<p>I'm wondering if any of the public schools in California or Colorado have merit scholarships that are available to out-of-state honors students? I know the U of Alabama has a very good program for recruiting OOS honors kids, but I have not been able to convince my son to even consider Bama. He says, "I have the best safety school I could want (ASU Barrett), so why consider other safeties?" I don't agree with this, because I feel that he should still have choices if shut out of the top schools he wants (Stanford, Duke, etc.), so I'm looking for more safeties and matches to add to the list. Something like UC San Diego would be a great choice for him (perfect location for us), but it looks like all their scholarship awards are pretty small and with OOS tuition added to regular tuition (and probably very little or zero need-based aid for us) that school would still be unaffordable for us. The situation looked to be exactly the same at UC Santa Barbara. </p>
<p>Normal UC financial aid does not cover the additional out-of-state tuition of about $23,000 per year.</p>
<p>A few large merit scholarships exist that cover that (e.g. Stamps at UCLA, Drake at Berkeley for mechanical engineering majors, possibly Jacobs at UCSD for engineering majors), but the number of students who get them can probably be counted on your fingers. It is not obvious from the web site whether need-adjusted Regents’ scholarship awards at Berkeley will cover the additional out-of-state tuition – ask directly if this is a consideration.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships as @ucbalumnus stated are few for the CA publics. If you qualify for a regents scholarship it can be from $2500 to $10,000 depending upon campus. This amount does not make a large dent in the $55k tuition/room/board costs of the UC’s. You would be better off looking at California privates for merit aid.</p>
<p>We went through the college search last year from Arizona. From your other thread it looks like out kids have similar stats. There’s not much in the way of affordable safeties in CO or CA, and most other western schools don’t look better than ASU. We used ASU and UA as safeties. After visiting my daughter preferred UA (in part because they offered a better fit major-wise). We also looked at WUE schools and she applied to and visited Wyoming. Beautiful campus, well funded by the state, great study abroad opportunities, two hours from Denver. She received the WUE scholarship as well as several others, bringing COA for us to well below that of ASU or UA. In the end she liked UA better than ASU so never even applied to Barrett after the ASU acceptance (I tried to convince ber but to no avail), and she seriously considered Wyoming, but ended up taking a full tuition competitive scholarship elsewhere. She has several friends from the top of her class at ASU Barrett, including the valedictorian. It’s not a bad safety at all, and if your son is happy with it after visiting I wouldn’t worry too much.</p>
<p>Yes, we are both pretty impressed with Barrett actually. It’s just that he is stuck on the idea of “top schools.” I really want some middle of the road schools, like U of Miami, U of Denver, etc. to add to the list just in case he does not get into Stanford, Duke, etc. But I think you are right, as far as safeties go, Barrett is top-notch, and perhaps we can get by with only one safety, since it is a really good one and we are both happy with it. :)</p>
<p>Are you certain that he’ll get into Barrett? Sounds like he has the stats for it but do they ever reject students with very high stats? Are they getting enough apps from high stats students that some get turned down? Anyway, I’m not sure it can be considered a safety until acceptance is in hand.</p>
<p>Calif UCs are kind of lousy with merit. Some of the lower UCs have some larger awards, but don’t think they’ll bring down the OOS costs to what you’d want.</p>
<p>The Calif privates that you mention might have some highly competitive merit. You can try, does your son have a hook? </p>
<p>Schools like SCU would give him about $28k per year (My cousin’s high stats son got that last year), but remaining cost would be higher than I think you want.</p>
<p>U San Diego (Catholic) would likely give their max award…I think it’s around $25k per year.</p>
<p>If he got into Duke or a top school, would you pay the “family contribution”? You mention that you wouldn’t qualify for much/any aid.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, you want a net cost somewhere below $20k or $15k? Can you clarify?</p>
<p>Are you looking for free tuition? If so, looking at top schools isn’t likely going to yield that. </p>
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<p>If the top schools won’t be affordable without huge merit, then is it likely that Barrett could end up being his only affordable choice? Will he feel like he never had a choice? I’m always concerned when kids end up with only one affordable school. I will always remember one of my son’s classmates. She applied to all reaches and one safety. She got into a couple of reaches, but they weren’t affordable. She was left with only her one safety, which she referred to as “the booby prize”. that was so bad for morale. She didn’t have any choices. It’s just a good idea for students to have more than one financial safety when finances (or admissions) is an issue. Besides, sometimes a desirable safety during the application season becomes less desirable in the spring. Then the student doesn’t even want to go his one lone safety. </p>
<p>Tell us how much merit he needs? Full tuition (about $15k net cost)? Half tuition (about $35k net cost at privates)? </p>
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<p>If this were my child and most top schools wouldn’t be affordable, then I think I would limit top apps to HYPS since they give super aid, and then focus on schools like UMiami, URoch, and mid-tiers and hope for large merit.</p>
<p>Oh, just saw this in your other thread. So, the new wife’s income will get considered at the top schools on his list. Will they even fill out the FA info or will they (she) refuse? If they do fill it out, can you depend on them to do so every year? </p>
<p>This is exactly the scenario I am afraid of. Of course there is a chance he could get into one of the top schools (especially since he plans to apply to them all), but there is also a good chance that I won’t be able to afford it. I really appreciate all the info about Bama, and I’m now thinking maybe I’ll just add U of Alabama to the list and apply early (he doesn’t mind me adding schools randomly, lol!), along with U of Miami (early action), and Rochester, which he actually has an automatic scholarship at (small) along with an apply-for-free letter. I have a number of other schools I might add to just to see what they come back with (USC, U of Richmond, Davidson, Georgia Tech, Occidental, Claremont McKenna). I may just have to pay for him to apply to a bunch of schools, which I don’t mind that much…He just really needs to have choices in the Spring, and I’m having a hard time predicting the outcomes of any of the options.</p>
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<p>They are pretty dysfunctional, not sure I can count on them to fill out the paperwork even once. </p>
<p>For ASU Barrett they told us to apply early, and get the Barrett application submitted as early as possible. Our impression was that they do reject high stats students when they start filling up. We know many in-state students at Barrett though and I think if he applies as soon as he can, acceptance is very likely. </p>
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So, the new wife’s income will get considered at the top schools on his list. Will they even fill out the FA info or will they (she) refuse? If they do fill it out, can you depend on them to do so every year?</p>
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They are pretty dysfunctional, not sure I can count on them to fill out the paperwork even once. </p>
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<p>Are you aware that if they don’t fill out the paperwork, then a top school won’t process an aid pkg at all beyond the FAFSA one, which is just for fed aid ( a student loan, since your income is beyond Pell).<br>
(Thank goodness your son has you!)</p>
<p>Oh my gosh. No I definitely wasn’t aware of that. Well I can certainly put pressure on them to do it and hope for the best. </p>
<p>And thanks, I’m really trying here! I actually feel a tiny bit better about the situation, now that we are adding in a bunch of schools that might give him some merit aid (U of Miami, U of Denver, etc.) and we are adding BAMA as a second safety. It really does sound great, and if it came down to it, he might even choose it.</p>
<p>@Parentof2014grad Yes, you are right, Barrett stressed to us that applying early is key. Actually, we have finished the ASU app, the Barrett app, and also the Flinn Foundation Scholarship (an Arizona full-ride scholarship that would be a life-saver for us!). So we are in good shape for ASU Barrett I think. I would be truly shocked if he was actually rejected by Barrett (we even spent all day last Friday visiting them in person!), but I suppose it is possible. For that reason we are adding another true safety (BAMA).</p>
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