<p>Not, you are not a minority on this board. Many of us picked schools with financial aid/cost a major consideration. Not THE only consideration. But with healthy financial aid from my kid’s school, we paid less than instate costs for DD, and (will probably) pay only slightly more than instate costs for DS. Which is definitely more money than the Free-Ride offers, but worth it to us. (Sorry for the digression from the OP).</p>
<p>USC invites NMS finalists to interview for full ride, 50% and 25% scholarships. Awards are not guaranteed. Students must spend the night on campus, attend events and interview. D rec’d the 50% offer but turned it down because USC was such a poor fit for her…She ended up at Tufts with a whopping $500 NMS. She also did not bother applying to U of Oklahoma, ASU and the other mega-campuses that came courting. They were not at all what she was looking for in a college.</p>
<p>toneranger,
You are not alone. I’ve posted on this in the past, but gets boring to repeat myself.</p>
<p>opie, toneranger & bookworm,
Ditto for us. Not to mention the perks of many named scholarships that go way beyond dollars.</p>
<p>A half tuition offer of $17,000 at USC sounds nice until you consider that the total cost of attendance there is $48,000-50,000/year, so you would still be paying over $30,000 which is more than full freight at many private schools. </p>
<p>Here’s one I found–University of Dallas (private Catholic LAC) offers at least $14,000 and up to $21,000 (full tuition) AUTOMATICALLY to any NMF. The total cost of attendance there is $31,000/year, so you’d end up paying $10,000-17,000/year altogether. </p>
<p>Many people have said “Not interested in ASU, U of OK,” “Didn’t bother applying to those schools. . .” Did anyone visit? Can you say what didn’t interest you? Location, size? ( btw, OK is less than half the size of ASU–23,000 vs 51,000–these schools are very different). It might be worth investing a little $ in a visit–see for yourself before turning down big offers.</p>
<p>“Did anyone visit”</p>
<p>We did visit UA and ASU for spring break during our search. Both schools had alot to offer. UA “really” rolls out the red carpet. We spent 8 and ahalf hours touring, eating and seeing everything there. For my D they asked ahead of time what her interests were and then made sure she had a chance to visit every interest. My D wants to be an equine vet or pharm, and they took us out to their stables, hydroponics farm, pharmacy school and around campus.
Nice people, I liked the layout of campus as well. She could have joined their ncaa equestrian team and been able to compete as she did in 4-h. </p>
<p>Later in the week, we visited ASU and really liked Barnett Honors college. But maybe because it was the end of the week and really hot (75 is a hot day to us) and no water (clue to ASU tours, UA made sure everybody had a couple bottles of cold water.. not everybody can handle that heat) and it is really a big campus (65,000) we (read I) had a harder time covering the campus tour. </p>
<p>Both schools had alot to offer, they really did. For us, the deal breaker for my D was too far from home, Heat (which my wife loved, but that’s what you get when you marry the Irish.), lack of fir trees. None of those factors were the school’s faults, they were my D’s preferences. Had those schools been in the Pacific NW, not a problem. Educationally they had alot to offer. However, for us, what to do away from classes was more of an issue. But that’s because we’re pasty white northerners who think a beautiful day is 60 degrees. Alot of the kids attending were from all over the country. It’s funny some kids really like the sunshine… alot. 
</p>
<p>But as Atomom, posted.. visit. See for yourself. If anything it’s a nice vacation if you throw in the grand canyon.</p>
<p>Why didn’t my son visit UTDallas or U of Arizona or any of the other schools? Well, he applied to MIT and CalTech. He didn’t visit either of those schools. He got into MIT and went there. He graduated in 3 1/2 years, that one semester saving us the equivalent of a $6K/year merit scholarship.</p>
<p>We did visit UF in Gainesville when my DD was a senior in HS - back when they offered an automatic full-ride for NMS. We thought the campus was lovely, but the honors dorm sterile, DD hated the alligators in the lakes, people were friendly, but the honors class DD sat in on was dull and students were reading newspapers, tapping on the internet, sleeping, etc. (Just luck of the draw - she could have sat in on a fascinating class, but was steered towards this one by the NM coordinator). Ultimately, I think none of us were comfortable with her going so far away and to such a big school. We could picture her at some of the small LACs that were far away, or a big school close by; but the combination of big school AND far away…</p>
<p>My S kind of followed DMDson’s path, also applying as a junior. We had one night before winter break to give recoms to teachers, and who would get something out depended on teacher (they had to write and deliver to GC in a day). MIT, Caltech, CMU were high on list.</p>
<p>Looking back, there were more local colleges that give FA, e.g. Emory & Duke, that would have garnered a careful look.</p>
<p>Some excellent schools would not allow S to interview with a local alumni, as he was past their deadline. (Actually,only one 1 school besides the tech schools, gave him an interview.)</p>
<p>Lesson to all–apply before Dec 31!!! Do some research.</p>
<p>dmd - well, yeah, if my son could get into MIT - I guess we would be less likely to consider places that give merit - but I would still hope to put them on our list in case the “dream” admission didn’t come through. Kids like yours usually qualify for merit aid at some pretty good schools like Duke and Vanderbilit - so these schools might be worth a look. It’s all relative I guess…</p>
<p>Toneranger: my son went to college at the end of his junior year; his safety school was to stay in high school. He might have qualified for merit aid, but not need-based aid. We had been struggling to get him to work in school and had found that he always worked harder (and enjoyed it more) when the work was more challenging; even at MIT, he didn’t always find the work as challenging as he would have liked. I think he would have found any other school too easy–and slacked off. (As it was, he started a business and worked twenty hours a week (sometimes even for money) while he was an undergrad, and still graduated with a respectable GPA.)</p>
<p>
And were you at one of the top 3-4 schools? I haven’t seen any evidence of the above. We had offers from 15 schools to compare. The best offers were from schools that did not offer loans. Based on that, I question your experience and line of reasoning.</p>
<p>Hi Wemel- I first saw you on the A&M page. </p>
<p>As far as A&M goes, I got enough scholarship money from being national merit to pay for school, pay for going abroad so far 3 times, and have some left over for grad school. The neat thing about their system is that if you have money that isn’t used for tuition/fees etc., they will just write you a refund check. With many schools, you just loose the extra money.
Also, if you have a 4 yr NM schol, you are eligible to apply for other scholarships too, like University Scholar, Galen T. Brown, and various awards based on major. The Honors Office can help find the scholarships your child is eligible for- 979-845-1957.
Almost better than the money are the opportunities that honors students get. The Freshman Honors Dorm is AMAZING and a great entrance point to the university and to meeting other campus leaders. Honors classes are also usually 8 to 20 people, and the professors frequently go out of their way to get to know and hang out with their students. Rec letters are very easy to receive after knowing profs in this way. The Honors office is helpful, and will work with student personally to help them acquire national scholarships.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Don’t have time to read the entire thread, but let me add University of Cincinnati to the list of schools that offer free ride plus R&B and $1500 for other expenses (laptop, travel abroad etc.) to NM winners. UC has only been doing this for about 3 years so is not on many people’s radar yet, but the number of NMFs on campus has been steadily increasing. They also have honors dorms/floors and MUCH new construction has been completed on campus. It looks like a completely different place, with extremely interesting buildings that have won accolades from newspapers and architects around the country. Off-campus areas have been rebuilt as well, as the university recognizes its responsibility as an urban entity.</p>
<p>Besides the well-known Conservatory and the School of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning, the Engineering and Business schools are also quite good.</p>