DD received $13k in merit. We are OOS and she’s planning on med school, so looks like Clemson is off the list.
@ArbonneMom I think you can still submit a FAFSA but it will just give you a loan. You won’t qualify for anything and it wouldn’t have impacted his merit award. You can call the financial aid office to clarify any other questions or get confirmation.
OOS, $12,000 merit, honors, but sadly it’s most likely a no. Love Clemson, but DS has multiple options with higher rank, more generous merit $, and significantly lower net cost.
@ArbonneMom NPC = Net Price Calculator. I think someone posted a link to it on this board. The scholarship and maybe a Federal loan is all you would get.
Is the net price calculator proving accurate about merit aid?
Could you post stats on awards?
I think you’ve likely gotten all you’re going to get. They might offer you the $5500/year in unsub loans, but that’s about it.
You need to log into iROAR. Instructions were sent out in email a short bit ago.
I will say that the $12k my son got from Clemson, it puts them just a few thousand under VT/OOS without getting anything. For CS/Engineering, I think I’d prefer to spend the extra money on VT. We’ll see what happens with VT this week. Fingers crossed. We’re still headed down for Tiger Days, so maybe they blow my son away.
Less than 1/2 of what our daughter received at other schools.
$7500 in Merit Award ( South Carolina)
Plus Palmetto Fellows $6700
She received $35K from Bama OOS
$30K from Florida State OOS
$25K from Chapel Hill OOS
and over $40K each from 5 different privates schools.
Very disappointed.
@HokieCrazy I agree with your assessment of VT vs Clemson. The VT NPC suggests that he may get as much as $6k in gift money. If that is accurate, that would bring VT to a few thousand less.
I emailed the Financial Aid office this morning and they responded in line with what @“Their Momma” said. I also asked about Palmetto Pact and Presidential Scholarship. They said once Palmetto Fellows is applied any other relevant scholarships will be applied to the account. Does anyone have any idea what previous years award amounts were for Pact and Presidential?
I agree with what everyone else is saying. The merit from Clemson is extremely disappointing. It is every evident to me that Clemson has decided they have enough very qualified in and out of state students. When you look Side by Side at other schools- it appears to me that Clemson’s ego is getting a little large. They are not top 50 in any academic program. 55th for engineering is the only real major that shines. They are charging more out of state than some of the Ivy’s and National Top 50 schools without the academic qualifications to back it up. What drew us to Clemson was the happiest student ranking, and we loved the energy throughout the campus and during the admission session. However, we don’t love it enough to pay $46K. Let’s look at a few facts.
- they increased their tuition by $2,500,
2)lowered their merit significantly over prior years, - U.S News ranking dropped from 66 to 70,
- US News best value dropped from 109 to 142,
5)Offer 60 majors versus many schools in the South that have over 80. - No Greek Houses, only Greek dorms
- A good football program does not get you a job afterwards, and especially if you are more in debt coming out of Ranked top 70 versus Top 50
Not seeing any reason why we would choose Clemson at this point. It is really too bad that they cut their merit so much, Other higher ranked schools are offering so much more, it does not make sense to go to a lower ranked school, pay more, and come out more in debt. The campus experience only goes so far in my pocketbook!
I totally agree that their OOS yields will likely drop this year. If that is what they were hoping for, they will have accomplished their goal!
@NQCowboy, my son’s offer is showing Palmetto pact and presidential.
I want my child to be happy at college, so that is a huge draw. However, if he has to move back in with me in 4 years, then he won’t be happy anymore. I’d prefer a place where he’s happy AND can get placed into a job that he loves. When we visit in a couple of weeks, my focus will be on job resources in their CS department. VT’s is excellent…and most students are pretty happy at VT, too.
Clemson is going to lose a lot of good candidates to competitors. I agree that rankings do not justify the little/no merit for many of our OOS students with solid stats.
We loved the school - before the football team was winning big - but cannot justify the cost difference between Clemson and other similar, or better ranked, schools coming in at lower OOS costs.
I understand why people are disappointed with merit. But the stats don’t matter. It is what Clemson can afford. Clemson took a significant budget cut. The state legislature is pressuring Clemson to reduce OOS students because they claim good instate students are not being admitted. Clemson also cut in state merit. Clemson’s endowment is much lower than most bigger state universities. The end result is what you see this year.
@86grad But then why can USC offer much higher merit?
I don’t know that much about USC. I see that tuition is a couple of grand cheaper and I know they have about 11k more students than Clemson. Clemson has over 3k Palmetto Fellows while USC has around 2k.
So, and this is strictly a guess, Clemson is getting the quality student they desire without spending a great deal on merit. USC is seeking to increase the quality of student so they are offering more to attract better students.
If Clemson’s student quality drops aid will probably increase at the cost of something else. If USC gets their ranking up higher, they may reduce aid.
But, like said, just a guess on my part as to the difference between the two schools.