Hope they are in-state if they picked CalPoly. Most in-state people would get some financial aid there once they have 3 kids in college.
Many schools do not offer money to NMF while they offer very competitive merit scholarships. It is a kind of like playing matching games. You choose what is more important to you. Many students have to choose a CC simply because they cannot afford otherwise disregarding their academic performance. We should feel good about their academic achievement. It is not like OP’s kid got nothing at all. I am sure the school she ends up going does offer merit aid to some students. It is just too competitive. In other words, hard work does pay off, but just not to everybody.
One of OP’s earlier posts said his d’s preferred choice where accepted was Co. School of Mines. Mines is a public state school and is stingy with OOS applicants, just like CU Boulder. From my s’s Colorado HS, #1 in the class who is a NMSF and #2 in the class are going to Mines on substantial scholarships (1 was awarded a full ride, the 2nd a 1/2 ride- not sure who got what). But they also were on my s’s engineering team that won a national competition. The word we heard was the competition win helped them clinch their scholarships which were highly competitive. I do not believe either student is a URM. One of last year’s NMSF from the same school received a full ride to the U of Oklahoma. Also not a URM. So if this is about Mines…
Just for clarity TAMU and Texas A & M University are the same thing.
@DrGoogle, NMF scholarships really depend on the school.
@dobbythehouseelf <<<
I would love some inputs - my daughter has a great $$$$ option at one school but prefers one that is equally good but will force her (and us) into student/parent loans.
She accepted at Texas A&M (good $$$$), Colorado School of Mines (her preference), Cal Poly SLO (same cost as Co)
She plans to study Chem Engr or Bio/med Engr
She was wait listed at her faves: Rice, Vandy – giving up on those.
Any inputs/opinions would be appreciated (my first post and first kid of 4 going of to college this fall 2015)
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Sounds like you had an inadequate app list. As an NMF, she could have had several large offers.
So…what happened to Texas A&M where she got $$$$?
If money was a significant concern, why didn’t she apply to Alabama where she would,have gotten merit money? Why didn’t she apply to any schools that give a nod to NMF?
If you want your twins to have a different outcome…they need to apply to,schools where their stats will garner guaranteed aid. Your daughter’s list didn’t have that.
So…is she going to A&M?
@thumper1, I thought that the A&M NMF scholarship was guaranteed.
So this post is strange.
Still, since the A&M NMF scholarship requires a high GPA to maintain, applying to other schools that give big scholarships would have been advised.
Is this thread for real?
Actually, my question…has the thread really had 2k views? Or is the post counter screwed up?
It always bothers me to see thread titles like this one. NMF is only a “waste” if you fail to do your due diligence and you make it a “waste”. If one does their homework they should know exactly what opportunities the NM program can provide for them/their child. If none of those schools fit what you’re looking for, that is certainly not the fault of the NM program. Nor is it the fault of the NM program if you bypass a financially attractive offer from a NM school and choose to take on loans to attend somewhere else instead.
OK I’ll bite. Target the right schools, understand the process, how to be a top candidate for those schools, the strategy, enrollment management and be a student the schools want and the scholarship results may be more to your liking. Both of my s’s were NMF’s. We let DS#1 apply ED to his school, and while he had several outside scholarships, they only totaled at the time about 6K. He got the school’s NM scholarship but it wasn’t a lot of $, and he later got departmental scholarships at the school throughout his academic career. So even if you don’t get what you’d hoped, there are still may be some opportunities down the road. That school had a large endowment and tuition at that time was about $10k/year less than other comparable schools (its a top 20 U) so all in all it was very affordable for us. At that time they had an EA option, which they no longer do…, If we had it to do over again we might have encouraged him to apply EA instead of ED and perhaps scholarship $$ might have been higher, as he knew his stats were higher than many of his classmates who did get more merit $. But we were ok with the ED decision and he was a happy camper.
DS#2 also was a NMF. We approached his college app process differently, and ultimately, in addition to the several thousand $ NMS money he got every year, he was awarded a full tuition scholarship that made attending his private school, that was a great fit for him, cost us about what it would have cost to send him to our state flagship (its a very good school but would not have been the best place for him, and he flatly did not want to go) and what we paid for his private, which he loved, was about 25% of the full COA of that private U. So for us, yes, the scholarships worked out just fine, thank you. But we approached the process differently the second time around, and learned a lot about the process. Ultimately, both s’s, who are both STEM folks, loved their schools which were affordable to us. DS #2 initially planned to attend a grad/professional school to so wanted the most affordable undergrad school that he also felt was a right fit for him that allowed him to save the $ we had targeted for his education, for professional school. He ended up going in a different direction, and has that $ in his savings (yes we gave it to him). Now both s’s are happily employed, doing well, and one is newly married. Neither has a penny of school debt (nor do we- we took out no loans).
So, do your HW and learn which schools are the most generous, and whether your child is a good candidate for merit money. We’ve come to love this process and have been able to pay it forward with college applicants. It can be fun and successful. And not AT ALL a waste.
S was an NMF. It made little to no difference at the schools to which he applied, which were need-only. At the school that would actually award him some $$ for NMF–U of C-it was subtracted from his grant, so no advantage. But he HAD to get into one of the real deep-pockets schools for us to afford it.
Know how much you need and which schools are likely to provide it for YOUR kid.
In some cases, that will be Ivies, select LACs, and similar schools that really meet need without loans other than the federal subsidized ones. In others it will be places like Alabama and Arizona and other schools that guarantee certain packages for certain stats. In others, it will be CC or state directional tuition while living at home.
Being realistic is the bottom line. If your kid could afford TAMU, and only TAMU, it is ridiculous to consider Mines.
As an aside, with 3 in college, your EFC will drop a lot.
Dozens of very good schools with outstanding honors colleges give full rides to National Merit Scholars. Some of these include free grad school. I have trouble understanding how something that is absolutely free could cause economic hardship.
For reference, Texas A&M scholarships for NMFs are given at https://scholarships.tamu.edu/Scholarship-Programs/National-Scholars#0-NationalMerit%C2%AEOpportunities . Basically, $10,000 per year and waiver of non-resident additional tuition, leaving remaining net price of $14,024 per year, based on http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/cost .
A&M has additional stacked department scholarships which for some make it almost free.
Disappointment like this is a function of not understanding the system and therefore having the wrong expectation going in. From what I have observed, the motivations of schools giving out merit scholarships isn’t primarily to reward our precious pumpkins for their hard work and dedication in HS. It is about attracting the class that they want to attend their institution. Or in some cases in certain states like mine it is about trying to keep the best and brightest in state on the hope that they will be more likely to stay once they graduate. That’s it. That’s the game. Once you understand that, the results are going to make way more sense to you.
If you are applying to a more prestigious, more sought after school, the more likely it is that the full ride type merit money is going to be increasingly competitive to get. At the most elite schools, it isn’t there at all. That’s because these schools can get all the top stats kids they want without offering it. On the other hand, most any local directional U will roll out the red carpet to get a NMF who has worked hard. So will the motivated flagship with the need to attract a large class and with the added state mandated goal to become a top research U (U of Kentucky and U of Alabama come to mind). In between those opportunities and HYPSM are a lot of other great schools making various value propositions to you. If you are truly exceptional there may still be a full ride available at many of these schools, but there aren’t enough of those to go around for every high stat kid.
Again, I think once you know this you set your self up better to find the best affordable option for your own unique student and family circumstances.
The way to get great Merit scholarship is to apply smartly. Research a lot ON YOUR OWN, do not listen to others.
My own D. had very different offers at different schools. But I was researching for 2 years prior to her application and my predictions in regard to which places would offer the most wee right on the money. Her offers ranged from mere $3k / year to full tuition Merit awards. In addition, one of full tuition Merit was offered by our local college, so if she chooses that one, we would have saved on room and board.
I know family who had twins and took this type of offer from the local college for their top caliber student kids who eventually attended a Medical School and had a younger sibling who follow in their footsteps. Now, this family had physician father who worked at our local Med. School. All 3 kids (very top caliber student from the best private HS in our area, that happened to be #2 private HS in our state) went to unknown low ranked local college on full tuition Merit scholarships and lived at home, not in dorm. Their college education was free. Since father was working at Medical School, all 3 went to Medical school for free also. Mother talked to me and that is why I know details. She said that they had a hard time paying off their debt after her husband graduated from Med. School and decided that there is no way their kids will have the student loans. Their mission was accomplished!
As far as my D., she also choose the college that offered her full tuition Merit scholarship at away college (she was NOT NMF, not close). We paid for her Room and Board and for her Med. School. She was the only dependent and we both work.
So, there are plenty of ways for a hard working super achiever to go to college for free. But the kid has to be wise and apply smartly and withstand the pressure from GC who would push such a kid to apply to Harvard and such.
I was very happy with my daughter’s scholarship outcomes, but I researched this process for two years.