<p>Other things being equal (which they never are) and leaving aside the important issues of individual desire and fit, which would be better undergraduate choice (numbers are based on USNWR ratings which are not viewed as definitive but at least give some indication), especially in regard to to future plans for graduate or professional school:</p>
<li> Full-need ride to a top five university.</li>
<li> Full-merit tuition (named scholarship) to a top ten university.<br></li>
<li> Full merit ride (named top scholarship) to a top thirty university.</li>
</ol>
<p>Is there a debt component to any of the three? For example is the full ride to a top five university in the form of grants or loans? Will you parents pay the gap between grants and cost? do you have to work during school on one deal, and not on another? Will you be able to meet the requirement for renewing the merit aid?</p>
<p>This is a tough one. Do you anticipate any changes in your financial status over the next several years which might impact your need-based aid? Is there one school that fits especially well?</p>
<p>What are the criteria to keep the merit awards? Are the merit awards dollar amounts or do they change with tuition and fee changes? Does the school frontload need based aid for freshmen, then drop for susequent years?
I personally like merit awards better. They provide incentive to keep the kid on track. If our financial situation changes for the better, it is our gain. If it changes for the worse, we may get need based aid in addition to the merit award.</p>
<p>Again the choice is between need aid and two different merit scholarships. (See my first note on this thread.) Does anyone know how to get more feedback from this board on this question? I thank all who have already responded and would like for you to chime in again.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Full-need ride to a top five university. Do not anticipate that need will decrease. No requirement to pay any of it back.</p></li>
<li><p>Full-merit tuition (named scholarship) to a top ten university. Tuition is certain whatever the costs for four years. All expenses except tuition will be my loans. Very little in the way of academic requirements to keep the scholarship.</p></li>
<li><p>Full merit ride (named top scholarship) to a top thirty university. All costs for tuition, room, board, books, fees, and even summer grants for the four years. Slightly harder academic requirements to keep this scholarship. Must stay in the top 15 % of class, but that is a good possibility. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good fit at all three. Hope to go to graduate school or Medical School. Science major. Could any of you sort of beat the bushes on the CC boards to get responses. Thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Must stay in the top 15 % of class, but that is a good possibility.
[/quote]
This one would give me pause, even though the student in question is obviously gifted (to judge by the acceptances). He/she will be enrolled with other kids of about the same ability and commitment level, so winding up in the top 15 percent may present a challenge, particularly freshman year, when there is often a period of adjustment that affects GPA.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Hope to go to graduate school or Medical School. Science major.
[/quote]
This could present a challenge at school #3, as well. Introductory courses for science majors are notorious for weeding out premeds at certain schools. My d is at Vanderbilt (humanities major) - she's done a lot of handholding for many friends who were academic stars in high school but find the premed track to be tough slogging.</p>
<p>How will the student pay for medical/grad school? It sounds as if you can afford your EFC at school #1; will that tap you out, or would you have additional funds to help with med school? </p>
<p>If there's little cost difference to you, or if you can afford the difference, I suggest schools 1 or 2. There's not that much difference between a top 5 and top 10 school, is there? They're all amazing places.</p>
<p>I would vote for #1 as first choice (assuming that you like the school) and #3 as second. Are you concerned that receiving need rather than merit aid will be a liability in the future? I wouldn't think that it would have an impact on anything.</p>
<p>Is there any differences in the sciences at any of the 3? Pre-med can be a tough slog at any of these places, as has been alluded to. As I described on the other thread, sometimes a good route can be to take a minimum of science and pursue other interests while propping up that GPA. Then you go to a much less expensive and competitive school to complete pre-med requirements. At that point you can work part-time to help support yourself, but given you family income, to pursue that path, you would want to take the complete free ride (graduate debt-free).
That was a round about way of saying, if you are sure med school is the way to go, then one of the most important considerations is to graduate as close to debt-free as possible, given that you are very low income. It is hard to say much else, not knowing the schools (and I understand why you wouldn't want to list them).
Another thing, please don't be offended, in my day, URMs were highly recruited by med schools, as they are now by colleges, a URM got a little break on GPA and MCAT scores, and access to some scholarship money that Caucasians did not - is that a possibility? Do you have reason to think that you could get some money for med school especially? Are you interested in MD/PhD, because they get some funding for their training?</p>
<p>Several of you are right in assuming that I am very low on funds, and I agree that I should probably drop school number 2 from the list because that is the one alternative that would leave me with debt. All three schools are excellent in Science. Now my decision is coming down to school 1 or school 3. I have always loved science and I want to be as compassionate with others as many have been to me. Therefore, med school always seemed an obvious choice. School 1 is, of course, very nationally known. School 3 is very well known in its region.</p>
<p>I am concerned about getting into and affording Medical School. Everyone has heard of school 1, but I will be just one of many students going there under new financial aid guidelines assuring admission to poor students. At School number 3, I will be an honor scholarship student. Needless to say, I am very grateful to school 3.</p>
<p>For my future plans, is having attended a great school better than having gone through college on a well-known honor scholarship at a very good school? </p>
<p>Whew--I hope some of you are still with me. Writing to you and reading your comments has been a great help to me. I am glad I found this website. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Option 3 scares me, too. You are going to have to be pretty careful with scheduling to protect your GPA. This means possibly avoiding interesting courses that you might get a B in.</p>
<p>Med schools give little (some, but not much) credit for where you went to college, that is why students go the route of studying the humanities they love and doing the med school thing later - I think it will make little difference. You might need a 4.0 from unknown U, a 3.7 from big state U and a 3.5 from Harvard going to big state U.</p>
<p>There is something to be said for being a big fish in the pond. Let us say, just for comparisons sake, you were talking about the Morehead vs Harvard - I'm sure that the Morehead scholars are known to their teachers, they probably get first pick for research opportunities, vs Harvard where everyone is amazing, but perhaps the resources are wider - you just have to compete more for your place.</p>
<p>I hear what Ohio_Mom is saying about protecting your GPA, but as a pre-med you will have to be conscious of your GPA wherever you are, so I think that is not that big a problem.</p>
<p>Personally I would go for #1, all other things being equal, particularly if you anticipate need will remain the same, thus the free ride will continue. To get a free ride at a top 5 university is a wonderful opportunity. If you want the best possible education, why not go for the best college? I doubt when you apply to med school that they will care who paid for your undergrad education, or what kind of scholarship you had. They will just care about that college's reputation and how well you did at it.</p>
<p>And, by the way, I don't think those new guidelines ensure "admission" to that school, just that your financial need will be taken care of. I am sure it is still a big honor just to be admitted.</p>
<p>I guess I am in the opposite camp here. Just because your need will remain the same doesn't mean that the school will not decrease your aid. I have read about too many cases where kids are given generous grants first year and then find the grants decrease and are converted to loans in subsequent years. The great thing about merit aid is that you are pretty much guaranteed that level of money for all 4 years that you are there as long as you meet the criteria. I do agree that the academic requirements do seem a little stiff for #3 however. </p>
<p>You should contact your #1 and find out how your need is likely to be treated in subsequent years.</p>
<p>If merit aid is a percentage of tuition (100%, 75%) then fine. But if merit aid is a fixed amount, it does not increase as tuition increases by several thousand each year!</p>
<p>Regarding school 3: My food and book allowances are set (generously so) and will not be increased for the last three years, but my tuition and dorm will be paid completely for all four years (if I make the grades) and are paid directly and not sent to me at all. I have every reason to think that all three schools are dealing fairly. And I know that I am fortunate; nothing is hard about this except the decision.</p>