Quick question: non-NMF but 2400 SAT?

Paying for College
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<p>Hi CCers - </p>

<p>My PSAT was about 216 or something, so not high enough to be a National Merit Finalist or Semi-finalist. (I'm really kicking myself now that I know how important that was in terms of securing money...) </p>

<p>I don't qualify for financial aid. </p>

<p>I got a 2400 (one sitting) in June, which I think is pretty good. Does anyone know of ways that I can get some merit-aid off this? Maybe some privately run academic scholarships? </p>

<p>I know colleges often give money for this kind of thing. Does anyone have suggestions of good colleges to look? </p>

<p>Thanks! (Also, GPA 4.0 UW, 4.1/2 W)</p>

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<p>What year in school are you? If you haven’t enrolled in college yet there are merit scholarships available to you. Example: [Out-of-State</a> Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)</p>

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<p>Yeah, it’s decent. </p>

<p>Many schools would give merit aid to 2400ers. I don’t know of any scholarships that explicitly award perfect scorers, though; but I would be interested in finding out if there are any.</p>

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<p>Thanks for responding! (first post that got responses!!) </p>

<p>I’m a rising senior - graduating in 2011 - in CA.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Is your family willing and able to pay full freight so merit aid would be “nice” or unwilling and unable so that merit aid is “mandatory.”?</p>

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<p>Well, I still need to have the sit-down, formal finances discussion with my parents. </p>

<p>Our EFC is basically full tuition, but with three soon-to-be college-aged kids (I’ve got two slightly younger brothers), it will be a big stretch to pay full price at the costs of some of these schools. My dad has made it pretty clear that there is no way my parents are paying 50k/yr for any school (he’s a college dropout so he’s not really sold on the CC-outlook of life haha). </p>

<p>So my plan as of now is to bulk up my college lists with financial safeties, some “regardless of price” schools just to see, and then some schools that are potential candidates for merit aid. </p>

<p>That way I can have plenty of options as I go further in this crazy process… I’m just trying to figure out schools for those first and last categories.</p>

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<p>What are you looking for in a school?</p>

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<p>Well,</p>

<p>You probably are a little low for California NMF. Calif has been 218/217 for the last couple of years.</p>

<p>However, with that score you can still get big scholarships.</p>

<p>What is your major?</p>

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<p>“My dad has made it pretty clear that there is no way my parents are paying 50k/yr for any school”"</p>

<p>You need to find out just exactly what he is willing to pay. Is it 0, is it 20k, is it 49k? With that figure in mind you will know which places are financial safeties and which aren’t.</p>

<p>Another thread with ideas for you is:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Have the conversation sooner rather than later. Also, work with your folks to run the family’s income through the FAFSA forecaster just to get an idea.</p>

<p>Depending on your family’s income, a school like Stanford could be economically a good choice despite the high nominal price – (But that all depends on your family’s income – if it is under $150K, it might be helpful, if it is over that, probably not.)</p>

<p>I think you’ll have some really nice choices – great SAT score, great GPA – as long as you’ve got excellent recommendations to match, you should be a candidate for significant merit scholarships.</p>

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<p>*My dad has made it pretty clear that there is no way my parents are paying 50k/yr for any school (he’s a college dropout so he’s not really sold on the CC-outlook of life haha).</p>

<p>So my plan as of now is to bulk up my college lists with financial safeties, some “regardless of price” schools just to see, and then some schools that are potential candidates for merit aid.
*</p>

<p>You need to find out how much your dad intends on paying each year. Get a good estimate from him…$10k per year, 15k per year, 20k per year…etc. </p>

<p>In the meantime, you’re right to apply to several schools that will give you big merit for your stats.</p>

<p>A UC might give you their big Regents Scholarship…so apply to those that have big Regents that don’t consider income (some only have small $1k Regents when you have a high EFC). Find out which UCs Regents are big and don’t include income for consideration.</p>

<p>You could probably get the 50% tuition scholarship from USC. However, if your dad has a very limited budget, you won’t be able to cover the other $35k that the school costs.</p>

<p>There are other schools that will also work.</p>

<p>keep in mind that there are a few different kinds of merit scholarships.</p>

<p>1) Some merit scholarships are competitive. NO guarantees. A school awards a limited number of scholarships from a group of qualified applicants. (Some consider income - some will ask you to submit FAFSA for scholarship consideration. )</p>

<p>2) Some merit scholarships are “assured” or automatic. That means that if you apply to the school (and sometimes have to submit a scholarship app) by the required deadline, and you have the required stats, then you definitely get the scholarship. These schools make good financial safety schools.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone for your responses! And thanks for all the links. I’ll be talking to my parents in the next few days, maybe even tonight, then I’ll update! </p>

<p>@mom2college kids: </p>

<p>What is your major? I have no idea. I’m not like, an “english-kid” or a “math-kid” exactly. </p>

<p>I’ll look into the Regents Scholarship. There’s also a thing on the UC websites about Alumni Scholarships…?? Anyone heard of that? I’ll do some searching on CC. (By the way, these are all very, very difficult to get right, as in near impossible?)</p>

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<p>Okay. My parents said 25k. 100k for all four years. (If, god forbid, it took me five years, then 20k.) </p>

<p>So, that makes UCs a bit of a stretch already when one factors in dorming, etc. $32,000 is the estimate for UCB, for ex., on the website. And unfortunately, tuition keeps rising… But I can make it work with loans, right? if I want to go to a UC that is…</p>

<p>Though, it may be less about where I want to go but where I can, right? </p>

<p>With that in mind, any suggestions? Everyone has been so helpful already!! </p>

<p>(Sorry about the stream-of-consciousness…)</p>

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<p>lol “which I think is pretty good”</p>

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<p>Ask your parents if they will give you the money you didn’t spend at the end of four years. </p>

<p>Also, take into account that tuition increases on average by 5% to 8% per year. (If you start out taking maximum stafford loans for your freshman year, then you might be in trouble by senior year). What would you do if you needed 5 years to graduate instead of 4? </p>

<p>Are your parents willing to cosign for you to get a private loan if "something unexpected comes up? Are they willing to fill out the FAFSA (or give you the info) for merit aid? Are your parents going to pay for applications? Textbooks when you are in college? Transportation to and from college? (The latter two can usually be covered through a job, but it’s nice to know a head of time). </p>

<p>Another thing to keep in the back of your head is: are there on campus jobs for those not eligible for federal work study?</p>

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<p>There’s also a thing on the UC websites about Alumni Scholarships…?? Anyone heard of that? I’ll do some searching on CC. (By the way, these are all very, very difficult to get right, as in near impossible?)</p>

<p>My niece got a UC alumni scholarship for UCSD. It wasn’t much at all (like $2500 one time). She got it for being a NMF and high stats - since UC’s don’t give NMF scholarships. Don’t know if that’s typical or not.</p>

<p>And, you’re right. All UC scholarships are hard to get and sometimes there’s no obvious reason why some get them and some don’t. They seem to be awarded to get “certain kids.”</p>

<p>Keep in mind that some Regents scholarships are only for $1k and some look at “need”.</p>

<p>***Okay. My parents said 25k. 100k for all four years. (If, god forbid, it took me five years, then 20k.)</p>

<p>So, that makes UCs a bit of a stretch already when one factors in dorming, etc. $32,000 is the estimate for UCB, for ex., on the website. And unfortunately, tuition keeps rising… But I can make it work with loans, right? ***</p>

<p>Yes, you could probably make a UC work with your parents’ contribution, a student loan ($5500 for freshman year), and maybe some summer income.</p>

<p>Look at it this way…If your parents give you $25k and you borrow about $5k per year, then you have $30k. Many schools are costing between $35k-55k per year. </p>

<p>So, you’ll need annual scholarships of about $25k per year for you to go to a pricey school (like most privates and some top OOS publics )) Try USC.</p>

<p>However, for less pricey schools (some OOS publics in the $30k-40k range), you could get $20k - 25k+ per year scholarships, and you wouldn’t need to borrow any money at all. You ALSO wouldn’t even need all of your parents money. Perhaps they would let you put their “savings” towards law, business, med, grad school???</p>

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<p>Take a look at Case in Cleveland. Their top award is $27,500/yr, and it seems to be very much stats based. You can apply Early Action (nonbinding) via Common App. Watch for a post card that waives the application fee.</p>

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<p>Washington & Lee Johnson Scholarship, full ride based on stats, the average SAT score is 2300-something so you should have a good shot</p>

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<p>try to retake and do so impressively that CB decides to award you bonus points.</p>

<p>Otherwise, try McDonalds.</p>

<p>But seriously, congrats on the excellent score. I believe that there’s something called Presidential Scholars or something with the top SAT scorers in each state for each graduating class get some sort of good money, meet the President, some other stuff like that. I could be completely delusional here, however</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Yes, you might become a Presidential Scholars, but others on CC have said that no scholarship money is associated with that. Hopefully someone else can verify or correct.</p>

<p>*The U.S. Department of Education then looks at test records for the top 30 males and top 30 females in each of the states/jurisdictions. For each examinee, the SAT score is converted to the ACT Sum of Scores, according to a concordance table. Each individual examinee’s highest test score (in a single test administration ) is identified, and duplicates and/or lower scores are dropped.</p>

<p>The combined file of scores from the top male examinees and top female examinees are then ranked from high to low in each state. The scores associated with the top 20 male examinees and top 20 female examinees are used to identify the candidates in each state. When ties occur in the cut off score, more than 20 persons of that gender are selected in that state.*</p>