<p>^ Thanks for the PM, and I’m pretty sure they’ve received all my materials. I called way back in December and also January. They said that all my materials are in but that they’ve been slow with the apps lately.</p>
<p>My stats:
Female (lol)
4.0 unweighted GPA
Rank: 1 out of 642
SAT: 2210
ACT: 32
Major: Biochemistry</p>
<p>Mines took FOREVER to process my application! Yeesh! I finally got my acceptance letter about 2 weeks ago (whoop de doo…I wasn’t worried, just wondering why it took so long). </p>
<p>Today I got my “scholarship” letter…again, whoop-de-doo… 
I’m in-state, they offered only $2,500 a year. I should probably send them copies of the other merit aid letters the other 5 schools I’ve applied and been accepted to sent me. They’ve got to be kidding. Mines has slipped WAY down on my list of possibilities.</p>
<p>LOL I talked to them last week and they said they would send a letter this week. They wouldn’t tell me about the decision made. All my materials were in by the end of November (I applied mid-November). It’s the second week of February now (more than 10 weeks for me).</p>
<p>They said that as long as you are accepted by March 1st, you will get considered for scholarships. But seeing how late it is, I’m afraid they might have exhausted their scholarship funds (I sure hope not). </p>
<p>Does anybody know how Mines is with financial aid?</p>
<p>Okay, so here was my experience:</p>
<p>All my materials were in by 11/29. For future reference, apply before November. There was a high chance of being waitlisted if you applied late November this year (they had a record number of apps, and apparently accepted too much by that time). I doubt it will be like this for other years, but if you want to hear back soon (in ~4 weeks), apply before November.</p>
<p>I received an acceptance letter on 2/22. I got the 12k on 2/26. The merit aid is much smaller for in-state students. Although they immediately consider accepted students for merit aid, they stop doing that after 3/1.</p>
<p>I got my financial aid award letter today. The max institutional financial aid they give to OOS students is 10k (at least for this year). But if you got the 12k scholarship, you don’t qualify for institutional financial aid, regardless of your EFC or AGI (both were 0 for me). So the only thing you’ll get is the Pell grant and some small loans (total: 5.5k). Work study is 1.5k.</p>
<p>Fwiw, they’ve also raised the tuition to 29k for OOS students.</p>
<p>My son (we live in Tx) was offered a $12,000 merit scholarship and additional money as a CSM grant. Work study and some loan stuff was also included in the package.</p>
<p>alantx,
Looks like I may be where you were this time LAST year. We actuall visited Mines this summer & my son is very interested in attending in Fall of 2012. Did your son go to Mines? How did he like it? Can you give me an idea of his financial aid package? My sons info: SAT 2150 (Math 760, Read 720) GPA (UW est) 3.95, maybe higher. So far he has 1 semester B with all A’s aside from that. Any words of wisdom you could offer would be GREATLY appreciated. BTW, why A7M or UT?<br>
Thanx!!!</p>
<p>*Did your son go to Mines? How did he like it? Can you give me an idea of his financial aid package? My sons info: SAT 2150 (Math 760, Read 720) GPA (UW est) 3.95, maybe higher. So far he has 1 semester B with all A’s aside from that. *</p>
<p>alantx only posted one time and may have left CC, so you may not get a response.</p>
<p>Since you’re OOS for Mines, you may get merit aid like AlanTx did (if stats were similar), but you’re not likely going to get need-based aid other then whatever fed aid you might qualify for.</p>
<p>Typically a frosh with need would be offered something like 2000 in work study and 5500 in student loans. Work-study money is really for day to day expenses since it is paid out during the year like paychecks as the student works.</p>
<p>if you have a low EFC (under 5000), then you’d get a small Pell grant. Do you know what your likely EFC will be?</p>
<p>It appears from what I have read in this thread that $12k is the max OOS merit award. That leaves roughly $28K/yr to cover.</p>
<p>*I got my financial aid award letter today. The max institutional financial aid they give to OOS students is 10k (at least for this year). But if you got the 12k scholarship, you don’t qualify for institutional financial aid, regardless of your EFC or AGI (both were 0 for me). So the only thing you’ll get is the Pell grant and some small loans (total: 5.5k). Work study is 1.5k.</p>
<p>Fwiw, they’ve also raised the tuition to 29k for OOS students. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>someone posted the above earlier. Don’t know if that helps you. </p>
<p>You might try emailing their scholarship office with your son’s stats and asking what to expect. </p>
<p>Would your son get a more affordable offer from Texas A&M? Does he not like TAMU?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that awards of a set dollar amount will quickly be less valued as costs (tuition, room, board) increase each year. A $12k scholarship is less meaningful as costs exceed $40k+ per year.</p>
<p>Of all of them, Texas A&M would probably give the best aid. They’re random sometimes, and some kids don’t get any aid at all. I heard they really care about rank. But anyways, when they give finaid / scholarships, they’ll give a lot. I’m guessing you’re in-state, but if you were OOS, they would waive the OOS tuition if you get 1k+ in competitive scholarships.</p>
<p>I hear UT is pretty stingy. But I really don’t know. I regret not applying.</p>
<p>The finaid office at CSM told me that if you get the 12k merit scholarship, that you can’t get any financial grants. Maybe it’s because I applied really late.</p>
<p>What does he want to major in?</p>
<p>Mom2 & borkx3,
Thanks for your thoughts. He’s looking at either elec or mech eng. I can’t beleive we haven’t really looked at A&M, it’s about 75 miles from home and he’s #1 in class…so far. Never know what Senioritis can do, but he shouldn’t drop too far. He prefers UT, but I hear from MANY folks, UT grads/lovers too, that UT give very little cash. Probably because kids line up at the door year after year to go. </p>
<p>Has anyone here looked at Tulsa Univ as an option? Cost is about same as Mines, private school, but they give big $, esp for Nat Merit. </p>
<p>Finally, is there a good place on line to get an est of EFC? </p>
<p>Thanx again!!</p>
<p>I’ve never tried this website, but here’s one EFC calculator:
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid)</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about UTulsa, but I know that OU pretty much gives you a full ride if you are a(n) NMF (<a href=“http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/recruitment/Downloads/2010.11%20FR%20Scholarship%20Descriptions.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/recruitment/Downloads/2010.11%20FR%20Scholarship%20Descriptions.pdf</a>).</p>
<p>Also since OU is a public school and participates in the Academic Common Market, you should be able to get in-state rates there. I’m not sure if there are conditions for that, however.</p>
<p>Other than that, OU is generally stingy (from what I’ve heard). But not as stingy as UT. They MIGHT actually give decent aid.</p>
<p>My niece, from Oklahoma, is starting this Fall at Tx Womens in Denton & recd some scholarship $ from them and then they allowed her to pay in state tuition, too. Has anyone heard if CSM ever offers IS tuition to OOS students?</p>
<p>*
Finally, is there a good place on line to get an est of EFC? *</p>
<p>Keep in mind that EFC is only to determine FEDERAL aid. Colleges don’t have to do anything with that number except see if your EFC is low enough for a small Pell Grant…or a student loan or work-study. It’s not unusual for someone with an EFC over Pell amounts (about 5000) to get nothing but a student loan and work-study.</p>
<p>The words “Expected Family Contribution” is a misnomer - it doesn’t mean that is all a family has to pay. MOst schools do not meet need because they don’t have the funds.</p>
<p>Since your son is a likely NMSF/F, there are schools that will give him large scholarships.</p>
<p>CSM does not offer in-state tuition to anybody but Colorado residents. They don’t even participate in WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange).</p>
<p>Sharp,</p>
<p>We will be driving Teen Boy to school next week so I will fill you in on the actual experience later. He wants to study mechanical engineering / physics.</p>
<p>My son’s stats were almost exactly the same as yours. He attends a magnet school where the valedictorian’s GPA was 4.7+ and therefore his class rank was not high enough for the engineering school at UT. He had no interest in applying to A&M. He really wants to spread his wings and get out of Texas - loves to ski, hike, kayak and thought Colorado would be a great place for all of that while getting a great education. </p>
<p>My primary piece of advice would be for your son to apply early. Your son would almost certainly get the $12K per year scholarship and they have (or at least had) grant money that they can award on a discretionary basis on a first-come, first-served basis. We learned that in our visit last summer. My son ended up getting an additional $2K CSM grant from the school - I think his application was in by October. Work-study ($1,500)
and Stafford loan also. </p>
<p>Very few of son’s classmates that are attending UT received any financial aid. Kids with near perfect SAT’s, GPA and national awards in academic competitions - nothing.</p>
<p>Alantx,
Thanx so much for letting me know what going on and that you are going to Mines. Would love to hear what he thinks about it along the way, and how he’s doing thru the year. We visited this summer and all we heard was variations on the theme of “Love the school, but it’s REALLY hard!” They also said there are TONS of options for help when/if you are struggling with something, but he has to ASK for it; my son’s not so great at recognizing there could be a problem & asking for help!! </p>
<p>Anyway, please let us know what he thinks about the “freshman experience” as well as any tidbits of advice you/he learn along the way. BTW, I have a friend who graduated Mines about 15 yrs ago. His school philosophy was to work / study EVERY DAY until 10 PM, then he went to bed every night at 10. He also didn’t study on weekends and took advantage of to Colo outdoor life then. He’s now a deepwater geologist & doing extremely well. </p>
<p>Best of luck to your son, and to his dad, too!</p>
<p>JON</p>
<p>Alantx,
Just thought of another option for additional CSM funds. CSM is 1 of about 20 eng schools (aklso MIT, Cornell, UT / A&M, etc) on Shell Oil’s preferred list. Shell offers $5K/yr scholarships and you do NOT have to be an employee. Too late for this year, but assuming he keeps a 3.2 GPA or better, he can apply for following years. Check out [Scholarships</a> - United States](<a href=“http://www.shell.us/home/content/usa/aboutshell/careers/students_and_graduates/development/scholarships/]Scholarships”>http://www.shell.us/home/content/usa/aboutshell/careers/students_and_graduates/development/scholarships/)</p>
<p>HOpe all is well in Golden CO.</p>
<p>JON
HOpe it helps.</p>
<p>im1sharp - </p>
<p>Thanks for the info on the Shell scholarship. I’ll put that on Teen Boy’s to-do list for the next couple of weeks. First semester down - gpa at 3.5ish and plans to go back for more. Little studying involved apparently - every class was a repeat of high school (not that the gpa reflects what should have been a 4.0). Finishing his calc final last Monday and hitting Arapahoe Basin for the afternoon was a high point, I think. I’m sure things will ramp up next semester. </p>
<p>Any word from CSM in your son’s search? Has he checked out UT and A&M? Our school counselor suggested Tulsa as well - said they are handing out tons of money for petro and chem engineering but Oklahoma was not a big draw for my son.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>DD visited Mines and fell in love. They told us last spring the max merit OOS was $12K and the rule of thumb was 3.85 UW and 680 math. A tier down is $9k. When I called the financial aid dept this fall to verify those numbers, they said they currently had consultants in-house and were going to be releasing new #'s in Feb. I plan to call next month and get the new info. They did tell us that while that was max merit internally, there is still alot of merit aid available from external companies (like the Shell mentioned above). One the mentioned in particular for girls is the Women in Engineering scholarship if she could get an ACT above 31 (she did!). Mines also has athletic scholarships and I’ve heard even marching band scholarships! Seems like the assumption above was that you couldn’t get more than $12K total per year, but I don’t think that’s true at all.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to Mines and rec’d the $12K offer based on stats listed by SQUIDGE. Still lots of $$ left to pay, but did FAFSA (sooooo much fun) last week and will await more info. He’s getting lots of offers with various amounts of $$ (SMU, Tx Tech, Bama, Baylor, Tulsa, Univ Houston), and they end up reasonably close in costs to each other. He’s looks mech or elec engineering. I’d HAPPILY accept thoughts and opinions comparing these schools and thier engineering programs from this list. </p>
<p>THANX!!</p>
<p>Teen boy says that Petro and Geological engineering are the two primary programs at CSM, everything else kind of gets seconds. I think Chemical is pretty big as well, with mechanical coming in not far behind. From what I remember the admissions office telling us, they don’t get a lot of employers recruiting for electrical engineers at CSM, for what it is worth. </p>
<p>I think most of the offers we ended up with had roughly the same out of pocket for the year. We are lucky that we set up the Texas Tomorrow Fund many years ago and have a nice chunk of the differential paid for.</p>