<p>Posting this on behalf of a close friend who is not on CC, but who would love your advice.... My friend's daughter (we'll call her "Kate") was awarded a nice merit scholarship in early October, from a large, popular school. It's a school that Kate is very interested in attending in fall of 2014. Covers all tuition and $2,000/yr towards housing. Remaining costs for Kate's freshmen year will be about $9,000. Her parents will be able to kick in $2,500 and she'll have a little from a summer job, plus she might qualify for around $1,000 in work study or other financial aid. (And Kate might get $500 departmental, etc.)</p>
<p>So there's still a $ gap.... Problem is, Kate (who has high stats and decent EC's) is feeling unmotivated to apply for the private scholarships that are out there. She says she'll "just take out a loan" for the roughly $5,000 that she needs for her first year. Kate's mom is very upset that her D is unmotivated to complete the scholarship apps because she feels that Kate has a good chance for some private scholarship $. </p>
<p>My friend is equally upset that her D is not keeping up with her normal school performance (had 3.92 GPA through 6 semesters, non-weighted) and grades are slipping (GPA is down to 3.82 after 7 semesters) mainly due to lack of turning in all homework on time. </p>
<p>Is there anything my friend can do to improve this "severe lack of motivation" situation with her D?? Advice? Tips? Comments? Suggestions?? She says it's like talking to a brick wall. (I can relate to that....I have 2 teenagers!) Senioritis, ugh!</p>
<p>It’s time for math. Your friend needs to prepare a simple spreadsheet (and do it for all four years, not just freshman year) which shows cost of attendance, parental contribution, and the size of the gap. Then a repayment table which shows how big the loans will be when the D starts paying them back broken down by month.</p>
<p>But there is one problem with your logic (or your friends logic)- your friend needs to check to make sure that outside money which comes in, won’t be used to reduce the amount of aid. You can’t assume that every dollar is neutral and can be used to close the gap between Kate’s COA and the amount of merit aid- it will depend on the parents EFC, how the aid is funded and applied, etc. It could be need based aid packaged as merit, or merit aid awarded regardless of need, you don’t know.</p>
<p>Parents often assume that if their kid wins the $500 Garden Club award it goes to the parent, to reduce their EFC. The college may use the outside $500 to reduce THEIR subsidy. I know kids who have spent months writing essays, attending interview days, racking up 8 or 10 small outside scholarships… only to have the parental contribution whittled down by almost nothing after the college does the math. Or outside awards which have very specific requirements- only for books, or only for a laptop- and if the kid already has a laptop, the sponsoring organization doesn’t just say, “oh, use the money however you want”-- they’ll go to the next kid on the list. (I’m a member of a professional group which sponsors scholarships with some very narrow criteria… drives me nuts, just give the kid the money for god’s sake).</p>
<p>So worth checking before your friend goes ballistic on Kate. Looks like there may be a gap in any event, and Kate and her parents need a plan of action.</p>
<p>Let me see if I have it right … the student is paying 95+% of the bill through cash, jobs, merit, and loans … and the parents are paying less than 5% of the bill … and the parents are complaining the student isn’t doing enough. Do I understand the situation right?</p>
<p>I am not saying the student is being perfect … but the parents told the student what they would pay and student made it work with that budget … from the limited info we have is sounds like the parents protest too much.</p>
<p>I did not infer that the parent expected the scholarships to decrease their EFC. I had a different intepretation. </p>
<p>Kate needs a talk. She’s got a case of the ol’ senioritis. She needs to see that her performance is slipping and that it CAN affect her going to college. It will ultimately be her decision how hard she wants to work. She may decide to get the best grades that she can manage that will still allow her the rewards of her great academics. </p>
<p>I had senioritis. My grades dropped. I let them drop to the GPA that would allow me to keep my awared merit scholarships, special recognition at graduation, and state recognized awards. It was my decision. I was burnt out, anxious, and fed up with the “high school” scene. She, currently, may be, too. </p>
<p>Her mom should go over the financial side with her and the debt she’ll be trudging along with her due to “lack of motivation”. Don’t force her fill out the scholarships. Make her aware. </p>
<p>She definitely does need some motivation to get her through the year. </p>
<p>
It seems as if she is encouraging her daughter so she doesn’t have to take out loans. I don’t see much wrong with it.</p>
<p>Kate is eligible for a $5500 Direct Loan for her fresh,an year. Many students take those Direct Loans. I honestly don’t see an issue here. Those loans will be in Kate’s name only. Her choice.</p>
<p>Those private scholarships are usually low in dollar amount, and are for one year only. They are usually not renewable. </p>
<p>Yes, they have the potential to reduce Kate’s loans freshman year. But really…that is all they will reduce.</p>
<p>As noted upstream, outside scholarships will not reduce the family contribution the college calculates THEY should be paying.</p>
<p>Congratulations to Kate on her excellent scholarship award!</p>
<p>As a parent, I’d focus on the lost learning – at least some of the skills & knowledge taught in senior year will form a foundation for the future – and she’s doing herself a disservice by not building as strong a foundation as she can.</p>
<p>Sounds like the girl is intelligent enough for such a message to resonate.</p>
<p>I’ll add that, like Niquii77, in my final high school year I did just enough to keep my grades ‘recognition-worthy’, and no more.</p>
<p>In our experience, many private scholarships require a lot of time to apply for, are small and mostly non-renewable, and are a long shot in any event. Combine that with the fact that many schools will reduce need-based aid by the scholarship amount and I would not spend any time nagging my kid to apply for those scholarships, especially if she’s already indicated her willingness to take out loans. I would figure out the monthly repayment amount for the maximum federal loan and make sure Kate was making a fully informed decision, though. Frankly, I think Kate has done her part. As long as she keeps her grades high enough to keep her scholarship, I’d let her have a little senioritis, although she does need to make sure she’s learning the material (if she’s not turning it homework, it might be that it’s busy work that she doesn’t need to learn the material). She probably needs a break, and better she take it during the second half of senior year than when she gets to college next year.</p>
<p>Unless Kate is an AMAZING student, the competition for the private scholarships that are out there is tremendous and, often, the work required to compose a good application with essays is not trivial. While it seems crazy to pass up the opportunity to apply to these scholarships, when my son was done with the process I felt really bad “encouraging” him to spend as much time as he did with nothing to show for it.</p>
<p>As for senioritis, there are 5 months of school left. As long as she isn’t getting D’s and F’s let it go. Just remind them this is a special occasion and that they will have to kick it back into gear in September.</p>
<p>Unbelievable. It’s almost as if she thought I wouldn’t see this. The other side of the story is that I’m bring constantly hounded about doing these applications. There are 5 or 6 I said I would apply for, but no I have to apply for all 30 on her spreadsheet. Leave me alone. Ill do the ones that I choose at my own pace.</p>
<p>Thank you all for supporting my senioritis! Also, I wasn’t aware that my legal name was Kate, and apparently I grew up without knowing my real mom . And what one of you said about “busy work” is spot on, absolutely spot on. If I know it, why waste my time doing the work. Like I said, there are some local scholarships that I think I have a decent chance of getting and will apply for those, when I want to apply for them.</p>
<p>@blossom Our EFC will be around 6-7k, so no pell. The $2500/year would be from a 529 plan. The actual amount in the 529 is closer to 14,000$ due to a grandparent contribution. So more like 3500 a year.</p>
You should be happy. Personally, I think Kate is the best legal name around :p</p>
<p>Anyway, is the “remaining cost” billable cost or the predicted COA? If it’s not the billable amount, what is that amount? I ask because often the COA is really inflated and she won’t need that much and WS money is usually for day-to-day expenses and books, not for putting towards the bills. </p>
<p>FWIW, private scholarships are very, very hard to come by and they’re not generally going to net much. Most scholarships have had their deadlines pass. </p>
<p>Her grades are fine as long as she’s not getting multiple Cs or a D. </p>
<p>Tell mom to sit her down and go over the numbers. Explain that they will contribute X, and she can take out Y in loans (she can’t take out more than 5500 anyway her freshman year), and the rest would have to come from scholarships or summer employment and let her figure out the rest.</p>
<p>I’m another who had severe senioritis. Kept grades up just enough. Graduated with honors and multiple degrees from UG and am now doing quite well in a top grad program. Lots of students burn out around senior year. I’d say most of the time, they’ve earned the rest and it’s not likely to be detrimental to their long-term success (provided they don’t lose scholarships, etc).</p>
<p>Hahahahaha^ probably a good decision. It will get messy</p>
<p>Basically, amy9998 is worried about being identified IRL (which I find hilarious) so she posted stuff about me as if I was a girl named “Kate” and claims that she is doing it for a friend. Just goes to show you, whenever someone asks “for a friend”, it’s probably for themselves.</p>
<p>There is a big difference between learning and grades - especially in HS.</p>
<p>She can focus on the things that matter (at this point it is probably AP classes), and not worry much about the extra credit assignment or the extra hour of work that make the difference between a 98 and a 95.</p>
<p>Thank you for your help, everyone. The idea is to help fill the gap between the EFC and the cost after merit scholarship. (Gap MIGHT be as low as $3K.) Since many private scholarships are for one year only and it seems that many are for freshmen only, it would be ideal to save the 529 as much as possible for sophomore/junior years…why blow a chunk of it freshman year if you don’t NEED to? My wish is that our seniors will not procrastinate too much, as many of the private scholarship deadlines are in Jan and Feb (I’m mainly talking about local/regional where there is a real shot at them, more than the big super-competitive national ones.) Thanks again for all the information and advice!</p>
. And what one of you said about “busy work” is spot on, absolutely spot on. If I know it, why waste my time doing the work. Like I said, there are some local scholarships that I think I have a decent chance of getting and will apply for those, when I want to apply for them.</p>
:p</p>