OOS Fee Waiver - Guaranteed or Not?

<p>Saw on other boards that New Mexico and Mississippi State both have OOS waivers if you meet certain criteria.</p>

<p>According to the MSU website says</p>

<p>*MSU offers general scholarships to entering freshmen based on a 3.0 grade-point average (overall GPA submitted on the official high school transcript or core GPA calculated by MSU on a 4.0 scale from 9-11 grades), official ACT/SAT scores submitted directly to MSU, and submission of the online resume. The Scholarship committee will begin reviewing students with a minimun of 24 ACT(1090 SAT), 3.0 GPA, and excellent leadership and service activities. </p>

<p>Then it goes on to describe each of the scholarships. To me, this doesn't sound automatic. It sounds like they will "review" you, and maybe you'll get the scholarship. So if someone just barely makes the 3.0 and 24 ACT, and is "eligible" for 50% of their OOS premium to be waived, do they get it for sure, or are they thrown into the mix, and they pick certain kids based on this and other factors?</p>

<p>Anyone have experience with this, or know the answer for sure? I've seen this OOS waiver mentioned on CC several times. My one son is considering going there and we are OOS. </p>

<p>Thanks for all who respond.</p>

<p>I am familiar with Miss St. They are very generous with these waivers. The review process might be a rather “rubber stamp.” It may just be a protection of too many apps. </p>

<p>frankly, get the app in now. The later the app, the less likely a good result.</p>

<p>Thanks - I will remember that. We have tons of time though. My son is only a sophomore. He just already knows what he wants to study, and since we have twin boys, we have to plan twice as hard for the financial impact of this. Looking for any loophole I can find.</p>

<p>He wants to go into Conservation/Wildlife Law Enforcement - Mississippi State is one of 5 regular, four year universities in the country that offers a degree specifically in that. </p>

<p>Oregon State - waaaay too far,
Texas Tech - have heard awful things about it,
Unity College in Maine which only has 600 students or something, and
Wisconsin Stevens-Point, which requires a separate training situation outside of the 4 year school</p>

<p>Right now WSP and MSU are the clear favorites. We live in Illinois.</p>

<p>The hard part is my son, through 3 semesters is at a 3.1 GPA, so it’s going to be close. He projects out to a 23-27 ACT - so that will be tight as well. We’ll be biting our nails for those test results next year.</p>

<p>Does his school weight AP or honors classes? </p>

<p>Either way, he may need to carefully plan his next 2 years of school. Save the harder classes for senior year since his scholarship offer would be based on grades 9-11.</p>

<p>Also, remind your son that getting the 3.0+ GPA won’t just involve high school. He’ll need to keep a minimum GPA (3.0 or higher) at his scholarship college in order to keep his scholarship. If he loses his college scholarship because of lowish grades, he might have to come home if you can’t pay the difference.</p>

<p>A lot of schools that used to have guaranteed waivers and scholarships for certain set point in test scores and grades, are now hedging on those offers and are not guaranteeing them even if they are still being generous.</p>

<p>Yes, the school does give an extra point for AP and Honors classes. Does the 3.0 have to be unweighted?</p>

<p>He will be taking AP Environmental Science junior year, but will have no AP/Honors classes until then. My guess is he will likely take AP Bio as a senior and those will be his only weighted classes.</p>

<p>His AP classes his senior year won’t help much, if at all. He’ll be applying during the beginning of senior year, so the grades from 9-11 will be used for scholarships.</p>

<p>The junior year AP class should help if he does well and it’s weighted. Many schools will use the weighted GPA.</p>

<p>We actually just visited Miss St. Admissions advisor said the OOS waiver is non-competitive at 3.0/26 and there is no limit as to how many kids can get it. They do use weighted GPA. So if you get the scores, you get the waiver.</p>