My son was accepted at VA Tech but only received $5,000 in merit aid. He will not qualify for financial-based need. He has a 34 ACT, straight As with all AP and Honors courses, lots of extra curriculars and #5 in his class of 418 kids. Is this a typical amount of merit aid to receive? He is really disappointed as this is his first choice school.
Advice, please!
@Emmaboo are you in state or out of state?
Check out this thread - things may have changed since 2011, but it’s a starting point (I know they don’t go into detail on their website). http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/virginia-tech/1112809-virginia-tech-merit-based-scholarships.html
vacollegemom4, OOS. Thanks.
Wow…is this the award? Is it for one year only?
Name: Virginia Tech Scholar Scholarship (redundant, right?) Amount: $5,000 Renewable?: No Requirements: Must be admitted to VT (no specific major required, as far as I know). You don't apply for it - I just found a letter in my mailbox, and found out that I had been awarded it. Talk about a nice surprise
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Curious. Did your son research his schools to find out what size awards are typically given for his stats? Or did he just assume that with high stats he’d get large merit?
Same question as @mom2collegekids . VT is not known for large amounts of merit aid, even for instate kids. If you are full pay , hopefully you ran the NPC to get some idea of what kind of expense you were looking at for the schools your son was interested in, particularly the OOS ones. Good luck.
The problem with VT is their net price calculator is not very close to what is offered. $5000 in merit is good for oos. Do not expect anymore. The net price when we did it was off by $4000 per year. It does make a difference. The NPC showed it as grant aid based on our stats and my son did not get it.
Yes, a few thousand a year merit to an OOS student is helpful. Sorry your son did not get anything, @MSMead .
I received the VT Scholar Renewable scholarship of $5,000. Happy to receive this for OOS. I don’t believe VT gives much merit aid. I have a brother graduating from engineering this year and he had higher stats and did not receive any merit aid, so I am pleased.
@Seniorguy Congratulations! Seems like you are in the minority. What are the GPA requirements to renew your award each year?
@STEM2017 Thank you! The requirement is to take at least 12 semester hours, maintain a 2.0 (my mom says I need to maintain at least a 3.0, and remain out of state. My major is biology…4.3 GPA, 30 ACT from a very competive high school.
We got a 4000.00 grant, 2000.00 work study and 5500.00 in loans from VA tech. Nothing else yet. We are OOS. Waiting on private scholarship and a few other things before we accept.
@Seniorguy 2.0 should be easily manageable. Honors requires a 3.6 to stay put. The Davenport Scholarship requires a 3.5 to keep. Good luck!
Based on some research, we thought he could get around $14,000 and hoped he could get outside scholarships as well. Even if he gets an outside scholarship award, we may not know until after May 1st, so it’s hard to make a decision when we don’t have all the facts. Luckily, the $5,000 scholarship from VA Tech that he received is renewable for all four years.
@STEM2017 I can’t rush a fraternity in the spring unless I have a minimum 3.0. I plan on grad school or medical school so I need a higher gpa. VT also gave me 5,500 in loans but I’m not going to take that.
I am at home sick today!
My son is planning on grad school too, so that’s why we are trying to figure out the best course of action with his undergrad degree. Feel better!
still waiting to hear back from cnse, but it looks like she is headed to Louisiana Tech so she can save money for grad school. I am also hoping to convince her to give another look at Clemson. 40000 + is just too much.
Make sure private scholarship (if you get it) won’t reduce your grant from VT…
Thanks. I did not know that could happen!