<p>Hi.
I have a large list of colleges I am considering. I am just a sophomore now, but I feel that I need to narrow this list down. And one way I can do that is through financial aid offered to me. I am just wanting to know of the schools that generally offer large FA to OOS students.</p>
<p>Colleges:
Alabama
Bradley
Bucknell
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western Reserve
Clemson
UConn
Cooper Union
Delaware
Georgia Tech
Illinois IT
UIUC
Iowa State
Johns Hopkins
Kansas
Lafayette
Lehigh
Marquette
Missouri S&T
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Oklahoma State (in state)
U Penn
Purdue
Rice
U Rochester
Rochester IT
Rose-Hulman IT
Rowan
RPI
Saint Louis
Southern Methodist
Stevens IT
Syracuse
UT-Dallas
Texas A&M
Trinity U-Texas
Tufts
Tulsa (in state)
Vanderbilt
Villanova
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wisconsin-Madison
WPI</p>
<p>It's a long list and I am sorry. But with your help I can shrink this list down! :)
Thank you!</p>
<p>You can do some of your own research, which will help you learn more about the schools to begin with.</p>
<p>First – make sure you understand the difference between merit aid and financial aid. This is a crucial difference.</p>
<p>Second – talk to your parents and run a few EFC calculators to get an idea of what your parents are expected to pay. Financial aid awards will factor in this EFC, and expect your parents to pay. </p>
<p>Take a look at the schools on your list on college board and see what % of need they meet – the higher the percentage, the better. Keep in mind, that is an average – you could get great merit aid at a school that is not very generous to most kids (NYU is known for this).</p>
<p>Good luck with your search - -there are many, many schools out there and your are right to start looking early. One great piece of advice – don’t have a 'favorite" school; keep an open mind and apply to a wide range of schools that seem to “fit” you well. Don’t get enamored by a “name” school.</p>
<p>And one way I can do that is through financial aid offered to me. I am just wanting to know of the schools that generally offer large FA to OOS students.</p>
<p>I’m guessing I’m not clear on the difference between the two. Can you explain this to me so I’m clear?</p>
<p>Financial aid is determined by a family’s need. If your family doesn’t qualify (or won’t qualify for much), then even if a schools gives FA, you won’t get any (or won’t get much).</p>
<p>So, first you need to determine whether your family would qualify for aid. Is your family very low income? To determine EFC, use this…<br>
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid)
Do both the federal method and institutional. Many privates use the both methods. If there is a non-custodial parent, then their income (and step-parent incomes) might also be included at some schools.</p>
<p>Also, most schools don’t have much funds to give. OOS publics and many privates don’t have funds to give other than what a low income student would get from the gov’t.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are based on stats. That’s a whole different story. IF you have a high GPA (3.5+) and you have high test scores (say above 2100 SAT or ACT 32+), then you’d have a good chance for a good amount of merit at the schools that give merit.</p>
<p>So, you have some homework to do. </p>
<p>Figure out what your family’s EFC is (using both methodologies). </p>
<p>Ask your parents how much they can contribute each year. If it’s less than their EFC, that will mean you’ll need to VERY carefully pick schools that will give big merit.</p>
<p>If your EFC is very low, then you’ll have to carefully pick schools that give a lot of aid.</p>
<p>One thing about merit aid, is that you’re most likely to get it at schools where your grades and test scores put you in the top bracket of enrolled students. In other words, if you are academically very strong compared to the school’s typical student, you’re more likely to get merit aid.</p>
<p>It can be useful to look at each school’s financial aid webpages. Determine if they award merit scholarships, then look at the academic profile of admitted students and see where you stand in relation to that.</p>
<p>Since you’re just a sophomore now, and you’ll be needing merit scholarships, then you need to make sure that your GPA is high and your test scores are high.</p>
<p>Right now, it’s too early to make a list. Once you have scores and a better idea of what your GPA will be, then you can figure out where you can get merit.</p>
<p>In the meantime, get some ACT and SAT practice books and use them.</p>
<p>Though I typically agree with mom2collegekids, I don’t really think it’s too early to start making a list. If you’re having a little fun daydreaming about it and researching it over the summer, and if it helps you narrow your focus on schools, then why not do a little pre-planning? It sounds like you know that your list will likely fluctuate and change as learn more about each school. And, as you said, your list is too long and NEEDS some changing!</p>
<p>If you and your parent(s) have any time this summer, you could begin by visiting a few close-by college campuses. After visiting a handful of campuses, you’ll probably know more about what it is that you do and don’t like in a college. And once you know that (size, location, feel, more conservative or more liberal, party-school or more academic, etc.), you’ll be able to do more research from home, on the internet, to narrow that list of yours.</p>
<p>That’s how my kids narrowed their lists. So far, so good.</p>
<p>Cost. If money is a factor at all, you could begin by researching each school’s available merit scholarships. Many schools publish them. Other schools don’t give the specifics on their websites. But, if you call them, you can find out what their top scholarships are.</p>
<p>For example, while Rose-Hulman does give out a very generous scholarship to a select few (can’t exactly remember – maybe $18K per year?), whatever the amount is, it is not enough to offset the cost of RHIT for my family. Since even their largest (albeit very generous) scholarship still does not make RHIT affordable for us, there’s no reason for him to apply there. It came off his list.</p>
<p>(Before you take a school that you REALLY love off your list for financial reasons, you’ll want to be sure that you won’t qualify for need-based aid – sounds like you won’t, I think you said, and you’ll probably want to call the school to verify what you saw on their website.)</p>
<p>Other schools are very small or very unique (Cooper Union). Both “very small” and “very unique” are palatable to a smaller percentage of kids. I’m not knocking the schools at all, or those qualities at all (my kids like very small!), but I am saying that only certain kinds of kids would be happy or feel a good fit in a very small or very unique school. Perhaps you already know if you’re one of those kids or not. If you don’t know how you feel about that yet, then some campus visits over the next year and a half should help you decide.</p>
<p>Likewise, lots of kids aren’t comfortable with massively huge. Some of the schools on your list are gi-normous. If you’re somebody who doesn’t want to be on a gi-normous campus, that can help you narrow your search.</p>
<p>And, some kids want a purely undergraduate focus, rather than schools with large doctoral or research programs, etc. If that’s you, then there are more schools you can take off your list.</p>
<p>I suppose you’ve heard: You’ll want to focus your eventual list on 3 categories. Pick your top 3 or so “reach schools” – the ones you’d love to go to but where chances might be slim; pick your favorite 3 or so “match” schools – the ones that you think are a perfect fit for your strengths and weaknesses – where you’d really love to be AND where your stats match what the school wants; and pick your favorite 3 “safeties” – where you’re basically a shoe-in with your stats AND finances. (Make SURE you really are a shoe-in, AND that you really can afford to go to your safeties, AND that you really can be happy there! A lot of people make a mistake in the “safety” area.)</p>
<p>There’s no need to have more than a few safeties, for sure. And there’s little need to have more than a few matches either.</p>
<p>Anyway, that should begin to narrow your focus even more.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! It’s been a while since I started this, so my list has gotten smaller. It’s about 3/4 of this list above.
I think I’m gonna try and visit some colleges this summer. I just have to talk with m parents.</p>
<p>Oh, and I learned since my family will have 2 kids in college when I enroll, we will probably qualify for some financial aid. It’s probably not going to be a lot, but it’s better than nothing.</p>
<p>This is a great time for your parents to learn how the FA process works at public and private schools. There are some very informative websites, such as finaid.org, and books like “Paying for College Without Going Broke” that would be helpful to them (and, of course, they can post any questions here, which is how many of us figure it all out:)) If they need to make any changes to the way their assets are structured in order to legally reduce their EFC, they will want to do so this year.</p>
<p>Oh, and I learned since my family will have 2 kids in college when I enroll, we will probably qualify for some financial aid.</p>
<p>Yes, you might qualify for some financial aid. However, if your sibling’s EFC plus your EFC totals to an amount that your family can’t pay, then you’ll still have a problem. And, once the first child graduates, your EFC doubles. </p>
<p>So…if your EFC is $25k and your sibling’s EFC is $25k, and your parents can’t pay the $50k each year for the both of you or the $50k per year when only you are in college, you still have the same problem.</p>
<p>Anyway, you have to ask your parents how much they can pay out each year for college costs - when 2 are in school and when 1 is in school. If the amount is lower than all EFCs combined, then that will be a concern.</p>
<p>I should have been more clear when I said that it’s too early to be making lists. It’s ok to be considering various schools and learning about their programs, scholarship offers and what-have-you. But, until you have scores and a better idea of what your cum GPA will be, there’s no reason to be eliminating any schools now, unless you’ve learned something about a school that would not work for you.</p>
<p>I see what you’re saying mom2collegekids. I think they can’t really pay for much of it, which is why I’m really looking for schools with merit aid right now. I’ve gotten rid of some schools because either they offer very little to no merit aid, or there was something I didn’t like about the school.</p>
<p>I asked them the other day and it didn’t seem like they would be able to pay for any of it. If they could, it would be very little.</p>
<p>@5pencer: you might know this already, but you can find a lot of information about colleges by Googling “common data set” and the college’s name. The common data set reports include admissions info and info about how much financial aid is offered. (Although we never could find UPenn’s common data set, for some reason.)</p>
<p>*I asked them the other day and it didn’t seem like they would be able to pay for any of it. If they could, it would be very little. *</p>
<p>Ok…then this is for YOU and YOUR sibling (since your sibling will be facing the problem before you will). You both will have an EFC that your parents can’t pay. Will your sibling be a junior or senior next year?</p>
<p>Since your parents have made it clear that they can’t pay much for college for you or your sibling. Yet, your high EFCs will leave you with big uncovered gaps. </p>
<p>So…you and your sibling’s options are limited to…</p>
<p>1) Big merit scholarships that will cover tuition and maybe more. The rest of costs can get covered by fed loans (about $6k per year), work-study (for personal expenses), summer earnings, and maybe a modest amount from your parents to cover books.</p>
<p>2) Commuting to a local public college. No room and board costs. Tuition, books, & transportation can be paid for thru fed student loans, part-time job during the school year, summer job earnings, small contribution from parents.</p>
<p>3) Start at CC. Low cost. Continue to earn & save money thru summer jobs & part-time school year jobs to use towards junior and senior years at a University.</p>
<p>Right now, you have to remove all schools that give mostly FA (and not merit). You need to look at schools that give BIG merit for stats - especially those who will give ASSURED merit for stats.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if a school is known to be “generous with aid.” That doesn’t mean squat to students with high EFCs that aren’t affordable to their families. that just means that those schools are generous at meeting determined need.</p>