Is it wrong of me not to want to go to college for free?

College Search & Selection
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<p>In other words, what you are looking for is prestige - a name that will feel good to you and (hopefully) impress others. There are SEVERAL people out there who feel the same way. It’s not wrong. BUT, it might not be reality due to forces outside of your control.</p>

<p>Again, my suggestion to you is to pick one free school that you like the best (you might end up there) and apply. Have it in the bag. It’s a safety, both for admittance and for finances. Otherwise, your safety could end up being community college if you don’t get in anywhere else (and prestige schools are iffy for all).</p>

<p>Then, pick a couple of schools in the Top 50 (or so), but the lower half of the Top 50. You’ve got a good shot at these and if you pick carefully, you ought to get decent money from them. These have names that will impress, are selective, and offer a superb education (pending school/major combo). These will be your match schools.</p>

<p>Then, try for your reach schools. Your stats are likely to put you in contention for these, but you have NO WAY of knowing if you will be accepted or not. Oodles of students with tippy top stats are rejected (or waitlisted) every single year. You never know though, so try for them.</p>

<p>Once you have acceptances and financial packages in, visit ALL affordable schools (if you can). Compare them on site. Consider the price differences, any major differences (academics), as well as the fit. Then decide. If you’re smart, you won’t put yourself in a situation to have oodles of debt when you graduate. If prestige means more than money, no offense, but you will deserve the debt. (And I’m not saying you WILL have more debt - you might get really nice packages. You just don’t know yet.)</p>

<p>There’s absolutely no reason you need to decide now. You might find that you like one of the “lower” schools better (esp those in the Top 50). My guy did - and some of his current class peers turned down Top 10 schools to go where he is going (a Top 50 school) due to what his school has to offer that the others didn’t.</p>

<p>But having that rolling admissions financial safety in the bag takes a lot of pressure off AND gives you a decent option if nothing else were to work out. If my guy had ended up at his safeties (2), he’d have been happy. As it is, the school he chose ended up being a couple grand less than his safeties, but for us, that wasn’t a big issue since the cost was so close. The bigger issue is that he is in his niche and happy (and just scored the highest grade on his first Bio test - so doing well).</p>

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<p>We’re not poor. In fact, we’re reasonably well off.</p>

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<p>I already have a safety that will offer me half to full tuition off (it depends on my grades and how much they like me, but it will be at least half, and the school isn’t that expensive to begin with). It’s just that it’s not totally free. I’d settle for it if it came to that. Yes, we can afford it. But since I know we can (and my parents do too), I’m not sure I want to blow my NMSF first choice on one of those free schools and spend the money and time to send my test scores, hound my counselor to retroactively add it to the list for my transcript and rec, and do the same things for my teachers and their recs. I think having a safety that’s as affordable as it is means that I’m not that spoiled. Community college is not an option, though, but that’s for different reasons.</p>

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<p>If you have a safety you like and it’s affordable to you and your parents AND you’ve been accepted (not just getting mail from them encouraging you to apply), then there is no need to apply to other schools you wouldn’t prefer to go to.</p>

<p>If you have the means, it wouldn’t hurt to visit a potentially free school (or two) just to compare, but there’s no reason to apply to any school you wouldn’t choose to attend over a workable (accepted at) safety.</p>

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If you make NMF you pick your first choice school after you’ve received all the FA and merit aid offers. That’s not a problem.</p>

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<p>, I’m not sure I want to blow my NMSF first choice on one of those free schools and spend the money and time to send my test scores, hound my counselor to retroactively add it to the list for my transcript and rec, and do the same things for my teachers and their recs</p>

<p>???</p>

<p>you don’t pick your First Choice until the spring…when you know what your first choice IS.</p>

<p>It’s very likely that those NMF safety schools don’t even require teacher recs. </p>

<p>As far as having transcripts and test scores sent…that is such a no-big-deal that to act like it is sounds ridiculous. </p>

<p>Since you’re not sure that your safety would give you free tuition, then I think it would be wise to include a school that would give you AT LEAST free tuition. “Half tuition” is ok, but it can still leave you with a substantial bill…plus it doesn’t sound like you really like that safety.</p>

<p>Believe me, there are MANY parents that tell their kids in the Fall that money isn’t an issue and then Spring comes and they realize that they can’t afford to pay $50k+ per year for the accepted schools. Plus, a family can experience a financial setback between Fall and Spring which can totally change everything. </p>

<p>Nobody is saying that RIGHT NOW, you have to pick a cheaper school over a pricier one. What people are saying is that you should apply to a few of these schools and have them in your back pocket …just in case.</p>

<p>The point is that your premise was/is WRONG. A number of these NMF offers are coming from schools that would be a challenge for you and would NOT waste your hard efforts in high school. (this is assuming that these NMF schools aren’t lowly ranked schools, but ranked somewhere around 100 or better. I’m not talking about Podunk U that would give a free ride.).</p>

<p>Actually quite the contrary would happen… Some of these good schools with big NMF offers are VERY generous with AP credits (much more so than top schools), therefore not only are you rewarded for your hard work, but it becomes very easy to either double major, add some minors, start early on a graduate program, etc. </p>

<p>What are your test scores and GPA?</p>

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<p>emberjed, my son was JUST like you. Except that we are middle class, so he did not have the ability to get much/any need based aid. Anything he would get to help pay for school would be merit based. And that is getting harder to get too. </p>

<p>He felt the same about working his butt off. So his trade off was finding a school that accepted many of those classes for credit. That is allowing him to get his masters in 4 years. And he has a merit scholarship that covers full tuition for 4 years- out of state. To him, that was much better than being in debt for many years post graduation. </p>

<p>There are 3 questions that would really help us to understand what your options are:

  1. Do you know what you want to major in?
  2. What are your stats? GPA/Test scores-/ Ect.
  3. What colleges are you considering?</p>
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<p>Why would you want your parents to shell out any money for school they don’t have to? I’d seriously go to the school where you cam turn around and tell your parents, “Thanks, but I don’t need it. I have a full ride. Use the money to go on vacation, pay off the house, whatever … And thank you for all you have done for me.” </p>

<p>With the exception of a few insanely selective schools (ie. MIT, CalTech, Princeton, etc.), I’d say to save the dough whether you’re “rather well off” as you put it, or not.</p>

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<p>I’m confused. It’s rare to be " reasonably well off" AND " getting significant financial aid …because of our income bracket"</p>

<p>In any case, it sounds like you have time to decide about your “first choice”. Good luck!</p>

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<p>How much would community college in your area have been otherwise?</p>

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<p>You are in essence saying: “I don’t want to be at a school that would accept me as a student”.</p>

<p>“I won’t have worked for it,” - Who’s kidding whom? Your parents are working to pay the freight (“It’s not that I want my parents to have to spend money on me”). You are working to earn the grades. It is their dime, not yours. It is free to you either way.</p>

<p>I told my daughter to pick schools she wanted to go to. Based upon that list, I picked two more that were known for good financial aid and somewhat competitive with the schools she picked. Yes, they are “safety” schools compared to her list. Next April, we will sort it all out. Which schools did she get into, and what is the net cost to attend after financial aid. If her choice is $50k/yr to attend a top tier school vs. free at a mid range school, well at least she has a choice.</p>

<p>List the schools that you would consider attending that offer good NMSF financial aid. Do a cost/benefit analysis and rank them. That will give you some guidance on which school to list as your first choice for NMSF.</p>

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<p>State Schools are not very selective, but they flunk out 1/3 of the class in the first year. That is their mission to give every kid a chance. Some of those State Schools are highly rated in certain fields (a lot of the top engineering schools are State schools).</p>

<p>A lot of schools have Honors programs. That ups the level of education you receive. Half of what you get out of college is what you put into it. It is much easier to coast at a less demanding school. But, you can also do a lot, like working with a prof on research, that dramatically improves what you get out of your 4 years (and improves your chances of getting into grad school).</p>

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<p>Division III schools are not allowed to give out merit financial aid (NMSF scholarships). So, guess what? The schools that have money and can give out merit scholarships are Division I sports schools. I went to a Division I school, and other than a few days a year (football home games), I never noticed the sports.</p>

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<p>NCAA Division III schools do not give out athletic scholarships, but may give out other types of merit scholarships. For example, UCSC is in NCAA Division III, but does offer merit scholarships: [url=<a href=“http://financialaid.ucsc.edu/types-eligibility/scholarships/index.html]Scholarships[/url”>http://financialaid.ucsc.edu/types-eligibility/scholarships/index.html]Scholarships[/url</a>]</p>

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<p>I think the posters here are being a bit unfair to the OP. Most of the kids accepted to HYPMS and many other top schools, who did not get full scholarships based on need, could have gone to a reputable school for free or near free had they chosen to apply (like their state schools’ honors programs). They chose not to. They chose to pay for what they perceive to be a high value education and were glad to do it. Again, as the poster says, it’s not ‘free or full pay’ and paying for college doesn’t necessarily mean assuming a lot of debt. Many have been saving most of their lives so their kids would have more options than the ‘free’ school. Many would be willing to take on some debt if it means their kids get the optimal education. No right or wrongs here.</p>

<p>OP, no reason why you take the ‘free’ education unless that is the trade-off that you and your parents have made. It’s about your family’s values and your needs now and in the future. Don’t go into a lot of debt - it closes too many options - but that doesn’t sound like your situation anyway.</p>

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<p>Brief detour here to answer ucbalumnus’ question:</p>

<p>Happykid held the Board of Trustees Academic Specialty Scholarship at [Montgomery</a> College](<a href=“http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/edu/]Montgomery”>http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/edu/) This is a competitive program that offers up to 75 scholarships to students entering MC each year. The scholarship covers tuition and fees for 15 credits each semester, and is renewable (based on GPA) for three more semesters. A student whose AA or AS program only requires 60 credits can indeed graduate for “free”. At the time she attended in-county tuition and fees were approximately $5,000 each year. Since she carried more than the minimum most terms, we paid a total of $1,007.70 for seven additional credits over the course of the two years, as well as $112 in fees for a CLEP exam for which she was awarded 12 foreign language credits (she needed 3 to use for her Humanities GenEd). Grand total out of pocket for us for tuition & fees: $1,119.70. Not bad at all. Since this was in little bits, we could pay the bills out-of-pocket as they appeared, while stashing the equivalent of full-time tuition and fees away into savings to help pay for the U where she would be finishing up.</p>

<p>Now back to your regular programming.</p>

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<p>They’re closer to Podunk U. I don’t think any of them, for example, crack the U.S. News top 100 (or the list at all).</p>

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<p>*>The point is that your premise was/is WRONG. A number of these NMF offers are coming from schools that would be a challenge for you and would NOT waste your hard efforts in high school. (this is assuming that these NMF schools aren’t lowly ranked schools, but ranked somewhere around 100 or better. I’m not talking about Podunk U that would give a free ride.).</p>

<p>========
They’re closer to Podunk U. I don’t think any of them, for example, crack the U.S. News top 100 (or the list at all).*</p>

<p>Well! There’s your problem. You’ve only explored the “bottom of the barrel” (that’s just an expression, I’m not saying that these unnamed schools are crap).</p>

<p>There are some ranked schools that will give large merit (at least full tuition) to NMFs. My kids’ undergrad gives full tuition, housing for one year, and other goodies for NMF status. And eng’g majors get more than that. It also has a very good Honors College.</p>

<p>You’re only looking at the two extremes…unranked/low ranked schools and TOP schools. Did you ever think that there might be some big merit offers “in between”???</p>

<p>*>I’m confused. It’s rare to be " reasonably well off" AND " getting significant financial aid …because of our income bracket"</p>

<p>All I know is that my parents have spent a lot of time researching and their conclusion is that we’re in a Goldilocks zone financially.*</p>

<p>What does that mean? If you’re reasonably well off, then you won’t qualify for “significant FA”…the exceptions might be HYPS, but not the others.</p>

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<p>Emberjed, you seem to be ignoring the advice you have gotten that there is something in between… with NMF stats, likely you COULD get merit aid from quite a few schools in the top 100. Ignore the incorrect info from OperaDad, many colleges (lots of 'em Division III sports schools) give good merit aid. Look at the LAC list starting around the 25th ranking and go down from there – it is pretty easy with good stats to find merit aid to knock down the cost by about 1/3. Go to about #75 and downward, and I bet you could get closer to 1/2 off (and the schools in that range are often a bit less pricey anyway).</p>

<p>It may not be guaranteed NMF money, and it may not be “free college”. But it is nothing to sneeze at. Assuming you would not turn a general merit scholarship down at one of these schools (although you seem to have the attitude that a guaranteed NMF scholarship is not worthwhile, which is sort of confusing to me).</p>

<p>Don’t let an elitist attitude toward non-Ivy’s and non-top 20 schools get in the way of being smart about paying for your education. First world kid with first world problems…</p>

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<p>YIKES - someone hasn’t checked the list and it isn’t the posters offering advice on here. Both the U Alabama and Baylor make the Top 100 list. Those are guaranteed.</p>

<p>Other schools with great competitive offers (some could be free) also make the Top list. Pittsburgh sometimes offers great merit aid (including free). They’re in the Top 100. Case Western and U Rochester also come to mind - perhaps not free, but significant savings. WUSTL offers a few top merit awards. They’re in the Top 20. We could list several… ALL of the above (even the guarantees) have research available.</p>

<p>Who’s feeding you college info? Whoever it is, they’re wrong.</p>

<p>There is NOTHING wrong with wanting a prestigious school if that’s your thing. However, going into a bit of debt for it requires a bit of thought - and usually regrets later. Plus, you MIGHT NOT GET IN. If you do and it’s affordable, great! If not, you’ll want options. Kids always enjoy having options in the spring - even if they had one favorite for most of the year. There’s something that seems to feel good about knowing you chose where you went instead of just having one possibility (ED kids like knowing they chose their ED school).</p>

<p>I’d really recommend picking one free (or almost free) option to have, but as I said before, if you’re happy and accepted at your half tuition school, then that’s ok too. Just be certain you are happy and it’s affordable - otherwise, you could be bummed come spring - esp when the kids around you are choosing from their options.</p>

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<p>I’m not talking about significantly reduced college. I’m talking about free college. I already have options for significantly reduced college whose offers aren’t related to National Merit. This thread is about whether or not I’m wrong for preferring significantly reduced to free when the former group consists almost unequivocally of better schools.</p>

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<p>Only a few of the schools on my list are ranked in the top 20. It saddens me how almost everyone on CC is either dead-set on getting into a highly-ranked school or strongly critical of those who are. As you say, there’s not much of an “in-between” here.</p>

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<p>emberjed,</p>

<p>I believe that you lost support for your argument when you appeared to be defining institutions that offer partial merit as “better” than institutions that offer full merit. Truth be told some very good programs do offer full merit, and plenty of lousy ones offer partial merit. Rather than comparing groups of institutions based on the criterion of percentage of costs covered by merit aid, you would be wiser to compare individual institutions.</p>

<p>No one here would tell you to attend Worst-U-Ever just because WUE happens to be free.</p>

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<p>I did not say there is a lack of “in between” at all. It seems like YOU do not see the in-between options you have. I actually tend to agree with some of your assessment (sorry to those who do not). My D2 also did not find any of the free options attractive for academic and other reasons, and I think one reason most of these schools offer a free option is to try to beef up the quality of students that they admit. That is kind of a big fat “duh” that you are going on about. But you seem really focused on slamming those options… for people who can’t afford to pay for college (or from people who might find other things about these colleges attractive), they are a godsend. If you have other options, then more power to you. </p>

<p>I still can’t understand why you draw a distinction between the free rides and partial merit scholarships. Here are your quotes, which are conflicting:</p>

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<p>So you have some options for merit aid that you seem willing to consider, but consider the free rides to somehow be “unearned” and having no value. The ‘free ride’ is only a bigger merit scholarship. You are not making sense…</p>