<p>I was hoping some one who has a true understanding of college admissions regarding scholarships could give some advice. </p>
<p>My child has been accepted to 3 out of the 12 applied so far and received a full ride scholarship to one of them. While this school is a fabulous school and we are blessed for the opportunity, it was not in the child's top choices on where to go to school. </p>
<p>For the schools that accept my child, should we let them know a full ride has been received and given the choice she would prefer to go to their college? We can not afford the full expense of where applications have been sent due to the severe down turn of the economy and housing market. Those colleges include: Rutgers, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Boston College, Rice, Brown, William & Mary, University of WA, Tufts, University of Richmond, Duke, Johns Hopkins, The College of New Jersey, 3 of which she has been accepted to already. </p>
<p>Again, not too say we are not greatful beyond words we are just not sure what we can do if anything to parlay this fabulous offer into one of the other schools that she is most interested in attending. </p>
<p>Thank you in advance for any wisdom you can offer</p>
<p>Once the schools have accepted your daughter and sent their FA/merit packages, you'll see how much the other schools want your d. (How much she wants them is irrelevant). With that information, you can contact them and try to negotiate a better package. This doesn't always (or even usually) work, but once she's in, there's no harm - they won't take anything away.</p>
<p>My guess is that she has been accepted to Rutgers, College of New Jersey and Richmond, with the latter giving her a nice aid package.
As Chedva, says wait for all awards to come in but don't expect more than an increase of $2000 to $3000 grant to come out of a reasoned appeal in writing (do not think negotiation). Those more competitive colleges do not compete with them. </p>
<p>Those privates will not, as that one college has done, give more aid than your FM EFC. Therefore if the FM EFC is not realistic based on your cash flow and loan tolerance, that is not the end of the world for your daughter. Do not put your own financial security in jeopardy. </p>
<p>I suggest your daughter revisit her reasons for applying to those colleges in the first place. Then she should closely examine the catalog and level of advising at her "free ride" college. Because she is apparently offered a seat in its' Honors College, perhaps there is more value there than she thinks.</p>
<p>While schools sometimes match FA offers from peer or higher ranked schools, it is unlikely that a higher ranked school will increase FA to match or come closer to a merit award from a lower ranked school.</p>
<p>Your thoughts were that of ours, but because this is the first child and the first to go to college we were not sure of all the possible avenues. </p>
<p>My daughter chose all very good schools in the scheme she was advised by her HS counselor: Reach, Target, Safety. Even though the Safety's are in the top 25 ranked colleges they are not Brown, Rice & Duke her Reach schools. </p>
<p>While all are very good schools (my opinion great schools) each child has their dream of a specific school. So to that end, we needed to understand if the FS came from her Safety, could it be used for her Target or Reach acceptances? So far, she has been accepted to one Target and two Safety's. </p>
<p>We appreciate your advice and it will be heeded. Personally as her parents, we wish she would just say yes and be done with it to enjoy her Senior year. At minimum, we will wait for all the decisions, unless she gets a full ride somewhere else, in all probability we will have a big red R on our cars and very proud of it! </p>
<p>We are in a similar situation after our DD won a scholarship that gives her a full ride to any college in our state. We are still 6 days away from Ivy decisions but I am curious: will any of the Ivies match the full ride scholarship if she does happen to get in? I realize this is a hypothetical question at this point but still it is better to be prepared.</p>
<p>Many parents in CC have cautioned against getting into too much debt ( > $180k )to finance college education. It makes a lot of sense the more I think about it in these troubled economic times.</p>
<p>^^^^ The Ivies only give need based aid, no merit based aid at all. I you have need (according to their calculations) then they give great need based aid. But they will not match a full ride scholarship (which I am assuming is merit based) from another school.</p>
<p>The Ivies have amongst the MOST generous need based financial aid out there. BUT as mentioned by others…it is NEED BASED only. They do not give merit aid. SO if you child got a merit scholarship (most full rides are merit aid), it is highly unlikely that an Ivy will do much about it UNLESS you have significant need. All of the Ivies meet full need…and they are very generous with financial aid in general to those who HAVE need.</p>
<p>coloDad: do you mind saying what state and what scholarship? How did DD apply for it etc? My sister won such a scholarship way back in the 70’s and I didn’t realize they still existed.</p>
<p>PhotoOp,
It is called the Boettcher scholarship. The scholarship they offer along with the scholarship from the 17 universities that participate in this gives a full ride to the winner of the scholarship. They award this to 40 High School senior students from Colorado every year. For more details you can visit:</p>