OP what did twin 1 do as a GSET Scholar?
She was nominated by her school (only 3 students are nominated from one school) then only 60 students from entire state accepted to this program. Only two students from our school were accepted.
What did twin 1 do in this program? What are her ECs?
no one can count on winning an elite scholarship anywhere. Not sure anyone said they were. Someone just said the Robertson requires a nomination and that hasn’t been true for years.
I already listed previously all her credentials.
Yes I know… but I don’t know what a GSET Scholar is… or does.
The reason why I am asking is to gather more input from you for possible merit $.
You indicated that you earn $360.000 per year and have close to $2 million in non- retirement assets… and you expect a discount. You will not get any type of need based discount. Your twins may get merit $ if they apply smartly…or…maybe… if they have major accomplishments outside of academics (hyper competitive scholarships want to see this). I do think there is a chance at GT. Anyway, I have said all there is to say.
Good luck!
I i was told by three FA directors at PROFILE schools that most institutional calculators using CSS PROFILE uses the 60% for institutional EFC for two kids in school. These are schools that meet full or near full need as they calculate it. 60% is a standard that shows up if you research thus.
All schools have their own ways of meeting need and the fact of the matter is that it’s rare a school will meet FAFSA EFC. Unlike FAFSA, PROFILE does not have an absolute standard of methodology even among the groups of schools that say they do use the same formulas to each other. But some generalities can be made , and I believe 60% of single student EFC is a good rule of thumb in this particular situation though not a fixed rule as the FAFSA
OP can let us know how the institutional EFCs work for each student at her PROFILE schools that guarantee to meet full need. I think 60% is good rule of thumb and will continue to so post in such cases
I think OP’s kids are fine with the Rutgers back up. I very much doubt MIT, Stanford, Ivy league schools on list will give any money even with two in college. But there are schools on the list that do give merit. I personally know of kids who got merit money from UMIch, UCLA, Georgia Tech which was surprising to me. And their stats were not as high as OP’s. I even know kids who get merit money from NYU.
CMU will negotiate at times, but not likely to go from zero financial aid to anything in grants, and they don’t give merit through their admissions office. The very few associated merit awards that some of these schools give are from private sources and are very rare.
UTAustin gives about 15 kids the 40 Acres Scholarship—chances of getting that very tiny. And maybe a couple of those kids are OOSers. You’d do better checking out ruce that does have that Initiative giving some families with higher thresghikdsbofbincine to qualify for aid.
@Al73 , what are NPCS from the most selective schools saying you can expect to be asked to pay? Do use the calculators in the actual schools’ website as things change and other calculators are not likely to be as accurate.
Rice won’t give these kids money as part of their new initiative. I looked into that. One has to have savings commiserate with your income. OP has too much savings.
There are apparently ways to get instate tuition in Texas by the student owning property there (there are additional requirements but this is the most critical piece). For a family with substantial assets, helping the student to buy a condo there (in the student’s name) would be an option worth investigating.
We were deluged with flyers from realtors offering to help with these transactions when D18 was admitted to UT Austin (though we didn’t pursue it because she had already been offered one of the ultra-rare OOS tuition waivers and eventually went elsewhere with a full ride scholarship).
Austin used to have affordable property options that really did make this a consideration, but that was back in the day. In reality, Texas has a gazillion ORM top stats kids. OPs hook IS the full pay. OOS admit rate has dropped to 15%, that is a big drop from even relatively recent years.
I don’t think the student needs to own property in Austin. Back in the day, a student could own real estate anywhere in Texas to get this discount…and there are some areas in Texas with very inexpensive pieces of land that would have sufficed back then.
However, this doesn’t change that this student would be admitted as an OOS applicant, with a much lower chance of admission than instate students have (and UT A isn’t exactly a cakewalk for admissions for instate students).
What do they consider commensurate with income? Also with two kids in college the institutional EFC for Rice will be 60% of a singletons ( as will be at many PROFILE schools)
Im hearing all kinds of things about this new initiative. Some families have negotiated an award from it Fter initially denied, Ive heard. I’m going to call FA there directly to get the scoop. It would help if they put this on their NPC.
The current FAFSA EFC for EACH twin is $107,000 and that is the 50/50 split on FAFSA. And the $1.9 million in non-retirement assets certainly is high. While Rice is trying to make their school more accessible to more students via need based aid, the family currently has a FAFSA EFC that is 150% of the cost of attending Rice. I seriously doubt they will be able to “negotiate” need based aid.
I believe the Rice NPC now has this initiative included.
But these kids could be in the running for some merit aid from Rice. It’s night competitive, but you never know…
@jym626 My bad, I know some kids who were nominated for the Robertson by their schools, but I think they must attend partner schools. I appreciate the correction. This is useful information to know.
Agree these kids won’t get merit $ from Rice.
Correction- only one is applying to Rice, and will get zero merit aid.
I first applaud all the parents on this thread for having such academically well prepared students, and spending a great deal of time on the search/selection process for application.
DDs may have no idea now if they will be pursuing graduate or professional school. How set one is on her degree plan, and what the other daughter may eventually pursue and what would be the best place for her to find what she wants to pursue. If one or the other decides their school based some on geographic preference or wanting to be near (or at same school as other twin).
IMHO I would pile on more ‘safeties’ where the cost of attendance, due to merit will be reasonable for what is being pursued.
Buyer’s remorse comes to mind if one ends up paying a lot for UG and the student/family is disappointed in what happens at that school.
Sounds like a lot of schools were visited. Student thinking can be much different as their senior year is progressing.
My two finished UG and did not pursue graduate school, although both had the capability to do so.
Know many students who chose a school for BME and then found it wasn’t what they thought it would be. Some stayed in engineering discipline or other STEM. A classmate of DD2 complete UG BME degree in 2016 and needed to go on to Master’s - in part due to job market. When she finished her Master’s she was searching hard for a job as many positions wanted PhD and she had academic fatigue. She did get a position, but it was a process.
Best of luck as the school determination continues with acceptances and final decisions.