<p>Full rides are absolutely possible to near-guarantee for a top-student. Of course, the schools in question will not be top-tier; more like third- or fourth-tier publics. The Alabama offer is really great.</p>
<p>Wait-- another thought. He could go to one of the military academies. Not a penny to pay out of pocket. Bingo. Or, go to a school on an ROTC scholarship. Another good plan if $$ is an issue. Everyone has heard of West Point , Annapolis and the Air Force Academy. Meets the prestige factor.</p>
<p>My s got an incredible offer from Alabama totally out of the blue–full ride, travel money and a laptop. There might even have been more-- I don’t recall. But it required him to commit by Dec. 1, before he’d have heard from other schools. Totally agree, though-- it was an absolute guarantee handed to him on a silver platter.</p>
<p>Dad II - Are you saying that you WON’T EVEN ALLOW your son to apply to OSU because the cumulative cost is likely to be $80K v. $75K you estimated elsewhere? </p>
<p>And, if OSU is completely off the table, what will you do if (heaven forbid) all the other schools reject him or cost more than $80K?</p>
<p>As a last resort, please, please, let your son apply to OSU. Go ahead and decline the acceptance when something better comes along. But at least put in the app.</p>
<p>jym - You should have written to Alabama for an extension. Don’t almost all schools these days abide by the May 1 deadline? Granted, some request earlier commitment but will yield if you press it.</p>
<p>Rutgers basically guarantees a scholarship that covers all of in-state tuition, fees, and room and board. You need to have an SAT>1500 on the math and reading sections and top 5% class rank. Some schools are more explicit than others. I’m going to Rutgers on this scholarship. It’s def a great value worth looking into if your son has the necessary rank/SAT’s.</p>
<p>"how does a top student pick a school that meet 100% of the financial need and s/he could for sure get in? "
Ha! When you find out, would let all the other CC parents know? What you want is the “holy grail” or the “have your cake and eat it too” wish of thousands of students and parents. There is no answer because there is no “guarantee of admission” these days!</p>
<p>A word to DAD- I hope you won’t repeat the “I’m pulling the plug on “the less prestigious college” application because it’s not good enough for my child” scenario that happened when you D was applying to colleges. I trust you are both older and wiser this time around.</p>
<p>S has spent $1200 this year on personal expenses, including textbooks. Spending his own $$ is a great incentive to NOT doing so!</p>
<p>Don’t count on it. The poor kid likely has no choice but to apply Stanford SCEA anyway.</p>
<p>Dad II, look at Dickinson. They offer significant scholarships for students in the top 10% of their class and who have over a cumulative SAT scores that averages to about 700 on each section. (Check their website for details.)</p>
<p>Dickinson was my daughter’s “likely” – and yes, she did get in, although she did not choose to attend. Top students do have to demonstrate interest (campus visit and interview are probably essential), but Dickinson relies on their scholarships to bring some of the best and the brightest to campus.</p>
<p>DadII, here’s Dickinson’s scholarship page:</p>
<p>[Dickinson</a> College - Admissions - Academic Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.dickinson.edu/admit/scholarjdsbrs.html]Dickinson”>http://www.dickinson.edu/admit/scholarjdsbrs.html)</p>
<p>Note: Dickinson is not a slouch college. It’s usually ranked somewhere around 45 in the USNWR LAC list.</p>
<p>^ Do note that Dickinson’s scholarships are NOT guaranteed. The qualifications listed are at MINIMUM. And the highest amount, 17.5k/year, is less than half tuition, leaving 32.5k to pay (30.5k if NMF). That’s usually only affordable for those who make enough to be disqualified for need-based aid.</p>
<p>Of course they are not guaranteed. Very little IS guaranteed.</p>
<p>The way that the U. of Alabama works is this – you must apply and be accepted by December 1 for priority scholarship consideration. My son did so, and he was offered a full tuition scholarship. Since he was in the running for National Merit, if he were named a Finalist by Feb. 1, he would receive a package including tuition, honors housing and study aboard/research stipend. He followed those guidelines. Now, when he named Alabama as his National Merit choice, he got all of the previous plus a $1,000 per year stipend and a laptop.</p>
<p>BTW, Alabama was not his top choice but a likely school. He chose the school because of the incredible financial offer, as well as its outstanding honors programs, over five other excellent schools.</p>
<p>Dad needs to get a serious reality check. If the family needs aid, then S should not be traveling for 5 weeks…that is insane. It must be nice to have that much disposable cash floating around; we don’t have it. Our S has found work in his major area each year since jr. yr. of HS and this year as a soph. is going to be working as an intern with full benefits (pension too!) for $10K for the summer.<br>
I agree with so many other posters that he needs to be more realistic in his goals: we would all love to find a top 10 school that paid 100% of need and also had 100% admittance. Those are mutually exclusive goals. So he is going to have to decide which one he wants to lower. I think that two out of the three are possible, but one of them is going to have to be relaxed.<br>
To our family the most important aspect was fit for our S. He turned down some significantly more highly ranked schools for the one that he chose, but he loves it there and is thriving. He knows all the faculty in his dept. and really like the small class size (4 students in his last math class (after one dropped)). He has so many friends who are now transfering because they don’t like the schools that they are at. Prestige and awards aren’t much good if the student is miserable for 4 years.</p>
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<p>PG, why do you make negative assumptions like this? </p>
<p>I learnt during DD’s process - pushing any college they do not want to apply will be a waste of time and money. </p>
<p>In this round, I am merely supplying information so DS could make up his own list. Seeing how happy his sister is over there and all other information, DS is eager to do the SCEA.</p>
<p>What you didn’t learn through DD’s process is that there is no college out there in the very top tier that falls under the rubric of “guaranteed admission for a smart student” AND “is guaranteed to meet your financial needs, generously.” You won the lottery because Stanford admitted your DD and met your financial needs, generously. You are asking to how to guarantee that you will win the lottery again with DS.</p>
<p>If you SERIOUSLY want to save money AND have guaranteed admission, why not investigate the U of Alabama program? There’s no question that your DS will get in, and it will be extremely low-cost.</p>
<p>But I doubt it will be of interest to you, which tells me that you’re willing to take some risks to ensure a better school than Alabama. In which case – then you have to take your chances that you’ll have to pay more.</p>
<p>We spent a lot of money initially on one of my kid’s college visits. When we reached a point where I realized that this was too much, we did some cutbacks that really made a difference. He went with other families and kids, and stayed with someone in the dorm. </p>
<p>Most people are not looking for guarantees but are trying to increase the chances on the selections they want. In my opinion, everyone should have good school choice that is likely to take them and will not cost as much. It can be the option of commuting to a local state school. It’s better to do this than to scramble at the end when the options are fewer and the money just about gone.</p>
<p>PG, believe it or not, I am done asking on this subject. Thanks to many informative inputs, including one from you, I have made my decision. </p>
<p>I was not asking for a garanttee but an approach/method. I think applying to schools with generous need based FA is less risking than getting an equal amount of merit aid no matter how low do we look. </p>
<p>Please do not believe very top student is garanteed to get the top merit $$ at lower tier schools. Most of those school know that you are only interested in the $$. I have personally heard so many stories that very best students failing to get the top merit $$ from school outside the top 100 ranking.</p>
<p>Indeed, merit aid is competitive anywhere. So look lower, or rather, look broadly–the guaranteed scholarship at Alabama, which you seem to be ignoring completely, is one example. I gather that Alabama is not to your or your S’s taste, which is perfectly fine; however, it IS an option.</p>