Competing On Campus for Scholarships

Parents Forum
1

<p>Try to figure out if it pays in this instance:</p>

<p>The school has an "early estimator" of aid based on income combined with stats. This is distributed through the FA department, but stats do play a role in the amount offered. The approximate grant that is estimated makes this school at least as affordable to our EXPENSIVE instate public Us. Additionally, my son could end up with a little bit more grant money than estimated because it does not account for:strong ECs, son is geographically someone the school is seeking, my son has a higher ACT score than what I was able to check off on the "estimator" (he fell in the middle of two of the ranges that could be checked off, so I chose to check off the lower range).</p>

<p>My son is not going to get a full ride by competing at this school, and would land a smaller award. Perhaps if invited to compete after filling out an application to do so, he would land a 4500/year award. I imagine that this would only lesson the FA package, so is there a point to participating? It would involve a plane ride for him to compete and he'd need to be taken out of school for 1-2 days. Anyone have any experience with these things? Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>When my son competed at two different schools for merit awards, the schools provided the transportation (airfare) and accommodations (hotel for one, dorm for the other). He also took off 1-2 days of school to do this. Because I went with him, I had to absorb the cost of my airfare and my hotel room, but I had independent reasons to go. I think that he enjoyed his “competitions” (which really were interviews) and it gave him an additional opportunity to view the colleges and meet both current students and students that might be in his class. These competitions (at least in his case) were to sell the competing students (and any available parents) on the benefits of the universities.</p>