Would love some advice. My daughter is a junior and has a good chance of being a national merit semi-finalist. We will be looking for large merit scholarships in the fall. Please comment on our Plan A, which we will execute if she does get NMSF (and) NMF status. We are starting early since she is very busy with a full AP course load, extra-curriculars, and work and it will take her months to evaluate all of the options.
Apply to 3 of the following schools that are good fits: University of Tulsa, OU, U of Kentucky, Ole Miss, OSU, Texas Tech. These will be her safeties.
Apply to as many relatively high ranked (1-100) competitive full-ride schools as she likes so long as she likes the school as much as or better than her safeties. These are largely lottery type scholarships though she will have a very good chance at some as she will have a very strong application (stats and all the rest).
Apply to at most 3 relatively high ranked (1-100) competitive full-tuition schools with a cost of attendance after scholarships within our budget ($15,000-$20,000 per year), and she must like the schools enough that it would be worth giving up the extras we can provide if she goes to one of the safety schools.
What do you think? Assuming she gets NMSF, is this a good strategy? Or is it still risky?
PS: Our plan B, if she doesn’t get NMSF, is to also apply to some lower ranked schools where she has a > say 50% chance at a full-ride or near full-ride and apply to more full-tuition schools.
Pursuing merit awards is a good strategy for everyone. People are aware of NMSF but there are plenty of awards out there. Here is one example from a great college that shows the matrix of GPA/ACT/SAT/Rigor to qualify for certain levels of merit… We found such an explicit matrix helpful…
Are you positive you won’t qualify for any need-based assistance at a top tier school? You might be surprised. I’d run the Net Price Calculator and see what you find.
My D’s strategy was similar. She was a NMF so she had safety schools that were easily affordable. (Caution: make sure your daughter visits these schools. If she doesn’t like them, then they aren’t safeties.) She also applied to the state flagship (although they are stingy with merit, but it was affordable) and then applied to schools where her stats made her a match, but where the big merit was a big reach.
Finally, I would set a budget - it looks like yours is 15-20K per year. Instead of making value judgments (“she has to like it enough to…”) I’d let her choose her school so long as it comes in under budget.
Positive we won’t get any need based aid, unfortunately. The NPCs give us an absurd number that we absolutely cannot afford.
@suzy100 - good point re value judgments. We’ve already talked finances so she already understands our position re the trade-offs and seems to be on board with going for big money over “dream.” But of course, she’s a teen, so fickle and may change her mind. We’ll see.
In general terms, you want to ID colleges that give good merit awards, and where your Daughter would be at least in the top 25% of the applicant pool, preferably top 10%.
Next, I would recommend some college visits, to see if your D has a strong preference for big, medium or small, and location preferences geographically, and urban/suburban/rural. There is simply a huge difference in the college experience between a small LAC and a big state U. Rare for a student to like both equally.
Getting down to $15 to 20K per year may be a tough threshold. $25K is much more doable. However, there are schools like U of Alabama, where she would get full-ride.
If you search CC, you will find a TON of threads on Merit Scholarships.
Finally, I know what you are talking about on the FA calculators. They assume you can use half your take-home on college tuition, which is ridiculous.