@KevinFromOC started this thread looking for a college with great MERIT aid for his daughter. I applaud her for completing a lot of applications, and getting the multiple acceptances she received.
The family has found merit money to support the college education of this young woman. That’s what this thread was all about. (Princeton doesn’t give merit aid)
Kudos! Looking forward to hearing the final choice.
The prep school our daughter attends costs over $65,000 per year for a boarding student. About 2/3 of the students there pay full price.
Between financial aid, athletic scholarship, and academic scholarship, we pay less than $9000 per year. That’s about what we were spending each year for her travel club hockey season. And the hockey there is way better than anything out here in So Cal.
It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. So yes, we chose to find the money for this school. I doubt she would be in the position she’s in now as far as college acceptances and scholarships without this boarding school experience.
Personally, I would find it odd if someone in our shoes declined an offer such as that!
@CollegeOdyssey2001
It seems to me one very big thing working against the elite schools is that they only give you one month between acceptance and when you have to commit. And given that it took over a week before they even responded to my inquiry, Princeton chopped off even more of that precious time.
It would seem to be in the colleges’ (and student’s) best interest to make an admittance decision sooner. Yeah, they offer early decision, but that is only applicable for those students where cost is not an issue and they will sign on the dotted line without even knowing the exact cost beforehand. For students who need aid, their only choice is regular decision, and then they only have a month to figure everything out. And if you have to negotiate that aid, well there’s not much time at all for that!
I’m not saying that in our case more time would have mattered much, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt!
By the way, Princeton made it pretty clear that unless we could send them documentation of significant educational expenses for our other daughter, they were not going to adjust their financial aid offer.
Nonbinding early action might have given you earlier results.
Only a few of the elite schools offered that, and those that did required you to NOT apply early action to any other private school, which means she wouldn’t have gotten the chances she did at Rose Hulman or USC.
Just stopping back by at one of my favorite CC threads to say a big Congrats! And to remind you (as if you could forget) that you got a whole bunch of negativity about how “insanely competitive” merit aid is…and how applying to 20 schools was crazy…“how will she write all those essays??” Well you did it…she did it. Which I think just shows that you know your kid best. I knew she would do it too because she was tough and committed enough to live away at boarding school, play a high level sport, and still get the amazing grades/scores she did in HS. So just wanted to say congrats. You have handled the insanely probing questions with grace and appreciation and in return received some excellent advice. Flagging this post for others!
I’m one of those people that thought 20 applications are too many and honestly still think that is the case for most. I’d love to get a debrief from OP (when appropriate) on lessons learned from the process. Congrats to your daughter and your family on your great results!
I think this has been an interesting thread but seems pretty specific to this family. Not sure flagging it is going to help others that much down the line. Most kids are not going to want to apply to 20+ colleges, even in normal times. Best wishes to OP’s daughter!
So, given what my daughter and I have gone through and learned over these last 10 months, I thought it would be amusing to share my top 10 list (I miss David Letterman) of the misconceptions I had 2 years ago about what this process would be like. Every single item on this list is wrong.
(10) Given my daughter’s extremely high academic achievements, there is no way she won’t be going to a prestigious elite Top-20 school. In fact we won’t even bother applying to any school not in the top 40.
(9) Almost all colleges use the Common Application, so all you need to do is fill it out, write the one essay it requires, and BAM! - you’re done. You can send that application to 3 schools, or 30 schools - the only extra work required in applying to additional schools is paying the application fee. So with a week’s worth of effort, you can easily apply to 30 schools.
(8) The only exception to the above is that some elite schools like Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford may require one more essay in addition to the Common App essay, but that’s it.
(7) There’s no such thing as an Honors College within a college, and even if there were such a thing, it certainly wouldn’t require any extra essays to apply.
(6) Filling out the FAFSA will give you an EFC which is the true amount of what you can afford to pay for college, and definitely not some ludicrous amount that is ridiculously unaffordable.
(5) The EFC will take into account whether you live in an area with a high cost of living and/or live in a state that has a high state income taxes.
(4) Almost all colleges will give you an affordable financial aid package, either beating your EFC or at least meeting it.
(3) Schools will not consider loans as part of financial aid - they will meet your EFC in full with grants, and then you might be offered loans to help pay for the remaining amount.
(2) Elite colleges with very large endowments will give you an incredibly generous financial aid package so that you only have to pay about 10% of your income for the cost of attendance.
(1) After you get your financial aid award, you can decrease your cost of attendance even more by getting merit aid and/or outside scholarships. For example, if you apply to a school who’s COA is $70K, you might get $40K in financial aid which brings your cost down to $30K. If you then get a $20K merit aid award from the school, that will bring your cost down to $10K. And then if you get a $6K outside scholarship, you will only be paying $4K to attend that school.
This list made me chuckle! We definitely thought a few of those back when my eldest was in high school… but due to considerable reading (lurking) on here, we were informed otherwise and had to go on a merit hunt similar to you - except that my eldest is in no way an engineer, science or finance type. She also landed at a large southern state school, in the HC, in a specialist program and has had a great time and an excellent education - both in the classroom and outside of it. Princeton was her only lottery school (admissions and aid wise) and she was rejected so we swerved the decision you had to make over FA. Wishing your daughters all the best.
Hahaha @KevinFromOC ! That’s pretty funny, but it awesome for showing us that we all have misconceptions at the start. I love what you said about the essays. We did try to warn you?. But nevertheless, your D persisted and she now has some wonderful options. Can’t wait to hear the final decision!
Maybe not but I will tell you that many, many do or very close to 20 even from the wealthiest families. I think it’s more the thought process and going through the motions. Lots of families don’t know about the process, what /where to apply to. How to go about financial aid. What it all really means. Etc etc. The OP seemed a bit confused (like many of us) when starting this process and now is an expert. He has the knowledge now. That is sorta what I am talking about. There are lots of families like his that are similar situation.
I didn’t even read the top ten list. Now he proved my point… Lol. Kevin can now pay it forward if he wants to… Lol. I think most of us have learned a lot in our own child’s journey and to some point why were here on cc
quote=“KevinFromOC;c-22750412” After you get your financial aid award, you can decrease your cost of attendance even more by getting merit aid and/or outside scholarships. For example, if you apply to a school who’s COA is $70K, you might get $40K in financial aid which brings your cost down to $30K. If you then get a $20K merit aid award from the school, that will bring your cost down to $10K. And then if you get a $6K outside scholarship, you will only be paying $4K to attend that school.
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Wait. What? How is this one not true? I’m really hoping it’s not as my kid spent a lot of time on scholarship apps to get a few local ones that we were assuming would be applied towards the parent/student contribution, not replacing other aid/merit.
Wait. What? How is this one not true? I’m really hoping it’s not as my kid spent a lot of time on scholarship apps to get a few local ones that we were assuming would be applied towards the parent/student contribution, not replacing other aid/merit.
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Definitely true. Your need is reduced by having more $$ (the amt of the scholarships) therefore, the scholarships replace grant $$. (Some will allow outside merit to replace workstudy and the student’s loan portion first.)
@cshell2 While this is probably true for the majority, there are some colleges that will allow you to stack. We found that lower ranked colleges were more likely to allow this.
Wait. What? How is this one not true? I’m really hoping it’s not as my kid spent a lot of time on scholarship apps to get a few local ones that we were assuming would be applied towards the parent/student contribution, not replacing other aid/merit.
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Simply stated, because earning/winning outside scholarships reduces one’s need. Many colleges require outside scholarships to be paid directly to the university, and then will reduce the need based aid based on their policies and practices.
Check each college’s website to see how they handle outside scholarships, there are differences in how they apply them.
@cshell2 any outside scholarships must be reported to your kid’s college. At most places, these outside scholarships will replace some portion of your need based aid package, because your financial need will actually be less.
Most colleges do not allow you to stack their need based financial aid plus outside awards. You would need to contact your college to find out their policy.
And the very vast majority of colleges expect you to pay your calculated family contribution, so your net cost might not be reduced a dime by receiving outside awards.
There are a small number of colleges that will allow stacking of outside scholarships with school based awards. You need to contact your kid’s college(s) to find out their policies.
This was something @KevinFromOC was told very early on in this thread. And it’s true.
Well, that annoys me to no end. If the school says you’re supposed to pay X what difference does it make how you come up with the money whether it be borrowing, working, begging off the grandparents or scholarship?
Guess I’ll be contacting the school today…or ask DS to do it. I don’t care if they reduce the loans or work study amount, but if it’s the grants and scholarships, then we’ll just give the ones he earned back.
What’s the HC?