That full ride McNair Scholarship at South Carolina is a terrific award. It’s not just the money, but also the per things McNair Scholars get. A very fine acknowledgement of this student’s achievements.
If we are voting…I vote for that one.
Travel from California to Columbia, SC could be interesting!
Why would travel to Columbia Sc be an issue? We have flown there a number of times without issue. The airport isn’t huge but it works.
Many South Carolina students fly in and out of Charlotte…maybe the school runs transport to the Charlotte airport…worth checking.
Traveling out of Columbia is easy. Airport is 15 minutes from campus and easy to get through. Lots of flights to Charlotte or Atlanta. I would imagine there are shuttles to Charlotte which is only 90 minutes away.
Nice place to spend 4 years. Not a large city but not small either. Plenty to do. 2 hours to beach or Charleston. 3 hours to Atlanta. SEC sports so football rules. I spent 2 years there for my MBA many years ago and enjoyed my time. Surprisingly diverse. Not sure if it’s still a large base but Fort Jackson was the spot for Army basic training. Hottest place on earth in the summer.
Fine academics too. Their international business program is one of the best.
I think it would be a great place to spend 4 years. Lots of out of state kids, particularly from neighboring states/ nearby states I would imagine. My only thought related to distance and lack of non-stop flights from California, especially in the current coronavirus climate. But the OP’s daughter is already used to travel since prep school was in Massachusetts, so perhaps not a big deal. Good luck with the decision!
Very impressive Kevin. I learned a lot from this thread
Hockey is one of those sports, especially for girls, where it is extraordinarily difficult to get a D1 spot at a school which is both a good hockey school and strong academically. Miami is one of those places. And she is a goalie. It is a lightening strike.
Unless she is over the hockey thing, tougher decision. If not, don’t know a single hockey player who wouldn’t chose Miami, unless she is convinced she’d ride the bench for four years. I tutor a HS female hockey player who was a nationally developed athlete in two sports. She chose the other sport to focus on as a sophomore because ice hockey probably meant she’d need to go to a weaker academic school (she’s a strong student). She would have made a different decision had she been courted by Miami, for sure. Miami hockey players are royalty.
So she has received her final 3 college decisions…
She was accepted to Northeastern. They say on their website that NHRP recipients can get up to $30K in merit aid which is combine-able with other merit or financial aid. She was actually awarded $33K for the NHRP, and they combined it with $0 in other merit aid and $0 in financial aid, which puts her COA right at $40K. Needless to say, that’s a non-starter for us.
She was also accepted to Princeton. Their financial aid offer was interesting. Our EFC is $22K. When I ran our numbers through their NPC it gave a COA of $17,800. I reran the numbers again this last weekend and got the same exact amount. Given their reputation for being generous with financial aid, we were hoping for a COA of under $20K which would at least be worth investigating.
Well, they gave much less financial aid than their NPC advertised, and her COA came to $33K. That’s almost a factor of 2 more than their NPC! I have an e-mail into them to try to figure out what the discrepancy is, but I’m not holding my breath.
And, it really doesn’t matter much anyway. Even though our other daughter was accepted to Cal State Fullerton, we have realized that she will not be able to attend at least half time. At best, she could take maybe 2 classes at a time. Our $22K EFC was assuming 2 children in college, so any school who’s cost to us is financial aid based will be almost double what their financial aid letter says.
Anyway, she finally heard from the 23rd and final school, Rice. Let me describe it this way : suppose a baseball pitcher has retired all 26 batters he’s faced and needs one more out for a perfect game. Then with 2 out in the bottom of the ninth he gives up a solo home run. So in other words, she was waitlisted. Probably doesn’t matter much as I’m sure they would have been unaffordable, even though it is a great school for chemical engineering.
She also heard back from USC, and got a Presidential Scholarship which is half tuition. While nice to receive, it seems that any merit aid that is less than what the financial aid would be is pretty meaningless since they don’t stack.
Meanwhile, she should hear back from Rose Hulman this week. If she doesn’t get the Room & Board scholarship, then it would be tough to keep them under consideration compared to the much better offers from UofSC and Miami. So it’s looking like it’s down to those 3. She has nice offers from Alabama and ASU, but it seems like the UofSC offer wins over those two.
If she wants to continue to play hockey and go with Miami, perhaps they might sweeten the deal a little, even though it’s already super sweet? She needs to figure out her priorities…
Regardless, she will have some tough decisions to make in April. Or perhaps these schools will follow suit with the precedent set by others and move the deadline to June 1. If she does get the full ride from Rose Hulman, then that might make visiting there a possibility.
Congrats to your daughter, Kevin. She has affordable options, which is the important thing, and she can have the satisfaction of having gained acceptance to some of the toughest schools in the country.
Not a surprise to me that she was accepted at Princeton. Latina with strong mathematics skills is as rare as they come (in addition to all the other outstanding achievements your daughter has). A little surprised about Rice, but yield protection may have played a role there.
Awesome, Kevin. What a crazy week for you guys! wishing her the best . . .
I don’t agree. There are those little schools in Boston with good hockey teams like Harvard, BC, BU that are pretty good at hockey and have good academics. There are big schools like Wisconsin and Minnesota that aren’t bad at hockey.
But OP said many moons ago that his daughter wasn’t interested picking a school for hockey.
Miami changed their deadline to June 1.
I would like to congratulate your daughter! All of her hard work clearly paid off, and I am sure she will have a wonderful four years. Congrats once again!
Did Princeton ask what you are paying for older D’s college? Could that be the cause of the discrepancy?
In any event…I want to wish your D the best in her future endeavors. I am certain she will have many amazing opportunities.
“She was accepted to Northeastern. They say on their website that NHRP recipients can get up to $30K in merit aid which is combine-able with other merit or financial aid. She was actually awarded $33K for the NHRP, and they combined it with $0 in other merit aid and $0 in financial aid, which puts her COA right at $40K. Needless to say, that’s a non-starter for us.”
Just for others who may read this thread later… I’ve never read anywhere that you can stack merit at Northeastern. I don’t even think you can stack FA and merit (including National Merit Scholarship and NHRP). So, I pretty much new from the beginning that she wouldn’t get more than the 30K merit there OR whatever you NPC says for FA. They just don’t have the endowment to discount that much. They need a lot of kids paying 40K (merit discounting in the 20k range) and obviously a bunch of full pays too, so that they can give those with financial need more.
I’m surprised about Princeton… I’ve read that they are VERY generous. I bet you’ll get your 17K COA that the NPC said.
What is the NPC number from Princeton now your older DD is out of the math? Isn’t it moot?
@suzyQ7 For students they really want, they do stack merit (NHRP and other merit).
Yes, given that with just one in school the COAs at financial aid based schools will nearly double, it is becoming moot. But I’d still like to find out what the discrepancy with Princeton is…
I pity the parents who have one entering college the year after another one graduates from college - that’s the perfect storm of maximizing college payments over an 8 year span!
Right? Yet you hear all the time parents spacing kids at least 4 years apart to avoid having two in college at the same time.
Wow! What a marathon this has been for you guys. Nice to have some really wonderful, affordable options at the end of it all. Job well done!! Given the havoc Covid-19 is causing on the world, including the economy, I would imagine there are lots of parents/students class of 2024 re-thinking options in terms of Distance and $$$. I am sure there are folks who have been impacted - and it’s not over yet. Please keep us all posted and let us know which sweatshirt and bumper sticker you end up “buying.”
@KevinFromOC your daughter has terrific and affordable options. Congratulations to her.
Re: Princeton…I’m not familiar with the Princeton Financial Aid Form…which is what they use to determine awarding of institutional need based aid. Did it ask how much YOU would be paying out of pocket for your older daughter? IIRC, you mentioned that you would not have costs for her because this would be supported elsewhere. If that is the case, perhaps Princeton treated this as one kid in college…because you have no costs associated with your older daughter.
And a gentle reminder…your FAFSA EFC is meaningless in terms of need based aid for Princeton.
When you did the net price calculator for Princeton, did you state one or two in college?