Ok, this has been on my mind for a few days.S has been offered a total of $32,000 a yr ( 126,000 for 4 years) scholarship for ME. School is accredited but not very high on the list compared to others. It does offer an opportunity to learn the manufacturing side of ME. The other school offers $13,000 less but still very good at $28,000 a yr ( $113,000 for 4 yrs) and is in top 100. The opportunities are great for ME and he gets an opportunity to work with some automobiles for ME, which he wants to do.
S seems very contented on his college choice and of course a nice scholarship package but could he be missing out on an opportunity to learn the manufacturing side of the automobile industry? He wants to design cars with his ME major.
Call me crazy or plain stupid ( stupid is as stupid does - lol) but wanted to know some other thoughts.
No. Not crazy at all. Congrats to him and you. The minute I read he turned down 32/yr but accepted $28/yr I knew he wasn’t crazy. You win either way. If he gets that much merit aid he can go where ever he wants would be my attitude!
it’s a little hard to answer without specifics. like what schools we are talking about, how much you would have to pay in either scenario, and if you are strapped for the cash or if you can swing it.
it sounds to me like he turned down Ole Miss to attend Alabama. am I psychic or not?
What are the net prices after subtracting the scholarships? Those are the numbers that really matter on the financial side of the choice. Of course, other considerations may matter, such as the criteria needed to renew the scholarships in following years.
And costs involve more than tuition. What will it cost to get him to college and back- do you want him home Thanksgiving or are you ok with him staying on campus or with a local friend? Do you want to go for parents weekend- and if so, is that an “airfare plus hotel” deal or can you drive up and back in one day?
Nobody can assess the actual costs based on your post. Nor do we know if you can afford the differential.
It sounds like he got two great offers and the price differential between the two schools is $4,000/year. If it is affordable, I’d let him go where he prefers. If the school he plans to attend will give him a chance to work with automobiles, which is his area of interest, then it may be a great choice. There could also be some intangibles that led him to select the school he did.
As long as you/your son don’t have to get into debt, I don’t think there’s any “nuts” about turning down the scholarship.
My D turned down 2 full-ride deals from OOS (safety) schools, and went to state flagship instead. We had prepared the fund for her, so we didn’t have to take out any loan. But the full-ride deals were significant chunks of money.
This seems like a brag thread but assuming it is not, 4k difference in aid is a meaningless number. What is more meaningful for you to post is what the cost of attendance is after the aid/scholarship is factored in if people here need to make sense of whether it is a good or bad choice.
Coming from a seniors POV, We have gut feelings with our choices… Sometimes they seem crazy but it’s also our future and money is always a concern I would love to help my parents out and accept better scholarships but I want to be able to create my own path at the same time
I am sure the school he picked will have SAE, Off-Road and other vehicle type competition teams. Plus ME usually requires a design course competition sophomore year as well as a senior design project. Plus a lot of auto companies recruit from ME and he will have opportunities that way. My DD is a 2nd year ME major and she does a ton of vehicle design work at her college. If he was giving up the entire scholarship amount, I agree he would be crazy. However with his scholarship close in amount to the larger one, I think he is okay. You can always ask him to earn the difference in an internship or co-op and contribute those earnings to his college costs.
Unless you have to finance the entire cost, for that relatively small difference over 4 years - I think I would let him pick his preference even if it’s more expensive.
The auto industry IS manufacturing plain and simple, whether it’s the actual company or the parts suppliers. He’s going to learn manufacturing one way or the other if he’s headed for the auto industry or really most engineering. The cost difference is not so great and he can always work the summer of freshman year and summer of sophomore year before he’s a junior and would be considered for an internship in a manufacturing plant if he’s ambitious and wanting to learn the manufacturing end of any industry. That alone would be great on a resume combined with the engineering degree.
My son was offered $109K total as HS class of 2014, and he did not take the money. He went to our state flagship, where he got zero money. I was totally Ok I with it, because I always agreed to pay in-state tuition, room and board.
(And my other son went way over budget, but got a substantial scholarship so I let him go there).
People turn down money all the time, some turn down a lot more, even full tuition to pay full boat instead. It is an individual choice. A lot of times the fulls come from schools where the student is “overqualified” to attend so the money doesn’t make sense to that family. There was poster on here a year ago that turned down about $250K (full + board) at a west coast private to go to an Ivy with zip, zero, nada. Going to an Ivy was worth all the financial risk and sacrifice TO THEM.