My D16 wants to go premed. She made psat above nmsf cutoff in california and has competitive stats for ivies/caltech/MIT… Plus she has track walk-on/recruitment interest with a few of them.
After reading this forum and helpful comments from parents who have been through this, I have some questions.
She won't qualify for need based financial aid. I can support her undergrad but would rather not and have her use it for med. Is she wasting her time with the ivies if she is not willing to fork $60k a year? Will they come up with any money at all or is it sticker? She is stuck on ivies because of prestige and she thinks she has a shot.
I know she can get full rides at top state schools outside california but are there any in california with merit aid? Don't see any in the links here.
Uc does not have merit aid. Are there special secrets / methos/applications to use with any of the schools to get merit aid.?
There is a lot of confusion about Stamps scholarships, since at most colleges they are a merit full ride, but that is not generally the case for California schools.
The Berkeley Stamps is just a glorified Regents/Chancelors and is $5,000/year plus some extras.
The Cal Tech Stamps is need-based.
The UCLA Stamps is a big merit scholarship “up to full tuition”, but they award only 5 per year in-state and the application is by invitation only. It is leadership-based, although top academic qualifications are also required.
The USC Stamps is a full ride, and they award 10 per year. USC has lots of merit aid possibilities in addition to Stamps, including typically at least half tuition for most NMF. (However a UC will be cheaper at full price in-state than half-tuition at USC.)
Long Beach State has a full ride scholarship for NMF (in-state only). It is competitive, but odds of this award will be astronomically better than the schools above.
She should look at some top schools that have competitive big merit aid, like Chicago, Duke, UNC, Vanderbilt, UVa, etc. The main reason these merit awards exist is to lure kids from the most elite colleges.
@madison85 I was looking for a full tuition at a cal school. I know about nmf and automatic merit offers to other states from bobwallace and others posting.
@Bob, thanks for this depressing clarification of stamps. Duke and similar colleges are very reasonable to me but i have to convince D16 which seems to be the problem.
@Palm, I am hoping that my kid has that kid’s sense but I get the “if I wanted to go to alabama, I won’t have taken 20 APs and busted my tail”. Btw I went to UA and so did my wife so nothing wrong with that.
@madison85, yes. there are automatic full ride lists of colleges based on gpa/sat on this forum. Please search for them. Thanks to bobwallace and others for that
Toughchoices, you don’t have to convince your daughter. You are the parent, with the money, and she is the child. I do think college is a joint decision and am ever so grateful that my kids didn’t have the idea that only Harvard at $65k+ would do and that we were able to find colleges they liked and could afford, but if they had ‘insisted’ on an Ivy or other unaffordable school they would have been disappointed. You need to figure out how much you can afford and then be honest with her, that $XXX is it, undergrad and grad. You should also show her the many articles by students who have $300k in debt, mostly doctors,and have her understand that if she uses all your budget in undergrad or must take loans, then medical school will take her many years to pay off.
@twoinanddone, point well taken and that may be the way it ends up. My D16 is not unreasonable but I do want her to feel good about her choice after her hard work.
You could look into the direct entry med school program - those are probably as tough as any place as far as admission goes. That would be a nice payoff for hard work, to not have to worry about med school admission later.
Texas A&M’s NMF money is not a full ride. It is about 1/2. You can stack other scholarships with that, but they are competitive and a full ride is rare. University of Texas(flagship at Austin) stopped giving NMF scholarships and now focuses on need.
She won’t qualify for need based financial aid. I can support her undergrad but would rather not and have her use it for med. Is she wasting her time with the ivies if she is not willing to fork $60k a year? Will they come up with any money at all or is it sticker? She is stuck on ivies because of prestige and she thinks she has a shot.
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The Ivies do not give merit aid. Period. They don’t. If you don’t have financial,need, your kiddo will not get any financial aid from these schools.
Have you run the net price calculators for these schools? This won’t be accurate for two years from now,my it it will give you an idea of your net costs at these schools. If you are divorced, own a business, are self employed, or own real estate other than your primary residence, the NPC won’t be accurate.
And lastly prestige isn’t worth anything if you can’t afford the cost to attend. Does your daughter realize that many OOS folks view many of the instate publics there as prestigious? Cal and UCLA, and CalPoly, for example,mare viewed extremely favorably amongst east coast students who live amidst those Ivies.
How much merit aid are you looking for? There re some private universities where your daughter might get a merit award. If you are looking for a full, free ride, I don’t know of any that are guaranteed in CA.
See above responses. There is merit aid at some UCs, and at CSUs as well. There is no “secret” to getting merit aid. You just need to be at the very top of the applicant pool. TOP.
In terms of her track recruitment…it is not going to get her merit aid at schools that don’t give it. It is not going to get her need based aid if you do not qualify for it.
The goal of need based aid is to provide financial aid to needy students who can’t afford to attend. It sounds like you don’t fit that picture.
If your daughter’s GPA is high enough (and I’m guessing it likely is), she would qualify for an excellent scholarship at University of Alabama, or Temple University, for example. These are guaranteed awards. And there are folks in medical school from these two fine schools, as well as a number of others which have competitive merit awards.
How much WILL you pay annually for undergrad school?
Agree, @Debbie7452. TAMU’s NM package is about 1/2. From our experience, though, most NMFs get other money stacked on top. And at TAMU, the students get refunds each semester of any merit money not used for tuition, fees, housing, meal plan, sports tickets, parking or anything else on their fee statement. In other words, students who have more than a full ride at TAMU can graduate with a nice little nest egg (or med school tuition egg, in your daughter’s case). It’s worth putting it on your daughter’s list, @toughchoices! UT Austin is very tight with merit money. In fact, I don’t know if they have any merit scholarships anymore - I think they are all need-based.
@toughchoices, MIT and the Ivies do not offer athletic scholarships, and even at schools that do, track athletes do not typically get much money. The only money at MIT and the Ivies is need-based, so you would likely be full pay. Ouch! But your daughter as a NMF will have many, many full ride options! Also, if she met the high California PSAT cutoff, then her SAT should also be great.
Be sure she applies for outside merit scholarships. You will hear on CC that it is nearly impossible to get outside merit scholarships, or that they are all small dollar and 1 year only. In our family, we have had a very different experience. The secret - apply apply apply then apply for a few more. Then some more.
Ok, so just to clarify, are there any guaranteed (non-competitive) full rides that cover the entire COA for a non-resident at ‘top state schools’ (public universities) that are a sure thing for the OP’s child?
Unless I misunderstood, that’s what I interpret OP to be referring to when she/he states *2. I know she can get full rides at top state schools outside california…
