Hi everybody. All of your advice is much appreciated. She has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and something much higher when is is weighted but I’m not sure exactly what it is… 4.7? 4.8? Somewhere around there. I think she is the top rated student in her class. Like I mentioned before, we have about $110K saved in her 529. So we could pay about $20K - 25K per year but I would rather that she not go through all of it, just in case she is interested in law school. Maybe med school too but right now, she has no interest in medicine. Someone posted a thread for me to look at and I much appreciate the link. I will peruse it tomorrow. Thanks again.
How much will she get from Bright Futures? Is she interested in any of the other FL public Us? Those would be in your price range and get her out of town.
Is your school a nominating school for Jefferson Scholars and Moorehead- Cain? If they are, you could express an interest to guidance… but keep in mind that these scholarships are extremely, extremely competitive. My daughter was a Jefferson Scholars nominee… she made it to the second round of interviews but not to the third and final round. They chose 1 student to go to Virginia… from our original group of 19. These groups are all over the country. Once in Virginia… at the final round… the process continues. The accomplishments of these students REALLY blew us away. It was one of the first times my daughter stepped out of her HS bubble and saw what amazing kids there are out there. Getting merit at UNC is tough… kids with your daughter’s stats from OOS don’t necessarily make honors …or get in ( OOS is crazy)… let alone get merit… but it’s worth trying if your school is a nominating one. Your daughter can also check out Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane ( remember these are highly competitive regardless of stats). My friend’s child received the Stamps scholarship to the U of Miami ( Florida) with slightly lower stats.
Here are a few others to investigate:
Lehigh- full tuition is highly, highly competitive but worth investigating
Lafayette- my friend’s son received some merit with similar scores and a slightly lower gpa
U of Pittsburgh- I would definitely have her apply here- the app opens in July?
Ohio State University
U of Alabama
U of South Carolina honors
It’s worth looking at the thread suggested. Good luck to your daughter! She sounds like a talented young lady and I wish her well.
The biggest factor in the tippy top scholarships you mentioned is not just academic scores but ECs. Leadership and state or national level recognition for ECs will often be the tiebreaker.
In contrast, at colleges a tier or two down, merit scholarships (especially those which are not full rides but for example just cover tuition or bring COA down to instate equivalent levels) can be more stats driven.
Just a word about the idea that the school will pay if she does a PhD, since you seem to appreciate long term planning. What this actually means is that they will pay her subsistence wages to TA or RA. This is all fine, and fair, and good. However, what a lot of people don’t think about are the opportunity costs of that. If she gets a PhD, she will lose about 6-7 years of earnings and contributing to a 401k in her 20s, so she will be way behind in the financial game of life when her 50s and 60s roll around. It would be very nice for her to have some money from that 529 to supplement her PhD years, if you can swing it. Also, most PhD candidates I know are not able to actually live on the amount they are paid and end up taking some loans as well.
Fortunately I was not one of those taking loans while working on my PhD, but there were definitely opportunity costs involved.
I’m not sure if her school is a nominating school. How do I check?
She can ask the guidance counselor and also see if it’s on her HS website.
you might also look into air force scholarships for relatives as you mentioned her grandpa was in the air force. My daughter received a large 4 year scholarship through navy supply corp [grandpa].
So. I found out that her high school is NOT a nominating school for either the Jefferson or the Morehead Cain. A very small private school in town is a nominating school though. (I find this somewhat irritating since it has about 1/6 of the students as my daughter’s high school and my daughter is in a very competitive and difficult magnet program.). I know that she can get an at-large nomination for the Jefferson scholarship, if she applies for the early deadline. I’m not sure if she can get a nomination from Morehead Cain in the same way.
TnTWalter- trust me, her grandfather has been trying to sway her towards the Air Force Academy in Colorado. So far, she has zero interest.
As others have said getting a nomination for Jefferson or Morehead Cain is just getting your foot in the door. My daughter has similar stats (1550 SAT, 4.0 UW/4.9 W, 1 point away from NMSF, one primary EC that she is heavily invested in with a few others) and she did not even get admitted to UVA (being OOS makes UVA admission even more difficult).
It’s a tough road to try to get super high merit and there really is no predicting it unless the school offers guaranteed merit based on stats alone. So my suggestion would be to go after just one or 2 of these competitive scholarships while applying more broadly to schools a tier down that have a higher probability of paying out a higher merit award.
Yes …she can get an outside nomination for Jefferson Scholars… but keep in mind that these scholarships are ultra ultra competitive and are not only based on high stats. While I see no reason not to try… I also think you need to find some less competitive merit options. I would put most of my focus on finding those schools.
I appreciate all the advice and agree with the general reasoning. Her guidance counselor thinks she would be a great fit for a Lombardi or Stamps Scholarship, should she chose to stay in town and apply to UF. Personally, I would like her to reach for something a bit more competitive, hence the interest in UVA or UNC. We are taking a tour of UVA, UNC, and Davidson College in late March. We’ll see how things are looking after the tours. Her cousin is at UVA and loves it. Another friend is at Davidson and also loves it. Of course, most of her HS friends will probably go to UF, so there is an incentive to stay here in Gainesville as well. So complicated.
Getting into some of these schools … even as a top student… can be difficult. Getting merit to these schools… adds another layer. I would pick 3 of these hyper competitive awards, and then choose some that are a little “easier.”
Remember… getting $10,000 may not be that hard. Full tuition/full ride ( what you are seeking)… often requires going down in selectivity, even for top students. That being said… you won’t know unless you try. Good luck!
@LakeAlto I second the recommendation to Ohio State. It gave my DS a full-ride back in 2010 but my students the last two years have gotten the National Buckeye and Provost or Dean scholarship. With those scholarships, it would put Ohio State at your budget leve. Be sure to apply early so that your DD could apply to the Honors College or Scholars program. Everyone I know who has done them really enjoy them.
Look also at Miami of Ohio. It is considered a “private ivy” (public universities small in size that are similar in set-up to the ivies). One of my students there is on a full-tuition scholarship. I really liked it when I toured it and it has both good liberal arts and engineering/sciences. I think it will be tough to get to your $20-$25K budget with private colleges since they usually run around $60 to $65K so taking $20K off the budget with merit will still leave you with more (like around $40K) than where you want to be budget-wise. One college that is private but good with merit for my students is Baldwin-Wallace. They have a special scholarship for OOS that really helps to get my students at that less than $25K level. Tulsa, Seattle University, University of Dallas, UT-Dallas have been good with merit. Smith and GW gave my students two years ago $30K plus a research stipend, but you have to major in a science or engineering. My student with similar stats just got $20K from Grinnell but again the total would not be $25K that you would have to pay.
Be sure to have your DD apply early action, I find the best merit is always given to my students who are applying early action. Since Georgia Tech is just across the border and you mentioned that your DD may want to major in environmental science and GT is a Stamps school, I suggest she apply there also. GT will invite 300 students to interview for Stamps and invite 100 of them to campus to do additional interviews before they decide on the 40 Stamp Scholars. Last year, my student made it to the 100 but was not selected as a Stamps Scholar, however GT did give her a $25k a year scholarship which really made GT affordable. Now GT has gotten a lot tougher to get into, but it does have Stamps and a few special scholarships for Florida residents.
Most students pay most/all costs for med and law school and masters degrees. There are some merit offers for high LSAT scores but usually those are for non-T17 law schools. There are merit offers for med school for high MCAT scores or for the small number who have multiple acceptances.
The PhD programs worth attending will provide funding.
What type of schools interest your daughter? Small? Large? Rah rah? Quiet? Greek systems?
If your daughter is OK with smaller private schools, there is a lot of money out there. With a 3.4 GPA and a 1280 SAT, I so far have 11 different merit scholarship offers (out of 12 acceptances), ranging from $12K/year to $28K/year. I have not won any academic honors, competitions, or awards and am not in student government, nor did I found my own startup company or anything like that. All of those schools except one have “average” SAT and GPA scores higher than mine, so I am not sure why they all admitted me and want to give me money, but clearly, it’s possible since it is happening! Schools that admitted me are in California, Oregon, Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania. We definitely don’t qualify for financial aid, either, by the way. Good luck to your family.
Ohio State costs with the National Buckeye and Maximus scholarship (the highest scholarship amount available without submitting a separate scholarship application) would be $25,500. That is right at the top of your budget level and doesn’t include expenses for travel back and forth to Ohio from Florida. But if you can swing that amount it is definitely worth looking into.
OP, we looked for big merit schools for my Ds as well. They also had very high stats. Here were some on their lists: Tulane (DHS and Paul Tulane scholarships), Miami of Ohio, UNC (big reach for scholarships there), University of South Carolina, Northeastern, Boston College (big reach for scholarships there),in-state flagship. Older D ended up at a private college with very generous financial aid, and I suspect that will be the case for younger D as well. Have you run the NPC at any schools that meet full need? Caveat: not sure how much aid to expect with that 529, but it’s worth exploring.