Hi, asking for my DD. Should she apply to GM. We are in Maryland so it’s close, but want to keep around 30k a year. Not sure about financial aid eligibility.
She has a 3.97 UW (one B so far), 4.6 W. Lots of ECs, including volunteering and varsity tennis. Studying for SAT, PSAT was 1340, hope to improve.
Also wondering about JMU. She will be applying to Maryland schools too of course.
Yes, I’ve seen here on CC that OOS applicants who have an SAT score of at least a 1400 and a W GPA of at least 4.2 get $12k per year.
JMU I believe is easier to get into, but is a great school nonetheless. I don’t know the specifics of this school because I didn’t apply to it. Good luck to your DD!
Thanks!
I got 12k/yr and an invitation to the full-tuition University Scholars Program weekend.
My stats can be found in my other posts but just as a general overview I applied with a 34 ACT and 3.71 uwGPA. Pretty rigorous courseload. Decent ECs.
Forgot to mention, I am OOS. You likely could have inferred that but don’t I want to miscommunicate.
Definitely worth applying. As crams17 mentioned, OOS students are eligible for the full tuition scholarship. I’m OOS and was offered $12k per year merit scholarship, finalist for full tuition, and around $14,000 in financial aid grants. For details on my ECs and stuff check my other posts but I have a 36 ACT and 4.3 GPA. If you have any questions on the scholarship process feel free to shoot me a PM. Best of luck!
$14000 can’t be financial aid grants. That has to include loans. I am saying this as a parent of a current student.
Even if you get the full tuition scholarship there is still room and board. The $12,000 per year offsets the cost of tuition for an out of state student so that you end up paying in state tuition room and board.
As a student who was offered $14,000 in need-based grants (in addition to $5,500 in loans), I’ll have to respectfully disagree.
Please confirm that with the financial aid office at GMU. It doesn’t sound right even if your EFC is zero.
Based on the fafsa website, for the 2016–17 award year (July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017), the maximum award is $5,815. (pell grant) Note they decrease that amount each year. I would hate for you to accept an offer and realize later that you don’t have the ability to pay. Best of luck.
Financial aid awards are a mixture of federal grants and institutional grants. I was offered the max Pell grant in addition to some money from George Mason. Institutional grants are the same way that schools like Harvard can offer a full ride based on need – not from federal grants. You should really be looking at Mason’s website instead of FAFSA’s.
GMU does not meet full need (tuition room, and board) as it is a public state university. Even with grants, loans and scholarships there can be a gap which the student is expected to pay. Some students apply for work study but that is not guaranteed.
For this reason it is important to apply to true safeties. Schools that a student can afford if accepted and that they would be happy to attend. Too many students apply for reach schools and sadly in May they find out they can’t afford to attend the schools that they have been accepted to. Schools like Harvard do meet full need but then again they are very selective in their admissions process. A student can have top standardized test scores and grades but that does not guarantee admission because they do not offer admission simply based on stats. Their admission reviews are holistic.
This results in students either taking a gap year or attending their local community college. For this reason it is important to have an upfront conversation with parents in regards to the budget for college expenses prior to the college application process.
GMU does offer scholarships for in state and out of state students but they are not guaranteed for everyone that is qualified. Being accepted into the Honors program does not guarantee a scholarship. The top 15 to 20 students accepted into the Honors college are also accepted into the University Scholars Program which is the universities top scholarship award. This award covers full tuition for instate and out of state students that have been accepted into GMU. There are smaller merit scholarships as well and usually those are awarded when a student receives an acceptance offer. For anyone worried about paying for college expenses I highly recommend taking the time to apply for outside scholarships that can help towards paying college costs. Depending on the university you are applying to sometimes scholarships can reduce the amount of financial aid you receive but that really depends on the school you are applying to and their individual rules on that. If your child is interested in GMU their best bet would be to apply Early Action as the number of applications to this school is increasing with each year due to its academic quality and location which allows for students to hold onto local internships while at GMU as students. Some majors are restrictive majors so admission into those depts. will be more competitive.
If you have questions about JMU I would recommend posting those questions directly in their thread where current students or parents of students would be able to help you.