<p>Not at all trying to bash OSU either. I totally agree with colclifmuir. </p>
<p>Anyway, c’est la vie. Best of luck to all, regardless of where they decide to go…</p>
<p>Have you ever thought that maybe the school is trying to attract the best possible students whether they are from in state or out of state? If there are highly qualified students coming from out of state and mediocre students in the state than they want the best not just average. That’s how all schools are.</p>
<p>I was too! and my mum lost her job so I’m doubly doomed.
Ok advice please, is it worth getting away from home at OSU and get a 2100 scholarship or commute to Bowling Green State University for 5000?</p>
<p>I see I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand why The Ohio State University doesn’t give more merit scholarships, especially to in state kids. I see that some of you were also at the maximus scholarship essay competition in which around 1,000 kids vie for 80 scholarships. Not very good odds.</p>
<p>It was my sons dream to go to OSU but the economics of the situation brings him back to reality and he will not attend OSU. We weren’t looking for a full tuition scholarship but to be offerred only $2,700 as compared to full tuition at other Ohio schools makes the decision on where to go pretty easy. I was willing to pay an additional amount for him to go to OSU but the gap in money between what OSU offered and what other schools offered is just to big.</p>
<p>I like to think my son is one of the best and brightest in Ohio and with a 4.0 GPA and a 33 on the ACT but it appears that OSU doesn’t agree. I can only speculate that OSU has so many kids apply that they feel they don’t need someone such as my son.</p>
<p>If ohio state is his dream and you are offering to pay some of the tuition then tell him to get some student loans. Its 9000 dollars in state for tuition, thats not that much debt with his scholarship and whatever you would agree to pay. He could make most of that money by working those four years. If its really his dream a little sacrifice shouldn’t keep him from it.</p>
<p>My opinion:
I think Ohio State is not under pressure from the state to be more generous to in-state students because in the eyes of the state, it could encourage great in-state students who are looking for merit aid to go to one of the other 12 colleges in the Ohio state university system, many of which are far more generous with merit aid.
- University of Akron<br>
- Bowling Green State University<br>
- Central State University
- University of Cincinnati
- Cleveland State University
- Kent State University
- Miami University
- Ohio State University
- Shawnee State University
- University of Toledo
- Wright State University
- Youngstown State University</p>
<p>Patriot,</p>
<p>I have to give my son credit for being mature and understanding that going into debt is not worth the dream.</p>
<p>He has accepted an offer from Ohio University and will basically come out of undergraduate school with no debt based on his scholarships and what I will contribute, as opposed to around $30,000 in loans if he goes to OSU. I don’t know about you but $30,000 is a lot of money to me.</p>
<p>Daymack, </p>
<p>I disagree with your statement that OSU does not give more merit scholarships to Ohios brightest.</p>
<p>The way I see it, everyone of those 1000 students that attend the Maximus (or a possible 17% of the freshman class) are in the top 3% of their HS class and have been awarded $2,700 or 30% off their tuition. And if you are in the top 10% of your HS class, you will be awarded $2,100 or 24% off the tuition. And if you in the top 20% of your HS class, you will be awarded $1,000 or 10% off the tuition.</p>
<p>According to colleboard.com, 53% of the freshman at OSU are in the top 10% of their HS class. That means at least 53% of the freshman class (or more than 3000 students) earned at least 24% off of their tuition. And since 89% of the freshman are in the top 25%, I would guess that 75% of the freshman earned at least 10% off. </p>
<p>But OSU does not limit the number of students that could get the 30% off. If all 6000 freshman are in the top 3%, everyone will earn 30% off their tuition. </p>
<p>I agree that a full tuition scholarship is hard to compare to 30% off at OSU, and I congratulate you son on a great achievement. But I also really applaud OSU for how they award scholarships. OSU seems to try to give something to every bright student that applies.</p>
<p>Daymack - I didn’t mean anything by it and of course 30 thousand dollars is a lot of money. But you just have to weigh the options. To some people their dream college is worth thirty thousand dollars in loans. I know kids who go even farther into debt to attend schools like washu. Its not really an issue of maturity as much as it is an issue of how much something really means to you. And if your willing to work part time during school at an average job you can make 8 thousand dollars a year. With expenses he could pay off a three fourths of that before interest even started to kick in. I’m not saying one way is better then the other. It just depends on the person and the situation.</p>
<p>Is everyone comparing OSU’s final aid package or just looking at the initial scholarships like Maximus or Provost’s which are relatively paltry? My son was notified of his Provost’s scholarship early but later received a much larger grant and another departmental scholarship. In effect, he will get nearly free tuition. Another OSU parent that I know told me that OSU tends to award money in drips and drabs so that judging their final award on their initial “automatic” scholarships might not reflect what you’d actually be offered in the end.</p>
<p>Patriot - I wasn’t offended by anything you said its just dissapointing when your most recoginized school in the state offers you the least from any school that he applied.</p>
<p>jrent - You look at it as 30% of tuition, as parent I look at it as 11% of the total cost to go to OSU (Estimated cost of $24,138 to attend next year per the OSU website) leaving $21,438 to be paid by my son and myself since we do not get any financial aid. </p>
<p>If OSU really wants the best and brightest to go to OSU then they should have some type of tiered basis for giving out scholarships based ACT or SAT scores or some other type of method. Based on the people I’ve talked to (many of which were at the maximus competition) and what I’ve seen on this board, OSU is missing out on some very bright students with ACT scores from 32 to 34 that other institutions, both in state and out of state, prize.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone with the schools they select.</p>
<p>But it is a tiered system based upon ACT/SAT score and GPA to earn a scholarships at OSU.</p>
<p>32+ ACT or 1420+ SAT plus top 3% of HS class = $2,700
29+ ACT or 1300+ SAT plus top 10% of HS class = $2,100
27+ ACt or 1220+ SAT plus top 20% of HS class = $1,050</p>
<p>I do agree that its not a full ride for really good scores. But it does try to provide some money to everyone (which I think is very fair and the best way to award merit $$.)</p>
<p>jrent,</p>
<p>I guess we disagree in our definition of fair. I think to be fair you give more money to those students with higher ACT or SAT scores combined with their GPA’s in high school. The lower the scores, the less money they get.</p>
<p>In OSU’s merit tiered system a student with a 34 ACT and 4.2 GPA (an actual student as documented on another thread) receives $600 per year more than a student with a 29 ACT. I don’t think that is fair. </p>
<p>However, thats their system and because of it, an intelligent and wonderful young man won’t be going to OSU the next four years, but there is alway Med. school.</p>
<p>Like I said before, good luck to all in their college choices. We all have different motivations and opinions and I hope they are happy with their final choice. I know my son is happy.</p>
<p>some of you are missing two big parts of OSU’s merit $$ - NMFs and Morrill Scholars Program . </p>
<p>OSU give every NMF a free tuition and that alone could be in 100’s of the top students. </p>
<p>Don’t know how many full ride or full tuition Morrill gives. SOn of a colleague who missed NMF by 1 point, got a full Morrill tuition from OSU this year.</p>
<p>In any case, I believe OSU is fairly agreesive in keeping the best students in state. The Ohio State, the government, not the school, also gives a ~$3000/yr scholarship to top students if they attend an in state school. </p>
<p>I believe that, to OSU, a student with a 4.0 and 33 act but not a NMF is top tier but not that rare.</p>
<p>Our NMS DD last year got a full tuition from OSU and that ~$3000 from State. So I say OSU is pretty good about giving merit $$.</p>
<p>At an admissions session a few months ago we were told that they awarded 79 full tuition scholarships last year to National Merit Finalists. Not sure if that meant 79 were offered or 79 were ultimately used but it gives some idea of the magnitude.</p>
<p>Just came back from OSU honors overnight w/ D. She stated the the kids she met that were currently part of the honors program did not all have the stats that I’ve seen somewhere that touted the honors program (top 10%, 29+ GPA, maybe a GPA of 3.5?). She was disappointed in a way that the current honors students’ stats were much lower, for example, a 3.2GPA. Are there exceptions made often or did she just talk to a group of kids that got lucky? None of them appeared to be URM or other special circumstances.</p>
<p>dd in honors, NM Finalist and was one of 70 who originally received the Medalist Scholarship (full Tuition) from Maximus Competition. She is an excellent essay writer and chose a quirky angle to answer one of the questions and thinks that’s why she was noticed. She also completed the additional HOSA, to qualify for the Presidential Scholarship (full cost of education)…forced to by me because I figured they might not even consider anyone who didn’t…if they had 80 good candidates who filled it out, why would they bother looking at the rest? Just my theory. </p>
<p>She was also offered the Distinguished Scholarship (full tuition) for NMF, meaning her Medalist Scholarship will be awarded to the next in line (too bad they don’t add up, but R&B are less than the tuition we are paying now for HS). She is not in the top 10% of her class, as far as we can tell (selective school does not release rank). OSU told us they have a formula to calculate % rank when a school does not release, including: school profile, alum success at OSU, grades, courseload, etc. Her GPA is 3.8W/3.5UW, 800CR/610M/690W (low writing, I know but she said SAT essay prompts are ridiculously broad) or 2100 SAT, 32 ACT.</p>
<p>I for one have to disagree that OSU doesn’t help out IS students. Thus far with scholarships and grants (no loans), I have been offered over 15k, ~10k of which came just through scholarships. With loans my full need has been met as long a you calculate in my EFC. Like Dad II said, the NMF and Morrill Scholars Program(I received this) are also there to help for those who need the aid.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be flip, Clint, but the point is that the scholarship amount offered to MOST qualified in-state students is disappointing. </p>
<p>I’m happy for you, but my daughter is not a NMF and didn’t qualify for the Morrill Scholars program. She had good grades and good scores and I expected more. She’s an engineering major and writing is not an area of strength, so she probably didn’t stand out in the essay writing. Too bad she couldn’t have solved some math equations-lol.</p>
<p>SportsMama, My S was also in this boat last year. With at 4.2 gpa, and a 34 ACT he was offered much higher scholarship money at Akron U, the only other state school that he applied to (close to full ride). He also is an engineering major, and essay writing was not his thing— so he did not receive any extra money from the Maximus competition. He was two points from the cutoff for NMF, so no extra money there, and he was waitlisted for the Morrill, but they never went to the waitlist. LOL! But, the good news is he did receive a nice scholarship from the engineering department. So, hopefully your daughter filled out the engineering departmental scholarship form. Also, they say that there is more money for 2-4th year engineering students (with a gpa 3.3 or above) than for freshman, so have her keep applying each year. </p>
<p>My s also worked pretty hard on applying for every outside scholarship that he could find, and he did quite well there to offset the smaller amount offered by OSU. </p>
<p>OSU was his first choice, and he has been quite happy there. They are a great school, and can attract the best students without offering as much money as the other state U’s.</p>