<p>I am new to CC but have been reading like crazy over the last few days and I don't think my specific question has a thread, and if it does, I would appreciate directions on finding it. </p>
<p>Much is discussed about the package, % of need that a college meets, etc. What about families that do not qualify for any need based assistance. And I'm not talking high income here - a little above middle with an expected EFC of 99%. And with a jr and soph in HS the last thing I want to do is pay outright for 4 yrs coll. each.</p>
<p>How do schools look at these students in that their need is low or non-existent? I realize grades, etc. matter and we are looking very good in that department, but academics seem to have much less to do with FA than need. Does a bright student need to apply to a so so school in the hopes of getting merit money? </p>
<p>Thank you all. Hope I'm don't sound totally ignorant, just naive??</p>
<p>Thanks emerald. I guess I was hoping to hear from other parents with experience in the situation we are in and see how they dealt with it. I've been browing the FA threads and will continue to look.</p>
<p>We are in the same boat with a high school senior and junior. My son applied to several schools that provide merit aid. Unfortunately, merit aid is not as easy to get as you hope. At his top choice safety school, where his stats are far in excess of the requirements for a merit award, he got the minimum award (25% of tuition). He is an excellent student, great EC's (Eagle Scout, sports, music) and has gotten less than we had hoped for. Our state school is less than generous and he wanted to stay in New England, which makes it even harder. Outside scholarships (Coca-Cola, Target, etc) are next-to-impossible to get. He has applied to several and gotten nothing. Many of the local scholarships are need-based so another deadend there. My one recommendation is apply to more safety schools that have merit aid. He applied to four and we are now seeing that he should have applied to a few more. Good luck.</p>
<p>We knew that we would not qualify for any need based aid because we have a pretty good income AND we are savers ( drive 10+ year old cars, like the simple things in life LOL ) Fortunately my D , though she had pretty good stats, did not want a highly competitive university. She knew she would want to do a lot more than study in college. She applied to some schools that give merit aid and actually received scholarships from $3750/yr to $11,000/yr based on her application alone. It is posssible to get a break if you look around. The sad thing is our own state U offered nothing and is the MOST expensive State U in the country. ( I think I read that somewhere....) Follow the top 25% rule and you will likely get something.</p>
<p>Palermo,
Thanks for the info. We are really in the same boat, my daughter wants to stay in New England as well. She has always had her heart set on Tufts and I'm pretty sure academically she has a chance, but there will be no merit aid there! I guess we'll work on determining our safety schools with merit. It just really seem a shame that motivated students with excellent credentials (Eagle Scout!) has settle for a potentially less than challenging school, or put themselves in incredible debt. Good luck to you as ell.</p>
<p>PAMom, let me make sure I understand the 25% rule - does this mean their academic credentials (GPA, SAT's & rank) must be in the top 25% of students applying to a particular school. And is this public information somewhere?</p>
<p>there are really lots of choices for schools
Several threads on schools with full rides- schools with honors colleges
Many schools do meet 100% of need.
You might want to use the FA calculator on the above website or CC to estimate what your EFC will be so you know what to be savingup for.</p>
<p>My understanding is that if you look at the range of SAT scores you should see 25-75%, so if you are above that you would be in the top 25%. The nice thing is that a lot of the state schools that offer merit aid also offer Honor's Programs for those students that qualify. There are some great programs to be found...check the threads on honors colleges on CC and you will get some ideas. I was surprised by one of my D's offers because there was no indication that she would qualify for merit aid on any of the school's website/brochures. It was a nice surprise!</p>
<p>One of the first things we did was to determine how much we could pay out of pocket. The next thing we did was to determine how much of our savings we were willing to spend on college education. We made the decision up front that we did not want anybody in debt at the end of the four years. </p>
<p>After we figured all that out, we knew what kind of merit aid our daughter needed to get. I read CC voraciously for several years and by reading all discussions about any college, I began to figure what colleges had good merit aid and what was needed to obtain the merit aid. I also talked to everybody I could that had a child ahead of mine.</p>
<p>I can not stress how important CC was in my research. We are lucky to be in Georgia where our public colleges are tuition free. UGA Honors became the obvious safety. All the private schools she applied to came through with scholarships. We have been lucky - in this competitive year, she received the scholarships we thought she would - or better.</p>
<p>We are waiting on three regular decision colleges - two private and one public. I know the public will not offer merit and we do not expect any from the privates. The privates take us to the edge of what we can afford. </p>
<p>I have a spread sheet so I can show her how the final college costs will affect her lifestyle at college. She's been fortunate that of her early acceptances she has one private that would cost us only 5-8 thousand per year and two relatively inexpensive publics and for the public we're waiting on the cost will be alright.</p>
<p>What has surprised me is that she seems to be working out the cost thing for herself. We shall see come April 1st.</p>
<p>
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It just really seem a shame that motivated students with excellent credentials (Eagle Scout!) has settle for a potentially less than challenging school, or put themselves in incredible debt.
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</p>
<p>There are a couple of other options. ROTC scholarships pay tuition & fees + some for books + a monthly stipend. They have different levels of scholarships you can receive, starting with 15K/year up to unlimited (it doesn't cover room & board, though some schools kick in something to room & board for ROTC cadets). There is a 4 year military obligation (as an officer) upon graduation. While you are serving that 4 years, you will also have a decent income, medical benefits, etc.</p>
<p>Another option is "Teach for America". I don't know the stats on that one, but I believe you owe 4 years of teaching in an underprivileged area after graduation.</p>
<p>Both of these options are often overlooked as a way to finance these expensive educations.</p>
<p>I have spent the past few days doing a lot of financial analysis since we need to make final decisions within the next 6 weeks for our son. Our state school comes in around $55,000 for four years - but it is too big and I think a poor match for my son. The lower tier schools where he did receive some merit aid and is accepted into Honors Programs range from $100,000 to $125,000. The top tier LAC/ Ivy levels are close to $200,000. Since there is no merit aid at those schools and we know we will not qualify for need-base aid, if he gets in, they are out of the question. We will not go into debt for undergraduate school. It is too early to tell, but some of the lower tier schools seem to provide great opportunities for their top students. The one school he is interested in seems to have some great undergraduate research opportunities. He has not as yet sat in on classes and that is one thing I want him to do before he makes his decision. If you look at the schools' web sites, you can often see stories about the work the students are doing. My son is also emailing students at some of the schools he is considering. That has been very telling as well. Yes, it is disappointing - I would love for him to attend a top-notch school, but the reality is that it won't happen. With two kids in school at the same time, we are talking about close to half million dollars. We did save while they were young and we are fortunate that we do have some resources. It would have been nice if the scholarships were a little more generous because that would help us fund our retirement, but at least we can do something for them. Good luck to you as you begin your search.</p>
<p>Does a bright student need to apply to a so so school in the hopes of getting merit money? </p>
<p>In the upper income tier, 100k or more, unfortunately from what I'm learning the answer seems to be "Yes". For exceedingly bright kids, not always. But remember kids with 1400+ math/verbal are a rare breed. </p>
<p>So if your child has decent scores, good EC's and recommendations, you should try to find a hook of some kind. By that I mean something a particular school is looking for. Maybe he/she wants to major in humanities vs. engineering. Apply to the engineering school looking for humanities students. Apply to schools where an imbalance exists ie. male/female and your son or daughter's admittance may decrease the imbalance. Sometimes this works I hear.</p>
<p>My son has those stats + summer job since 15 + Eagle Scout with a great deal of leadership in his troop (not one of the kids who gets Eagle and runs), varsity athlete, musician (plays two instruments) and has found merit aid tough to come by. The one safety he is very interested in gave him 25% tuition. We fully expected he would get more aid at that school. His GPA and SAT scores were considerably higher than the 75% and since he got into honors, we know he is in the top 5% of the applicants. If he were willing to leave New England perhaps there would be better opportunities, but the top LAC's in this area give need-based only and the competition at lower ranked colleges that have merit aid seems to be fierce this year. Holy Cross had a 41% increase in applications this year. I would not be surprised to see that a lot of the second and third tier schools had similar results. We are also finding outside scholarship money hard to come by. He has applied for many and none have come through. The local scholarships are either need-based or given to children of parents who belong to the organization. So, a lot of dead-ends and I don't expect things will change in the next few weeks.</p>
<p>There was a thread several weeks ago by a mom whose kids found full-ride scholarships at lower-tier schools even though they didn't have high stats. See if you can find that -there was lots of good info.<br>
RATEPG - you may find that you do qualify for financial aid when you have two kids in college at the same time. Use the calculators to find out.</p>
<p>RatedPG, the answer to your question is Yes, but a bright kid can get a great education at a number of schools.
In order to get merit money, the student has to offer something the school wants - grades/test scores, geographic diversity, URM, unusual talent in music or athletics. Perhaps the easiest thing for your child to do is expand his/her geographic net. The NE/MidAtlantic area is the hardest of all for merit aid. The great state unis are a Midwestern and Southern phenomenon, and the NE particularly is playing catch-up. Following the lead of the Ivies, or perhaps in line with the thinking in the NE, most of the aid is need-based.
Playing the merit aid game well means lots of applications, and/or lots of research and lots of numbers crunching. The best way, I think to do it, is to get your child to buy into the idea of making money by pursuing merit aid. If she starts out will a real love for a school like Tufts, and can't get out of that thinking, there will some disappointment because the merit aid won't be forthcoming.</p>
<p>Try to get her to look at schools like Wake Forest, Emory, Tulane - she will sacrifice nothing in academics, and, depending on stats may gain a lot in money. Emory, particularly, is a good match for Tufts, although it will be the least likely to give her merit aid - they have it, but it is highly selective.</p>
<p>Palermo,
What is your son interested in as a major? And is the "tier" ranking something officially posted somewhere or just a generalization in this forum?</p>
<p>There are some great threads about how to approach the money thing - search for them. With 2 kids hard on her heels, you may try running numbers for first year, second, third, etc. Try predicting what their college choices will be. It is possible that if you can pay full freight one year at Tufts, then your overall burden with 3 in college will not be much different in that first year?</p>
<p>Try to come up with a figure that you can spend on her first year of college, tell her that this is what she can expect, get her engaged in the process of how to spend that money wisely. That will force her to start prioritizing, and come up with the necessary compromises. Engaging her will make for a happier outcome.</p>
<p>Sometimes you get a surprise--my son got another $3000 from UIUC after the initial finaid letters went out. This was two years ago and memory fades but I'm pretty sure this was even after the May 1 deadline because he had already told them he was going there. We surmised the money became available when someone else turned down their offer. Of course, this wouldn't help you make a decision in April. </p>
<p>I wouldn't be so dismissive of "so-so" schools. Many kids I know just couldn't swing the tuition at the expensive privates and are discovering opportunities and happiness in honors programs at Flagship U. You just have to find the ones that are excellent in your chosen field.</p>
<p>And there is a thread on lesser-known good schools that give merit aid, but I forget what it's called. The one I know for sure is fairly generous is Case Western.</p>