Making our list - General Merit Aid / Sticker Price Question

So, son is currently a junior in high school and a T25 and under contender based on GPA and practice test scores. We have high income but are house and retirement savings poor (living on Coastal California). He has a 529 owned by a grandparent. Merit aid is a consideration for our family as we would need to take loans for certain out of state publics and definitely for private school like Notre Dame.

Q: I think he will apply early action and I hear on Podcasts that merit aid generally is only available if you are in the top 25% of applicants at a particular school. So, I’m looking for more information from parents who have gone through the process regarding the interplay of merit aid and applying early. Thank you!

The issue with merit and t25 is that not many of them have it If the do, it tends to be very few and highly competitive. If you are a non FA eligible household looking for merit, you need to become familiar with lines H2an and H2ao of the common datasets. They show the number and average amount of merit aid awarded to non FA eligible students. For ND specifically, they are 43 and 21,626. That means out of the 1,025 students that had no financial “need”, 43 got something (4.2%).

As noted by Eeyore, there is very little merit money to be had at the top schools. There is a great long thread that has a good discussion of schools with merit for high stats students: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2154331-looking-for-advice-in-merit-aid-for-a-top-1-student.html#latest

Not a parent, but so far all of my EA applications (I’m 5 for 5 right now!) have come with good merit aid. I was in the Top 25% for all of them (all safeties except for one). Here was my breakdown (all scholarships renewable):

College 1: Private, $40000 Total, $11000 merit
College 2: Private, $50000 Total, $24000 merit
College 3: Public OOS, $45000 Total, $9000 merit
College 4: Private, $60000 Total, $10000 merit (known for awful merit)
College 5: Private, $70000 Total, $30000 merit

So, applying EA won’t hurt your merit chances most likely, applying ED will since you are bound to go. I applied RD to my non-safeties because they only had ED, so I’m not sure about merit at schools that aren’t safeties. I’d suggest looking at the common data set for each school, they’ll have breakdowns of need-based and non need-based aid.

What is your son interested in studying?

Where does he want to attend college geographically?

What is his GPA and SAT or ACT score?

Was his PSAT high enough to meet the national merit finalist bar in your state?

What can you pay annually for him to attend college?

There are tons of CSUs and UCs…with instate costs for you. Can you afford any of those?

Since finances are a significant consideration, it seems, I would suggest that you look for colleges with non binding early action. NOT early decision.

As noted, the merit awards at top 25 schools are going to be very competitive.

You need to build the college application list from the bottom up…meaning…you need to find some affordable sure things for admission first. Find a couple of those and then look for the more reach schools.

To answer your question about early and merit, EA isn’t an issue because it isn’t binding. But I wouldn’t apply ED. For some schools, you have to apply early (USC). There might be some schools that say they don’t disadvantage students that apply ED for merit but I would never take that risk.

Don’t apply ED.

You can try to run the net price calculators for the colleges he is interested in attending. Some actually do ask for stats and include possible merit aid. BUT if the merit aid isn’t guaranteed…well…it’s not guaranteed that your kid will get it.

If you are not divorced, not self employed, don’t own a business, don’t own real estate in addition to your primary residence, the net price calculators might give you an estimate Of your net costs. They are currently set for students starting in fall 2020…and financial aid policies DO change.

If you tell a couple of colleges your kid is interested in applying to, folks here will give you some feedback on potential merit aid.

You mentioned Notre Dame. It’s a great school…but they have a limited number of highly competitive merit awards. Most of their aid is need based.

The key question is whether you can afford the UCs (around $30K per year full pay including room and board). If you can then it will be extremely difficult to get into a better school that costs less than UCB and UCLA. Then you can shoot for ultra reach top scholarships like UVA’s Jefferson scholarship (but not expect to get them), and/or step down to less competitive schools that offer more money, many of which are identified in the thread linked above.

If you can’t afford to pay for the UCs, then you need to be focused on lower ranked schools with merit. That’s the main focus of the thread (budget for that student is $15K-$20K pa).

To your question about applying early: yes, many merit scholarships require an early application. Keep a detailed list of deadlines and prioritize the applications ruthlessly. One of the challenges of the UCs is that most results don’t come out until mid to late March (although Regents scholarship notifications start in early to mid February). So you probably won’t be able to count on a UCB/UCLA admission until everything else has been announced.

Thanks everyone! Asking re under T25. Interested in computer science.

He got a 31 on the practice ACT without preparing. We have a tutor and hope to improve that. He has a 4.44 GPA in all honors and AP classes. He was just a national merit candidate @ 191 index on PSAT.

His preferences lean toward a smaller school (or public honors program) in a suburban or college town. He’s totally ok with leaving California.

We toured CU Boulder, and their honors program is our primary safety school. He will apply U Washington for computer science but will really need a stellar test score I realize and even then… He will apply Santa Clara but I know they don’t really do merit aid. Also will apply UCSD and UCSB. I really don’t see him living in LA or Berkeley. He didn’t really care for Michigan or U Oregon. Considering U Minnesota and U Wisconsin.

The 529 would cover UCs and nothing more. We are comfortable taking out loans but will be looking at ROI and merit aid.

We are still working on fine tuning the rest of our list and his upcoming test scores will be important of course. We are really having a hard time narrowing it down geographically. We might take a trip to New England since we are quite unfamiliar - Middlebury, Tufts, Dartmouth.

@izrk02 Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

You’re applying to a lot of OOS publics, not exactly the best merit situation. You’re more likely to get merit at an in state or private school, since publics typically don’t give much merit or they prioritize in state applicants. Also take into account the cost of flying back and forth for break if you choose a college out of driving distance (South, New England, Midwest)

I did know about the college data site, but haven’t really dug in since we are still kind of working our list. Has anyone used the Tuitionfit or edmit?

Your NE schools listed are not particularly strong in computer science. If that is his desired major, you may wish to focus on schools which are.

How are CO Boulder and U Washington affordable OOS?

Also if he wants engineering or CS, many schools that might generally be admission safeties, aren’t for these majors.

And sometimes you can’t directly be admitted to the major at some schools.

Since he needs admission and financial safeties, he should look into major programs of some affordable schools.

@mommdc yes, I think he is unlikely to get into U Washington as a freshman CS major. Boulder takes a lot of OOS students and they do have a couple of levels for automatic tuition discounts I believe. I don’t know their stats for the major yet.

Fit is a big driver for us but we don’t take the potential loans lightly. I think what I’m trying to find out is what to expect on relative pricing.

A PSAT index of 191 (a score of 1200-1250) isn’t particularly indicative of a T25 outcome, especially in CS, barring some major hooks. Places like Tufts and Dartmouth seem rather unlikely reaches.

Do you have an idea of where he ranks in his class? You can look up all the UC application and admission statistics by individual high school in California and its relatively predictable (albeit harder to get admitted for CS than other subjects).

Boulder is a popular OOS school (with great parties) for rich kids from CA who can’t get into the better UCs. But Utah is half the price (comparable to UC costs) for a similar education. CA also has a wide range of great public schools that would be within budget. OTOH many privates that offer merit won’t get the net price below about $50K for a full pay family unless you offer something extraordinary they want.

@Twoin18 yes, his 1250 PSAT was very disappointing. I expect that ACT will be the test that is better for him and I believe he will get that score up to a 33/34. He is bottom of top 10% at his HS. It’s a very small private school.

We are prepared for taking out loans to make up any difference. I’m trying to wrap my head around what we might be dealing with though cost-wise. I’ve heard nobody pays full price but it’s tricky to find out what the breaks might be. We have friends whose kids got into Santa Clara and were offered $600 off $70k.

I think you want to consider that his test scores might not be as high as you hope and rationalize expectations, but even at 33, merit money at good schools isn’t forthcoming, wanting merit money means looking at less popular schools that will pay for students. OOS schools like Uminn and UW might see money as the hook if his stats are admission worthy.

MANY students pay full price. Many of those students go to CU. The scholarship amount I see most often at CU for OOS students is $25k - total, for 4 years, or $6250 per year. OOS tuition is about $35k (it’s $2k more if he’s in engineering). Housing is very expensive in Boulder.

But it is a great school. Not T25 on any list.

At some schools you will find this to be true. However, at the upper end, it isn’t. Going back to the ND example, about half of the students are full pay. Looking at Dartmouth, it is also 50% full pay.