OP said, “We are one of those families that do not have a dime saved for college and would not have much to contribute yet also will NOT qualify for financial aid (don’t judge for our stupid past financial decisions!), no grandparents to lean on, etc…”
I’m a bit confused by this because anyone who will NOT qualify for FA at, say HYPS and other financially generous top schools, has to be from a family with an income of over $250K a year, and even families with this kind of income could get some FA at these schools. So how do you make this kind of money yet “would not have much to contribute…”?
@twoinanddone Or that some, like us, got wiped out twice - once in the dot com bust of 2000, then again in the Great Recession. Hubs got laid off twice in 2016, so that makes three. Both companies went bankrupt, and one did it owing him 2 months pay.
But no, it was beer and hookers. We were never comfortable enough to afford wine, women and song.
@collegedad13 she deserves a free education because she has the qualifications that some schools are willing to pay for. It’s not different from a sports scholarship. She’s a NMF and so she has options whether her parents can contribute or not.
OP, I think it’s a smart idea to encourage your daughter to seriously consider free to her schools. You guys might be surprised at what you find.
@twoinanddone I hope you meant that as a joke because I found it rather offensive. There are many many reasons parents don’t have enough saved to send their kids to expensive schools that have nothing to do with thier spending habbits/life styles. Many parents have the money to pay for undergrad but choose to take a full ride and use the money for grad school. You make accepting a full ride at a national merit school sound like accepting a “booby prize” I don’t know about UK because I don’t have personal experience but I do know the OU has one of the top rated meterology programs in the country so why not take take a NM scholarship there if you want to major in meteorology? UTD has a very good comp sci program with amazinging undergrad oppertunities so why not go there for free? I know for a fact that UT and UTD grads have the same starting salary at the very large high tech firm where my DH works.
No matter the cause of the family financial state, the kids have to deal with it and the limits. OP child had financial limits, and being NMF just opens up more possibilities. NMF is not taking away any schools, just adding more (cheaper) options to the list. If the parents couldn’t afford Dartmouth or Colby before NMF status, it still can’t but can now afford UKentucky, Dallas, Oklahoma, UCF. Someone pointed out above that UMaine will probably be free now, which is what OP wanted anyway.
You daughter should cast a wide net to see which school would give her merit aid based on her stats. My kid was offered a full tuition at Trinity (CT), which we turned down. The students who accepted the offer were going to med/law schools with acceptances from top 10 schools. There are many excellent LACs in the NE that offer excellent merit aids. I don’t think your D is going to have reach that far down to get good aids. She shouldn’t waste 4 years of her life by going to subpar schools.
Depending on what you can contribute. if anything, she doesn’t necessarily have to go that far. Sounds like she has a financial and academic safety in UMaine, maybe add a southern one like Alabama. Ones that are guaranteed for her stats.
Run the net price calculator at Dartmouth and Bowdoin to be sure schools with that level of aid are out, if you haven’t yet.
And then, some financial “matches” - meaning might be affordable, might not, but a mix of these and one might work out -
Temple in Philly has (now competitive but can be very good) merit
Northeastern used to for NMFs…like half tuition.
If she likes Bowdoin, maybe she’d also like Denison, Wooster, Juniata, Ohio Wesleyan or other LACs that offer merit aid in varying amounts.
And the very competitive full tuition/ride scholarships mentioned earlier at UVA, etc.
@collegedad13 : It doesn’t take ‘making lots of money’ to not get offered financial aid. I believe others on this forum have quoted something like $270K gross income as the threshold above which a family of four generally no longer qualifies for need-based aid at most schools. Problem is you don’t know if the OP has debt of their own from college they need to pay off, then add a mortgage, taxes ($270K is really about 150K after fed and state taxes), living expenses, cars, and saving for your retirement which is no small thing. While 270K is certainly a good, comfortable income by most standards I don’t think it necessarily means one “makes lots of money.” That disappears really fast with life’s costs.
That’s why you have many people in the so-called “donut hole” where you make too much for aid but not enough to be able to afford exorbitant college costs.
I don’t think anyone making lots of money deserves a free education. But I do think it it is prudent to avoid overpaying for college and unnecessarily going into debt. This is true especially when you see both public and private universities raising tuition prices year after year far in excess of inflation. The universities don’t seem to have the best interests of their students and their parents in mind and care little about them mortgaging their futures to attend their school. If universities won’t spend down some of their endowments to lower COA or be more cost conscious why should I empty my bank account into their coffers to my own financial peril? I think it is wise for OP and others try to play defense against these out of control college costs any way possible.
I find it so hypocritical that so many of the posters are looking for ways to game the system to get a free education but yet are so vehemently opposed to free college education for all. I personally believe that a college education should be free as a matter of right. It seems to work well in Norway, Finland , Sweeden , Germany, Slovenia, France, and Brazil.
She could apply to a wide selection of schools – including the “lower Ivies” and other similar caliber schools – her safeties, and to the “free” rides schools. See what happens. But if she indeed gets a free ride somewhere, and the others all cost major money, work on selling her on the “free” idea… here are a few arguments to get you started:
The prestige of listing on her resume "recipient of the 4 year xxxxx-scholarship at xxxx University." Yes, employers and grad schools will notice.
The perks that come with the honors colleges that award such scholarships: often better housing, closer contact with professors, greater research opportunities (important for med school!) and greater internship opportunities (ditto!)
Instant connection to the academic elite at her university -- it will be easy to put together kick-ass study groups through her honors program connections!
A free ride means she could possibly receive subsidized study abroad -- or enable her summer earnings to be spent on travel as opposed to tuition and text books. To a lot of kids, the idea of traveling around Europe for 3 months would go a long way toward forgetting those pricey schools that would put her and you in a world of debt...
I think you should make her aware about financial limitations now and not when she gets to a reach school. Many smart kids follow the money instead of going full pay at elite schools for different reasons.
Gaming the system is taking your money market account and “gifting” it to your brother, with the understanding that 6 years from now once your kid is graduated from college, he’ll “gift” it back to you. Gaming the system is putting your 7 year old kid on the payroll of a company you operate (you deduct the wages you pay but you keep the money), or claiming your dog as a dependent or an employee. Gaming the system is working in a high cash business and only declaring the bare minimum of what you need to avoid an audit.
Sending your kid to your state flagship for a free ride due to her stats, or sending her to Alabama or Oklahoma for a free ride due to her stats is NOT gaming the system. That’s precisely why and how the system is set up- to lure strong college students to institutions trying to raise their profile academically.
OP - while your daughter is indeed a shoe-in for NMSF based on her PSAT score in Maine, there is no absolute guarantee that she will make finalist. The vast majority do (15K out of 16K) but there are some that do have a glitch -
usually in grades somewhere - that will keep them from making finalist. It is definitely unlikely based on what you stated but it would not be wise to just assume and therefore ONLY look at NMF-scholarship schools. Especially since the NMSC doesn’t announce finalists until February, well past most college’s application deadlines. As others have commented, also look at schools that offer large merit scholarships. Even if they are competitive scholarships (of course they will be), allow her to apply if she really loves the school.
Yes, medical school is very expensive, and I think it’s very wise to take finances into account when applying to college. Among other things, it shows your children the importance of making good financial decisions in order to have a better life down the line, even if it hurts in the short term. Remember that here’s no one perfect school for any kid.
I’m sorry that other posters have made derogatory comments about your finances without even hearing your whole story, which is none of our business anyways. You did allude to medical bills, which we know from personal experience can be quite devastating if there are health insurance issues. If you have made bad financial decisions in the past, it’s good that your daughter learns about them and sees how you are trying to correct them so she will hopefully not make the same mistakes in the future.
I don’t agree with posters who state things like “Someone who says they wont get much if any financial aid means they make lots of money.” At many schools the cutoff of financial aid is in the 150-170K range. Seriously, who could afford to pay even 40K per year (that’s low for an elite school or even OOS public) for ONE child just to go to school - that’s 1/4 of their income. At least when you contribute that much to a mortgage you are building equity. And goodness knows how many other kids will be behind that first one. My husband makes a good salary (probably NOT what many people think doctors make, though), but there’s no way my son would be even applying to some of the schools he wants to go to if we didn’t have the GI Bill. We have other circumstances that are not affecting our income NOW (and therefore don’t affect our EFC) but will certainly do so in the next 5-15 years. So we have to put more money aside now (more than most folks will need for a typical retirement) and that affects what we feel we can contribute to college.
@FrozenMaineMom Bowdoin will be very, very difficult to get into. Perhaps she has a boost coming from Maine. what is her unweighted GPA? Most premeds go to undergrad to limit debt.
Isn’t that more like “cheating the system” rather than “gaming the system”? “Gaming” usually refers to exploiting loopholes in the rules that may or may not have been intentionally left there, while “cheating” usually means going against the rules and trying not to get caught.
Apply for financial aid, but do not expect a dime. What can you pay without it? Tell her.
Tell her up front not to apply to schools that do not give merit money. She should be looking for schools that give generous aid to students with her stats.
It is fine to assume she’ll be NMF unless she robs a bank or fails a class. Really.
If she’s okay with women’s colleges, she should apply to Scripps, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr. These are all excellent schools that are likely to give generous merit aid. She will need to fill out a separate application for Scripps merit, but they are likely to be interested in her.
Set the limits now, before the whole application fever sets in among her classmates. She should not look at any school that doesn’t give merit money, regardless of how many people tell her to apply to Yale or Harvard. They give great financial aid, but if you make too much to qualify, then it is pointless to apply. Don’t get her hopes up.
Check out Pitt too. Their Chancellors scholarship is a full ride (study abroad too) and Pitt has great med research opportunities. Minimum gpa to keep scholarship is 3.0.
