I have a great friend who is a single mom. Her son was accepted and given a large merit scholarship to OU. He did not apply to any additional schools other than Texas Tech and Baylor since he was accepted to OU. He placed his deposit down, accepted the scholarship, went to an accepted student merit dinner, etc etc. They decided to rescind the scholarship with no email, no letter…no contact. She was looking on line about the honors dorm and noticed the amount of scholarship changed to a simple one-time amount of $3,000. (probably because he was not a finalist but the award was after they made the decision so she did not realize) She can only pay for one year of college for her son and makes just enough to be ineligible for a large amount in FAFSA aid. Does anyone know of schools that give merit aid for being a semi-finalist other than Baylor (which is still more than she can afford)? His stats are as follows:
Top 1/3 Unweighted 3.4
2200 SAT
239 PSAT
NMSF
Science Bowl
Football 2 years
wants to major in Geology
If weighted GPA is 3.5 or more, this student may be eligible for full tuition at UAH (University of Alabama - Huntsville) but this would not include room and board, books, or personal expenses. Edited to add: I looked at UAH’s website and don’t think they offer a geology major. Early in May, NACAC publishes a list of colleges which are still accepting applications, some of them very good schools that didn’t reach their enrollment goal. Maybe this student could apply to some of these schools. Or he could take a gap year and apply to other schools.
Wright State in Ohio has a Semifinalist scholarship that covers all but the nonresident surcharge (<$9000) and personal expenses. The deadline was March 1, but this might be a possibility if this student takes a gap year.
personally, i’d start with calling OU before panicking-maybe its a simple error. if for no other reason i would want to know what triggered it to be rescinded if that in fact is what happened, and if its something that had zero to do with her kid, i’d want every.single.cent of my deposit back, since terms changed after the fact. hopefully its just a mistake.
I assume they are Texas residents. Consider UT-Dallas. The deadline for application is July 1. The deadline for priority consideration for scholarships has passed, but it may be worth checking into. It is possible additional funds could be available. From their website:
“The Academic Excellence Scholarship Program will consider first-time-in-college freshman applicants admitted by March 31 for scholarship awards. Students admitted prior to March 11 who qualified for an Academic Excellence Scholarship have been notified. The AES Office is currently reviewing applications from first-time-in-college students admitted after March 11. We encourage future Comets to explore all scholarship opportunities offered by the university and to complete a FAFSA.”
OP, Just to clarify here, there is NO large amount of FAFSA aid. FAFSA is a form to authorize federal financial aid. The max you can get is <$6K in a Pell Grant and $5500 in loans. There is no large amount.
if there was no “error” what exactly did he accept…was their some kind of contingency clause? i’d have to imagine his mom would have noticed that the “large award” was only $3,000 if thats what the scholarship acceptance letter stated, but theoretically they based their decision on the clearly outlined, offered package that evidently was signed for acceptance, as any normal person would do. unless there is some fine print somewhere stating this could be rescinded (and certainly, there may be, but it isnt mentioned above) how on earth should the kid know that? they made an educated decision based on the schools offer–sort of basic contract stuff.
the “error” could be on the school side in deciding to send out packages based on a “guess” of NMF standing–horrific practice if this is common and not an outlier.
semantics really–take out the word “error” if you dont like it…but the terms of the package have now presumably unexplicably been changed by the school AFTER depositing and said student is now unable to attend. student is entitled to a clean break with all monies refunded–obviously that doesnt solve the what to do now issue, but since their terms have now changed, he deserves to be made whole.
but since the scenario didnt even as much as involve a courtesy letter as an explanation, as a parent i would call and want someone to explain in detail about why it was rescinded after acceptance (acceptance of scholarship package, not school acceptance) and then make sure they had my proper address to send the refund check.
that was really my only point. speak to the school, hope its some kind of oversight/error/typo and if all else fails, get the money back and trudge on. i’m sorry to hear about stuff like this happening to anyone and fingers crossed that it all works out in the end the way the universe planned it to.
Mom has enough to pay for one year at 22-25000. She is eligible for 5500 per year for loans. So, basically she can handle two years if she works it out and he gets a job. I really appreciate the help and the advice. I feel so bad for her. I am checking on the weighted GPA.
@kac425… exactly. Her son was awarded the scholarship after the NMF results came out and he was a semi-finalist. She also called them in February to let them know he was a semi-finalist and not a finalist. There was an additional 5,000 given to finalists apparently and he did not get that so she had no reason to doubt the scholarship was legitimate (esp. after calling them) So, I guess that is the reason I am so upset. He did not pursue any other options due to thinking he was set. I just think they should have called her, emailed or notified them immediately. Thanks for the info about UT Dallas. I did not think about that school when I was speaking to her. He is a Texas resident and will get in state tuition.
We need to keep in mind that we’re hearing this 3rd hand. Son to Mom… Son to Mom…then…Mom to Friend…then…Friend to Us.
It’s possible that somethings aren’t being communicated correctly. It’s also possible that OU accidentally offered the award, quickly realized, and then corrected.
February 10
NMSC mails Finalist standing letters.
Mid March to End of May NMSC mails Award offer (either the Corporate-sponsored Award, National Award or College-sponsored Award; accept whichever award you are offered and mail response to NMSC).
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Her son was accepted and given a large merit scholarship to OU. He did not apply to any additional schools other than Texas Tech and Baylor since he was accepted to OU. He placed his deposit down, accepted the scholarship, went to an accepted student merit dinner.
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This is why I think the OP, or the mom, or the student was confused. The OP is saying that he didn’t apply to add’l schools since he was accepted, accepted the scholarship, blah blah blah. <<<==== This suggests that he believed that he had been formally offered AND had accepted the award before Jan 1…which is unlikely.
I doubt that he was formally offered before Jan 1, and I doubt that he formally accepted the scholarship by Jan 1.
So it’s odd that he didn’t apply to other schools. I can understand that he may have gotten caught up in the hoopla of being told “this is what NMFs are given,” and he may have assumed that he would become a NMF, and therefore he didnt’ apply elsewhere. He wouldn’t have even yet known that he didn’t make NMF until mid January.
Now…maybe OU is awarding him large merit for his stats (not NMF), and maybe there’s some mixup about that.