<p>College parent newbie. Our oldest child (daughter) graduates high school in June. Accepted to UW-Mad in Dec. She has a 4.0 GPA (unweighted - has several AP classes), tied for #1 in class rank, ACT =31. Plans to study microbiology and genetics.</p>
<p>Yikes - just got notified: absolutely nothing in merit aid. What to do? Looks like est tuition for 2013/2014 is $24,204, +200 for SOAR.</p>
<p>Getting offered a really nice pkg from Valparaiso and Marquette. Does Madison just not offer much to freshman, or is this how it will be all 4 years? Time to rethink where to attend? </p>
<p>Any info/advice/comments appreciated!</p>
<p>There are good scholarships for URM. If you are in-state NMF there is a freshman non-renewable scholarship for about $7,000. Also for in-state, your high school will soon award several (depending on class size) ‘Wisconsin excellence’ scholarships to use anywhere in WI, $2500/yr renewable, based solely on class rank. At our school, which has many 4.0 seniors, they use ACT score as tiebreaker. Each dept has its own scholarships also. I’ve heard anecdotally of people who received largish engineering scholarships. Also, I know of someone who received his dept. scholarships after he committed. Don’t feel bad. My in-state D has lots of APs and ECs, 4.0 unweighted, 35 ACT and good SAT, NMF, hasn’t received anything from them yet, other than a small music scholarship. I understand from fin aid office that if she names them first choice school she should get the NMF award.</p>
<p>OP her stats are pretty average for Madison so I would make my decision on what school to attend figuring that she will not get any scholarships except for the WI excellence scholarship of 2250 per year. This scholarship would also be good at Marquette. If as an upperclassman she gets more it will be a nice bonus. I am surprised your D got her Marquette Coa below Madison…for merit only my S was able to almost match it and that included a scholarship he won, the nmf scholarship, the val scholarship and the big merit one. All schools you listed are good ones so whatever she chooses will be fine.</p>
<p>^ Oops, sorry, you’re right, $2250/yr, not $2500. My Bad.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick replies! They both helped. Trying to figure out what to do next…</p>
<p>In general, UW does not give merit aid (aside from the $400 Vilas scholarship for the top 150 or so incoming freshmen by GPA), only financial need based aid (Madison Initiative for Undergraduates) and scholarships that students must apply for. Did your daughter apply by February for L&S Scholarships?</p>
<p>Thanks Madison85. She did apply for the L&S Scholarships, but didn’t receive anything.</p>
<p>By any chance could scholarships be affected due to the $33million then additional $1.1million in overpayments (not sure if I’m allowed to post a link - jsonline 2/7/13).</p>
<p>We are just so disappointed. She has sacrificed so much in hopes of scholarships. She has limited social life, studies all the time, anxiety over grades, skipped varsity sports because they’re so time consuming, etc. I won’t say these things are an enormous sacrifice, because it’s her personality to be a bookworm anyway, but still sacrifices none-the-less.</p>
<p>Her brother and sister have made tongue-in-cheek remarks while doing their homework that it’s “good enough,” since there won’t be scholarships anyway. They’re both “A” students as well, so I’m not worried that they’ll dump their grades. But it does ring true…I think they’ve learned not to agonize over their studies.</p>
<p>If your Adjusted Gross Income is $80,000 or higher, you will be paying the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates $1,000/year surcharge for residents (surcharge is $3,000 for nonresidents) and will not be eligible for the need-based grants given to students whose parents have AGI under $80,000. The surcharge is ‘hidden’ - it is part of the stated tuition rate.</p>
<p>Not sure where you got the idea that UW-Madison gave merit aid.</p>
<p>The College of Letters & Science Scholarships all look to be funded by outside donors thus would not be affected by the overpayments. There are only about 50 scholarships and 1,000-1,500 incoming freshmen apply for these 50, and, most are one-time amounts of $2,000 or less and many have a financial need component along with merit and other requirements.</p>
<p>Did your daughter apply for/receive any outside scholarships?</p>
<p>The ACT score for the middle 50 percentile of students who are admitted to UW-Madison is 26-31, so your daughter doesn’t stand out on the ACT score alone, as 25% of applicants have a higher ACT score than she has.</p>
<p>Feel assured that her study skills will likely pay off in success at UW-Madison or whereever she attends college.</p>
<p>Also, ‘est. tuition’ is NOT $24,404 + $200 for SOAR. Tuition is about $10,500. </p>
<p>Is it more that her ego is hurt by the lack of merit aid versus UW-Madison is unaffordable without merit aid?</p>
<p>That $24,404 OP quoted is resident COA. Growing up in WI, my D and kids at her school knew that UW doesn’t have much in the way of large scholarships, except for a very small handful of truly outstanding kids and then the diversity scholarships. Maybe it’s because we live right in Madison that we are so aware of it. That is why she cast a wide net applying to schools that do have big scholarships for students with her stats and in fact will be attending an OOS public for next to nothing. Admittedly not as highly ranked as UW. </p>
<p>I’m very sorry about your D and hope you find a way to send her here. Tell your kids there are many reasons to work hard, not just to get scholarships. Getting in is a big hurdle for many kids in WI. Lots of parents I know bemoan how hard it is to get accepted. That is already a feat to be proud of.</p>
<p><By any chance could scholarships be affected due to the $33million then additional $1.1million in overpayments (not sure if I’m allowed to post a link - jsonline 2/7/13)…</p>
<p>No. That was an issue at the UW System level which has nothing to do with Madison scholarships.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how accurate this Wikipedia list is, but I wish I had had a list like this when I was first applying to schools:</p>
<p>[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Need-blind admission - Wikipedia”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I’m guessing the state schools on there only meet full need for in-state applicants. But, there sure are a lot of schools that guarantee to meet full need for those accepted.</p>
<p>Just a thought- Any chance your younger children are in instrumental music? If they attend UW-Summer Music Clinic, a residential week long camp, the summer after 11th grade, they can compete for 1 of 10 4 yr full-tuition scholarships good at UW-Madison or Milwaukee. You prepare a solo, play scales, sight-read. They choose alternates (D is one) and usually have to dip into the alternate list a few since some winners will go elsewhere. Winners need not major in music, only must participate in ensembles.</p>
<p>But piano is not eligible, I think.</p>
<p>The OP hasn’t commented on whether there is any need/how much need (EFC?), just that no merit scholarships were offered.</p>
<p>Madison85: Yes, our AGI is over $80k. Oops-my bad on the use of “tuition” as $24,404-my newbiness shines through…celesteroberts is correct that I meant COA. Figure is from here: <a href=“Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison”>Office of Student Financial Aid – UW–Madison. </p>
<p>Daughter has applied for other scholarships. Yes, we have been hearing more and more that UW-Mad is an issue of supply & demand. Because so many want to attend, there is less of a need to provide aid to woo students? Actually, I should be encouraged that a 4.0 student and 31 ACT is not special. Maybe our education system isn’t as dire as the media makes it seem? In addition, somehow I was under the impression that females who do well in science/math are in demand. Maybe that’s old news.</p>
<p>I don’t believe her ego has been hurt at all by not receiving merit aid, just our wallets 
She’s not presumptuous, and was even sweating it out wondering if she’d be accepted. She was thrilled when she found out in December that she was in. UW-Mad is her first choice. It is a great school, especially for medical research.</p>
<p>Celesteroberts: thanks for your post too. Thank you for reminding us that just being accepted is good news and we didn’t have to worry about being waitlisted or postponed. We are proud of her hard work. Our other kids do know how important it is to get good grades, not just for the grade itself but more for the learning process & study habits to achieve the “A.” They were funny, though. *Congrats to your daughter and her hard work for a great pkg OOS :)</p>
<p>Thankful for this website and the people here. As I search around, I see the thread “Swallows to Capistrano.” Guilty! Ugh.</p>
<p>Our EFC from FAFSA is $16,941. UW-Madison has awarded us $2,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Fed Loan and $3,500 Direct Subsidized Fed Loan. However, it seems that the EFC figure is moot as we will need to cover the gap.</p>
<p>The gap could be as little as $200-$300. $10,600 tuition + $8,300 room and board + $1,200 books and supplies = $20,100; subtract $2,250 Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarship, and possibly $250 Wisconsin Covenant Grant (did she apply in 8th grade, fulfill the requirements and turn in the form this spring)? and maybe the $400 William Vilas Grant = $17,200; compared to EFC of $16,941, yields a gap of $259.</p>
<p>When will the next child start college?</p>
<p>Too late for your D to have done sports in HS, lesson learned for HER children to not give up everything. btw- some students will have her credentials or better AND done sports and music. Not my gifted son- he didn’t always get the A’s he could have. Know of gifted twins in district where only A, B… and no + or - given and both would get the same grades- hers would be A++ work and his A- work. All 3 have finished undergrad degrees at various schools (mine UW).</p>
<p>Yes, I would say UW doesn’t need to recruit good students with merit aid. Even though your D’s stats are above average for UW there will still be plenty of students for many academic peers. GPA is influenced by several factors- as above. When they give the test score middle 50% range there will be 25% who scored above that. Hopefully she will go for the Honors program courses and be challenged by her peers’ abilities. Son was still 16 in the beginning of Honors physics but there were 2 local HS students- one a 14 year old girl, so much for being the youngest.</p>
<p>This fall HS will be ancient history and your D will be able to enjoy a fantastic college experience.</p>
<p>futurepmhnp: Thanks for the link! We’ll keep in mind for the next 2 kids.</p>
<p>Affording college seems more difficult now than when I went, and I went to a private college.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your replies. We’ll be crunching numbers over the weekend. and daughter won’t be volunteering to asst teach summer school in the morning, she’ll need a job that pays :)</p>
<p>Many lessons have been learned. Thanks again.</p>
<p>treesofgreen, it won’t help your daughter, but for your other 2 make sure you check the financial aid section of CC and the parent forum. There are posts that list schools with guaranteed merit aid, schools that offer scholarships for NMFs (have your kids study for that psat!) and other information about scholarships that universities offer that are and are not on their websites. UW-Madison is a wonderful school and your daughter won’t go wrong going there, but there might be less expensive options for your other two if needed. Good luck to your D next year.</p>