here, should be able to make the choice with more ease than many of us. Instead, will only consider the high priced colleges if merit $ is on the table. Also, for a good number of folks that I know are willing to fund undergraduate as much as reasonable in their eyes but graduate/law/ medicine is on the student’s dime. When the OP is suggesting that the family pay EVERYTHING for all children I can see where it gets clouded. Again though, just because the $ is there doesn’t mean it has to spent on college, weddings, cars etc.</p>
<p>My older son recently graduated from Oberlin. After applying to many schools looking for merit aid, he fell in love with the school who gave him the least amount of aid $10,000. Compared to Tulane , American, Denison and Miami who all gave inthe low$20,000. Oberlin’s saving grace however was basically a lack of gen ed requirements and a very generous AP policy. It made graduating early a real possibility and that is what occurred. It saved us about $25,000 and he was able to attend a school that was absolutely the right fit for him. Btw, Oberlin has a fantastic Creative Writing program - it worked out pretty well for Lena Dunham!</p>
<p>There are a number of very fine schools that offer merit money. The chances of getting that money is very small, BUT someone gets it. And if a student does not apply, it is certain that he or she will not get it.</p>
<p>A school being “need blind” does NOT mean that they’ll award grants to those regardless of need.</p>
<p>Grants are need-based.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are academic based. good sized merit scholarships are not going to be awarded to your daughter at schools like Duke or Vandy or some of the other top schools unless her stats are near-perfect or she has some other amazing hook…very desirable URM or adds regional diversity…which Maryland would not be. </p>
<p>Someone who scores in the low 700s isn’t going to get merit from top schools. A Math + Cr is the low 1400’s isn’t special at top schools. The top quartile at top schools has students scoring in the 1500’s or ACT 35/36. A 1440 or so M+CR would be “an average student” at those schools, and therefore not considered for merit. </p>
<p>When people say that merit from top schools is awarded to “ivy-like” students, they mean that the money is awarded to students with perfect/near-perfect stats & amazing ECs (published best seller, cured cancer…lol) who these schools are trying to poach away from ivies. </p>
<p>I may be reading too much between the lines, but it seems to me that you’re hoping that schools will see that you don’t qualify for need-based aid, but that they’ll want your D so they’ll offer you money. That won’t likely be the case unless she scores near-perfect SATs and has an amazing resume.</p>
<p>xrb,</p>
<p>I hear you about the relative costs of a very good well-respected in-state flagship university and an elite private college elsewhere. I happen to agree that it may not be worth the difference especially if graduate school is involved. Save the prestige, if it is important to you, for the last degree your daughters will get. (Although my father, professor at an ivy, told me that the prestige only helps with the first job, maybe second job, when I asked about doctoral programs.) </p>
<p>We’re in a similar situation with a lower income. Since I work for the Maryland university system, my children qualify for free tuition so we would pay only room and board and miscellaneous expenses for Maryland public universities/colleges. That makes it very difficult to look at private colleges and say “sure, we’ll pay $40K (our estimated EFC) a year for the same education” </p>
<p>As for the likelihood your daughter wins a merit award at a top school. It is small because the merit awards are so rare but it does no harm to apply for the awards and scholarships.</p>
<p>The “big” merit awards are rare and lots of “top” kids would rather not get into the fray. Good to know if the kid even wants to go down that route( applications, interviews, etc.). Same reason lots of top kids are happy to not get into the Ivy or bust thing. Just not their thing.</p>
<p>You kid(s) may very well decide not to go on to graduate school. There are an awful lot of other paths in life besides “write books” and “go to law school”, and odds are actually fairly high your D will end up on one of them. And even if your kids do decide to go to grad school, not all parents who pay for undergrad education consider it their responsibility to foot the bill for grad school (we have covered our kids’ undergrad educations, but will not pay for graduate school). It is amazing how much more focused your kids get on actual career goals and whether a graduate degree is worth it when it is on their own dime…</p>
<p>Here’s an article/chart that the OP might find helpful.</p>
<p>[How</a> Much Merit Aid Will Your College Offer? Take a Look - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/merit-aid-chart/]How”>How Much Merit Aid Will Your College Offer? Take a Look - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Your daughter will be just fine at UMD-CP. if that is your price point, you really don’t have to justify it to anyone. This is your family decision. Lots could also change between now and when this daughter actually applies to colleges. $30,000 a year will pay for schools instate in MD, and also for places like the SUNY schools even as OOS residents. U of Minnesota would also be in your price range.</p>
<p>Agree that there are lots of good schools with good merit scholarships. But also think its not necessary to plan to fully fund grad/law school for the kids. That’s a choice. A nice one but not a necessary one.</p>
<p>U of Minnesota did raise OOS tuition this year, and I am pretty sure it won’t be the last price hike. By the time the OP’s daughter graduates from college, the cost could have gone up quite a bit. The state of MN isn’t really interested in offering as good a deal to OOS students as they have in the past, and they are under quite a bit of pressure to keep costs down for in state students while maintaining quality.</p>
<p>Well…when this rising junior is actually applying to colleges, some of the merit awards that currently exist could have different criteria, be more competitive, or simply not exist. Prices will increase everywhere, including UMD-CP.</p>
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<p>They do offer scholarships that cover the difference between the OOS and in-state tuition. I agree the OOS tuition will rise every year as they try to keep the in-state tuition down or at the same level.</p>
<p>Looking for a small campus college with business/sportsmanagement degrees with a football team with tuition under $20,000.00 per year</p>
<p>RSRubia…may I boldly suggest you start your own thread.</p>
<p>What a wonderful group! Thanks so much - and now I know I’m an OP! er, uh, THE OP! Woo hoo!! :)</p>
<p>You know what this thread and your responses really do? It gives me food for thought. It allows me to look at things from different angles - as well as some tangible other schools to look into. Believe it or not you all are helping me form my thoughts. I’m starting to lean this way…</p>
<p>We’ve looked at Washington & Lee, William & Mary, U of MD, Swarthmore and Haverford. A couple of you touched on this following point. Who KNOWS what the next step will be? Thus far my D’s #1 choice has been William & Mary, although she was wowed by Swarthmore. She fell in love with W&M. It fits her soul. William & Mary is a very good school. Even though it is tough to get into it’s no HYPS. (Now that I know what that means!!) I think she could have a good chance getting in with low 700s and a 4.0 and 11 APs and good ECs. Do I personally think the education there is worth the money relative to the money spent and education at U of MD? No. I do not. I base that on the fact that I hire people every couple of weeks and I look at thousands, yes thousands of resumes every year. I KNOW what makes successful people. Both my daughters have that. It’s a lot more than how smart they are, and they are smart. It’s much more than where did their degree come from. It’s about their character and how they present themselves. They are amazing. If they graduated from the local community college and the got an online degree they’d STILL be incredibly successful. So I’m starting to lean towards… Ok. If you want to go to W&M we’ll pay for it. If you want to go to Swarthmore and you can get in? We’ll pay for that. If you decide to go to grad school and manage to get into Harvard it’s on your dime. (Heck yeah. Have you seen the average starting salary of those grads?) Also as someone said, there is a long road between where she is now and what career she chooses. It’s more likely she turns off her current path than stays on it.</p>
<p>You must remember I’m only half of the decision making at our house. I could say we aren’t going to pay for grad school, but my wife will say, maybe we can just help out a bit. …and we keep working. :)</p>