So i just had the money talk with my parents. Together, they make nearly 300k and they told me that they will only pay the instate tuition rate at whatever college I go to. That means that no matter where I get in, they will only pay if the total cost of attendance is equal to or less than 20k a year. I understand that some people cannot even afford this much, so I’m not complaining too much. This means, however, that if I am to escape Texas (my goal for basically my whole life time, PS introverted atheist democrats don’t fit in too well in the deep south lol) I will need significant merit aid, since we don’t qualify for need based aid. I’ve devised a long list of merit schools, my favorites of which are Richmond, Rochester, Washington, Vanderbilt, UVA, UMich, and USC. What is the profile of a student who would be awarded big merit aid from these schools? I get the exceptional grades and test scores part, but just how exceptional do they have to be? ECs? I have never gotten a B in a class before, but haven’t taken the SAT yet (before yall go bonkers just note that I’m and underclassmen, and I want to be prepared so I have more options than an instate school (60% of the kids at my school go to community college, and I don’t want that).
Im the starting goalkeeper for at a very high level of soccer with my State Olympic Development team, a US soccer academy team (Vice Captain), and another competitive team (captain). That is three teams, yes. Lot of time goes into soccer for me. I also write short stories, and have won some pretty decent awards with some online publications. I’m also a leader in my BioTech club at school. Volunteer a lot at a local hospital. Been to some residential medical summer thingies at Georgetown. I have also published a number of scientific reports in an online high school science journal.
How am I looking for a merit scholarship? Remember I have a number of years to improve my outlook
you need to talk with your parents more
From what I have seen, if you have the profile of an Ivy league student then you can get merit aid at big schools like USC because they try to poach Ivy students. Also being a URM helps your chance of getting substantial aid as well.
but seriously, you need to have some more conversations with your parents. With the Stafford loans you will get like 5k+ each year so you can take roughly 20k worth of debt onto yourself if need be.
For UVa, their best merit scholarship is the Jefferson Scholars Program which is a stipend program that covers the full cost of attendance. You can get it from out of state but you have to be nominated by your high school and go through the process that way. I would definitely review that program to see if you might be eligible and see if your high school can recommend you for it.
Are they offering to pay $20,000 towards whatever school you want to go to, or are they saying that the cost of attendance has to be $20,000 or less? That is, if you get into a school that costs, say, $40,000 a year will they pay $0 or will they still chip in the $20,000 and expect you to come up with the rest on your own? If it’s the latter, then you’re actually in good shape since with some merit, a job, and maybe small federal direct loans you could probably afford a lot of different schools outside of Texas.
As far as ‘how exceptional’, what I would recommend doing is downloading the Common Data Set for the schools that you want and compare your grades and scores to the averages for those schools. If you’re at or below the average than getting merit aid is hard; if you’re way above, then getting merit aid is more likely (assuming that the school gives merit aid to anyone). To my knowledge ECs are not commonly as important as SAT scores and grades but I could be wrong about that.
EDIT: One thing that I would also recommend is to take the PSAT. There are a lot of schools that will give full tuition scholarships to people who are National Merit winners; there’s a list of them floating around somewhere on this site but I can’t remember where to find it. With tuition taken care of and if your parents are willing to give you $20,000 a year then that should be good enough for room and board out of state.
Luckily, it is the latter. I am planning on attending medical school afterwards, so it would be best to have little to no debt after undergrad for me. Would you happen to know the typical grades and test scores of Jefferson Scholars?
If you want to goto medical school then maybe your parents are right about not paying that much for tuition. IMO for medical school you should goto a relatively good, non-competitive school know for grade inflation. Community College wouldn’t be a bad option either assuming it’s got the pre-med courses.
I know Richmond makes it pretty darn affordable for everyone. My parents are also in that same boat where they pull in a little less than 200k a year i think but might not pay the price for me to go to a great school. It’s frustrating when you’re financial NEED is met yet your parents wont dish out the $$$. Keep talking to them. They might change their mind. Also, buy a book and start working on the SAT if you’re a sophmore. It’s best to get standardized testing out of the way before Senior year IMO. Also look into the ACT as well. Note that the ACT is more time-sensitive and has a science section, which can be good or bad for you.
First off…Texas is NOT the “Deep South”.
Secondly…there are liberal areas in Texas. Austin and some/much of Houston are two such places, there are probably others.
Thirdly, you’re a frosh and you’re giving misinformation in various threads. You say that you’re guaranteed in at UT. You don’t know that.
Lastly, if you end up with top grades and top test scores, then you’ll get enough merit that your parents’ $20k can pay the difference.
Are you a URM?
Also, UT-Austin COA is more like $25-27K/year. Are parents willing to pay that?
And yes, TX is a big state with pockets that are not conservative (Houston has a gay mayor, for instance). Plenty of atheist Democrats in Austin (some of them are even introverted).
Also, if you’re looking at Rochester, you should look at Case Western as well.
Emory also has some big scholarships, but those (like the ones at Vandy, WashU, UMich, UVa, and USC) aren’t easy to get. JHU (and Caltech) also have a handful of big ones that are even more scarce.
Rice gives some folks merit money.
Are Puerto Ricans part of an URM?
Yes. Are you checking Hispanic on any forms you are asked to self identify on?
URM means underrepresented minority. Students from certain racial/ethnic backgrounds go to college at lower rates than they represent in the general population and colleges take into consideration that those communities are better served when members of those groups are accepted to college and they try to get those groups represented in the student population for diversity of experience and background in the school. So it can be a tip factor or even a hook, depending on the college and their needs to form their class.
One thing that I would also recommend is to take the PSAT. There are a lot of schools that will give full tuition scholarships to people who are National Merit winners;
Most of those schools ARE in the South, however. OP, University of Minnesota - TC has relatively cheap OOS tuition (at least they do now, you should keep an eye on their costs over the next couple of years).
Look at Pitt. Their merit for OOS students is exceptionally good (academically based), if you get on their mailing lists they also have an expedited (3 week) admissions process (you can hear in Sept), a good honors college, and there is a direct admit program for the medical school. Sciences are strong - medical school there is excellent. While it is not as selective as some of the private schools on the list - if your focus is medical school, then it is an excellent choice and you will have access to research, etc.
Another school with good merit is Case Western - and again, there is a direct admit program for medical school and it is affiliated with an excellent med school as well. Tulane, George Washington also known for good merit aid.
While Emory, Vandy, WashU etc have merit - the scholarships are so competitive it will be important to have options for scholarships that are more accessible, and for that you will need to look at schools that are a bit less selective - yet all of the schools mentioned are excellent and have good medical schools affiliated.
I believe the OP is a high school freshman. Lots of time to reflect on what his parents have said. Lots of time to get excellent grades and prep and do well on the PSAT/SAT/ACT. Lots of time to realize that life will go on just fine if he is fortunate enough to gain acceptance at a first class research university like UT-Austin…where there are thousands of more liberal kids as well.
So OP…take a deep breath. Consider yourself very fortunate that your parents will pay for you to attend a Texas public university, paying the full bill.
You have no idea what a generous thing this is.
And please do remember this: You are truly fortunate to have parents who have let you know this early on what their limits are. You have time to find affordable options.
By the time you get to college, the costs will like,y be $30,000 a year. Your parents are willing to GIVE that to you. That is a very nice gift.
Try to look at the cup as being half full…instead of half empty.
You are very fortunate.
UMinny can cost in-state tuition for OOS several ways. Through the PSAT or by having a high enough class ranking. There was a TX kid on CC a few years ago who was hoping to get that discount to in-state tuition even though he had the guaranteed admit to UT-Austin because he wanted to leave TX (he got it).
BTW, the 2 AZ flagships would be tuition-free (if they don’t change policies) with a high enough PSAT score.
Finally, many of the tech institutes like WPI/RPI/Stevens/NYU-Poly/RIT/IIT give merit money. May help to be a girl, though WPI offers many ways to knock at least $20K off and RIT gives merit money to many people.
Chance at a soccer scholarship? Only problem with that is that both being an NCAA athlete and being pre-med takes a ton of time.
Well… it probably depends on who you ask. From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
"Definition of DEEP SOUTH
region SE United States —usually considered to include Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and all or part of the adjacent states of Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, & Texas"
Seriously, a freshman? This is just too much detail for where the kid is in life, studies, careers etc. Just live your life kid and think about this your Jr year when you may be interested in entirely different things.
I don’t think U of Minn grants in-state tuition to students with strong test scores or class ranking – do you have a link? There are schools that do (I seem to remember Alabama as one), but haven’t ever heard this is the case in MN. They do have reciprocity with some surrounding states, but Texas is not one of them.
@intparent:
http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/costsaid/schol_campus.html
Look at the “Gold Scholar” and “Gold National” scholarships.
Possible that they are not automatic (though for “Gold National”, I think you just need to hit a certain class rank), but worth inquiring about. Probably close to automatic.