<p>“In our rural VT HS they don’t particularly encourage kids to take it, and never tell that big scholarships are riding on the results, and prep classes don’t exist.”</p>
<p>I have to concur with this statement for Maine as well. If I had any idea that large scholarships were available due to PSAT scores I would have encouraged my kids to study for them. I only thought of them as a preperatory test for the all important SATs… The PSAT pamphlet they come home with only mentions $2,500 scholarships.</p>
<p>I think the population of different states may impact the percentage of higher scores?</p>
<p>yeah ranking needs to be taken in context. I’m only speaking in terms of my searching for my kid who was an engineering major. Pretty much only large universities would offer engineering programs, that pretty much right there puts them into top 100 or 200. Usually schools after that in rankings are smaller public and private colleges which aren’t going to offer engineering major.</p>
<p>For someone looking for teaching career there is a much wider selection of schools for which to try to find merit. A fine education can be had from most schools regardless of ranking. </p>
<p>NEU scholarship is a great deal, maybe the best in the US for a just being a NMF.
My kid with tippy top stats could only get 20K merit there, which leaves $35K+ per year after that to pay. He’s not going there.</p>
<p>I am a National Merit Scholar and qualified for full tuition at Drexel. However, I applied Early Action (and was accepted to) MIT, and it’s where I’m going in the fall. </p>
<p>A few reasons why:
MIT is need blind, so applying won’t hurt. If the application fee will cause financial hardship, most of the time they are happy to waive it.
An MIT (or other top-tier school) experience is, in my opinion, one that I can only get at MIT. Are there other wonderful, lesser known, cheaper schools? Absolutely. Can they offer a great education? Yes! But in the end, MIT has a wonderfully unique atmosphere (and it makes a great addition to resumes!).
Some students ended up paying less than they expected (i.e. their EFC was greater than they thought it would be. This happens because MIT calculates EFC using their own system, called the Institutional Methodology, meaning your EFC can vary from school to school.) Some students ended up paying more than they expected. When asked why they chose MIT, many said that they consider the expense “an investment” for the future.
MIT has some amazing opportunities that could be unavailable elsewhere. MISTI (google it) is the first one I can think of off the top of my head. It’s basically an all-expenses paid internship in a foreign country! You even get a stipend. The UROP program (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) also means that you can research in a lab for credit or cash. It’s not a co-op, but it’s close. </p>
<p>Basically what I’m saying that it doesn’t hurt to apply. I’ve used MIT as an example here but you can substitute it with any school that meets full need-based aid. You may be pleasantly surprised when comparing aid packages at the end!</p>
<p>MIT, without a doubt a great school. Many here won’t qualify for much need based aid so they’re searching for schools with merit aid. MIT gives NO merit aid (understandably so, all the admits have great stats). </p>
<p>Early action and it sounds like you needed aid, hope that worked out. That’s not a route someone with an EFC of 20K or higher can chance (early action route), the school might decide there’s no need (they’re a CSS profile school).</p>
<p>Although I don’ t think their FA is a good as HYP. Did you get good aid in the end?</p>
<p>I would beware state “reciprocity” – it is only after 3 years of full time teaching that states have reciprocity. Otherwise you need to spend hundreds of dollars on additional tests. For example, in PA they are changing all of their elementary certifications so that there will be issues with reciprocity going forwards (they are doing the same as texas, prek-4 and 4-8 while all surrounding states do something more like k-6). With math it is less of an issue, but the teacher market is completely saturated. I also worry that you say he is very shy, teaching is an arduous career these days with standardized tests. I know many students who thought they wanted to teach math, did student teaching, realized the behavior management and so on was not for them, and were left with little to fall back on - at least their degree was in math so that helped. Please feel free to private message me, I am a certified math teacher in VA and would be glad to talk to you about the profession.</p>
<p>As notrichenough said, you are confusing Early Action with Early Admission. MIT’s Early Action is non-restrictive and non-binding, which means that you can apply to as many schools as you want in both early and regular action cycles. This also means that Early Action admits do not get less finaid than Regular Action admits. The fact that they are on CSS profile has no relation to this. </p>
<p>MIT does not give merit aid, as you correctly observed. </p>
<p>And finally, it all worked out quite nicely My aid package was affordable and appropriate.</p>
<p>With tuition hovering close to $25k for out-of-state kids, and the average merit-aid awarded around $6k, why not just price themselves out at $19k and call it a day?</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your Collegebubble…</p>
<p>A school that costs $25k for OOS students that also has an avg merit award of $6k is NOT offering that much to EVERY student. </p>
<p>If a school enrolls 1000 frosh and 100 get merit, then the average merit award is based on what those 100 got. So if 25 got $3k, and 50 got $6k, and 25 got $9k, then the average award is $6k…but only 10% of the frosh got anything.</p>
<p>and those 100 are a mix of instate and OOS students.</p>
<p>Collegebubblenet, you have touched upon a very sensitive point in college admissions and allocation of funds. Schools know that if they have, say $100K in funds to give out, it can give out two close to full ride financial aid (with some PELL, STaffords, work study) . Kids who need that kind of money are not likely to have much leeway as their families simply do not have enough money to meet living expenses in many cases. Even awards of that size are going to stretch the family budgets because they simply cannot afford to pay a cent and in some cases may be losing money in sending the kid away to school. So, those full need kids are likely to need more money in the future and are going to be hard pressed for funds throughout college. </p>
<p>But what if one takes that same $100k and awards it to ten kids as merit money or as generous financial aid to those who just qualify for need barely. Throw in that Stafford UNSUB as a buffer and steer the parents to PLUS, and you are making a $60K price tag look doable. Offer it up to kids who may be borderline for admissions and for whom this was their reach school, and you got some winners here. You buy a lot more for your buck there. </p>
<p>We did not qualify for financial aid, but had a family cap of $35K for what we, the parents would pay. That put schools edging towards the $60K COA in the unaffordable category. But a few schools came up with $7-15K in merit money, plus their sticker price was on the other side of mid $50s. My son had some savings and he works summers and was willing to work during the school year. Some of those schools had good job possiblities on campus, plus cheap off campus digs were plentiful and a lot of kids, in fact most of them, went that route after freshman, definitely after sophomore years. Throw in the Stafford, and those schools were edging close to affordable. Plus my son was grateful to be offered scholarships. </p>
<p>I’m not sure why that article felt that schools like BC and Notre Dame should feel uneasy sleeping at night as they give very little out to merit. THey don’t play the game that way. The vast, vast majority of their funds for admissions go for FINANCIAL aid. Need base. Though within need, merit can also make a difference in how generous your package is, there does have to be the need component. Some of these school will focus on those student who need the least and try to buy what they can afford rather than pay what other students who have the need cannot afford.</p>
<p>[qupte=mathmomvt]What does that mean? MIT admits who were also NMF got money? from the state? or from whom?
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<p>MIT does not give NMF students any money (in the form of college-based NMF money). NMF students must become either corporate or National Merit Scholars to win any money.</p>
My aid package was affordable and appropriate.</p>