First, wow, #1000 - lots of good advice that has affected which colleges we apply to.
We have so far applied to :
Alabama (admitted, still have to apply to honors & scholarships)
Pitt (admitted, just received the "Cathedral of Learning Achievement Scholarship" for $20K per year. While generous, I was somewhat disappointed as she will have to get a larger scholarship to attend. By getting this scholarship does that mean she's out of the running for their full tuition "The Cathedral of Learning Prestige Scholarship" or full ride "Donald Henderson Scholarship"? Not sure. There's also the full ride "Chancellor’s Scholarship" for which you're notified about later)
ASU (admitted, just submitted Barrett Honors application. already got a $15.5K merit scholarship, but she will obviously have to do better than that)
South Carolina (Accepted, need to submit honors application in the next 2 weeks. They surprised her after the app was submitted with 3 essays for their honors application - argh!)
Miami Ohio (Just submitted the honors and scholarship application)
Northeastern
Stevens Institute of Technology
Rose Hulman
Colorado School of Mines
Utah
Michigan State
WPI
RIT
Due this month are :
UCs - she’s applying to the top engineering UC schools - UCLA, UCSD, UCI, and she also wants to apply to UCSB.
USC
Vanderbilt
Rice
And maybe Kentucky. We’re wavering on Kentucky because (1) she’s already applied to several state schools where she is virtually guaranteed a large merit scholarship, and (2) they require several unique essays, more so than the other schools listed above. But then again she would get full tuition automatically. We’ll see on this one…
Speaking of essays, y’all should have warned me that she would have a TON of essays to write (/sarcasm). She’s doing an amazing job though - I proofread them and am astounded by what she is writing. I guess I just don’t understand placing such a high emphasis on essays that a student may or may not have written themself vs. their proven track record of classes taken, grades, test scores, honors, and ECs.
It’s interesting that some schools want many essays, and other good schools (such as Northeastern, MSU, and RIT) only require the single common app essay.
Due at the end of the year are then :
RPI, Cal Tech, Clarkson, Princeton, and maybe a couple more (Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Johns Hopkins)
Hopefully she’ll get invited to compete for some of the schools’ full tuition/full ride scholarships. It’s tough to try to determine which schools are putting less of an emphasis on the popular cheerleader and more on the super smart super hard working kid.
Anyway, no clarity yet - just in the waiting game right now. She’s essaying away. Meanwhile I’ve completed the FAFSA (ready to submit) and am starting to look at the CSS Profile…
Actually, I think I did mention the honors college/scholarship application at University of South Carolina as being the most challenging I’ve seen. Several detailed essays. BUT very worth the time if she gets one of their top awards.
Is she really going to complete over 20 applications? Why?
The last batch (the end of year ones) seem unnecessary especially for a student who says she doesn’t care where she attends college.
She already has a good mix of schools with the ones not due by the end of the year (the Princeton group).
I would suggest getting that Alabama scholarship stuff done. You want to know her scholarship awards there too…right?
@KevinFromOC my daughter received full tuition from Pitt 3 weeks after her acceptance came in. That was a few years ago and things have changed since then…including the popularity of the school and the competitiveness of this award. My daughter was also invited to interview for extra money to cover room and board…the students who interviewed with her were crazy impressive. In addition to high stats, they had publications in science journals, national awards, etc. It’s hard to imagine what’s out there until you actually see it right in front of you.
FYI I read on CC that Pitt is moving away from full tuition in favor of FA…something to investigate.
FYI…”super smart” and “super hard working…” Just remember it takes a lot more than that to get huge awards to hyper competitive schools such as Vandy. Super smart kids are a dime a dozen (strange as that sounds).
Congrats on Pitt!! I would focus on schools where your daughter is guaranteed full tuition…given she is fine with just about any school.
But they further state that once the application is received, the student will receive the info about applying for honors college and scholarships. @KevinFromOC is this what you meant?
@KevinFromOC Congrats on Pitt merit. She may still be eligible for a Chancellor’s invite. But the diversity scholarship gets awarded like the normal scholarships, so is unlikely. I highly recommend your D show interest in the schools ranked 50+ if she wants one of the highly competitive full tuition+ awards. It can make a difference.
@KevinFromOC I am confused by your comment about determining which schools focus more on the cheerleader versus the super smart, super hard working kid. Not sure what you mean?
Something else to think about…if your daughter doesn’t receive full tuition from Pitt…then the odds of getting it from Vandy are extremely slim (kids with her stats are often waitlisted). I think it would be in her best interest to focus on schools that are lower down the “food chain” if you are looking for significant money.
I don’t think getting this scholarship from Pitt prevents her for being invited to apply for Chancellor’s.
Also I think Swanson might give additional scholarships later in the process.
Merit notification has just started.
When you have final numbers in, keep in mind that off campus housing can be pretty reasonable in Pittsburgh and she can also do coops to earn money and get hands on experience.
And she will be able to choose the engineering specialty she wants to pursue.
How much would the UCs be with room and board? Would they be less than $25,000 a year?
@KevinFromOC thanks for the update! So are you saying that ASU is out? Is there a time when more merit money info is expected?
I would call Pitt and ask your questions about that merit and see if there’s a possibility of more.
I think supplemental essays are important for most schools with very low acceptance rates. Those schools get enough kids with top stats and ECs to fill their class over and over and they want to access fit and a few other things like self awareness, maturity.
@KevinFromOC I just looked at Pitt’s merit scholarship page. If I’m reading it correctly, your D’s scholarship is all she can expect unless she is called to interview for the Chancelors Scholarship in Feb.
“How much would the UCs be with room and board? Would they be less than $25,000 a year?”
Tuition, fees, room and board (without need based aid and assuming UC health insurance isn’t needed) is around $27-28K, before personal expenses. A Regents scholarship at UCSB is worth $6K per year (but much less at UCLA/UCI/UCSD) and the benefits in terms of room selection and course registration are very significant.
@KevinFromOC: Have you checked the Common Data Sets for the colleges that publish this data? (Just google Common Data Set and the school name.) There you can find which schools track student interest and which do not. For those schools that track interest, your daughter may want to connect with the admissions officer for her area, get on college mailing lists, check online portals regularly, etc., especially because she is not just looking to get admitted, but is seeking large merit.
I suggest that she do this especially for a small school like Stevens. While I can not recall if they track interest, my daughter was seeking large merit and she made sure to connect with her Stevens admissions counselor, attend the info session when the admissions rep came to her school, etc. She was able to find out a lot more about Stevens this way and demonstrate interest that may have helped her in being awarded their full tuition scholarship. She loved the location of Stevens and it definitely was a contender, though she ultimately chose to go elsewhere. Your daughter is a prospective female URM student at a college with a published enrollment of only 29% women for 2018, and with her wonderful stats and qualifications, one would think she would be a great candidate for Stevens’ highest scholarship. Thus, it may be worth it to put some time into making a personal connection here if this school is of interest to her.
Since her time may be limited since she is applying to a large number of schools, she may need to be strategic in which schools she invests the time to personally connect with.
@KevinFromOC I just ran ASU merit finder and came up with that $15,500 merit number your D received. Are there other scholarships you thought she would get? I don’t see any additional ways to get merit money there.
@KevinFromOC schools such as Vandy and Princeton will only be affordable with significant merit and/or listing your family as having two in college…which is a very slippery slope due to reasons which have been discussed.
In my opinion the most important schools for your daughter to apply to are those where she is guaranteed full merit based on stats. Are those apps completely done? If not…that needs to be her focus.
Isn’t she a National Hispanic Scholar? ASU used to award full tuition scholarships to National Hispanic Scholars. Has that changed? It might be good to connect with the admissions office.