I stated unweighted, that’s the only way to make it somewhat equal. My daughter has a 3.9 unweighted GPA, all honors classes with the exception of the 7 AP classes, she got a B+ freshman year in honors English, all A’s and A’s sophomore year, solid A’s junior and senior year, varsity captain of 3 4 year sports, 4 honor societies, CORE, peer leadership, tutor, worked since the age of 14, 1470 SAT 33 ACT (so better than her SAT), UCONN gave her $22,000 a year, SJU $28,000 a year, Temple $18,000 a year, Rutgers (where her sister graduated from, plus her dad, who is also an adjunct professor), $0.00 a year. It’s Rutgers, I’m on kid #4 and #5, this isn’t new.
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Rutgers is a higher ranked school.
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My S had excellent stats & didn’t receive a penny in scholarships from UMich in state. I don’t know many who did. S received an amazing automatic merit scholarship from a “lesser” MI college, which is highly ranked for the program he was in. He decided to change programs, so he changed schools. He transferred to another “lesser” MI college, and he received a small automatic transfer scholarship. Our EFC was too high for need based aid at any of these schools. It didn’t surprise me in the least that the different schools had different merit scholarships. The two from which he received automatic merit have reduced their automatic scholarships in recent years due to financial constraints.
My D attended a top private college, where she received a need based grant. As a junior & senior, she was awarded scholarships that had a component of need, but the amount she received each year exceeded what she would have received in a need based grant. Different schools do things differently. Scholarships have individual requirements that are often dictated by the donor.
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He only applied to a few schools-he did not get in Georgia Tech; he was accepted to Stevens Institute of Technology & NJIT. We are awaiting a response from NorthEastern and GWU. No he did not apply for the honors college at any school. Our FAFSA indicates an EFC of over $20,000 for EACH of our boys–a total of $40K each year, which is not practical. What’s odd is that the EFC was the same last year for my college freshman; I would have thought with two in college the EFC would have went down, but it doubled–it makes no sense but HESAA insisted it is correct. NJIT did give him a lot of money, I am waiting to hear back from Stevens as to money. He also applied for several scholarships elsewhere. The fact is, we are going to have to take out a loan no matter what, but I want to try to reduce the amount as much as I can.
I’m not quite sure we are awaiting an admission decision right now. And, yes Northeastern is quite expensive.
I am told GW is pretty generous with award money, but we will have to see.
That is simply not true.
with 2 in college at the same time, you should have indeed seen 60% for each (not 50-50 but certainly a total divided). There has to be a mistake somewhere in the FAFSA you filled out.
Do check line by line, or go to the Financial Aid Forum and ask for help.
Note for parents reading this:
Applying for Honors ‘unlocks’ scholarships just for Honors students.
(In addition, a top student who has Honors-level stats not applying for Honors at his flagship may have been miscontrued as lack of interest, ie., I’m not going there, so why bother with the extra essays? Although for a large flagship, not sure they use “interest”?)
Another note for parents reading this:
External scholarships (non institutional and non federal) reduces your need and thus may reduce the amount the university provides.
@debnbill: there will be a list of colleges that miscalculated yield published in early May. It’s published on the NACAC website and on this website, where we highlight the “top schools”. CommonApp has to be ready to go quickly because, if admissions remain open for weeks, scholarships go fast. With his stats and course rigor, he would have a shot at lots of universities. Is he interested in a specific branch of Engineering, Engineering in general, CS ?
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You don’t apply for honors at Rutgers, and it’s very hard to get in. Even my 34 ACT kid was denied Rutgers honors.
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From GWU:
“ Eligibility for need based financial assistance is based on the student’s demonstrated need on the financial assistance application. The need may be funded by institutional and federal grants and scholarships and federal loans. While GW offers significant amounts of need-based aid, we are not able to fund 100% of need.”
The school does not guarantee to meet full need for all.
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Yes, the new Honors College is incredibly hard to get into.
But I put “note for parents” to indicate applying to honors when one wants scholarships was general advice.
I agree, every single essay.
Schools are also “need aware” - meaning they will turn down a 36 if it will cost them too much. There’s an article where Lafayette was doing that. There’s a few select need blind schools.
The GWs of the world will give maybe up to 50% of tuition…but as someone said, all the grants (need) you get - this stuff is not stackable.
Also, the aid process assumes college as an investment - so while you may not have an income to support this, especially with the private colleges who use the CSS - they go into your assets.
As the lady at Cornell told me, college is an investment - and we will make you “invest” your savings for a larger return later.
Oh, and FAFSA - they don’t take into account public vs. private, etc. so it doesn’t go up exponentially. Per their person, it’s your choice if you choose to go more expensive, etc.
Most that believe they qualify for aid - actually don’t…
Yes, electrical engineering. I also took your advice and wrote directly to Admissions and the School of Engineering-this is the reply from engineering: "Thank you for your email regarding scholarship opportunities for your son. It is clear that Aiden is a good student and we congratulate you and him on his admission to the School of Engineering! During the selection process for Undergraduate Admissions, they take into consideration the academic credentials students submit with their application, including SAT or ACT scores, grade point average, grades and strength of curriculum. However, due to the limited number of available scholarships and the increasing competitiveness of our applicant pool, they were unable to offer Aiden a first-year merit scholarship.
I’m a little illiterate when it comes to the college game, but can you explain this to me like I am a five–no pun intended, but seriously.
from what I am seeing MOST of the middle class do not qualify for anything–we end up paying the most.
Engineering sent me their admission’s profile: https://admissions.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/media/Documents/2020_AdmissionsProfile.pdf
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It depends. If (and it is a huge IF) you can get into an Ivy League type school they offer substantial aid even to people who are making $150/160k (and even more). I think at Harvard people making $165,000 are capped at $15,000. The trick is that getting into those kinds of schools is really, really, really hard.
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the donut hole of financial aid
From Google:
And it’s grown increasingly tricky for middle-class families who fall into the so-called “doughnut hole” of financial aid. That’s when you earn too much money to qualify for significant need-based aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) but too little to pay the full price out of pocket.
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