HYPS or TAMU/UNM/TT/UCF/UK etc. NMSF 2018

I am planning with my Son 2018 to apply mainly to NMF schools with “Full Rides”. Am I shooting to low? I feel it is important for him to graduate without debt. Our main energy has been focused on this instead of top tier schools.

Expected NMF
NHRP This week in mail
4.0/4.7
Class Rank 3rd in 270
ACT 34
SAT: Taken last week but he thinks the score was perfect. (fingers crossed)
PSAT was 1480/221
6 AP Tests 3,4,5,5,5,5
EC Sports Varsity Track 4 years and Varsity Cross Country 2 years
Volunteer work/ Community/ possible Hook: Started a Free Track Club with his sister in High School for Coaching all local kids ages 5-18 to run long distance races, Roads, Cross Country and Track season. Volunteer Coach 4 years, 2 hours and 5 days a week.
Even so upper tiers seem very competitive and expensive. Our EFC is $17500 with 2 kids heading off to school.

To focus only on full ride NMF schools would be a mistake. many schools offer half to full tuition awards to NMF’s. What is your EFC?

A wise man once said, “Never buy anything on sale that you wouldn’t also pay full price for–to do otherwise is a sure way to end up with stuff you didn’t really want, but you bought because you got mesmerized by the discount.” So look over the ones offering big NMF scholarships, & if you really like any, apply there. But don’t apply anywhere ONLY because of the scholarship…there are enough schools that will give your son great scholarships even if they aren’t NMF-related.

It all depends on your income. For many students, the cheapest schools in the country are Harvard, Amherst, UChicago, MIT, etc., because of their need-based financial aid.

You say you have an EFC of 17,500 but you need to run the net price calculators at schools to have an accurate picture of your required contribution for each school you are interested in.

Yes, run the net price calculators on the HYPS schools to see what your net price will be, and ask your parents how that fits into their budget.

Not necessarily a wise statement at all. Many people cannot afford to pay full price for HYPS or other colleges, but would gladly pay a substantially discounted price after financial aid grants are deducted from the price.

What does your son say? Where does he want to apply?

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wise man once said, “Never buy anything on sale that you wouldn’t also pay full price for–to do otherwise is a sure way to end up with stuff you didn’t really want, but you bought because you got mesmerized by the discount.” So look over the ones offering big NMF scholarships, & if you really like any, apply there. But don’t apply anywhere ONLY because of the scholarship…there are enough schools that will give your son great scholarships even if they aren’t NMF-related.


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Not a very wise man… i can think of all sorts of things that i wouldn’t pay full price for but we happily enjoyed and never regretted getting the huge discount.

MoooopNeedsWiserFriends

UCB, you are not getting my point. It’s got nothing to do with Ivies, which, presumably, people would buy at full price (if they had the $). I’m saying it would be a mistake to buy something (in this case, a college education) ONLY because it’s on sale…it doesn’t really appeal to you, and the only attractive thing about it is you can afford it… In other words, if you had a lot of money, you wouldn’t even be looking at a particular school. Even if it is cheap, once you get it, you’ve got something you don’t really want. A bargain isn’t a bargain unless you actually want the thing.

Mom2, yes, you occasionally buy something on sale that you wouldn’t pay full price for, and it works out. But I’d bet if you look in your closet you will find many more things that you bought on sale, and never used. Because of the discount, you overlooked some fatal flaws–the pants are a little too tight, the blouse is an odd color, etc. You never would have paid full price for these, but at 50% off you couldn’t resist.

I know someone who left a full ride school when they realized they had made a big mistake. They had overlooked the bad fit because it was free and far from home. They ended up paying nearly full tuition at a state school (having missed out on several scholarships because of the decision to go to the free school) but still feel they were much better off than if they had stayed at the free school.

Most college students do not have the financial luxury about being picky about college aspects other than whether a college is affordable and offers the academic programs and majors they are interested in. Perhaps the college has little or no appeal otherwise, but the student enrolls because it is the only or one of the few options to achieve the desired goal of earning a bachelor’s degree without a mountain of debt.

Ucb, with the number of colleges in this country, it would be very unusual for someone with the credentials to qualify for a big merit scholarship to be limited to just a few options…where finances and major would necessarily be the only criteria and “fit” would be a complete luxury.

All I’m saying is that words like “discount” & “free” can play tricks on your mind, & make you inflate something’s quality & desirability. Also, in the op’s case, that it might be smart not to limit the search to just national merit full rides, or just full rides, since they do have some money available. (Buckeye’s anecdote is a warning about how things can go really wrong really fast when you get blinded by “free”.)

Are you Florida resident? If so you should be looking at FSU and (as painful as it may be for you…) UF. Since he would qualify for the benacquisto scholarship (full COA).

If you’re OOS, you STILL may want to apply to these schools. There is a decent chance they will open up the scholarship to OOS students for the 2018-2019 school year. Apply, get accepted, and watch what happens in the next state legislature session (March/April). It’s hard to beat full COA…

Still, such a student’s choices are far more limited than those of a student whose parents can willingly pay list price at all colleges. Indeed, if the student cannot pay list price, s/he would not be able to consider your supposed wise man saying about never buying anything on sale (college with financial aid or scholarships) that s/he would not pay full price for, because s/he cannot pay full price.

I knew of a kid lured away from HYPS and ended up in a dog and pony show at a USNWR 20-30 school where they touted the exceptional credentials of this student and even had him attend out of town alumni fund-raising events. It took him less than a year to realize he made the wrong decision and that merit money was payment for his meeting the institutional need for even better students and fundraising dollars. He felt used and left. I am more of the belief that you get nothing for nothing but if you are not willing to meet your EFC and you have a stellar kid the merit option is viable.

all my friends who got 1480 on PSAT didnt get even NMSF!

Well he scored a 1550 on the SAT.