FIRST Robotics Scholarships, stackable with National Merit Scholarships? Ideas needed.

Paying for College
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I’m ISO OOS school options for my Class of 2017 kid. He will presumably be a National Merit Finalist (been through this rodeo once already with my college freshman daughter, and he’s way over any possible cut for our bottom-of-the-barrel-score state), and he is also quite heavily involved in FIRST Robotics (on a very winning team, with some substantial leadership this year).

My goal is to open up the list of potential schools to visit and/or apply to by identifying those who might offer merit based scholarships at least half tuition, ideally full tuition or more once stacked.

I’m familiar with the NMF money schools (thank goodness for these forums, thanks to which my eldest is happily at U. Alabama on NMF scholarships. Roll Tide!), and now I’m trying to look at Robotics scholarships as well, to see if that opens up more choices for my son.

I’ve found the FIRST scholarships page http://www.firstinspires.org/scholarships

I was wondering if there is a page/forum on this site or other places that has more BTDT kind of advice as is found here for the NM kids.

In particular, I’m wondering if anyone has experience with whether many/some/any of the schools stack FIRST scholarship money with NM money? That might open up some of the half-tuition type NM schools to my son if they also offer substantial FIRST scholarships.

FWIW, he won’t be eligible for any need based aid, but we cannot actually afford the 60-70k/yr at the elite schools that don’t offer merit money. I’m trying to find as good a school as possible that still could offer merit aid.

(School needs to offer solid engineering, ideally Chem E, and also pre-med courses, which presumably are available nearly anywhere, but I imagine there are some Engr schools that might not offer them all.)

He may well be competitive for admission to top tier schools, but he won’t be applying unless they offer big merit packages, as we need to keep his cost-of-attendance under 25-30k/yr (free is great, though, lol, as that’ll leave money on the table to help with grad/professional school, in particular for this kid who is considering pre-med (probably Chem E). So, anyway, that’s where I’m at.

Thanks for any tips or guidance.

  • Stephanie
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<<<
also pre-med courses, which presumably are available nearly anywhere, but I imagine there are some Engr schools that might not offer them all.)
<<<

Since the premed prereqs are normal classes (bio, chem, ochem), the eng’g schools will offer them as well. The premed prereqs aren’t unique in any way…they’re just staple classes offered everywhere. Other STEM students will also be in those classes. I would imagine that all of the eng’g schools also offer the optional psych or sociology classes as well to fulfill the generally reduced Core required classes.

I have never heard of an ABET accreditted eng’g school that didn’t offer the prereqs.

My son was a Premed ChemE student and typically that major includes the premed prereqs.

I would imagine that most schools that offer NMF scholarships would allow stacking of the outside FIRST scholarships. Schools that offer non-NMF scholarships would also likely allow stacking unless their merit specifically states that their merit will reduce.

It is a good idea to find as much merit as possible for your son since he has his eyes on med school. We paid very little for our son’s undergrad (at Alabama) because we knew his med school costs would be substantial.

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^ I am not sure if it is usually the case. At least my D needs to take Biology for her ChemE major at UMich.

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My ChemE son needed Bio as well.

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I don’t see why the FIRST and the National Merit scholarships can’t be stacked. There is no known restrictions but it is best to double check with the individual school’s website. Make a list of the FIRST scholarship colleges that your son is interested in, then decide on which ones to visit and apply. Some FIRST scholarships are restricted to school admission, some are opened to all schools based on the area of study. Both FIRST and NM are extremely competitive, so try to look for other scholarship opportunities as well.

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My daughter’s engineering school allows stacking of outside scholarships with merit. The school has its own guarantee of level 3 (lowest) merit for being on a robotics team, but many students do better taking a higher merit award for gpa/scores and you can’t stack the internal award with a higher merit award. The guaranteed scholarships are for being an eagle scout/girls scout gold award, robotics, STEM high school and a few other things.

An outside award could, of course, reduce need based aid.