<p>Ditto on the 3.6 to retain the scholarship. That is very high!!! We balked at a 3.4 from OSU for one of their scholarships. The lower the required GPA the better!</p>
<p>JVT, Good story. My son will hear from Stanford today and he is reconciled to the fact that he probably won’t get in, but I told him he definitely wouldn’t have gotten in if he hadn’t applied. Didn’t want him saying “what if” years from now 
Oh, good to hear that your daughter seems to be having quite an adventure.</p>
<p>Captain, I’m tracking with you regarding your comments about being “happy”. That being said, since we haven’t visited #2, he really has no concept of the potential experience being out of state. Nice to hear that it worked out for your son to take the money.</p>
<p>UCB, I’m with you there! Thanks for pointing that out again as it will be an issue that is explored extensively with admissions.</p>
<p>kat, he does have AP’s and has gotten fives on four different tests including bio, chem, and calc. These don’t get him out of much at #1 and will be asking #2 how they transfer. Appreciate the suggestion regarding the elasticity of the 3.6 GPA and the $10K at #1. Will be approaching each school with those questions next week. Kudos to you and the success your kids are enjoying. My first two knew where they wanted to go and did; this one had more options but our finances after the downturn aren’t as healthy which is why my moniker is ExhaustedDad :)</p>
<p>20K is a car. It seems pretty doable to me. I’d be very leary of a scholarship that requires a 3.6 GPA. For example, my kid (a junior at a reach college) is doing just fine in the courses in his major, but has done much less fine (C’s and B’s) in Arabic which his major requires he take every single term. It’s really dragging down his GPA. If your son were at my son’s school he’d have to drop any courses he was doing less well in just to protect the GPA - that means never taking a risk, learning something completely outside your comfort zone etc. I don’t like it.</p>
<p>My son is getting straight A’s (even in Arabic) on his junior year abroad. None of those courses will count in his home college GPA.</p>
<p>I too would be very wary of a 3.6. Our S graduated just north of 3.5. He needed 3.0’to keep his merit awards. Having a lower GPA requirement allows students to take some risks and try subjects they might not otherwise. Agree you should see if there is any leeway for increasing the merit award of close U or decreasing GPA at B. good luck.</p>
<p>That 3.6 requirement would make me extremely nervous. Your son is a terrific student in high school, but freshmen sometimes have difficulty adjusting to college. My son had a 3.84 in high school and only needed a 3.0 to keep his scholarship. He ended freshman year with a rousing 1.46. Bye-bye scholarship. :(</p>
<p>$20,000 or less in debt seems doable to me as well. Our kids have been full pay at their state schools but we have had them take some unsbsidized Staffords(under 20,000) to pay off after college. They were not expected to pay anything during college,despite having good jobs every summer-just needed to contribute to their education by paying some after graduation. Older son had his loans paid off within a year of graduation. He could have gotten full merit at a place like Alabama with his stats but we let him choose his state flagship even though we were full pay and he was expected to take on some amount of debt. No regrets and glad he had a choice to go to the school he wanted . Good luck with the decision.</p>
<p>I’m with you all on the 3.6 GPA, particularly for the discipline he will be studying. That being said, my son is a very driven and competitive kid when it comes to academics and his time management skills are extraordinary for a 17 year old (fyi, he has lots of other interests and is not solely a scholar).</p>
<p>A 3.6 threshold may seem likely from the perspective of a high school student who is used to getting all or mostly As, but college grading is a different ballgame. I also would be very leery of making college funding contingent upon achieving (and keeping) a 3.6 in any discipline, frankly. As someone upthread said, one unreasonable professor or one semester’s battle with the flu could result in loss of the scholarship. IMO it’s too big a risk to count on.</p>
<p>I’ll say it again, it has very little to do with time management etc. I’m sure your kid is a star but things happen. Factors outside of his control can cause GPA to dip below that very high threshold.</p>
<p>What is his likely salary when he graduates? Is he planning grad school in a field where it is standard for students to have assistantships that cover all costs?</p>
<p>If the one school really does offer better opportunities in his field, and puts him geographically near where he wants to work, the debt may be worth it. Especially, as Romani says, since he doesn’t really have to take it all as loans since he can earn money to offset that over the summers (and during the year) and as Kat says, there are ways to pay less than the full COA. </p>
<p>full disclosure: my S will be taking up to $30K in loans (total) for a school he felt (and we agreed) would offer him the best opportunities, even though he had several fine options that he could have attended debt-free. </p>
<p>A 3.6 is an awful lot of pressure to be under. Ask what percentage of kids with that scholarship keep it for the whole 4 years, and ask if there is any probationary period if they temporarily dip below the required mark.</p>
<p>Mathmom, I certainly don’t want that pressure on him either. Will get full disclosure regarding probation and other issues related to the 3.6.</p>
<p>Roman, you’ve posted that you currently have a 3.8 at your university. What did you expect going in? (guessing you were a 4.0 + heading off to college)</p>
<p>No. My high school GPA was lower than my college GPA actually. I had no expectations. I was the first in my family to go to college but I had 4.0ed every dual enrollment course I had taken, including ones at a top public. However, most of my courses are essay based and writing papers has always come very naturally to me. I would not have done as well in a major like engineering. My major and GPA will not be comparable to your son’s.</p>
<p>One of the Us S considered had a 3.5 GPA requirement to keep full ride. We called the school and discussed it. They admitted that many of their students (most?) had lost their scholarships for falling below the 3.5. They do keep track of how many of their students lose scholarships due to grades. If your GPA was below the cutoff, you had to appeal and hope they would take pity on you. That’s extra stress. </p>
<p>You can ask school B how many of their students keep their scholarships all 4 years and how many lose them for grades. Our S is a brilliant kid, but stuff happens–illness, a few bad profs/TAs, stretching by doing research with prof while going to class, problems with rooies/GF/BF, getting really sick or accident requiring surgery. These things can all happen and lower GPAs, especially when the student is handling things on his/her own. </p>
<p>Also, some Us have a grace period so you can still receive the scholarship if you fall below a term. I’d check into that as well. A 3.6 in a competitive major is very tough. Our S would not have kept his scholarship all 4 years, and he was considered a strong EE student.</p>
<p>The other thing about the GPA requirement is that it could limit his academic choices. My S, for example, has taken more credits than required each semester so he can take the classes he wants to take in addition to the ones he needs to take. (He doesn’t have to pay extra for taking extra credits, so it’s great for him to be able to take advantage of the free opportunity to take additional classes of interest.) You don’t want your S to feel that he can’t take a class he’s interested in because the prof is known as a tough grader, nor do you want him to feel that he shouldn’t “take a chance” on a class outside of his areas of strength because he might not get an A. He was in the top 2% of his class in HS, and is doing great by all accounts in college, but his GPA was just under 3.5 last semester.</p>
<p>Himom, thanks for the info. Again, going to be asking those very questions. Frankly, as noted above, if “most” of the kids at that public university you site did lose their scholarships, that is, in my mind, unconscionable (particularly for a Public school); “bait and switch” is the only thing I can think of to call it…</p>
<p>20K he has to come up with over 4 years? That’s nothing. Tell him to work, put at least some of it towards paying this tuition, and when he graduates it’ll be just a few grand. That amount of debt isn’t a problem. </p>
<p>Give him the information, show him what it’ll cost him and how much he has to work to come up with the difference. Present him with all the facts but after that leave it up to him. Neither school is going to be a horrible choice that you have to stop him from making.</p>
<p>Yes, remember college has quite a few NMFs around. Our S hovered above and below 3.5 throughout college and graduated just north of it so he could be an honor grad. Some profs grade on a curve and only award a limited set number of As, even if the entire class is brilliant. </p>
<p>One other thing to consider is how GPA is calculated. At some schools, an A- is only 3.7 not 4.0. If your kiddo gets several A-s and a B, they can fall below a 3.6. You can get that info from the U.</p>
<p>See how the visit goes. Knowing the names of the two schools (from your posting history), these are two very different cities. You might want to spend some time researching any restaurants or other attractions that will show off the city of school #2 to its best advantage. :)</p>
<p>I agree with others that 3.6 is a tough standard, and that $20k in debt is reasonable even if not preferred. Another point to consider is that you mention that though school #2’s reputation is overall not as strong as that of school #1, the departmental reputation is similar for both schools. But what if your son changes majors? Some kids stick with their game plan. Others–a LOT of others–change to something entirely different. Being at the overall stronger school could be a better game plan in that case.</p>
<p>You’re concerned about the possibility of your S needing more than 4 years at school #1. If he’s coming in with AP credit that possibility is less likely. Encourage your son to talk to the department at school #1 to find out what percentage of students in that major don’t finish in four years, and why they don’t. From what I’ve heard from friends who are professors at school #1, the students they know who don’t finish in four years are often taking off time from school in order to work full-time to find money to stay in school.</p>
<p>Vladenschlutte said: “Give him the information,show him what it’ll cost him and how much he has to work to come up with the difference.Present him with all the facts but after that leave it up to him.”</p>
<p>Agree. Good advice.</p>
<p>Slithey, I didn’t want names of colleges nor choice of major to sway anyone’s opinion as I’m sure there are others in the same boat, with different majors with different schools. Thanks for the advice though Wow, now I’m getting more exhausted!</p>