So a lot of people told my mom that to apply to private schools because they offer big packages based on merit to get kids to go there? True, not true? She’s been telling me this my entire life and I highly doubt it.
It is true in many cases. If your stats (GPA and SAT/ACT) are in the top 25% of admitted students you may get good merit aid. This is not the case with elite schools though: Ivies, Stanford etc.
However, those schools often charge a lot of tuition & fees.
It can be true. I know some students who ended up with financial packages that meant they were paying far less than they would have been paying at SUNY, for example. these were top students who either got a lot of merit pay to attend a school for which their credentials placed them above the 75% for that school or they applied to top schools that don’t give merit but are need blind and promise to meet need. You have to have something that the school wants from you. So, either you help their “freshman profile” by upping their scores or you add to their pool of students who are not rich.
Are you a senior?
Check out some of the recent EA/ED threads if you get a chance. Some applicants are sharing what merit awards they’ve been offered, and you can compare that with the COA from the schools’ Web sites. It might give you an idea of patterns.
Some private schools also give very good need based aid. Each college has a net price calculator in the financial aid page if their website. You can run it to see what your cost of attendance might be. However, most of the time it won’t show merit aid.
No I’m not a senior because I missed my junior year of high school. I don’t qualify for any need bases aid. rich dad who doesn’t want anything to do with my education.
How about your mom? How much could she afford?
i have no idea. I have a college fund which will help a lot but not all the way. She won’t tell me how much she can afford and she has a misconception that privates will give me big packages. Other than having cancer, nothing about my stats are that special.
The amount of merit aid awarded to top students will vary quite a bit from one school to another. George Washington and Case Western for example awarded my D $25k/year and other students were probably awarded more. Full rides though are quite rare and awarded by both public and private schools
Background:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1832941-forced-into-community-college-p1.html
Private universities give very little merit aid to transfer students, sorry.
Well…the privates on your list…Stanford, Caltech, and MIT do not give merit aid.
If you want to be an engineer…you need to attend an ABET accredited engineering program. You should be able to find at least one at one of the public universities in your state.
Some private universities are very generous with need based aid…which you say you won’t be eligible for.
In terms of merit…have you taken the SAT or ACT yet? Because getting merit aid without those…or as a transfer student…whichever you end up being…is going to be a challenge…unless you apply to a SAT optional school that gives merit aid.
Oh I’m not a transfer student. If you read my background all my college credits are done before my high school diploma.
Stanford, Mit, and cal tech are a dream but probably unrealistic with my record. I have not taken the SATs or acts yet but I will and I will be applying as a high school applicant.
They aren’t just unrealistic regardless of your academic record, they are unaffordable as they do not offer any merit aid.
For any school you are interested in, Google “Common Data Set” and the school name. There is a section with information on non-need based aid. Look at that to see the number of students who get non-need based aid and the average amount of the aid. Now figure out what % of the student body gets merit (total # of students getting merit divided by the total number of undergrad students). Say 10% of the students got non-need based aid (100 got merit out of 1,000 students). Figure out if your stats are in that top 10% of their last freshman class. It is a rough calculation, but if you are in that %, you have a shot, and you could assume you might get the average amount of merit. Then go review the financial aid website page for any specifics they give on merit offered.
But you must have test scores to do this. GPA is not a reliable measure, you need to know if your test scores are in that range. The higher your test scores, the higher your odds of merit at schools that give merit aid.
Show this method to your mom. Some private schools give merit and some don’t. But so do some public schools. You can’t really generalize, but the data is available. Also, study for your SAT or ACT ahead of time, and leave time to study more and take it a second time if needed. Test scores are critical for garnering merit aid.
Also, this may be obvious, but a private school that costs $60,000 per year still is expensive if the merit brings it down to $45,000 per year. If your state university is $30,000 per year, it is obviously still cheaper to go to the state university.
your mom and her friends are very mistaken. Those privates will look at BOTH parents’ incomes and determine that you have NO NEED>
You need to ask your father how much he’ll pay for college. He may know if your college fund has enough money in it.
If your mom expects you to get merit scholarships, then you need to apply to the schools that will give you merit for your stats.
She says in post #7 that she know she won’t qualify for need based aid. Her mom’s misconception seems to be around merit aid.
I guess the question to put to mom is…if you think privates give “big packages,” then do you think everyone gets big packages? or only a select few?
I am very confused about when you plan to enroll in college. You wrote this…which implies you plan to attend college only in th 2016-2017 school year:
So…could you please clarify your status? I know you missed a year of school due to illness. I know you have been taking CC dual enrollment courses to complete your HS degree.
When WILL you graduate from high school? And when do you plan to enroll in college?