My dd has excellent stats (4.0 uw GPA, 35 ACT, 1570 SAT, NMSF) but is not at all interested in any of the big name schools. She really wants to attend a small, Christian LAC, but based on net price calculators there is just no way she would be able to afford most of them. Some people (well, one in particular who works at a small LAC) have told me we should give them a chance to try to attract her because students with her abilities aren’t exactly storming the gates at these types of schools. This guy said there is often money available not really listed on the website and they might surprise us if we get all the way to the point where they deliver her a financial aid package. Our efc will be in the $12,000 range (we can maybe pay $2,000/year), so we’ll mostly be relying on merit aid to bring the cost down.
What lengths are smaller schools going to these days to attract these types of students? Is it worth her time and emotional investment (getting excited about some of these schools that seem to have exactly what she’s looking for) to look at schools that only show smaller merit awards on their websites? For example, one school she really likes lists a top merit award of $15,000. That’s enough to cover maybe 1/2 tuition, but leaves us with WAY too much to be able to afford it. We’re reaching the stage where I just want to throw my hands in the air, give up, and send her to the local community college instead. Sigh.
Have you looked at Hillsdale? It isn’t a Christian school but I believe attracts a lot of Christians and is conservative. I think it gives a lot of merit and is lower priced. Also Seattle Pacific a Christian school in a very nice Seattle neighborhood has several full tuition awards and is very small (not an LAC). I’m familiar with that school as I know several people who work there. Also too it never hurts to call and ask about additional merit.
Look at William Carey University in Hattiesburg Mississippi. According to their website she will receive full tuition plus a little something towards room and board. It’s on the USWNR best value in the South. I went there many years ago and had close relationships with most of my professors. It is Christian school. They are currently rebuilding after a massive tornado but seems to be rebounding nicely.
I appreciate the responses. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough.
I’m hoping someone around here has been in our shoes and can tell me how their financial aid process went. I’d love to hear “Yeah, my kid had really similar stats and received offers from at least 2 schools that included a much better financial aid package than what the NPC indicated she would receive.”
OR
“My kid had similar stats and applied to LACs but none of them could come up with enough money to make them feasible for us so she ended up having attending our state school.”
Either of these responses or something along these lines would be immensely helpful to us.
As a NMSF there are some full rides available to your daughter if she progresses to finalist as expected based on her stats. They aren’t generally at small Christian LAC’s (some are at small universities) but if money is as tight as you suggest she may need to consider options that make college affordable. She isn’t doomed to community college with her stats. My D was looking for large scholarships at LACs. She wasn’t targeting Christian schools but some of the schools she applied to were affiliated with Christian denominations. We found that there are a few LACs that offer a few full rides. One is Centre college in Kentucky which offers a number of them. They are extremely competitive but if your D has some excellent leadership or service related ECs to go with her outstanding academics, she may be in the running for those generous awards.
Be careful though. The large scholarships nearly always have early application deadlines and those are rushing up.
Well I haven’t been through the process yet but we are looking at schools where D is in top 25% of applicants (she has similar stats). I went through college data site and used their tracker results to look at kids who applied last year with similar stats. Many post their FA and merit totals. Also you can see the list of other schools where they have also applied. It gives me an idea of what we can expect in terms of merit aid and FA and also what other schools to look at. Of course things change from year to year but at least it gives you some context and idea.
My S had lower stats than your daughter, but got considerable merit (several different awards) from Marquette. But, the award only covered tuition. What about Regis College in Weston Ma or Emmanuel in Boston?
You’re really looking for a full ride, not just full tuition, and those are pretty rare, even with fabulous stats. I’ve got one on what I would consider a pretty sweet deal (full tuition plus), but I’m still paying more than 2K a year. You can throw some aps out there, just to see what happens, but I would caution against getting your hopes up. The fact that you are looking for a deal that covers nearly all your EFC is not going to work in your favor.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I’ve been figuring. Oh well, was worth a shot. We’ll see what happens with the schools she has already applied to and been accepted at. She does have a couple full ride options in her pocket already, they just aren’t the schools she’s most excited about.
Most NPCs would not calculate the merit aid. For that, you will need to wait for the FA package after admission. You may look up the school’s website to see what scholarships are available. My D1 had pretty much the same stat and received very generous merit scholarships from more than half of the schools she applied.
We are midwest, and have a kid at a large Public school, and another at a small christian LAC; we pay R&B for both.
From what we gathered, there are some small LACs and christian LACs that offer a few “unicorn” scholarships – full rides. We know a kid who was offered one, but there was a need component attached to that scholarship. Some schools have special scholarship days as well; and you might not always know about the scholarships that are offered just from online websites. So apply away!
but here’s the kicker; so many of these small LACs do not have large endowments and extra funds to give away; the schools arent necessarily vying for higher scores so they cant really justify giving full rides and room and board away to get the top-scorers. Full rides are hard to find. I’m going to PM the few schools that we know anything about.
I had no idea about the college data tracker site! That’s a neat resource, though it doesn’t look like most of our schools have a lot of data points there.
I think it is worth a shot to see what a few of the choice schools can offer, but it’s also important to have some of those full rides (for grades or NMF) in reserve, and to think of those schools in the best light possible. Not all of the NMF schools are huge, some are in christian areas, not all are liberal. She needs to learn to love the one that loves her.
My kids aren’t at schools they pictured themselves at before the search, things changed a little during the search, and now both are very happy where they are, but my younger (very picky) daughter said after visiting friends at a huge state flagship (which she absolutely would not consider when in high school), “I could have been happy there. I think I could have been happy anywhere.”
So much of it is the mindset to like it. It’s free. It’s #1 in volleyball. It’s got the best ice cream in the universe. Find something to love about it and embrace it.
Google “Common Data Set” and the college name. There is a section in those documents that shows the number of students getting merit aid and the average amount. You can get at least a ballpark idea of what percentile get aid and the average dollars. You can try to judge where your kid falls academically in the admission pool, too.
If we were able to get tuition covered with merit aid, between the unsubsidized Stafford and whatever she earns from her job I imagine we could cover room/board at most colleges.
@iahomeschoolmom She can take $5500 Freshman year, $6500 Sophomore, $7500 Junior and Senior. Probably 2k from a summer job. So $7500 for Freshman year.
Are there local scholarships that she could try for?
Have you looked at Messiah? My son had markedly less-stellar stats than your daughter and we are not eligible for need-based aid, but Messiah is a great school and was very, very generous to him. Now, I don’t think his package was different from the NPC (but I don’t remember), but I don’t know if you care so much about that as about actually affording an excellent school.
Ok, so I just ran the NPC at Messiah and it says straight out “you may be eligible for more than what is listed here.” So that’s the answer there. I can tell you that my son got more than what was listed as guaranteed with your daughter’s stats, but he is a sophomore now, so who knows? It’s a great school, and I can’t imagine that it would hurt to take a look.
Full tuition is basically only for the top students in the pool. Many private schools have inflated tuition where it’s not too terribly hard to get half tuition, but colleges start to be pretty selective with merit scholarships beyond that. I’m not saying don’t try, but don’t count on it. Have backup plans.
