It is not that rare, but you have to be willing to attend a state school generally ranked in the 70’s or above, and still be willing to pay $15,000+ in tuition.
Northeastern is not for everyone so the 50% yield does not surprise me.
A kid with a strong vocational orientation towards one of the fields or departments that Northeastern does well in- who thinks the coop is a plus- who is interested in living smack dab in the middle of Boston- Northeastern can be a great choice.
A kid who wants to study antiquity with potential interest in historic preservation or maybe academia might be getting comparable merit offers at LAC’s which might also be substantially better fits from an academic and intellectual perspective.
I don’t bash folks who turn down merit money- it’s hardly leaving “free money” on the table if a kid with the right stats agrees with a parent to apply to Northeastern to "see what happens’ but then ends up getting a comparable (or better) offer from a college which is a SUBSTANTIALLY better fit. Or gets into a lottery school with need-based aid which puts it within a few thousand dollars of Northeasterns merit offer. Or gets into a school which is within commuting distance so the kid decides that the better intellectual environment is worth trading off the dorm experience for Northeastern.
Etc.
@carachel2 - Thanks for the update (#177). I found that very interesting. I sat through a similar presentation a couple years ago. What frustrated me the most was the presenter did not bring up the NPC at all. When I spoke up they were either clueless or did not want others to know it was available so they would use their services ($$$) to determine costs.
BTW, this was before I discovered CC – I discovered the NPC on my own simply by visiting FA pages on the schools websites. It’s always surprising to me that others don’t know about this. It’s right there if you look!
Most OOS public FLAGSHIP schools do not give as much merit aid as the smaller non-flagship schools.
However, almost every OOS directional (non-flagship) we looked at had some kind of merit award, even if it was half-tuition or completely waiving the OOS rate, allowing student to pay in-state rates. Many of them had automatic full tuition awards, while others had several competitive full tuition to full-ride scholarships.
Again, though - these were NOT THE FLAGSHIP schools.
We found a few flagships though, that do give automatic full tuition, like U Kansas, U Nebraska, U Alabama… but most of them don’t.
But most of the really popular ones, like Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc. give small merit awards for very high stats.
So it depends on the type of state school you apply to. If it’s a very popular school with wealthier OOS students, then it’s likely to not give significant merit aid; I’m guessing because these schools don’t have to, when a lot of OOS students are willing to pay full price.
@ClaremontMom, the NPCs haven’t been around for that long. I know people who get in the groove of how they do their work and never look up to see what is new. Maybe this presenter had a method and process they had used for a long time and really didn’t know. Not that they were probably happy that you brought it up in front of potential clients! 
(Good for you)
I think it’s hard to find the schools that have automatic scholarships (not full tuition). Some schools have a scholarship calculator, or they even just list the scholarships and the GPA/test score needed to qualify. Other schools are not so helpful.
Does anyone know of a website that lists schools with partial automatic scholarships? Something similar to the full tuition yolasite?
Thank you!
I just want to point out that not all NPC are the same. Some are very detail and ask for a lot of information that will get you very close to your number. Those NPC are usually at top schools. If you have an average student and you’re applying to state university the NPC are not as accurate. In Georgia most of the state NPC didn’t even ask for your GPA to include hope in the price. Some only allow for you to pick a range for your income and not a exact number. I had to use a separate spreadsheet to get a true COA for my daughter.
Many NPCs don’t try to include merit (and if not, why would they ask about GPA)? Yes, a spreadsheet is still going to be needed. And there are some expenses that will vary by college (travel, and maybe whether your health insurance provides good enough coverage for a waiver – it might at an in-state school, for example, but not an OOS one – and that can drive the cost up by a couple thousand dollars).
“Does anyone know of a website that lists schools with partial automatic scholarships? Something similar to the full tuition yolasite?”
If you scroll down on that website , past the full tuition scholarships , you will see a list of 1/2 scholarships by state as well.
@blossom I did state that some Scholar recipients may receive comparable offers from other institutions.
A student who wanted to study the antiquities should not even apply to Northeastern as they do not have a Classics department or the like. Good luck to that student paying off their loans accrued for following their passion!
Do you mind sharing what his rate is and what region of the country you live in, @carachel2?
I’m always coming across people who do “college counseling on the side” and am truly curious what these folks are charging and what exactly their qualifications are. My son’s private HS college counselor (whom I’ve already mentioned isn’t great with the financial side of things if you’re a “doughnut hole” family) has shared that he’s routinely offered thousands of dollars to moonlight from parents of public high school students in the wealthy enclave where the school is located. He always turns them down (not sure if that’s on principle or because his contract with the school prohibits that type of thing), but clearly there are plenty of parents out there who won’t take the time to look for an independent counselor (or maybe they’re not willing to pay the fees for the good ones and figure they can get this guy for a bargain rate?).
At most private high schools they will have an entire section of their website dedicated to “College Counseling.” It’s normally located under the “Academics” tab. There is ZERO mentioned about merit money on the section labeled “Financial Aid and Scholarships” at my son’s old school. Just links for FAFSA, CSS and FinAid.org.
If you follow the FinAid.org link, you’ll find a page called “Full Tuition Academic Scholarshps” that is missing many (most?) of the automatic, stats-based, full tuition/full ride awards listed at http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/.
I’ve thought of sending my son’s HS the yolasite link, but I suspect the schools listed there would offend the sensibilities of the families they’re trying to attract, even though when I look at some of the schools the graduates end up at, many of them are no more impressive IMHO.
@menloparkmom Thank you…but I must be doing something wrong. The links I tried end at the bottom of the full tuition list. Do you happen to have another extended link? Thanks again!!
As far as I know, the yolasite website has been down for months (or, at least, I can’t access it from home/school/anywhere, no matter what machine I’m on or state I’m in) –
Here’s a web archive capture of the site before it went down(?): https://web.archive.org/web/20141013185855/http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
this link works fine for me
look for the part that starts with section 2, about 1/2 way down.
I also found this older thread that list NPC that include merit aid
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1346342-net-price-calculators-that-include-merit-aid-p1.html
Tom Sr- I have an undergrad degree in Classics; my MBA program didn’t seem to mind. The best CEO I’ve ever worked for (Fortune 50 company) had a degree in Renaissance Studies.
Sorry to go against the weary CC trope. My company is almost done assembling our BA class of hires for next year- nice to see how many historians and political scientists and literature majors have made the cut for a wide variety of corporate roles (great salary, great benefits, none of them should find it tough paying off their loans unless they plan to buy a luxury car and live in Knightsbridge or Nob Hill.)
@blossom, as a former English major that makes me happy. I’m curious, however, if your company only considers BAs from “elite” schools.
It seems these days if a student didn’t attend Amherst or Bowdoin or Yale, et al., they may be in for quite the shock. I hope I’m wrong about that, but I see it all the time in my field that organizations hire from the same two or three schools over and over gain. I get that it’s an easy shortcut for finding a great pool of very bright students, but I do wonder if it both promotes “groupthink” within an organization and also (unintentionally) limits opportunity for a lot of very bright and skilled “human resources” who didn’t have the privilege (or family income) to go to such schools.
I wish we could get away from this myth of people saying:
“He got a full ride.”
There ARE some full rides out there, but I agree it’s a frequently misused term. (Much like “scholarship” when what they really mean is need-based financial aid. The worst offender, IMHO, was that nasty St. Paul’s school rapist who sent out a fundraising letter appealing for support because he was such a deserving student–the recipient of a “full scholarship” to Harvard, where he intended to “study theology” at their Divinity School, which doesn’t even educate undergrads!)
@“aunt bea” It isn’t necessarily a myth. I do think that people need to understand that full rides are very unusual, typically very competitive, and not available at all schools.
There are so many relative terms in this statement, it’s hard to judge.
How rare is rare or not rare to you?
How large are large OOS?
How large are large merit awards?
Depending on the numbers the statement could be flipped around entirely.