Is anyone else having a hard time convincing your child to consider schools they never would have considered if not for NM.
I am trying to get my child to take our state flagship off the list as a safety in favor of a full tuition or full ride scholarship in some far away state that she’s never even considered visiting much less moving too and she is being pretty close minded about it. Any suggestions?
You can’t force the issue, but visit the NM schools if at all possible. Alabama and Oklahoma both do a lot to show you what you’re going to get by going there, and both schools are very different feels, so the tours are important. Talking to kids in the programs, or even reading posts by participants in CC might help. The honors program at Minnesota, too, though their NM scholarship is not as impressive as the ones from Alabama or Oklahoma. You can find some resources online, too, like this news piece about the OU National Scholars program: http://www.newson6.com/story/28864838/ou-president-national-merit-program-makes-oklahoma-education-so-much-more
Tried that. Visited UA, no interest and no interest in touring anywhere else. Only interested in our state flagship or reaches. 8-|
My son wanted to stay instate (California) and had no desire to leave the state. Oklahoma, Alabama sent us tons of brochures. As a NM corporate winner, he would have had a lot covered, but he refused.
He said he would not go to the South nor Midwest.
We tried everything but we realized that it really was his choice and I didn’t want to hear blame, down the road, a couple of years later.
Yes, it’s been expensive, but he’s attending school, so we’re good.
Of course you can-- you’re the parent, not the fairy godmother.
At the end of the day, you’re the one writing the check…
If you enter the process with the goal of getting the best balance between quality of school and net price and your child understands this, then you can insist that they consider these schools. If you can afford it, visit, they may change their viewpoint. Sixteen/seventeen year olds have no idea just how much 25,000, 35,000 or 65,000 really is, or how much it takes to earn/save that much.
It wasn’t related to NMF funding (although one of my kids was NMF), but we asked our kids to have one “parent choice” school on their application list. We asked them to apply, and go to accepted student days, and promised that if they didn’t like it after that it would come off the table. For what it is worth, one of them picked the parent choice school at the end of that process.
I think you are fighting this battle at the wrong time and in the wrong way. Let your kid leave the flagship on the table for now. But add some financial carrots/sticks. If your kid wants to attend the state U, require them to take out their federal loans to cover part of the cost (assuming they don’t need to do this for the NMF schools you are pushing). Require them to cover their own books & spending money at State U, but cover at least some for them at the NMF school. Maybe offer some financial help later for grad school if they take the NMF offer now, or to pay for an interesting summer abroad experience or to cover expenses for an unpaid summer internship if they attend the NMF school.
But when it gets down to it, there is more to picking a school than cost for most people. It isn’t like your kid is asking you to pay $65K per year out of pocket for a private school – she is asking for a much less pricey alternative. And maybe she is eligible for some State U scholarships that bring the costs there down somewhat, too.
@intparent, that is a wonderful solution to this problem. Thank you so much! She will get the same amount she would have gotten if she picked a full tuition school like ASU or Texas & M (which is about how much we have in her 529) and the rest will be her responsibility.
Yes, it is not uncommon for parents to say, “Here is how much money you have, and as long as you stay within that you can pick your school.” Kids do still often need guidance to figure out what a school will cost, how much they can take in federal loans, what they can reasonably expect to earn in summer and school year jobs, etc.
We went a step farther by offering an additional stipend if DD chooses a full ride school.
If she chooses to leave the full ride on the table and go elsewhere (and we visited three full ride NMF schools and offered to visit more, so she isn’t lacking in choices) then we will match her contributions dollar for dollar for other schools. That would mean up to the amount of the unsubsidized student loan amount, plus any job earnings, which would be zero at this point since she volunteers a lot, but has no paying job.
The cost spreadsheets for the schools on her list show how much she would have to contribute over four years, plus the interest and payments on those loans she might take on a typical repayment plan.
She now has one NMF full ride school in her top four schools and is competing for full rides at three non-NMF schools. If she chooses a full ride of any kind we pay all remaining incidental costs, including taxes on the scholarship, and contribute a monthly payment to a savings account she can use once she graduates undergrad.
DD gets to make her own very informed choice and really liked the NMF full ride school on her list. Med School is her objective so having no loans as an undergrad is a big consideration for her.
We are also dangling money. My DD has a full ride or numerous other discounted options. We have promised her 50% of the savings. She works now and pays for some of her own bills and has an idea of who much she has to work to fill her gas tank. It will be interesting to see what she picks.
Which schools are Full Ride for finalists?
We’ve done something similar, encouraged her to understand costs/loans etc., at all her options. We didn’t push for a full ride NMF school but encouraged her to look at schools that were strong in her major that guaranteed significant aid to NMF.
For her, ASU is the best choice in that regard and full-tuition free is plenty for us. We’ve told her that she’ll always be responsible for books/spending money wherever she goes, but if she does end up going to ASU, we’d help pay for a summer international trip and/or an extra year in case she wanted to try to get a Master’s (something ASU says student in the honors college often are able to do.)
She hasn’t decided yet and we await final financial offers from several schools, but having found a great safety, she’s in good shape to make an informed choice.
Alot of of them are listed here:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
One that I know of that is not on this list is West New Mexico University. There may be more.
A NMF would be better served by attending University of NM’s flagship campus in Albuquerque than Western NMU. With NMF, a free ride at UNM is assured.
@nw2this I think one problem you might be facing is that your DD has picked up on the fact that you’re “prestige focused,” so likely that has rubbed off on her to the point that she’s not going to want to attend a lesser school. She may be very aware that you’ll happily full-pay for Stanford or the Ivys.
It sounds like she has the stats for a top school, and a hook (URM), so maybe she’s counting on that and therefore doesn’t think she needs to consider any of these financial safeties.
She doesn’t want to visit any ivies either, would pick our state U over most of them, and is only going to apply to one. In any case, intparent has brought peace to house. Everyone is satisfied with the idea of loans, summer jobs, our 529, and a small scholarship to help fund our state U. No more talk about NMF schools (or ivy’s). I might still post about them because I’m a bit addicted to CC, but they’re off the table at our house.