My high stats kid did not get any merit aid at Harvey Mudd. Per college data:
43 (17.1%) of freshmen had no financial need and received merit aid, average amount $14,678
And $14,678 is not enough to make a dent in that $79K tuition.
@ShrimpBurrito would Mudd have enough merit to bring the cost to attend to $20,000 a year…which is what the OP is aiming for?
Harvey Mudd does have about 8 full tuition scholarships a year.
FYI: For UC Regents scholarships below as of 2019. Also UCLA’s Alumni scholarship could also add more merit money.
UC Regents Scholarships and the amounts/year:
Amount: Awards vary by campus and are not transferable if you transfer to another UC campus.
- UC Berkley $2,500
- UC Davis $7,500
- UC Irvine $5,000
- UCLA $2,000
- UC Merced $7,000
- UC Riverside $10,000
- UC San Diego $2,000
- UC Santa Barbara $6,000
- UC Santa Cruz $5,000
In addition, certain perks are provided to Regents recipients: priority registration, extended library privileges, honors dormitories, faculty mentorship, and others, dependent upon campus.
Number of Scholarships Awarded: Varies annually—students in the top 1-2% of the applicant pool are considered for the scholarship.
When I asked about Princeton …it was a rhetorical question. If you can’t afford to send your daughter based on having one in college (you indicated that you can’t) then my advice is to remove it from the list.
The firestorm of advice continues…
If Kentucky is a lock and full tuition then what am I missing here. Make that your next application to get done this weekend. Free is a very good thing. Then everything else is gravy… Wishing you the best and can’t wait to see where she lands.
Also… Schools with good co-op programs can be a very affordable option since I think you can allocate what is made to go for tuition. Maybe investigate what the avg students make?
Best of luck! She is obviously working very hard. I probably said this far, far upthread, but I completely agree with those who recommend expressing interest in some of the competitive scholarship schools where she would have a realistic chance. She can email her regional AO as well as the administrator of the scholarship program. I suggested that (made) my kids do this. It seemed to work.
@KevinFromOC echoing questions from @homerdog and @ShrimpBurrito didn’t she receive a letter from ASU by now congratulating her for being a NHRP and inviting her to visit Barrett where she would get a full tuition scholarship? Based on feedback from others in the National Hispanic Recognition Program NHRP 2020 thread she should have received it around October 21st…
@KevinFromOC - Congrats to your daughter for making great progress on her applications while juggling all the other things she has going on. Your plan seems good and if she still has energy to complete some of those high reach apps at the end, then good for her! I agree that it may be difficult and disappointing for her if she gets into one of the big reach schools and it’s not affordable, but from what you’ve said, she seems practical and understands the financial limits. Both my kids knew that the finances needed to work out in the end for some of their schools to be possible and they were willing to take some risks (NCPs were not accurate for us). I think she’ll have some great options.
Cal Tech seems to be still on the list for OP’s daughter, and he mentioned Stamps earlier in this thread. I’m wondering – does anyone know the status of whether Stamps scholarships are still offered at Cal Tech? I know they used to be, but when I’ve looked at the Stamps website recently, Cal Tech is no longer listed as a partner school. Has the Stamps for Cal Tech been discontinued?
I think it’s pretty awe inspiring that the OP’s daughter is doing all this work. It really says a lot about her as a person. I think whatever happens, she’ll know that she put everything she could into the college process. That alone is likely to result in great things. So many are too lazy to write an extra essay, fill out a form, etc. While the payoffs are large, no one knows what $ will be assigned to what kid. Casting a broad net is wise for some kids.
Like the lottery, unless you play/apply you have no chance of winning. I find it odd that so many kids apply to schools where they have a next to zero chance of getting in. Yet, many parents won’t have their kids explore all their options elsewhere. The OP and his daughter make a great team. Together they are going to get great results IMHO.
I am impressed that this student is able to write all of these essays during her senior year of school while also playing hockey. My daughter did most of them during the summer after work when things were a bit more mellow. She had 19+ essays and there was no way she would have had time to complete them all (happily) once school began. A few would have been fine…but I think 20 would have stressed her out given her other commitments.
I agree with Happy that it’s “pretty awe inspiring.”
So I just got back from being away for a week - had to go to Maryland for work…
Some comments on the comments …
ASU - Yes, my understanding if full tuition for NHRP. She has applied to Barrett but the only letter we got from ASU was the one stating a $15.5K scholarship. I’m assuming that when the dust settles, if ASU is one of the top schools she’s considering we would just contact them and remind them of her NHRP status and it wouldn’t be a problem.
South Carolina - haven’t hear back yet, she’s just about ready to submit the essays for the honors college (due 11/15)
Popular vs super smart comment - Take for example being president of the senior class - that’s a huge achievement that only 1 out of over 500 students get. It appears that some schools might value this over high academic achievements (such as getting a 5 on the AP Calculus BC test at 15 years old). We are trying to find the schools that would put more of an emphasis on the latter than the former.
Schools where she would get full tuition (or virtually full tuition) based on academics and/or NHRP : The ones she applied to are ASU, Alabama, Utah, and South Carolina. Others she could apply to are Kentucky and Nebraska. I believe there are several more, but at this point we don’t need several more.
Now my big question - about showing interest. Let me state my (probably incorrect) naive beliefs about this : the number one way to show interest in a college is to apply to it and pay their application fee, right? I would imagine that second is to visit the school, but that is not always possible (and some schools appear to even discourage visiting). It seems like third might be to send an e-mail, but then you’re sending an e-mail to some random admissions person that probably doesn’t know your name and gets hundreds of e-mails every week. That’s why I asked earlier about whether you get a personal response in your acceptance letter, something that contains a statement like “Hi, I’m so-and-so, and I’m your admissions official - here’s my contact information - if you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask me”. But so far she hasn’t gotten anything like that.
And what would you even say, something like “Hi, I’m one of tens of thousands of students who applied to your school, but I’m really interested in going there and I’m also interested in merit aid”? (Yeah, I’m being facetious here). I guess I’m just jaded, having contacted 3 schools earlier in the year and not even being able to get the time of day from them.
Look on the Common Data Set for each college. You will find information there about whether “showing interest” is something they even consider in admissions. Some schools use this and some don’t.
There are schools that have podcasts, and send email updates from admissions about the school. Some schools will take that into consideration…as well as visits.
But the key thing…the showing of interest has to be meaningful. Not just clicking a link for the sake of clicking a link. Schools are way smarter than that.
If your daughter has any questions, she can reach out. If she wants more info, say from the engineering department, she can request it. That sort of thing shows interest.
There’s something called a “stealth applicant.” That’s someone who applies without having expressed any kind of interest or made any contact whatsoever. Anyone can pay the app fee but not just anyone is going to make the effort to reach out to the college before applying. They don’t like stealth applicants.
Colleges might not bother giving a parent a reply, especially at this crazy time of year, so has your daughter actually contacted REGIONAL reps with questions? Contacting the general admissions office is fine, but not as good as the rep for your region. And it needs to be her doing it.
Are there any college fairs nearby? Google “your county college fairs.” Then go, and meet the rep if possible. That’s a good way of expressing interest. Yes, emailing a rep with a specific question that can’t be found on the website is good. I assume she’s signed up for emails. Has she opened links? They can track that. What about a college-specific blog, where she can be involved in a conversation? Has she followed them on social media?
They know everyone can’t visit. That’s not the most important thing. You say she has no preference, but we also know she has very little time. She should selectively follow up with the schools of most interest to her that also care about expressed interest from students.
ETA: She should request interviews if at all possible.
Your D should also check her email and spam folder for invitations for interviews. She should also set up her portals when instructed to do so.
Check the CDS to see if “showing interest” is important. Some schools value this more than others. There are many ways to show interest…college fairs, signing up for more information, etc.
I don’t know of any school that favors being class president over having strong academics. I just looked at the CDS for the U of Kentucky. Academics/gpa was ranked as “very important” and ECs were “considered.”
Some schools also schedule online chats with admissions and current students. Both of my kids did these…there were a few different “chat” dates offered.
Both @Lindagaf and @thumper1 have given excellent advice.
Your D should be trying to contact regional reps and ask probing questions about stuff that isn’t easily ascertainable by looking at the schools’ websites.
If there is a multicultural/diversity admissions rep, she should absolutely reach out to him/her/them. Some schools also have diversity recruitment programs that your D can perhaps avail herself of (there are also a lot of fly-in programs, but it may be too late to apply for those).
Many schools offer alumni or Skype interviews that she should also consider doing.
And yes, checking the CDS to see about the importance of demonstrated interest is a good idea, but I’m not always sure that I believe schools when they say it doesn’t matter. (USC, for example, says on the CDS that demonstrated interest is not considered, yet they want you to cogently articulate why you are applying there and they are big into their “Trojan Family.”)
Put it this way, demonstrating interest can only help and can never hurt. That said, don’t make a pest of yourself with multiple emails.
And demonstrated interest should ALWAYS come from the STUDENT, never from the parent. (The only people that are willing/wanting to talk to you are the FA people, and even they prefer hearing from the students – until it’s time to get a check!)
@KevinFromOC Definitely have your D reach out to the regional reps. I do believe that helped my D stand out among tens of thousands of applicants. She had regional reps contacting admissions and deans on her behalf letting them know they had identified a great candidate that was really interested in their school. She spent a lot of time “networking,” and it paid off.