<p>You know, I really can’t see this rising to the level of an "“issue”. It seems like one of those CC-only kind of concerns. People may brag and/or exaggerate all sorts of things, but why would you lose sleep over it? </p>
<p>As for “scholarships”- it can be truly ambiguous whether its merit or need. DS got aid that was called merit, but was described as for students who had to academic credentials to be admitted and had financial need. Honestly there were some awards, we never figured out if they were merit or need (we weren’t that interested in those schools). In my mind, it was either the school was offering money or it wasn’t and what they called it wasn’t that important. True some people may be impressed by the word scholarship, but so what?</p>
<p>Not losing sleep. I do know that the statement contributes to that great college myth of all of those scholarships out there for good students, so don’t worry about cost. Also, as I mentioned earlier, just because someone got financial aid does not mean they did not get scholarships in that package. Many schools have scholarship within their need that are for merit.</p>
<p>For all but a few colleges among the elite, colleges routinely use both merit and need-based aid together.</p>
<p>And (almost) every student’s list of schools should include a few financial aid safety schools, those that through aid or low list price are relatively affordable for the family.</p>
cpt, there are plenty of (or at least “some”) med school need-based grants (even some merit scholarship at some schools but not Yale) but the way I read the “article” she was making money, not just having tuition paid. That just doesn’t happen (unless maybe you’re in the military). And a $50K stipend above tuition and fees would certainly be worth hooting about for a MD/PhD, or anyone else. It just didn’t happen.
Or perhaps it is just poorly worded. Since YSM COA is well into the $60’s , it does sound better than “a partial scholarship” to med school. ;)</p>
<p>Edit: After some further sleuthing on the net, what was reported online about the Yale School of Medicine student getting paid $50k to take classes was misleading on so many levels, I am choosing to ignore it entirely. Be careful out there in internet land.</p>
<p>My son who is currently a sophomore in college could have “made money” at SUNY Maritime without a military obligation, though the school does have a military type of culture. They gave him a big merit award relative to the small state tuition. He was also eligible for a NY state scholarship for that school that was specific to it. He got it. It was also a merit award and would not be reduce or reduce the school award. In addition, if he joined the corp of cadets, which was optional and did not include an obligation for later, he would have gotten a tuition reduction and a paid stipend. Pretty tempting.</p>
<p>That’s the thing. Nothing to lose sleep over, or even get upset about. But I hate to hear about students pinning their hopes on schools their parents can’t afford. I live in the land of “too much income for need based aid and too little to pay $200,000 out of pocket for each kid to go to college.” Most of the folks in my kids’ HS are in the same boat. So many parents hear the statements about “don’t let cost be an issue” and think that scholarships will materialize for their kids at the very top schools.</p>
<p>Missy, that is where most of the families are where I live. I just went to a function related to my youngest son’s school, and all of the moms there had younger kids. I was the old lady who had been through the college app mill. The old story of money for the good students being available is still alive and making the rounds. Few, if any of those parents are going to be eligible for financial aid. Fewer are going to be able to make private college payments without felling the sting.</p>
<p>Some of the schools have creative ways to give merit scholarships in the form of loan forgiveness - the Penn Nursing school has several programs where they pay partial tuition in exchange for agreeing to work in a certain city or hospital for 1-2 years. The most competitive is the Hillman Scholars program that covers $50,000 of tuition.</p>
<p>Exactly. And yes, people should do more research but a lot, including my parents, just don’t, and it’s not helpful to have misinformation (or at the very least, <em>really</em> ambiguous information) “making the rounds” as "old truth."You don’t know how many times I had to tell my parents "NO, Top Ten School will NOT just offer me a “scholarship” because I’m “smart.” And my parents are very bright, well-educated people who had just always heard the myth that money will, somehow, be out there for “good kids.”</p>
And this leads to the problem as I see it- the built -in “blame the kid” excuse. So when there is, predictably, not enough money … “Wha’ happened?” Well, kiddo. I guess you should have worked harder. Here’s this girl getting paid $50K to go to Yale School of Medicine. It’s right here on the interweb. And Bob said little Bobbette has a basketball scholarship to Dartmouth. And you know they wouldn’t say it if it ain’t true. ;)</p>
<p>I always silently hope that those people have a large inheritance or other big pot of money that I don’t know about, so everything will have a happy ending.</p>
<p>so there are FOUR sources of parent money for college:
1- prior earnings (aka savings)
2- current earnings
3- future earnings (aka loans)
4- secret money pots</p>
<p>I agree with many other posters in saying that the only time it irks me a little is when people try and use it for superiority reasons. Case in point: a girl recently transferred to my school and told me that she “was going to play lacrosse, but the team here sucks, but she’ll probably still play division 1 in college because all of her teammates on her premiere team this year have full rides to Ivies.” In fact, she told me her best friend has a full athletic scholarship to Dartmouth, and another has one to Brown. I did my best to smile and nod, but the problem here is that I am actually an athlete experienced in the college recruiting process (different sport; decided not to play D1 for a variety of reasons but know the rules of recruiting well; most of my teammates are going to D1 schools next year on some sort of scholarship). </p>
<p>I was doing the CC bobblehead thing (smile and nod, smile and nod) until she told me that if she had played at our inferior high school, she probably would have lost her potential full athletic scholarship to Dartmouth or Yale. I’m a little ashamed, but I just couldn’t resist…I just went, “oh, really? My premiere coach was pretty clear that the Ivies don’t offer athletic scholarships, only FA. Huh, it must have just been his mistake!” Smile, nod, walk away.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know it was petty…but I could tell by the look on her face that she knew perfectly well that they didn’t offer scholarships. She just assumed I didn’t know anything, and proceeded to bash our “not good enough for the Ivy League” school. Oh well…back to my daily life.</p>
<p>Meanness always bothers me and some of the comments are just mean spirited. But many of the remarks are just thoughtless and out of ignorance. That they get repeated and the myth of scholarships galore is perpetuated is what bothers me.</p>
<p>And I recently heard a very unfortunate story of a child who was a top HS student who was accepted at several top (private) schools but did not receive the expected scholarships. Didn’t get into financial safety (state flagship, very competitive). I don’t know the family well enough to know why student expected merit aid. Perhaps his parents heard statements such as above and based expectations on that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the college counselor at D’s HS was very blunt with me. She stated flat out that if we were a family with $ X income and living in a house worth $ Y, we should expect no need based FA. Kind of harsh as well as scary (the numbers she quoted were right on the mark!). But I am very grateful as we did not have any false expectations.</p>
<p>No ned to hear your own financial situation in reagrd to college tuition from advisor, family knows its finances.<br>
It is surprizing that kid graduating #1 would not get to state flagship. Must be some kind of misunderstanding. My D. got Merit shcolarships from every single school that she has applied (yes, they were Merit, not need based, we are nowhere near to qualify for any need based, never felt like asking anybody about it). She applied only to one Private (the biggest scholarship), the rest State, one of which OOS. She is college senior next year at state school, in-state, all tuition has been covered and more. Definitely was worthwhile to choose state college, so we saved up for Grad. School, although at Private of her choice we would have paid about $5,000 / year with $28,000 / year covered by Merit $$. But anyway, she has graduated #1 in her HS class, and that is why I was so surprized to see that “a top HS student … Didn’t get into financial safety (state flagship, very competitive).” I am sure he would have gotten to Harvard. State schools got more competitive than Ivy’s? Interesting…</p>
<p>Not surprising at all. Here in Illinois, for example, there are many top kids who don’t get into U of I, esp in engineering programs. It’s nobody’s safety these days.</p>
<p>She said “top student” not #1. In the community where I work, it’s not unusual for the local hs only have one student admitted. Many top students don’t get into our state flagship and most don’t consider it a safety. Therefore, they usually apply to another true financial safety as well as the state flagship.</p>
<p>^^Likewise, in Va, no “top student” should really regard either UVa or W&M as “safeties”. This goes double for students from NoVa since both UVa and W&M want some semblance of geographic balance in their freshman classes.</p>
Be careful out there in internet land.</p>