Wasn’t she a National Hispanic Scholar? Doesn’t that net her a really good merit award from AZ?
For someone who doesn’t care where she goes to college…she already has 8 acceptances…why is she continuing to apply if any of these are affordable?
Whether the merit and need based aid will stack will depend on your EFC, the schools, the amount of merit, whether it is a ‘meets full need’ school and a lot of other factors.
Why is everyone asking so many questions at this point?? Most seem to be rhetorical.
OP did the research and they’ve applied to a good list. A couple more reaches and it’s over. You roll the dice and take some chances. Time to sit back and wait for all offers. I’m curious if any schools have hit the $ number already?
Several on the admitted list are auto merit. Surely several are affordable, even with transportation costs.
The mom is a flight attendant and the dad has FF miles. He says transportation costs are bit an issue. Kid currently goes to prep school in MA…and has transportation costs.
I just am ?♀️ Trying to figure out why Princeton can be “affordable” but MIT and Cornell aren’t.
But the good news for this student…with 8 acceptances, surely one will be affordable. She is going to college!
I think people are asking so many questions…because much of this makes little sense to us. Something is “off.” While it’s none of our business, the parent posted and is looking for advice.
The student doesn’t care where she attends school and seems to possibly have some decent merit…shouldn’t the process be done by now? Does she even want to go to Princeton (if accepted)? Is it dad who really wants Princeton? If so…is this really a good idea (yes a rhetorical question)?
We can’t help but wonder how Princeton will be affordable given the OPs EFC versus what he can afford. This makes little sense. Again, none of our business except for the fact that he posted looking for advice.
This is a smart student with high stats who plays ice hockey and really wants a school with walls and a bathroom. She doesn’t seem picky or particularly interested in this process (maybe I am wrong on that last point). Honestly…she sounds very easy going…the kind of kid who could be placed in one of the good state schools with merit, fit right in, make friends, do well, get some great internships in engineering…and be happy. My kid is nowhere near so easy…Too hot, too cold, not enough of this, too much of that, not enough to do, won’t fit in, this is good, this is bad, I don’t want that, let’s look at the science research, I am not interested in careers…I am going to college to learn (you think that’s easy to hear for 4 years LOL) etc etc.
Kevin …my advice is to focus on fit. For your daughter. She wants engineering…engineering is hard and she will be with smart kids regardless of where she goes. And guess what? Some of those kids may have turned down Princeton due to cost. Happens all the time.
Kevin…it somehow feels that you are making this more complicated than it needs to be. That’s why we have so many questions.
This is about your daughter. Let her be the guide. She is a smart kid…that will be true whether she goes to school in Princeton or Arizona.
Looks like she will have tuition covered at Alabama and Arizona, fees, housing, meals and travel would probably add up to about $15,000.
So those two should be affordable.
She has Vandy and Rice as financial reaches, unless she gets a substantial merit scholarship.
Miami Ohio is possibly affordable with high enough merit. U South Carolina might be affordable with enough merit.
A state university will be fine for chemical engineering, ABET accreditation makes sure of that.
Prestige really doesn’t play into that unless you want it to.
She worked hard and can go to a school within budget because of that.
Arizona and Alabama is also closer to California in distance and climate than for example New Jersey.
Working for the airlines /flying on a family or buddy pass is not easy at the holidays when many students are trying to fly, along with the rest of the country! They have to be pretty flexible and willing to wait…
Enjoyed reading several pages of this thread - best wishes to your daughter in her college decision.
Would love to hear updates about admissions and scholarship offers.
Happy New Year.
So yes, several updates…
In the last couple weeks she submitted two more applications - Johns Hopkins and a school that I won’t mention the name of because for some reason it causes some consternation among some folks here asking why she is applying to that school when we probably can’t afford it (despite the fact that we probably can’t afford at least 15 other schools she’s applying to). Applying to this school was discussed here a couple months ago in detail, and I don’t want to have to justify the decision again…
She has one last application to go - RPI, which she should get done this weekend. She then has several big merit aid scholarship essays to submit this month - the essaying just never ends!
We submitted the FAFSA indicating that our other daughter (D2) will also be attending college. That’s still 50/50, so we may have to revise it if she doesn’t. But I believe that will NOT make a difference if D1 is awarded only merit aid. Our EFC was about $22K, so I imagine it will almost double if D2 doesn’t attend college.
Merit aid awards are starting to come in, including a couple of really good ones. And several schools hint that merit aid and financial aid might be able to be combined, although they are very vague about it. I guess we’ll have to wait until the final-final award letters are issued, which may not be for a few months yet.
I needed to go through the status of each school for myself, but since I’m sharing way more than I probably should here on CC anyway, I might as well do it here.
The schools that are so far within financial reach (our cost would be less than $20K, preferably less than $15K) :
Rose Hulman (admitted) - This was unexpected - she was awarded the “Rose-Hulman Commitment Scholarship” which is full tuition. It’s not mentioned anywhere on their website that this scholarship is even available. She was also invited to submit a video essay which may then lead to an interview at the school for a full room & board scholarship as well (which would give her a full ride). Needless to say we are now very excited about RHIT, especially since it’s a school where she could geek it up with the entire student body.
Miami Ohio (admitted to Honors College and Engineering and Computing Scholars program) - Another pleasant surprise - she was awarded $41K in merit aid, which exceeds tuition and brings room & board down to under $10K. We are also hoping for a Presidential Fellows invite to interview for a full ride - it looks like those notifications go out mid-January.
Alabama (admitted, awaiting Honors admission decision). She was awarded the Presidential Scholarship of $26K (almost full tuition), and she just submitted several more scholarship applications that could bring that amount up.
Arizona State (admitted to Barrett Honors College). She was awarded the National Scholars Award of full tuition, and there’s the chance to apply for more scholarships this month.
The schools that have awarded her some merit aid but are so far NOT within financial reach :
Pittsburgh (admitted). Awarded the “Cathedral of Learning Achievement Scholarship” which is $20K (a little more than half tuition). Maybe she’ll get invited to compete for the Chancellors Scholarship (full ride).
South Carolina (Admitted to honors college). Awarded a scholarship to bring tuition to in-state amount. She should also get an award for NHRP (up to $6K), and possibly an additional scholarship as well.
Michigan State (Admitted to Honors college). Awarded scholarships that total $28K. She was also invited to compete in the Alumni Distinguished Scholarship competition at MSU. We are torn on this. At first I thought it would be to her advantage for a competition that is test based. But then I read up on it and learned that the math portion only goes up to pre-calc. There’s nothing on the test that covers her last 3 years of math, so it might actually put someone who is taking pre-calc in their senior year at an advantage over her. Plus, there’s lots of history and art questions, which she would probably do just average on. I also hear that there are about 1400 students invited to come, and only the top 20 or so are awarded a full ride, with the next 20 getting full tuition. Those odds aren’t very good. So we are trying to decide if it makes sense to go, especially given the offers she got from Rose Hulman and Miami.
Colorado School of Mines (admitted). This was disappointing, especially since it was a school we both were kinda sorta more interested in than most of the others. She was awarded a $14K presidential scholarship, and we were offered $40K in loans to make up the rest of the cost (even though our EFC was $22K). It looks like this is the final financial aid award. It’s interesting, because when we ran the NPC for CSOM it only gave us $14K in financial aid, leaving $40K, which is exactly what we were offered. This implies that they gave no merit aid? She was invited to apply for the Harvey Scholarship, but it sounds like about 1500 students are invited to apply for only 15 full tuition awards. We may have to cross them off the list.
Worcester Poly Institute (admitted). She really liked WPI when she had her school’s math competition there. She was awarded $32K in merit aid, which still leaves about $37K for tuition & room&board, which is far out of financial reach for us. But they did say “Merit-based scholarships are incorporated into your need-based financial aid, should you qualify.” I’m not exactly sure what that means, if they allow you to stack merit and financial aid or what… I guess we have to wait and see.
Schools we are still waiting to hear back from for admission and any merit aid :
Northeastern, Stevens Institute of Technology, Utah, RIT, Vanderbilt, Clarkson, Rice, USC, The 3 UCs (UCI, UCLA, and UCSD), JHU, , and of course RPI.
UC Irvine was interesting - they sent her several scholarship applications which require quite a few (more than 5) long essays due by Jan 15. We haven’t looked at them in detail yet - but they seemed very vague as to what the scholarships are looking for and their amount. We need to figure this out ASAP, especially since there are a couple other essays due at the same time.
Anyway, that’s where we’re currently at. We need to start looking at outside scholarships as well, as just a couple smaller ones could significantly reduce our final cost. I realize we probably already missed several, but it looks like there are many that are aren’t due until February - May.
So excited for your D that she has a bunch of affordable options on the table already. That is terrific! Thanks so much for the update!
Do we get to vote? If so, I would vote for Miami of Ohio. It is one of the smaller public universities in Ohio and really feels more like a LAC. It’s a fabulous school, and the cost for her sounds so terrific! Congratulations on that one. It’s really a great school.
Of course, if she wants to be closer to home, Arizona sounds like they are in the right financial ballpark too…and also a great school. Not a bad option to have.
If your second daughter does not attend college, yes, you need to notify the colleges in terms of need based aid. This is especially important at Princeton because that’s the school where the cost will be too high if a second kiddo isn’t in college, right?
Congratulations to your daughter on these affordable options!
Great news about some excellent merit offers!
Remember for Alabama, she should get $1,000 for being Hispanic scholar, and $2,500 for engineering a year as well.
Miami of Ohio freezes their costs for all four years I believe.
those are some excellent awards! congrats! thanks for the update.
If you read through the admitted students at Miami of Ohio, you’ll see how amazing that award is compared to all of the others mentioned on the thread. And, you’ll see how in-line your COSoM’s is as well.
Colorado School of Mines is a public school. There just isn’t enough money to compete with the private schools as far as merit money goes and Colorado tuition is high even for Colorado residents.
There might be some merit money just for women applicants, but the numbers aren’t going to come down as far as you need them to.
I want to remind you about something regarding the school whose name you don’t want to mention (this can actually apply to all of the schools that meet full need).
What will happen if your daughter attends a school such as Vanderbilt etc…and it is affordable based on 2 in school, but then your older daughter has to leave college after a year… or a semester? Would you still be able to pay for your younger daughter?
Everybody’s comfort level is different, but I think I would choose a school that comes in at an affordable price without having to worry about that. The good news is that those schools now exist. Your daughters hard work paid off!
Do you honestly think the OP has not thought of this?
@cinnamon1212 … of course I think he has been thinking about this. That is why he doesn’t want to mention or discuss that “other school.” He doesn’t want opinions or discussions such as mine.
I congratulated this student on her accomplishments and ability to attend an affordable college. Getting huge merit is something to be very proud of. What the family chooses to do is their business. Hopefully things work out for them. There are kids who drop out of college due to finances… I would hate to see that happen.