Rutgers has a handful of Presidential Scholarships. Was hoping to snag one :-).
I don’t know if we’d have been tempted. Probably not given the other choices. At that point we were in a relatively price insensitive mood.
I thought all of the students who got into honors at Rutgers got some merit (my 3.9 33/34 act kids didn’t make the cut).
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Well said on many accounts…
Agreed! My D was a high GPA, high test score student and we are full pay. When we went to scholarship night senior year the kids who got big scholarships were mostly athletes. Or some who applied to some lesser known schools. Most the “top” students going to “top” schools were not the ones getting the money. That’s why so many kids here go to our good state flagship - it’s the most affordable option.
Some “top” colleges give little or no merit money. And even when they do, the “top” students at your high school are unlikely to be the “top” students that “top” colleges feel that they need to entice with merit money.
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I agree about top colleges giving no merit aid. HYPSM has no merit.
I have heard 40K merit awards at JHU. UChicago gives a few merit awards. USC gives some full rides, and Duke gives some merit that I’ve heard of.
I work for a college. I have one kid who started at a tech school/community college type of place. He is now working full time taking a break from college due to Covid changing the course delivery.
My other 2 kids are 3.4 and 3.2 GPA students. They aren’t going to get huge academic merit. I have 1 applying for colleges now. Due to my work at the college, they may be able to get some tuition remission benefits but it does limit their college choices.
I too am completing my doctorate. If you choose to work in academia, you may want to look into possible tuition remission for your spouse and children as its a common benefit at universities.
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Well said!
Well said! Applying to small, local scholarships can be a great way to get some money and a lot of people don’t realize what is out there.
Yes! That’s how it was at the school where I worked and my kids attended. Though we never had a “scholarship night.” We did have a sports awards night and end of the year awards ceremony.
I am curious what sort of local scholarships are available. We have given up on these and instead just asked the kids to look for summer internships starting as early as possible.
Our HS has about 75 outside scholarships from local organizations, one of my kids ended up with $10,000 with 4 of them, probably filled out 50 applications. Another one received about $4000 with 6 scholarships.
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Wow!! That is amazing! Congratulations.
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Around here I see small ones, typically 2K or less. Our local bank gives a few, the Optimist Club, a few named scholarships along the lines of The Joe Schmoe award for top theater crew member. The occasional employer up to maybe 5K.
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You shouldn’t give up. If you give up, you won’t get anything. Also, not every summer internship is a paid internship. Kids can get jobs over the summer.
If you want to get local scholarships, you need to look. Talk to your school’s guidance counselor. If you want money for college, you gotta pound the pavement.
Check with your local Rotary or Elks club. In our area, they do give out scholarships. Do you attend church? See if there are any scholarship opportunities there. One of my S’s friends got a scholarship through her church. Our local Jewish Community Center and our local Chabad Center both give scholarships, but you do have to be Jewish. Look around. A lot of non-profits give scholarships. In our area, local businesses give scholarships. Our Toyota dealership gives scholarships…
Hmm… Thank you. Need to think about these. I am shocked that a Toyota dealership would give a scholarship :-).
I don’t know how common it is for car dealerships to give scholarships, but the owner’s kids attend one of our local high schools and they sponsor the school’s sports teams and they buy ads in the yearbook. I think there scholarship is for a local student who has helped out in the community…this dealership is big on charity and community involvement.
Lots of businesses give scholarships, but you have to ask.
Here is an article:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/how-to-find-local-scholarships-in-your-own-backyard
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You are not alone in this, but remember that only a portion of kids get to go to college and of that, only a small portion go to private or OOS public. Not a lot of “other parents” are getting as much “help” as you may be thinking they are.
Most of the scholarships in our district include a requirement for need, in addition to having a great HS resume. Also remember that what you hear from others may not be entirely accurate. Even for athletes, there are almost no full ride true scholarships. There may be a partial scholarship, plus financial aid. Unless they are a D1, nationally ranked superior athlete in a well funded sport.
That being said, many colleges offer partial scholarships for a variety of students. My B+ student got some in the $12,000 range for colleges with $>50K tuition. Not much of a dent, but still nice (even though he didn’t choose one of those schools).
As others have said, merit money is designed to attract kids that will help a school’s ranking or other factor. Thus, a kid that is above the 75th percentile in GPA and test scores could be a target for merit money.
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Conversely, if a student is applying to a “reach” (for admission) college, the likelihood of merit money should be considered very low, since even colleges that give lots of merit money are unlikely to offer it to those at the bottom of their admission class (the main exception would be colleges that set high list prices but then offer every admit “merit” money). “Match” (for admission) colleges should also be considered unlikely for merit money.
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Well said and very true! I think the fact that parents love to talk and toot their own horn, doesn’t help. But that’s life. In both of my kid’s graduating classes, only 1 or 2 kids got full ride scholarships and they were athletes who also had great grades. Most years, it’s 1 kid. I think one year there were 3 kids who got full rides, but that was exceptional.
That is true and it’s something to keep in mind, especially if your kid wants to apply to reach schools.
Sounds like you’re more disappointed about not having bragging rights than concerned about the financial burden.
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