How competitive are merit scholarships at Johns Hopkins and BU? Is there any place I could look at profiles of past scholarship winners?
You have the credentials apply for,the trustee scholarship at Boston Univerwity…so do,that. It’s competitive…but go for it. I believe it’s full tuition…and is their best scholarship.
JHU has very very competitive scholarships…and not very many of them.
Have you whittled down your application list? You have the potential to get merit aid at many places…but a LOT of,the schools on your original list don’t give merit.
Do you have financial need?
How much can and will your parents pay annually?
I’m working on whittling down my list. My parents can afford to pay 10-12K annually but their EFC for places like Johns Hopkins and Stanford is more like 25K (which we can’t do). I’m thinking I’ll probably have to cut all of the Ivies off my list. Most of the places that my counselor has recommended to me for good merit aid are in the South or Midwest, but I really want to go somewhere East Coast or Pacific Northwest. Can I do that and still get a good merit aid package?
You will have to look at colleges ranked below 30 or perhaps below 50 if you want major merit aid. At BU if you do not get the Trustees Scholarship the max merit aid is about $25,000/year and the cost of attendance is about $65,000/year. And merit aid replaces need based aid, they are not stacked.
Have you run the net price calculators on the college websites? What do THEY say??
For BU: Net price is $34202, Student loans $5500, Family Contribution $28702
For JH: Net price is $31215, Student loans $3500, Student Work $2500, Family Contribution $25215
Do merit scholarships at these universities stack to reduce net price or do they first reduce need-based aid?
Merit scholarships do NOT stack at BU. And I do not think they stack at Hopkins either!
If the schools say your net costs will be in the $30,000 range…than very likely that is what you can expect to be paying…at least.
Some of the Ivies are more generous to higher income families…IF you get accepted. But that is not a slam dunk for anyone.
My net price for Harvard was around 25K, EFC 19K. Stanford it was more like 27 and 22K. Both of these are still out of my ballpark. Should I still apply and then try for a bunch of private scholarships? I’ll definitely be applying for the Coca-Cola Scholarship. But if I won any of these, would they not stack either?
I hate to say it…but if your net price for Harvard is $25,000, then your family income is on the high side.
If your parents truly can only contribute up to $12,000 a year…you can add the $5500 Direct Loan to that amount…and now you have $17,500…which will cover room and board at many places.
You need a full tuition scholarship…and both Hopkins and BU have highly competitive merit awards. HIGHLY. Apply and see…but you need some affordable schools in your mix.
You would,get a HUGE merit award at University of Alabama…HUGE. Apply there.
Unfortunately outside scholarships are not going to reduce your EFC at those schools either. Perhaps try for full tuition at WashU or Vanderbilt? With your parents’ 10-12k contribution, the $5500 loan and a job you might be able to make it work…barely.
You have great credentials.
I’m offering my two cents 
Our experience with outside scholarships with two kids was thus - do not bank your college application choices on receiving them. Do not waste hundreds of dollars on application fees to colleges you will only be able to afford if you win outside scholarships. Apply for your favorite long shot school, sure. Spend $100 a piece on 10 “I hope I can” applications? No. Use that money to apply to schools where you are a “big fish” who will draw big fish merit money! Get in the honors program, do research, stand out, make the most of it and come out with little debt holding you down for the rest of your life!
My foster son won the incredible Gates Millennium Scholarship in 2015. This scholarship had 57,000 applicants and 1,000 winners. He didn’t know he had won until early April. He had some waivers on application fees, but you won’t have that. In spite of the limited waivers he had, he applied only to schools he could afford (with merit aid and Pell grant money), without winning any additional money.
Winning these outside scholarships is hard. There are no easy, non-competitive scholarships. The belief that there are “easy scholarships” is a myth.
My family is incredibly organized, we researched for a solid summer, found many legitimate scholarships. My daughter made it into a personal project and learned a heck of a lot from it (I pointed her in a general direction and let her go.) She made it her “job” and applied to many, hitting all deadlines. She is middle class, white female. She had above average SATs, all 4/5 scores on AP exams, above average GPA, leadership, volunteerism etc. Excellent essays, phenomenal recommendations. She won $8,000 in outside scholarships. You have better scores than she did, but I doubt you have better volunteerism experience You also sound like you have more financial backing, which will hurt you in the scholarship applications, if our experience was any gauge.
She applied for 100, made it to semi and quarter finalist rounds in some of the better known ones. We would get knocked out as the competition stiffened and as things like financial need kicked in (no doubt your sky high test scores would help you where her above average ones did not help her at this level)
Her real savings came from selecting an in state public college that granted substantial merit aid ($11,500 a year), and also accepted her AP classes for college credit. She just moved in for her junior year, has a 3.9 GPA and will graduate with zero debt, as will my foster son. They are both in the honors program, work on campus in their major fields, do research etc. Very positive experiences for both of them.
It is possible to come out with low debt, but often it means adjusting your expectations at this early application stage. Look for the schools where you are the big fish - great schools are out there that are affordable to you but do not have the name Harvard/Princeton/Yale etc. I’ve read college confidential for 3 or 4 years now, lots of knowledge to be gained, but you have to be willing to open your eyes and change your mind to gain from it.
Best of luck and good job starting this conversation now!
If your family can only contribute half of the EFC, you would have to look at cheaper schools. It seems your family has a poor financial planning. Fortunately, my D1 costed me just the EFC without loan which is easily affordable to us that we may even set a 50% higher budget for D2. Any school that is significantly above this budget would be off the list unless there is a very good chance of getting merit aids.
It is highly unlikely that you will receive enough outside scholarship to reduce your family’s EFC. For Harvard and Stanford, you would have to get outside scholarships that would essentially be more than all of your need based aid before your EFC is reduced.
If you received the coca cola scholarship at Harvard, they would reduce your student work study earning or student contribution .
Normally schools will reduce your student loan, work study then their institutional aid. Your family will still have to pay their EFC.
I agree with @billcsho , you need to look at much less expensive schools. You will may need to dip a little lower and look at schools where you can get guaranteed full tuition merit money and your family will be able to pay room board and your misc. expenses
Apply to Pitt, Temple, UA or UAH or UAB, Ohio State for merit chances.
@graywednesday Your family’s $10-12,000 contribution with similar EFCs mirrors our budget. I can share our experience and what we have learned with our kids and the approach I recommend.
I have a couple of gifted kids who graduated from high school with atypical levels of accomplishments. (For example, my current college sr took 400 level electromagnetic wave theory as a college freshman. My current college freshman placed into 400 level Russian.) They each applied to a couple of schools with extremely competitive scholarships. They were both awarded scholarships which after the fact we realized were probably wasted applications bc we couldn’t afford the schools even with the awards (Case with something like $25 or $30,000 in scholarships and Fordham with full-tuition both left balances of $20,000 up when factoring in room, board, books, and transportation. We just can’t go there.)
They both also applied to a range of schools that offered automatic and competitive scholarships that were larger or had lower room/board costs. That turned out to be the best strategy. The schools are lower ranked, but the opportunities offered to top students are pretty stellar. They are both attending via full rides or close to full rides and are part of elite honors programs that offer a small number of students specialized opportunities through UG research opportunities, professors as mentors, special interactions with top officials, career counseling/ internship opportunities, etc.
Research some of the elite programs that are targeted toward top applicants. Some are through honors programs. Concentrate the majority of your applications on schools that you know you are extremely competitive for their scholarships and/or scholarships are guaranteed. Pick a handful of schools with extremely competitive scholarships that bring costs down low enough for you to afford or to even to full-ride like UNC and Duke’s Robertson, GT’s Presidential, or NCSU’s Park.
Make sure you apply to schools you are willing to attend. Don’t make your judgments based on stereotypes of peers or your own misconceptions. Do research and if possible visit. When my ds started the application process, never in a million yrs would I have guessed he would be attending Alabama. After visiting the dept and talking to the dept head, it moved to near the top of his list. After talking to one top ranked school where the dean told him he had more direct research experience than their UGs bc their research focused on the grads and UGs worked for grad students, he crossed the school off his list. (Research was his number 1 criteria.) As a graduating sr he has been directly involved in research since his freshman yr. He has had 2 REUs at top competitive programs. The research he works on is being present at an international consortium this fall. He just received funding for some UG national research thing in Oct. Bama has been a fabulous experience for him (and his scholarships pay for grad level courses, not true at many schools.) I am extremely glad he applied and my own uneducated prejudice did not prevent him from this path.
There are 100s of great schools out there and getting an UG degree does not require high levels of debt. If you don’t focus on the top 20 schools, you will definitely find great, affordable options.