<p>I did not get a merit scholarship, but my stats are:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.65 unweighted
SATs: 2130 (760, 640, 730)
1200 service hours, Model UN, Youth and Government, Girls State, a lot of mentoring of youth</p>
<p>mmm they dont take writing so ur in the same boat as me.. 1400 Sat and relatively mediocre GPA= no scholarship</p>
<p>i got in with horrible stats</p>
<p>gpa: 3.08
sat: 1800 (590 math, 590 verbal, 620 writing)
act: 28</p>
<p>but i have very good extra curriculars i guess, ASB, Nationally Ranked Football Team, various other things</p>
<p>Kind of disappointed with my aid package. I got a 12,000 scholarship but only 1000 in grants and 26,000 in PLUS loans. Guess its true that this school is hit or miss with money. At least now I can cross it off the list and be done with the possibility of going there.</p>
<p>Anoel....we wish our DD had gotten $12000 per year in scholarship money. That is renewable. She got a $6K SCU grant...need based...which we won't even qualify for next year. It's her first choice school, and she was hoping for something a little more. When we are out there, I'll visit the finaid office to have a chat with them. I'm sure it won't matter, but it's worth a try.</p>
<p>We will likely talk with the FA office as well to see whether they will award a NMF scholarship in addition to any merit award they gave for son, once he decides that's where he really wants to go. Not sure whether speaking with them will do any good either. Friends who are there have been very happy--one is graduating in 3 years & getting his masters in his 4th year. He was awarded $20,000/year.</p>
<p>We got our pkg as well. About the same as yours Anoel, actually maybe not quite as good. No scholarship, but we see a silver lining there. His grades won't be as big a factor. We did get a grant of 12,650( our efc is 13,000 for each of two kids)work study of 2500, fed subsidized loan of 2500. We then got the big Plus loan offer of 27,000 dollareenies.I was definitly not happy but not surprised.
We got a better pkg from UPS( 6000 scholarship, 14,000 grant, work study of under 2000 and stafford loan same. and school costs less to attend)) We thought about asking SCU to match the grant offered by UPS which was about a 1350 difference, but in the end after running a spreadsheet of our finances we found we could make it work as is and still decline the work study and plus loan. Son has diabetes, and even though he has a real can do attitude and is a hard worker I want him to focus on managing his medical issue foremost with his studies. In the end I made a deal with myself that I was willing to accept less of a $$ offer to keep him in as safe an environment as possible in terms of this high risk health concern. Fortunatly SCU is his #1 choice too. We do have some resources to use that others may not have, company stock purchase and some options that we will use to avoid debt. Possibly some home equity. In the Sili Valley we are not considered well off, we have a single income, in large part due to son's health issue. Public schools aren't dependable here in terms of diabetes accomodations, makes it unsafe for the child for both parents to work. I have had to get to the school quickly on a few occassions he needed help or to come home for this. Currently they and the ADA are in court over this stuff.</p>
<p>I looked at SCU's common data set for financial aid, their average need based grant is 14,200 approx. So a grant of 6000/1000 is way less than their average. I would think for being out of state, and depending on stats that they should have offered more. There is a thread here on asking for more aid. I'll try to find it. My hope is that as people decline acceptance, money will loosen up some.
I did find an article in the student run paper that talked about the difference in finacial aid budget increase for this year. 4% this year over a 13% increase the year before. I am not sure whats going on here, other than ambitious building project cost increases, Katrina giving frenzy that may have cut into the budget, alumni donations may have been down. The valley has not fully recovered from the dot come bust when 300,000 people lost jobs out here.</p>
<p>aid offer thread on asking to adjust aid.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=4786&page=1&pp=20%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=4786&page=1&pp=20</a></p>
<p>thumper, I'd gladly give your D my scholarship money if I could. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to give money like that as if you're one of their top applicants/they want you and then give you huge loans. And when you're EFC is 11000, there's not much you can do. But I really hope you can get more aid out of the school. </p>
<p>sweetkidsmom, I'm sorry you got stuck with a similar bad package. I had seen it mentioned before but it doesn't really hit you til you see it. I'm glad you were able to work out so your son can go there though. It really does seem like a good school.</p>
<p>It's not my first choice and I'd rather go to a SoCal college anyways but still...I'd like to have the option of going here (the psychology program is just too wonderful to resist) and it doesn't look realistic right now, even if it was possible to change the aid package. I'm just hoping my other schools will be more generous and leave off the stupid PLUS loans. After reading all the horror stories about debt, I don't want me or my parents to go through that.</p>
<p>In the end SCU is hurting themselves with this. They won't raise their national presence doing this. I would love to see you go to SCU. The fewer out of state students that can come means less diversity for my son.</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with the FAid office at SCU. They said that all the files are being evaluated for the final offer letters that should come out next week. She suggested I call back after we receive the final offer letter that should be updated from the letter we received in February. She was very nice.</p>
<p>Whats the difference in the final letter as opposed to the initial offer? We already accepted and/or declined portions of the initial offer.</p>
<p>Its so rainy here today, grey skies. Unlike Hawaii, I can't just walk across the street and where it isn't raining.</p>
<p>I'm not sure, but she said they would consider additional honors/awards that the student has received in deciding final awards. She was pretty vague. I was asking her about whether NMFs might receive a merit scholarship in addition to any merit award received from SCU & she said final award letters are coming out next week.</p>
<p>just saw my financial aid offer on ecampus.
Ford Fed Direct Loan Sub 2,625.00<br>
FFEL PLUS Loan I 36,794.00<br>
Federal Work Study 2,500.00<br>
SCU Grant 3,600.00 </p>
<p>not happy considering efc was 14,000. then again my sat scores were pretty horrendous 560 verbal and 510 math</p>
<p>I think I'll give them a call tomorrow. It would be wonderful if DD got a better grant. We checked and there was nothing in her original aid letter that indicated we had to accept or decline her aid. Where was that???</p>
<p>That kind of confirms what we were thinking here. you can call the $$ a scholarship or a grant. The money comes out of the same pot so to speak. Sons SAT's were 740/700 and writing was 720 but GPA not as good as others getting scholarships for both high GPA and high SAT. WE look at the grant he got as some might the merit $$ they get. His reward for high SAT's.</p>
<p>Thumper, the accept or decline of financial aid was on line at ecampus.</p>
<p>We didn't apply for FAid & the acceptance letter son got with the merit scholarship didn't mention accepting or declining anywhere, just the May 1 deadline for making a deposit for school & housing.</p>
<p>HImom,
It was in the ecampus message on line that contained his fin aid pkg. But since you didn't apply for financial aid and they would not have offered need based aid in that case, you probably only have to send in the deposit.</p>
<p>We just looked at the ecampus site. We will call them tomorrow. DD wants to accept their offer (unless of course there is more to come..) but is not yet prepared to commit to SCU. She will be going there for an accepted student overnight on April 18. We just want to make sure that acceptance of the finaid package isn't the same as committing to the university.</p>
<p>Yeah, I had that same question a few days ago. The only reason I didn't call for an answer was son jumped on the acceptance so fast. We also wanted his reg for dorm space to get in early as he has some specific issues to address in this area.
Thumper I don't know whether I should pray for rain and snow for you two on April 18 or another beautiful day. But which ever you want thats what I will try to arrange with my special California magic wand.
I also have to call the F aid office, wondering if declining the work study aid and gigantic plus loan has any effect on the larger grant. After submitting the yes's and no's the ecampus computer spit back a call the aid office note.</p>