<p>Hello, I am rather new to posting on this forum, although I have "lurked" here often and greatly benefited from all your wisdom.
My daughter is student at an out-of-state state school and is thriving there, so we have no regrets about sending her. But I am wondering if there are some strategies you can suggest we take with the financial aid office and/or her academic department to explore possible merit aid options. I know that some parents have had success with this after one-on-one conversations with university officials, but I am not very sure about how to preface the dialog. I also hear that the "squeaky wheels" get FA office attention. We don't qualify for need based aid on paper (based on FAFSA), but after two years, we are starting to feel the pinch. D was give a $5000 merit aid during her freshman year, and $500 during her sophomore year. GPA is solid, so that is not an issue. Do schools ever consider partial tuition waiver for OOS students?
Any advice will be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Many depts at larger state schools have their own merit money for upper class students. Start there.</p>
<p>Usually these tuition waivers are granted at the beginning, ie, to entering freshmen. The main reason any school gives merit aid is to entice you to enroll and become a part of the freshman class. The stats of the entering freshmen is a significant part of their USNW rankings. Once you're already there, the incentive to give you money goes down dramatically.</p>
<p>That said, there are sometimes those departmental awards mentioned above. Also, some schools have scholarships for upperclassmen, such as, say, an award for a junior female engineering student with a GPA of x given to the school be the Society of Women Engineers, or maybe something similar for a journalism major sponsored by the local newspaper.</p>
<p>Also, I have a neighbor whose daughter goes to Auburn (notorious for not wanting to give oos tuition reductions) and the girl did not get a scholarship going in with a 28 ACT and gpa 3.8, but she was a chemical engineering major and the scholarship lady told her if she finished her first year with at least a 3.9 they would consider her for merit aid as a sophomore. She got a 4.0 and pestered the poor woman to death until they relented and gave her in state tuition.</p>
<p>NOTE: The daughter talked to the scholarship office and it was the daughter who did the pestering. I think that for an upperclassman esplly, you have a better chance of success if it is the student who does the work.</p>
<p>That was my experience at Wisconsin too. They save the little money they have for OOS students to give to the proven achievers at the school.</p>
<p>Thank you. I will ask my daughter to pester the department a bit more. (BTW, she is also a chemical engineering major!)</p>