<p>My D got a small scholarship for music - a nice gesture since they don't have much to give in that department. She was given until April 15 to accept it. She was panicked only having until May 1 to decide - now it is in overdrive. OOS tuition at JMU is more than the privates that started out at twice the cost. We went in knowing she wouldn't get much aid at JMU, but we underestimated the amount of awards from the privates.</p>
<p>catera, Your D must be a very talented young lady. This is not the case for the average college applicant, IMO (meaning JMU is more expensive than the private schools on the whole). This is quickly changing, however, with each increase that JMU has for their OOS students. We found that other states with higher OOS costs at their public schools were not worth applying to. A 2k merit offer, or similar token amount, did not offset a 30k+ tuition plus 8-10k in room and board. We found the private schools to be more affordable than those OOS publics. I consider my son to have been in about the 75% for most of the private schools he applied to (maybe more in the middle at some, and on the upper end at his safeties). His list was very realistic. 2 years ago, he was offered 2 better offers than JMU out of 10 acceptances, although having a son, I felt it were lures. I did not know if my son could hold onto his merit aid at a gpa of 3.0+ (one crept to up to a 3.2 by sophomore year). We have a younger son, and we will look more to private colleges than public OOS schools, because we see that they will be more affordable for us. At 40-50k/year we do qualify for some financial aid at private schools, LOL. The OOS publics are now exceeding our efc, and they do not offer much in grants to their out of state students. Public Us will need to do something if they want to continue to attract middle income OOS families who qualify for financial aid at private schools.</p>
<p>For all of you currently deciding, this is an interesting article from last year about deciphering offers:</p>
<p>The issue with keeping up the GPA for scholarships is one we are considering also. We are double checking one in particular that she has been told requires a 3.5 in the major - added pressure that I'm not sure I want her to bear. JMU was not a real contender for her until she auditioned there and she just loved everyone she met. The adjudicators were great and the kids she met were so nice. Then she was afraid to get excited about it because it is a competitive admit for music. So she finally gets everything from them at the end of last week and she has 2 weeks to decide.</p>
<p>Congratulations Catera. I am not convinced that she does not have until 5/1. I would check on those NACAC rules even though they gave a deadline of 4/15. Perhaps her GC knows. </p>
<p>Yes, there are so many nice people at JMU!</p>
<p>I think the rule is that she doesn't have to accept until May 1, but that the individual department can ask to know about scholarship acceptance before that. I know they want to know if there is money to re-distribute before May 1, but taking those two weeks away is tough. Who knows, that might work in her favor monetarily if she decides to accept. Maybe someone else is turning it down.</p>
<p>I did not know that a department may set a deadline for a merit award before May 1. Are you sure about that? I understand why they want to do it. I thought for a merit award if one sends a letter stating that they need until May 1, they need to abide by Nacac rules. Perhaps with a departmental scholarship the rule is different? I do not know the answer.</p>
<p>Thanks again northeastmom. This board is so helpful, at least knowing you are not alone! Yes, I am sure our efc is similar to yours. We are dealing with almost the same situation. Basically our in state school is $20K, and our efc is slightly above that. We knew all along our out of pocket would be about $20K and so in comparing offers we are looking to have the cost of out of state or privates at around that amount. We have a $40K private bringing the cost down to $19 with merit and grants, loan and work study, our state school at $20 and finally JMU. Now I think like you, he could have applied to more privates, given the grants etc. but he likes bigger schools and the smaller school is there if he wants to continue with athletics.</p>
<p>mdf, I would encourage that 19,000 offer at a private, or if your state school is good, I would encourage it. Hopefully, he still likes them since he applied to them. Our efc is a bit higher, so we did not have the 19k option. Our best offer was about 21k from a private college (after sub. Stafford, merit and w/s). JMU was I think 24k at the time (did not include loans, because we only took out the $500 subsidized part of the Stafford that was offered).</p>