<p>I just got my STRIDE letter in the mail today for Smith College! I'm super excited, but I was wondering what effect it would have, if any, on need based aid. If a person was getting 20,000 in financial aid from smith college anyway, what effect would the STRIDE scholarship have, if any? I"m just confused about how its factored with need based aid.</p>
<p>i think it replaces your loans with grants?</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, it first takes away from your loans and self help. After that I believe it digs into your grant money.</p>
<p>Yes, Ohreally, you are correct. The STRIDE award reduces your loan/work study first. So if you were to get $20K a year in fin aid, ($15K loan/work study and $5k in straight grant) with the STRIDE, you now have NO loans while still getting the $20K support. </p>
<p>But also, for the first two years you get some additional stipend money as work study with your adviser (but relax, they do NOT pour on a the work making it hard for your first year, but you DO get to begin your work with your adviser which can be fun) So not bad!</p>
<p>Again, congrats at the very happy (and financially fulfilling) news to go along with your admission to a great school! </p>
<p>BTW, I wrote about non-financial benefits my D is getting from STRIDE in my RD post. It is a truly impressive program well beyond the initial award.</p>
<p>Great program for some great scholars!</p>
<p>The main thing to understand is that STRIDE is not given in addition to what need-based support you would otherwise receive, it replaces part of that support, starting with the loan and work study portions. So If you were going to get $20k in financial aid (combo of loans/grants/work study), you don’t get $20k plus STRIDE. You get STRIDE, and then if there is still a gap between the STRIDE award and your family contribution, you receive aid to cover that gap.</p>
<p>Anther way to look at it.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1306459-i-dont-understand-merit-aid-financial-aid-formula.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1306459-i-dont-understand-merit-aid-financial-aid-formula.html</a></p>
<p>I’ll admit that I’m a bit envious about how much STRIDE pays these days but the assignments themselves wound up being stepping stones of even greater value.
A nice gloss on the resume when applying for internships and such; D’s had some value in applying for her first post-graduation job.</p>
<p>For her semester abroad, I think my daughter’s STRIDE helped her to be accepted at Oxford this spring where she’s working very hard but thriving. She was just invited by her tutor (their term for professor) to come back to do a Master’s on two English poets, so she’d be automatically accepted if she wants to go that route. To pick up on what TheDad is saying, all this will go on her transcript and her resume and certainly can’t hurt when she applies to grad schools. In my opinion, if you get a STRIDE, if you can swing the rest of the finances, you should do it, no question, end of story.</p>
<p>To The Parents Of Letter received today re details of how STRIDE works-- most
informative. Dr. Peter de Villiers did a nice job of explaining details of just how the
student comes together with the research mentor as well as pointing out how early
research mentorship by an Oxford prof influenced his career. de Villiers coordinates
the STRIDE program.</p>
<p>Pretty cool!</p>
<p>.02 David</p>
<p>And by all accounts from students, Peter is AMAZING. </p>
<p>I met him twice and was blown away. A true educator. I encourage any “on the fence” about accepting Smith with a STRIDE, you will be very motivated after you see both his energy, as well as that from the very impressive fellow students you would be joining.</p>
<p>I concur. He is one of the “stars” and along with his wife who also teaches at Smith have mentored hundreds of young women over the years.</p>
<p>You should know, too, that in addition to all the wonderful STRIDE opportunities that will be listed, Smith will also create specific STRIDE projects to fit your (and their) needs. They did that for my d., and it basically wrote her ticket to graduate school.</p>
<p>mini, how did your daughter get that opportunity? did they offer it to her, or did she ask?</p>
<p>It was sort of a combination. They knew they had this need (which hadn’t been packaged up a STRIDE project, because it required some relatively specialized skills that most college students - even music students - don’t come in with.) But she met with the people who were working on the project (during her acceptance weekend), and one thing sort of led to another. The prof she officially worked under (who was the director the project) was a Five-College Professor, with offices at Mt. Holyoke, but who taught most of his courses at Smith. She couldn’t have imagined the project on her own, but stumbled into it (actually, we both stumbled into it - we toured the campus separately, and I was on a tour of the theater where the theater guy talked about this future project they had for an opera), and she stumbled on it when talking with folks from the music department. By the time she left, everything was in place except the paper work (though she hadn’t met the Five-College Prof yet.) </p>
<p>Then something unusual happened - one of those things that could happen at any college, mind you, that sets you on your journey. It really could have happened elsewhere. When she arrived on campus, she took the French placement exam. She placed very high (which surprised her), so she decided on the spot that, rather than take advanced French, she was going to take beginning Italian. As it turns out, the project she was to work on required some knowledge of Italian. Now she is a Ph.D. student in musicology and working on a graduate certificate in Italian studies, and coordinates the Italian Graduate Studies colloqiua program. It turns out that it was her Italian that lifted her above other candidates for her graduate school admissions. Weird how these things sometimes go.</p>
<p>mini–You have to wonder – why-- the stars all seem to line up
perfectly. Wonderful story.</p>
<p>I take it that some of the profs with projects are involved in STRIDE over
the 19,20 Open Campus event??</p>
<p>.02, especially re “stars” David</p>
<p>Not sure specifically about STRIDE professors but there is a time set aside where profs from every department make themselves available to speak with prospies and/or their parents during Open Campus. Also you can attend their classes as well to get a feel for their teaching methodologies.</p>
<p>The profs will be very, very much in evidence.</p>
<p>My D’s Open Campus had both a “poster meeting” where you could talk to the current students about their own STRIDE projects (truly amazing work being done by very articulate students) and a breakfast where at one point you get to hear the Fulbright projects STRIDE students are moving on to. </p>
<p>Ya kinda wonder how many will be top leaders or the great inventors of the world in a few years…pretty moving to then see your D getting that opportunity!</p>
<p>Parents-- I agree STRIDE looks like an amazing opportunity at Smith. Each of the
W-LAC’s D has been accepted at offer the work study option with the dollars equal to STRIDE. If D is going to work 7-10 hours a week, I suspect it makes a whole
lot more sense to do so with a prof on a research project then in a dining hall washing
trays or at a front desk answering phones. STRIDE strikes as an impressive academic
opportunity with D and wife looking forward to hearing more about it at Open Campus
on 4/19,20. The STRIDE academic opportunity with its’ possibilities for the future
opening of doors is not lost on D. Thanks for relating your D’s experiences and opinions.</p>
<p>.02 David</p>