D18 has had UChicago on and off her list. She has not yet applied. She received a mailing from UC today though, telling her congrats on her NMSF status, and letting her know that “UChicago and UChicago National Merit Scholarships range from $1000 to $20,000 per year and are renewable for four years.”
I have loosely followed the UC board for awhile now; the NMF scholarship has generally been 1-2K/year, correct? I’m assuming the larger merit awards are few, and are not routinely given to NMFs? We are full pay.
D has great stats, good ECs and leadership, is from an underrepresented state, Linguistics major, but has no real hooks. I’m wondering if it’s worth it to encourage D to consider applying to UC after all. 2% RD acceptance rate? Egads!
The NMF scholarships used to be $4,000 a year (including NMF money during your first year). IIRC they were $2,000 last year. The $20,000 scholarship is probably the College’s most generous merit scholarship (not including some larger scholarships sponsored by third parties for particular demographics). Much like those scratch cards that tout prizes of $5 to $5,000, the lower amount is a lot more common.
It’s worth applying if your D is already interested, but given the COA ($75,000 now; it’ll probably be $90,000 by the time your D graduates), I wouldn’t treat the possibility of a scholarship as a decisive factor one way or another.
Last year, perhaps in tandem with the change in admission plans to include ED/EDII, they scaled back the yearly NMF scholarship from $4,000 to no more than $2,000. My Class-of-'21 D received a decent amount of need-based aid as well so we have no complaints, and we are counting the NMF funds toward her work-study (which takes the pressure off for finding a job right away (not that she had time for that anyway during her first quarter LOL). UChicago seems to be a place that attracts a lot of NMF kids; while you won’t get a huge tuition reduction, you WILL meet other kids who are inquisitive and drawn to the particular academic environment. It’s probably a bit of a hook, all else equal, though hard to say how it will help in a non-binding round. They might be looking for different hooks there, esp. if a sizable number of NMF kids already apply binding admission.
Don’t fret too much about the 2% RD rate. This year, if they defer everyone from early round (instead of merely most) they might be able to push it even lower :)) It’s a managed rate, at least in part.
Thanks @DunBoyer and @JBStillFlying. H and I talked with D about it last night and encouraged her to apply. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, right? Ball is in her court.
@ShrimpBurrito - bingo. However, at least last year, if you were a double-legacy NMF kid, EDII got you into UChicago, EA did not. At least based on our one data point. Good luck to your D and I hope she gets in - UChicago needs more non-Econ majors
D is a US/Canadian dual citizen and has McGill and UBC at the top of her list at the moment–it’s hard to beat the value there with domestic tuition. She likes USC, too. But Chicago is closer to home (Oklahoma) and potentially a better academic fit. It could be worth the financial stretch.
We received this letter as well. NMFs receive a full ride at a Florida Public University, so 2000 just does’t seem like enough of a benefit, not to seem ungrateful. The hard part is that the NMF decisions come out after you committed to a placement for the next year, so it is hard to know what to do. A U of C education for my son would only be possible with UG loans.
@okeydokeypokey - UChicago is “no loans” and we were pleasantly surprised at my daughter’s aid package. UF is an excellent uni but a state flagship is simply not going to offer the same experience, even for the kids in honors programs. A lot depends on what you are looking for in a school.
I know they say no loans, but what they expect of us is very likely more than we can pay as we have an older daughter we are supporting in College now and the calculator listed our contribution as more than we can pay. So he will need to take loans. The local University is FSU which does have a great Physics program, but it not UC I know. However a full ride UG at FSU lets us keep saving for his time in Grad School. He is torn between attending grad school out of state at a private instead. We will see if he gets an offer and go from there.
@okeydokeypokey - my D17 is the third to go to private college in a row. So she has one sister who is a college junior and another who is a sophomore (right now) That’s what I meant when I said we were pleasantly surprised - they actually did meet our need. They also told me that the NPC is a DOE-mandated website and that it totally overestimates cost. I actually worked with them to get a ballpark understanding of what we’d be paying, and the aid package came out to that. And she was accepted in EDII so binding!
You have to go with your best judgement - there is no one right answer, and grad school costs and so forth can tip the scale one way or the other. Finally, financial aid is not a four-year commitment but depends on year-by-year assessments of need. Can’t remember if this was you - someone’s kid is planning to double major (or perhaps dual-degree) in music and physics at FSU, which has an excellent school of music. UChicago does NOT have that - definitely a consideration for anyone planning that sort of college career. Anyway, there are many facets - just wanted to point out to everyone that financial aid at UChicago might be a bit more reasonable than perceived. Obviously the big bucks associated with NM makes that an attractive - and optimal - option for many families.
It’s not clear that you are aware of differences among types of “Grad School.” If what your child is thinking about (or you are thinking about for him) is professional school (law, medicine, dentistry, business, engineering, etc.), you are absolutely right. Although some universities offer some financial aid for such programs, by and large students are expected to pay for them. The same is generally true for programs that lead to awarding a masters degree as the terminal degree, although it’s more common to get financial aid or other tuition discounts for such programs in academic fields.
However, in PhD programs at reputable universities, the general rule is that graduate students get their tuition waived, and even get paid a stipend to cover basic (very basic) living expenses. It doesn’t matter whether the university is public or private, or in which state the student resides for legal purposes. If your child is interested in a career in Physics, that’s the graduate school track your child would be on. The current tax bill is threatening to upend that system somewhat, but even if the relevant provisions are enacted into law, the net result is likely to be that PhD programs get smaller and more competitive, not that students have to have significant resources to afford that level of education.
^^ If your student knows at this point that doing an academic track is very likely in the future, then it totally makes sense to send him/her to a top public or private uni. or at least to a school that is known for originating students who go on to earn a PhD in that field (certain LAC’s have this reputation).
Most PhD programs are tiny compared to business/law/medical school and only let in a select few. Placement on the academic market can be tough so they are very concerned with the student’s potential at this point for producing interesting research down the line - very difficult to assess when many undergraduate applicants present with decent GPA’s, strong test scores and sterling recommendations from their faculty. Therefore, it’s crucial that this last one include a well known and/or notable researcher or academic in the field who knows you well and can vouch for your abilities. Obviously, there is a high correlation between “notable” and top uni. Even if the admissions committee doesn’t know the recommender personally, they will know of his/her reputation and also the reputation of the school that the student did his/her undergrad. This can totally make the difference when choosing between two high-achieving students who otherwise present equally in terms of stats and coursework completed.
There are other paths, of course - some fields and institutions may offer a (for-pay) master’s program where such recommendations can be generated. Some uni’s that don’t enjoy high rankings across-the-board may have top-rated faculty in a particular department or college and give their honors-track students good access to those guys. If you have an academic inclination but aren’t exactly sure of your field (say, you have several correlated interests and want to leave this decision till you have a good year or two of college under your belt), that, too, speaks to attending as highly-rated a uni as you can get into (and want to attend) simply because they tend to have a wider distribution of notable faculty across many fields of study.
