and - don’t forget about the $2500 tax credit for families under 160/180K$ – that’s helpful - and adds up.
** speaking of scholarship opportunities disappearing - i’m trying to gauge the florida scholarship opps for National merit kids. I guess the their legislature is looking at it all right now. I’ve been pumping up my D23 for this opp - hope its there in a few years.
In reality, no, but it’s hard to know where your particular strengths will be appreciated.
For parents who find CollegeConfidential early, there are lots of tips. For most parents, it’s like trying to find something blindfolded. But overall the more accomplished you are, the better your odds.
Then, it’s a matter of matching your achievements with what colleges want.
For instance, if you have a son, apply where there are fewer male than female applicants. You can apply more than 400 miles from home because some private universities, to retain the promotional “national” label with “students from all 50 states”… need a few admits from each state, and odds are, fewer people are applying from your state to a university 400 miles from home. You can apply against “type”, ie., apply for CS at IU rather than Purdue, for Physics at Kenyon, for Foreign Language at UMD, for English at Stanford, for Math at AU, for Economics at WPI.
Typically midsize regional universities, especially Catholic universities, have less endowment and less money for scholarships.
National LACs ranked 40-75 may “meet need” but it doesn’t mean they don’t offer any merit (unlike some “meet need only” top colleges): if they want to attract students who will be admitted to Top LACs and universities, they very likely offer significant merit as a way to entice them, knowing students know the quality of teaching will be very high at both. Denison, St Olaf, DePauw, UPugetSound, St Lawrence… would all be worth checking out.
Women’s colleges often offer significant merit aid, too - check out Agnes Scott, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr…
(Listing this for all parents currently searching)
CT resident here…Eastern CT is a great smaller university in this state that actually has the feel of a LAC. No it’s not Amherst…but for instate residents, it provides a great education in a much smaller environment than UConn which is right down the road and is more costly. Lots of opportunities for students to shine at Eastern CT.
For example. Family member here got a degree in health sciences there, followed that with a Peace Corps Response program assignment. Immediately after PCR, started a masters in infectious diseases and global health at Tufts. Not bad. Oh…and got a job almost immediately after graduation in his field.
Thumper, of course. I’m making the point that educational quality is not related to whether folks 1500 miles away have heard of a college. The bias is a “name” college- heck, I learned to swim when I was a kid at a 2 year “finishing school” aka junior college because the administration opened the pool to locals over the summer. So to me, that’s a “name” college even with zero recognition beyond a few zip codes! Lots of opportunities to shine at “non-name” institutions, often less expensive than other options, but it takes time and the ability to look beyond the name…
@joshsmother For your son’s friend (or even for your son, perhaps): University of Arizona has a May 3 application deadline, and offers good merit money. If you use their Net Price Calculator, you can see how much merit a specific GPA and SAT/ACT score will provide, even before you apply.
ASU still has a late deadline for its Barrett Honors College, which is supposed to be really, really good (a LAC-like environment in a large university). They have a merit calculator that you can use. I assume that if they are still accepting applications for Barrett Honors College, then they may still be awarding merit money too.
Others have posted about good merit money at University of New Mexico, which is also still accepting applications.
Hope this helps.
Hudson&Holland is a good scholarship program for Indiana residents, congratulations to your son if he got it. It’s definitely not easy to get.
THIS.
Even if you paid close attention, it’s like climbing a hill of sand, constantly shifting and sliding.
BTW there should be a college minor for Secondary Ed dedicated to “college advising” - it’d involve educational policy, psychology, and lots of practical information and short externships, with a certification at the end that, in order to keep, you’d need some sort of (paid for) training every few years.
Incredibly complex for adults, herculean for a kid, especially if his parents speak little English
We can help, there’s still time.
1° direct him to CC. Ask he create a thread with “valedictorian, unaffordable choices, help” as a subject.
He can @ our screen handles and we’ll answer.
2° like for your son, the NACAC list is likely to have something more affordable for him. It’s worth a try but he needs to have his commonapp ready and updated in early May.
The University of New Mexico idea is a good one. It’ll likely cost way less than 86K in debt and it’s a solid university.
I agree that your school’s val deserves choices, we can help.
Agree. People need to try to look at their end goal. Not necessarily the pedigree of their college along the way. I know I’ll get some push back on that notion. But really, a directional college can be the first step to a very bright future.
I will have 2 in college come Sept. 2021. My EFC on the FAFSA was $21,000 per kid. When I contacted HESAA for an explanation, they told me that based on my kid be 17, I was expected to save $100 per week times 52 weeks for the last 17 years. The fact is, they have no idea what my income/financial circumstances were 17 years and assume the income you report in 2019 is what you made in 2002/2003. The EFC is unrealistic. I do not have, nor did I save $40,000 a year per kid. My son has a 3.9 GPA, 1450 SAT and Rutgers School of Engineering gave him $0 in aid; I tried to appeal and they literally told me not to bother–we don’t qualify. But, the fact is, Merit Scholarship money should not take income into consideration, but Rutgers apparently does. If my son were to go to Rowan, he would receive the full/max merit scholarship of $10k a year. Rutgers is horrendous and my son will most likely not be attending their Engineering Program. I am wondering where all of this merit money is going. They will not even provide me with their merit scholarship criteria-I have to understand why.
Colleges can choose to offer discounts based on need only, merit only, and/or need+merit. Some discounts may be neither need nor merit based, such as reduced tuition for state residents at state universities.
Many colleges choose to be opaque for scholarships, even more so than they may be for admission. There are various motivations to be opaque, including being able to adjust scholarship amounts on the fly and to avoid or deflect accusations of (perceived) unfairness.
Why do you assume Rutgers took income into account for merit? I don’t think they did. It’s just that a 1450 is not competitive for merit at Rutgers engineering. Take a look at the profiles reported on CC that got merit from Rutgers. Near perfect SAT, 4.0 etc.
I consider my family’s set of circumstances part luck along with part skill that made my 2 kids lists mostly affordable (Household income in 80th percentile and EFC ~22K per year initially for 1 kid and ~11.7K each for 2 kids last year) after financial aid. The luck part was living in a state (GA) that makes undergraduate education more affordable than most (The Zell Miller Scholarship pays full tuition at any GA state institution for 3.7 GA calculated HS GPA and 1200 SAT/26 ACT and the Hope Scholarship pays about 2/3 tuition for a 3.0 HS). That gave my household some early cost certainty once adding average college inflation costs into the mix and helped us “set the goalposts” early (We would be able to fund up to the costs of an in-state education with no loans).
The skill part was choosing a targeted list of schools (a list heavy on HBCUs, but that also included schools like Tulane) that offered lots of merit aid and would value what each of my kids brought to the table. Our kids’ final results (both had several offers of full-ride scholarships along with smaller outside scholarships and each chose the same full tuition, room & board, fees, and books covered scholarship) was always the goal, but one that was much harder than expected. There were many sacrifices (like both of my kids spending most of their Senior year Christmas break working on scholarship applications), but it was worth it.
One thing that I have learned (and that sometimes runs counter to some CC wisdom) is that students who are hunting for financial aid (both merit and need based) should look at a large targeted list (15+ schools) as the financial aid landscape has gotten harder and harder to predict.
I always assumed Rutgers merit goes to the 4.0/1600 kids and those OOS. My daughter’s friend did receive $4000 from engineering this year (I think she’s 3rd in the class) the rest of her high stat friends nothing. My son can save $20000 and go to Stockton, but he really doesn’t want to (he has a 3.6 UWGPA 30 ACT, I’m surprised Stockton gave him anything).
Don’t email financial aid, email Admissions and the Dept of Engineering. State (in these ~exact words) that your child, with (such and such) stats, X APs, will go to a good college, but that you’re wondering why he was not offered any merit aid or scholarship which would have made it financially possible for him to attend the state flagship he’d have been proud to be an alumnus of.
However the issue isn’t his stats, which are objectively superb, but the fact he is a boy applying for engineering (not rare) with 1450 (top2% in the country but not rare in Engineering and NJ). So Rutgers had no incentive to try and make him choose them over another university. In addition, Rowan is the rising university for Engineering in NJ because they know how to target high achievers who get into Rutgers and many other colleges.
That’s why automatic scholarships were so appealing: it was clear that if you met their numbers, you got one. Now, those are being replaced with competitive merit used to shape the class.
There is so much good information being shared on this thread that I feel like this is going to be one that CC refers people to in the years to come.
I appreciate the disappointed of those caught behind the eight ball now but hopefully this thread can help future students and family. My heart goes out to all of you but please know that no matter where your child lands they will have the tools and be successful.
I will also stress the quickly changing landscape of merit scholarships. Things can change from one admission cycle to the next.
ChangetheGame is correct. You need to have an EXPANDED list of schools that include auto merit schools such as Alabama, UAH, Arizona, Miami Ohio, Bradley (private), Mizzou, and more. No one should expect merit aid otherwise. No one. You should hope - but not expect. It’s never promised. It’s a gift.
Unless there’s a guarantee, you cannot expect it. Today, everyone (I’m embellishing) is over a 4.0 weighted, so many have good test scores, and it’s so much more.
As many have said, schools are adjusting their formulas, their budgets are reduced from the states, and there are just no guarantees.
The big thing I’d advise ANY parent starting the college search is, cast your net wide (many don’t require extra essays, many don’t charge to apply and many let you self report test scores). And MOST IMPORTANTLY - don’t get attached to any school. It’s hard for kids but parents need to take the lead to try to head it off - DON’T GET EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED to any school.
Good luck.
The first thing I would advise parents is to figure out their annual college contribution budget and tell this to their HS student.
And tell them freshman year (or earlier) so the kid doesn’t get fixated on out of budget options.
Absolutely. Don’t keep your college funding budget a secret. And please…don’t say “apply anywhere you want to. We will make it work” if you financially really can’t do so.