<p>My DD (4.0 unweighted, 4.35 weighted, 11 APs, 2250 SAT) would love to go to Columbia or Hopkins. We make enough to have no shot at need-based, but not enough to consider 60K+ a year affordable. So she has zero real chance of attending. Is there any way to cobble together merit-based grants to significantly ease the pain? Most of the merit-based scholarships I've heard discussed on these boards are specific to the college. And most of the scholarships I've seen on search engines are need-based.</p>
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Most of the merit-based scholarships I’ve heard discussed on these boards are specific to the college. And most of the scholarships I’ve seen on search engines are need-based.
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<p>Yes, that is true, which is why you wouldn’t likely be able to cobble together enough to adequately reduce costs for FOUR years.</p>
<p>And, most of those private scholarships are ONLY for frosh year.</p>
<p>The truth is that private entities have little interest in handing out tons of money to well-healed families for their kids’ educations. Schools will do that because they WANT those high stats kids. Private entities gain little/nothing to help pay for your child’s college costs. Private entities will sometimes give, but have a “need” component so that the money is really like “charity.”</p>
<p>How much merit do you need? In other words, how much can you spend each year?</p>
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<p>Your D’s situation is more common than you may realize. There’s a whole bunch of folks with high stats kids who can’t afford their EFCs. So, they look at schools that will give their child big merit for their stats. The kids attend, do well, and succeed in life. There are only 1 or 2 careers where you should go to a top school in order to succeed. Only 1 or 2.</p>
<p>What is your child’s major and career goal? </p>
<p>BTW, while Columbia offers no merit money to high schoolers, JHU does have some big merit scholarships. Your kid would have to be very desirable to them to get those, however (think the top 5% or so of their admitted class).</p>
<p>In any case, you may not have a conundrum if she doesn’t actually get in to one of these 2 schools. Any matches or safeties? Merit money from those places are easier to get as well.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you start looking for colleges that are affordable to your family. Don’t limit your kid’s applications to places where you can’t pay the bills.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d drop Columbia, but go ahead and give JHU a shot. It’s highly unlikely they’ll give you anything, but you never know. I’d expand the search - take a look at GW and American. Also,take a look at Fordham and BU. I might also try schools like Lafayette and Ursinus, though the vibe might be wrong for your D. Have you looked at The College of NJ? Assuming you’re out of state, I think it would probably run about 30k after scholarships. </p>
<p>How much money do you need? Would your D consider going South? </p>
<p>Sorry. I left out a lot of info because I was trying to keep it brief.
She wants to study computer or biomed engineering. She’s in a very good position with her other colleges. She’s applying to UVa and Virginia Tech (both in-state), and looks like a lock at VT and pretty solid at UVa (multi-legacy, first in class, other factors). We all love the idea of UVa but she was hoping there was at least some chance she could go to Columbia or Hopkins. Without multi-year merit schol, pretty much no chance. She’ll probably apply to Col & Hop just as a vanity project, and in case a wealthy relative dies (don’t worry, no wealthy relatives, so I’m not jinxing it!).</p>
<p>It’s a little frustrating (I’m sure it’s preaching to the choir)… we see kids going off to Yale, Princeton, Stanford, but we’re in this middle no-man’s land. The really rich families can pull a quarter mil off their roll without thinking about it. The poor families get need-based and their cost-benefit analysis ends up being much clearer (take maybe 10K a year in loans for an ivy league education? That’s well worth the investment). For those of us in the middle, a quarter mil sounds like a ton of money, and the return on investment becomes more problematic.</p>
<p>I hate to hear myself complaining about this situation. I’m thankful that we have this kind of problem!</p>
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<p>The way I look at it is this: If those colleges wanted kids like my D, they’d make it affordable for people like us. They made their decision. We’ll move on and only consider places that really want her.</p>
<p>p.s. You are super lucky to have such great in state options!</p>
<p>For a smart motivated upper-middle-class kid, frankly, there is likely no difference in outcomes regardless of whether they attend HYPSM or UVa (or even VTech).</p>
<p>BTW, her stats are within range for the big merit awards at JHU (and UVa), so it would come down to “soft” stuff like ECs, recs, essays, etc. Remember that JHU/Duke/Chicago/Rice/UVa/UMich/WashU/Vandy/Emory/etc. are using those big awards to try to get kids who would otherwise be heading to HYPSM.</p>
<p>Also, at all the schools that offer merit aid (besides Caltech, it looks like), merit may be negotiable. So if she gets in to UVa and JHU but with little/no merit at JHU, if she tells JHU that they’re her first choice and she really want to attend, but it’s too expensive, they may do something to match UVa if they really want her.</p>
<p>BTW, among research universities, there are only 10 who don’t offer any merit money to anyone: the Ivies + Stanford + MIT*</p>
<p>*Northwestern is complicated; if you are full-pay, don’t expect big merit money from there; Chicago still gives out merit and use to give out some big ones, but has cut back with its rise in the rankings.</p>
<p>" The poor families get need-based and their cost-benefit analysis ends up being much clearer (take maybe 10K a year in loans for an ivy league education? That’s well worth the investment "</p>
<p>I get really tired of seeing statements like this. It makes it sound like poorer families have it made. </p>
<p>You’re talking about colleges where the acceptance rate is extremely low. DS is applying to Cornell and one or two other reaches.</p>
<p>I am having a hard time finding him anything else that is affordable without taking out large loans. </p>
<p>We already have one in college costing “us” about $5K per year which we are barely managing. And we have another in high school.</p>
<p>Being on the low income side, without a really high stat kid, is NOT remotely manageable. </p>
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She wants to study computer or biomed engineering.
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<p>What is her M+CR score? That is what merit will be based on at most schools. Few schools care about the W score at all. </p>
<p>for those two majors there is no need at all to go to JHU or Columbia for undergrad. With your instate options paying more elsewhere would be a waste of money. People think, wow, JHU but JHU isn’t worth it as a full-pay undergrad unless money is no object. If JHU is a grad school goal then super, a degree from UVA, VT or elsewhere can get her there as long as she does her part for grades, GRE scores, and so forth. </p>
<p>Does your D realize that BiomedE for undergrad essentially requires a grad degree to get a job? (Personally, I have concerns about that major because it can be so limiting. But, it is such as sexy sounding major that many kids think that they will curing cancer as undergrads or that grad/med schools will be impressed. A MechE or ChemE degree is far more marketable and can still happily get kids into a BioMedE grad school or med school if that is later desired.)</p>
<p>At this point, it is best to be honest with your D and tell her what you can afford to pay. If it is $25k per year, then she has to firmly understand that to go elsewhere would require enough merit to get costs down to that. Explain that you won’t be co-signing any loans and that SHE can only borrow $5500 for frosh year on her own. </p>
<p>Your D, like many high stats kids facing this situation, may complain about how hard she has worked and how she deserves to go to schools like Columbia and JHU. But, kids come around when it sinks in that the budget is X and that is that. No one “deserves” top schools. Every student is expected to do their best in school. That doesn’t warrant financially-strapping the family and leaving them to eat PB&J sandwiches to afford pricey tuition. </p>
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<p>This is completely true. </p>
<p>And if you or your D are concerned that her classmates won’t be as smart as she is, then you all need to realize that the upper quartiles of schools like VT and UVA are filled with students who are largely populating those STEM majors. Engineering majors are amongst the most difficult and heavy weeding takes place from Day One. Fall semester classes of Gen Chem and Calculus quickly get weaker kids moving on to other majors. </p>
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<p>I think the key is to change the reward. The reward is not going to a dream school. The reward for doing well in high school is to graduate from a good college completely debt free. What a gift! And to graduate VT or maybe even UVA without debt? Amazing! It will put her so far ahead of her peers.</p>
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<p>I agree. College is becoming out of reach for so many.</p>
<p>Whoops, 12 RUs. Georgetown and Tufts also don’t offer any merit money.</p>
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<p>And the REAL dream is a person’s future career and life…not four years of undergrad.</p>
<p>^^^Absolutely! </p>
<p>Have to agree with others – VT and UVA are excellent choices, so there is no reason for an engineering major to see them as “let down” schools or schools which are “beneath” her.</p>
<p>Go instate for undergrad. 4 years. Save as much as you can. That’s where she’ll really be wanted.
Go to JHU for grad school. 5-7 years for PhD? Their focus is heavily on research anyway, the grad students at Johns Hopkins far outnumber the undergrads. That’s when she’ll be wanted there, not as an undergrad.</p>
<p>If decided on engineering, I would take VT over UVA. VT has so much more opportunities for engineering students due to the primacy of the engineering curriculum there as opposed to UVA. </p>
<p>@NoVaDad99, depends on career focus, I would say. If she wants to be an engineer after graduation, you may have a point (though I imagine that UVa grads in the computer fields do just fine). If she wants to be a consultant, UVa probably offers better opportunities.</p>