Truman State, and many of the awards are automatic.
@boolaHI CMU as in Carnegie Mellon? My oldest D goest there and it’s $62K per year. They are not super generous as their endowment is not up to par with its competitors (other top 20 schools). President Suresh is trying to change this though, and they have recently received two very large gifts, some of which will go to funding scholarships. Additionally there are other initiatives going on which are positive in this regard. Unlike the Ivies, CMU DOES give merit awards to incoming freshman only–if you have not received one as an incoming freshman, then you cannot get one. The award rolls over as long as your QPA (CMU’s version of gpa) is at a certain standard. My D is an Andrew Carnegie Scholar and I’m pleased to say that CMU has been very generous to her, otherwise this would be in the “unaffordable” category for us. It’s a fantastic institution. If you go to the CMU thread on CC though, you will see lots of parents and students bemoaning that their aid is not super great.
@TiggyB62 Thanks for that helpful insight!
I would consider exploring to get more certainty about exactly how disinclined your daughter might be to attend outside the midwest. With your daughter’s stats she might be fortunate enough to snag a significant, even “full tuition” scholarship at some schools. If that were to happen, then it can pretty easily justify/counterbalance any travel costs she might incur. I would look at schools like Case Western, and Tulane which are usually very generous to students with stats in the range of your daughter’s.
I have mentioned CWRU several times and second the vandy advice. However, the student body there is not for everybody. Visit is a must, maybe more than ones, maybe overnight stays? Case will offer a great Merit though, no question!
I’ll second the suggestion for Macalester, and honestly I’m a bit surprised/confused that someone from MN would visit St.Olaf and Carleton, but not make the visit to Mac. It seems an easy and natural fit for most criteria (though maybe not for engineering). Good luck!
Case Western is running close to $60K per year (my son goes there). His stats were along the lines of your daughter’s and he received $22K per year in merit. We don’t qualify for need based aid so I don’t have any experience with how well they would do with that side of things, but I understand they are not a “meets full need” school so there might still be a gap in your case.
For us Case was the worst FA package, behind Boston U.
Twincitiesgosox: My family EFC is a lot like yours - and since Northwestern is a needs met school, it was cheaper for my kids to go there than in-state U of IL, Purdue, RoseHulman or Iowa State. And since there is no engineering at U of Chicago, you should start shopping for purple. PM me if you need more details.
True about NU, even ages ago. DH was in state for Illinois but ended up going to Northwestern because it was much cheaper than U of I.
“Case Western is running close to $60K per year (my son goes there). His stats were along the lines of your daughter’s and he received $22K per year in merit.”
-$27k out of $33k / year. It was not $60K and do not think it is $60k now. Even Case Med. School is LOWER than $60k. I do not know anything about “need based”, we would not qualify at any place in the USA, not even close.
It should mean you (the parents) aren’t expected to pay anything more than EFC. However, if the school uses Profile, their EFC figure may differ somewhat from your FAFSA EFC.
Also, exactly how the difference between full COA and your calculated EFC is paid for varies somewhat. Most schools have a separate expected student contribution (ESC), based on the student’s own assets and expected summer and/or term-time earnings; the expected student contribution (ESC) isn’t counted toward the expected family contribution (EFC). The expected student contribution reduces the calculated level of “need.” Many schools will also reduce “need” by any outside scholarships the student brings, e.g., state-funded grants or scholarships, community scholarships, corporate scholarships, foundation-funded scholarships, etc.; but this isn’t universal, as some schools will allow the student to “stack” merit scholarships by counting them toward ESC and/or EFC. Once the school has calculated a “need” figure (=COA - (EFC + expected student contribution + outside grants/scholarships)), almost all schools will check to see if the student qualifies for a federal Pell grant, and if so will count that as part of the FA package going toward meeting “need.” Most schools will also count federally subsidized Stafford loans (up to the maximum allowable, which is a relatively modest figure) as part of the FA package, but a few schools have no-loan policies that don’t require the student to take out loans. Many schools also count federal- or state-subsidized work/study earnings as part of the FA package. So the amount the school itself actually contributes in grants from its own institutional funds may (and at most schools almost certainly will) end up being a lot less than the difference between full COA and EFC.
Still confused? Well, you should be. It’s confusing, and each school sets its own policies on much of this. That’s why you need to compare actual FA offers carefully. Two schools that both claim to meet 100% of need may offer very different packages, with one counting much more “self-help” (i.e., loans and work-study, which are just different ways for the student to pay) as part of the FA package. But if the school truly meets 100% of need, unsubsidized student loans and parent PLUS loans shouldn’t be part of the financial aid package (these aren’t really “aid” at all as anyone qualifies for them), and there should be no “gap” between (EFC + ESC + FA) and full COA.
Au contraire. Case Western’s own website shows a total COA of $62,020 for a 2015-16 first-year student.
@MiamiDAP , see this for Case Western Reserve: https://students.case.edu/international/information/new/tuitionrates.html
$60,000 for undergrad, $68,000 for med school.
A fairly common method is to apply scholarships to first replace any student loans or work study offered for the ESC and any unmet need, then replace need-based grants, and lastly reduce EFC. However, different schools may differ.
Examples:
http://undergradaid.northwestern.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships-grants/outside-scholarships.html
http://financialaid.stanford.edu/aid/outside/
@MiamiDap - I think I know how much I’m paying for my son’s college education.
"$60,000 for undergrad, $68,000 for med school. "
-I agree with COA. $68k is very accurate (based on personal experience, just done paying). However, COA is not discussed normally, even full rides will not cover COA (nobody will cover, as one example, car expenses). What we can compare is tuition fee. I do not know how much is tuition fee for UG, for Med. School, it is about $50k +, Tuition for UG 8 years ago was $33k
“I think I know how much I’m paying for my son’s college education” - we also know how much we have just done paying. We are not discussing college education cost, because then, you need to add opportunity cost of kid not working full time. We are comparing tuition fee, and it is not $60k for UG.
It’s $44k or so plus room and board.
Your D needs to visit several of the above mentioned schools. Some schools may be smaller but are in large cities. Please don’t have her ignore her big flagship options (still tuition reciprocity with WI I presume) that may have better programs in fields she is interested in. Students at UW do get to do undergrad research and departments make the campus population much less intimidating- especially if she takes Honors science/math classes. This isn’t the same as walking the halls of a large HS compared to a small one. A college student will be in only those same few buildings they have classes in.
Do the NPC at each school and see whether it fits your budget. Even with merit aid, an OOS public may still be expensive unless you get full tuition/full ride scholarships which are rare.