Purdue University and IU Scholarship Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello all! I know it’s a busy time of year as a lot of the seniors on here get ready to graduate and it’s bittersweet and exciting for those of us sophomores and juniors who are looking towards the future.

I’ve posted on here before asking for opinions on my admissions chances at schools such as IU and Purdue, but now I’d like to narrow my question a bit. I understand that scholarships are often awarded on a holistic analysis of the application and so predictions may not usually be made accurately, but I am very interested in finding out the opinions of CC members on my chance for a significant scholarship at either Purdue University or Indiana University.

I am a high school junior in Michigan and while my parents are able to contribute more than this, I don’t want them to pay any more than $10,000 a year for my schooling.

Here’s a list of my activities and stats (this is not to sound like I’m bragging in any way, it’s just to help members on here give an educated estimate of my chances)

-Currently ranked #1 out of 139 in my class, so if my current rank holds I would technically be valedictorian, although my school doesn’t recognize this and instead uses a cum laude system

  • 3.99 unweighted GPA because my school does not offer a weighted scale yet so all AP classes are currently weighted on a 4.0 scale, however, we’re implementing a 5.0 AP scale next year that will apply to past AP classes taken as well
    -34 ACT composite with a 10 on writing
    -Student Council Vice President
    -National Honor Society member
    -3 years varsity soccer player. (I’d like to continue playing intramural soccer as a center at Purdue)
    -2 years varsity track and 1 year cross country
    -DECA member (this is my largest extracurricular. I have leadership positions within my school’s chapter and I placed first at the international conference as a sophomore in the Hotel and Lodging Management category. I have won three state titles in three different events)
  • Other leadership activities throughout high school (prom committee, yearbook, organized the homecoming parade, co-led safe driving campaign)
    -I’ve held a job at a local coffee chain for about a year now as well.

I’m most interested in a major in actuarial science or statistics with business as a probable minor. As I said, I know it’s very difficult to predict how much aid I’ll truly recieve (especially as an out-of-state student) but I am just interested in hearing your opinions on my chances for receiving a scholarship that would keep total yearly costs at Purdue or IU under 10k for me. Please be honest with me, I can take it! Thank you for reading and responding. I really appreciate it!

2

To keep your costs to that level, you are looking for more than full tuition at either college.

At Purdue, your chances are zero, because they do not offer merit scholarships that large to OOS. The best you could do would be roughly $17,000/year, with a residual COA of $25,000/year.

At Indiana, the only scholarship of that magnitude is Wells Scholar. They award about 20 of those per year. It is not possible to estimate your chances.

3

To keep costs that low pick colleges that give full tuition or full rides. See the pinned threads at the top of the forum. You will have to lower your sights and find some automatic awards. Then you can take a flyer on these long shots.

4

there is virtually no chance that you’d get an award that would bring the cost anywhere near that low at IU or Purdue.

their awards have shrunk a LOT over the last few years. Often their awards are only for about $10-15k per year, leaving you with a cost of about $25k- 30k per year.

Wells is extremely competitive and the resumes of the finalists are generally very impressive…not just run of the mill ECs with high stats.

As mentioned above, you would need an award that is GREATER than full tuition to have that low of a net cost.

You need to estimate that Room, Board, Books, Fees, Travel, and Personal Expenses/Misc are going to cost about $15k per year. Tuition alone at various OOS publics and privates can be $25k-40k+ per year.

You need to broaden your list. You need to include at least a couple of schools that FOR SURE will give you enough merit to have a low remaining cost.

Seriously, your best bet is to find schools that will FOR SURE give you FULL Tuition for your stats. Then, with your parents $10k, and maybe some summer earnings from you (and maybe a small student loan), you will have the rest covered.

Why are you focused on two OOS Indiana schools??

5

You should add the University of Michigan to your list. The scholarships at all of these schools is extremely competitive.

6

For Purdue, you are not competitive enough for their Presidential scholarships or above. Even if you receive the Presidential Scholarship, it is only $10k/year. They do have additional merit aids with need component though. My D was offered $20K per year from them last year and yet the final cost would be over $20k per year. We are in Michigan too and UMich meet full needs for in state students. If would be hard to get into an OOS public at a lower cost.