Posse Scholarship Parents ... thoughts?

Parents Forum
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Hi,

Just wondering if there are any parents of Posse candidates for the fall 2018 term out there? We are in Northern California and my daughter just completed her 2nd interview with Posse. The connected universities to our Posse program are Boston University, Lehigh in PA, Puget Sound in WA. The colleges are very far for us and we do not know any friends or family in these regions. If she makes it to the 3rd interview, she needs to be ready to commit to the Early Decision. Yet, we have never visited these campuses or cities with her.

The idea of an opportunity for my daughter to have a full ride to any college would be mind blowing. My daughter is excited and motivated to go far. My main concern is with the distance and potentially not being able to see her more than a couple times a year. If she was in-state, we would be only a car ride away.

Lesser concern, but still frustrating, is that after all of the work (studying for SATs, writing essays, work/volunteer experience), we would not have a chance to consider schools that she could have gotten into. It has been a bumpy road at times, and I would like to see the fruits of all of our sweat and tears.

Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat … with mixed feelings?

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1.Posse is not a full ride. It is full tuition only. The coverage for room and board fees will be based on whether or not the school meets 100% demonstrated need andif you have a financial need after the tuition scholarship is awarded.

If you are extreme low income , you will get full tuition and the rest through need based financial aid, which will include loans (unless your D is attending a school with a no-loan initiative for families with incomes at a certain threshold).

Run the net price calculator to see approximately what the net price would be for her to attend. Then deduct the cost of tuition (which would be covered by Posse) from the cost of attendance. If your net price is less than this amount your would probably be eligible for some aid. Again, it could be a $5500 loan

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What are the other schools she is wanting to see if she can get into? Are they meet-full need schools? What are her stats?

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Another thing to consider if your daughter goes far away is the cost of getting to and from college for all the breaks. She will have to fly during the peak fare times (winter holidays, spring break), so this could offset the scholarship she will receive.

My parents solved this issue years ago by only allowing me to fly home at Christmas. For all the other breaks, they expected me to go home with friends who lived a car ride away, or stay on campus. It worked out well for us, but did require some planning, and I did have a lonely spring break one year, as I had to stay on campus.

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While it is nice to have a child within driving distance, it can work the other way too. One of my kids is about 2.5 hours away (and was just here for the day) but the other is 2000 miles away and only come home at Christmas. She plays a sport so must stay on campus for spring break. Last year she was 2 weeks late coming back for the summer because her team made the playoffs/tournament. It’s fine.

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@sybbie719 ~ Thanks for clarifying the “full ride” … I thought full ride was indeed all tuition covered (and definitely not room/board, books, supplies, flights, etc.). I believe we are middle class, maybe upper middle. We live in San Francisco and it makes you feel VERY poor because the cost of living is extremely high :confused: . My daughter attends a large sized, average public school.

@GnocchiB ~ D is applying to some UCs (that would be ideal to me, but due to stats, most would be very “reachy” … UC Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Santa Barbara. She will also be applying Early Action at Univ of San Francisco, Univ of Portland, Gonzaga, and Seattle U (all of these privates majoring in the Direct Nursing Programs). Safety would be San Francisco State

@Massmomm ~ Thank you … yes, the airfare/hotel, time off work, etc. is all of concern with the distance from West Coast to East Coast. For our family, it wouldn’t be easy … we have 2 other children. But, paying for all of the travel (and room board), although I haven’t added it up, seems like it would still work in our favor financially.

@twoinanddone ~ Thanks for chiming in with your experience. I guess it will “work out” … it’s the same mantra I’ve been saying in my head for this past year.

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@GnocchiB ~ Her stats are:

1240 SAT
3.55 UC Weighted GPA
Great work and volunteer experience (UCSF Hospital, Exploratorium, SPCA Junior Counselor, Calif. Academy of Sciences, and others). She has a lot of love and charisma working with people and groups.

No sports, no Student Gov

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If I understand the Posse Program correctly, part of the idea is to place students with a cohort of others in the same situation (socioeconomically I thought? or first gen?) so that they will have more support in college (and during HS senior year) and be more likely to graduate. If that is a concern for your D, then just comparing NPC results won’t be enough to compare schools.

We are on the west coast and my kids both went to school on the east coast. It is definitely doable, but it would have been much easier to be in the same time zone and somewhere with direct flights. (D had a nightmare experience getting home for the holidays her first year.) In this situation UPS would be much easier to navigate than the other two. But (as suggested above) factor in transportation costs.

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@PNWedwonk ~ I believe that is correct regarding the Posse program, a group of 10 selected for each school … possibly consideration of similar socioeconomic backgrounds as well as 1st Gen.

For my D, she is not 1st Gen (to attend college), and we are not low income … she seems to fit the “hidden” to some colleges based on traditional evaluation methods (GPA and SAT scores, sports, etc.). Her strength, she is sort of a natural leader-type, great with people, and has decent scores, but not extraordinary ones. We were surprised to learn that her school counselor nominated her (among 12+ others) for this scholarship. He said that she stood out for the above mentioned qualities. She proceeded to the first interview … and then the second, loving the process and enthusiastic about interviewing in a group :-o

This has all taken me by surprise and as I looked into it more, including the feedback on this thread, I’m realizing more about the Program itself. I even had to Google “what is Middle Class in San Francisco” … LOL.

Thank you for reading and for replying. I’m so glad to have this space as a resource for bouncing worries, thoughts out there to others that might be experiencing similar. My D has been inundated for months about college issues and we are all so over it.

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There are some ginormous differences among those colleges that you can appreciate without visiting. They’re not exactly a matched set. And I don’t think any of them has a BSN program.

Notwithstanding its name, UPS is really a pretty small liberal arts college, with about 700 kids entering as freshmen. It’s in a residential neighborhood in north Tacoma, essentially a old, middle-class suburb, part of the Seattle megalopolis, but a fairly sleepy corner of it. It’s not terribly selective in admissions, offering admission to 80% of applicants. I know very little about the academics there, notwithstanding that my next-door neighbors’ oldest child went there. (He was completely a non-academic kid. He got his degree, and has supported himself ever since, but it was never clear that there was any relationship between the two. His parents, one of whom is a university professor, thought it was OK, a decent place to park their son while he grew up a bit, but that’s it.) It’s about 15 miles from the Sea-Tac airport: eminently uber-able, and there are probably some shuttles , too.

Lehigh is a private university with 1,200 undergraduates per class and significant graduate programs. It leans very heavily to engineering and business. It’s quite selective, offering admission to about 25% of applicants, and in large part thanks to its engineering strength the average “stats” of its students are quite high. It is located on the edge of a depressed small city, formerly (but no longer) a manufacturing hub. Lehigh essentially sits halfway up between the city and a mountain that is mostly undeveloped parkland; there’s a real outdoorsy aspect to it. It has Division I sports, but in the Patriot League, which sports-wise is a lot like the Ivy League. There are a number of other, mainly smaller colleges in the area. It is about 70-80 mainly interstate highway miles away from either Newark Airport or Philadelphia Airport. So transportation is an issue, but you have a lot of flight options.

BU is one of the largest private universities in the country, roughly on a scale with USC, with 4,000 kids per entering class. It’s large enough to have something for everyone, plus a full roster of professional schools. (It’s larger than some public flagships.) In terms of admission percentage, it’s about the same as Lehigh, but its students’ stats cover a broader, somewhat lower range. BU is also in the Patriot League for sports. Its completely urban campus is smack in the middle of downtown Boston. Boston, of course, is a major cultural and commercial center, and has a ton of local colleges as well. It’s an easy subway ride to Logan Airport.

I don’t think any of them is known for outstanding need-based financial aid. But I would bet that they make certain people they accept through the Posse program can enroll.

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Usually a posse is chosen from the same geographic area too. Whichever school she might be chosen for, I think she’d be with other west coast kids. Might simply travel and such.

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There is nothing more exciting than getting on here and seeing parents talking about Posse. We are chomping at the bit waiting to hear in Atlanta. My son has wanted this since sophomore year. Best of luck!

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My understanding is that POSSE chooses students based on leadership qualities, academic interests, grades, personality, and all-around, what they believe will be scholars who will make a difference in their world. They choose students who may otherwise, not apply to those colleges because of distance, money, and OOS, but who may given the right circumstances, make the cut. I think it has more to do with the type of “kid” they are, and their eagerness to succeed, rather than their economic background. Best of luck to all the other POSSE finalists and semifinalist out there.

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^I used to volunteer with Posse when I lived in a Posse city (New York), and one of my friends used to work for them. My current location isn’t a Posse city.

It’s my understanding that Posse deliberately sends their posse of students to schools that are geographically distant from where they are. Since most students are low-income and first-gen, a lot of these students may have never seen a corner of the U.S. other than the one that they live in - many have never left their state before. And, to be frank - as someone who’s done a lot of volunteer work with low-income, minority, and/or first-gen students - sometimes getting them farther away from home helps get them farther away from some of the home issues that would lower their chances of successfully finishing school. Not saying that you would do this, of course, OP - but I’ve worked with low-income/first-gen kids whose parents expected them to be primary caregivers for younger siblings (and essentially miss class or give up internship opportunities to do that), or to continue to work nearly full-time in college to contribute money to the household. In other cases, sometimes these kids have a lot of chaos going on in the neighborhoods that they’re from and getting away from those distractions is helpful for them.

If you look at the list, none of the Posse locations has affiliations with institutions that are particularly close to where they’re located.

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I don’t have a Posse kid but my daughter is at a Posse school and I met some of the Posse students during Freshman orientation. They seemed like a wonderful group, smart, lively and personable, and very deserving and appreciative of the opportunity.

However, does your daughter have her heart really set on nursing? If so, as @JHS says, an issue is that none of the 3 schools offer a BSN degree

Your feeling a bit frustrated at not going through the whole process and seeing all the possible fruits of your daughter’s hard work is understandable–but on the other hand it looks like Posse is offering a far bigger opportunity with the full tuition scholarship.

16

Thank you to all that replied … your thoughtful insight and feedback has been so helpful.

Just wanted to update that my daughter was emailed yesterday that she did not make it to the next round with Posse. It was disappointing, but overall we are all kind of relieved.

Now, we look forward to seeing what the outcome will be. She applied Early Action to schools with Direct Entry Nursing Programs … and got her applications in for in-state schools under other majors.

Fingers crossed! Good luck to everyone!

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I’m sorry if she was disappointed to not be chosen, but going to a school that offers a direct path to nursing is probably better. Good luck!