<p>^I asked her if she had made NMSF, and she said yes. Semifinalist results have come out already; I’m confident that her grades and recommendations will be more than enough for Finalist status. I think her SAT was around 2150, +/- a few tens.</p>
<p>Midd is both very rural (I love it, she won’t) and offers no merit. Prestige is defined as “Asian” prestige, alas.</p>
<p>Also, the merit numbers noted are the MAXIMUM possible award; as attractive a candidate as my friend is, IMHO, I doubt she’ll win the lottery everywhere.</p>
<p>FWIW, someone I know had a similar profile (but not NMS, no TASP) and got merit offers from Santa Clara, Occidental (but just a token), and Mills. In, but no merit at Duke, Emory,Smith, Scripps.</p>
<p>I think the strategy here is a little iffy. To have good chances at a large merit scholarship, you’d probably need to dive much deeper down, past Chicago and Hopkins, to the point where “prestige” starts melting away. If she pulls down $5K or $10K from anyplace “less” than HYPS, is that enough to make it an acceptable alternative to UGa? I’m afraid the kinds of students who get big merit scholarships from not-quite-Harvard schools tend to be truly remarkable kids. Math prodigies, chess masters, major science prize winners, etc.</p>
<p>Good luck to your friend though.</p>
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<p>Not mentioned so far (I think):
WUSTL
CMU
Tulane
Brandeis
BU
U Michigan
U Wisconsin
Lewis & Clark</p>
<p>Is she NHRP? If so there might be some more possibilities there, check the threads on the Hispanic forum</p>
<p>Do you know what the breakdown of that 2100 is? That’s not a particularly good SAT for her top choices. Her class rank is great, and her big plusses are her potential URM status and TASP.</p>
<p>The U of C would be an excellent choice for her, given the stated criteria. It’s too bad that they have this anti-LAC thing, because a number of them would probably be good matches. At the least, she should consider Wellesley and Barnard.</p>
<p>I agree with tk21769 about the iffiness of this strategy. Rochester is probably her best bet for a merit award.</p>
<p>entomom - What’s the cutoff for NHRP?</p>
<p>I just texted her for exact scores. 690 CR, 700 M, 760 W = 1390/2150. Jr. PSAT was 222 with -perfect- CR. And unlike writing, the critical reading section from PSAT to SAT doesn’t change much. So she has plenty of improvement potential.</p>
<p>She likes LACs a lot, but I don’t think she could convince her father to pay for them.</p>
<p>Well Keil, I wouldn’t suggest this to everybody, but UC Berkeley might actually be something she would want to look at. Now, as far as prestige goes, just about every adult family member of mine on the other side of the Pacific Ocean knows UC Berkeley, and the immense strength of its graduate school can be seen in multiple sources. Cal is pretty close to San Francisco, and will probably be a bit cheaper than a full pay at a private school. I’ve talked with several English Faculty there, and I must confess that it is definitely one of the best in the nation. Now, it’s not a northeastern school for sure, so you’ll def want to take a closer look at that. Also, I’m sure you know that the student to faculty ratio isn’t the best, but if size flexible is the case, than again talk with her. Anyways, see what she thinks about it: it’s not northeastern, but it is great at Lit, close to Urban area, and absolutely prestigious if we’re referring to the stereotypical Asian parent.</p>
<p>FWIW, I don’t think only 10-15K from non top-20 schools will be enough for the parents to pay full freight… This girl will at the very least get free tuition and a books allowance at UGA with the HOPE Scholarship.</p>
<p>^I see. I knew that UGA had HOPE but wasn’t aware of the magnitude. I’ll try to get a firmer FA number.</p>
<p>"Cal is pretty close to San Francisco, and will probably be a bit cheaper than a full pay at a private school. "</p>
<p>I think more than 50K this year, at least living on campus…</p>
<p><a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/cost.htm[/url]”>http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/undergraduates/cost.htm</a></p>
<p>P.S. Good luck to your friend! She should have some good options.</p>
<p>Ahh, I apologize for the misinformation then. I’m a CA resident as well, and I’m not as familiar with the out of state costs as I should be.</p>
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<p>NHRP is based on PSAT scores and with a 222 (and a 3.5 gpa), she’s easily over the threshold (which varies by state and year and is not well publicized). The problem is that students have already been notified of the designation; however, there are several students on the Hispanic forum that called in and got the award late. It doesn’t hurt to try, have her call:</p>
<p>[National</a> Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP)](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Scholarships and Recognition with PSAT/NMSQT - SAT Suite)</p>
<p>NMS is a higher level award, but there may be some merit opportunities that are aimed specifically at NHRP, check these threads out:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/735291-colleges-offering-scholarships-national-hispanic-scholars.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/735291-colleges-offering-scholarships-national-hispanic-scholars.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/792498-college-emails-letters-refer-nhrp-list.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/792498-college-emails-letters-refer-nhrp-list.html</a></p>
<p>This last is based on the NHRP list that is sent out to participating colleges. While it’s too late for your friend to get on the list, if she could get NHRP designation, she would qualify for scholarships and could contact schools interested in recruiting Hispanic students.</p>
<p>p.s. while they aren’t all in the NE, several of the merit scholarships at the schools I listed earlier are targeted at Hispanic or URM students, so your friend might have a higher chance of getting those compared to open scholarships.</p>
<p>I think UC-Berkeley is sort of an outrageously bad deal for an OOS student. Non-resident tuition and fees is around $32K and room and board is $14K, so we’re looking at $46K per <em>year</em> for a public university (however fantastic) and that’s not even including other living expenses, books, transportation, etc.</p>
<p>National Hispanic Recognition Program is sponsored by the same program as National Merit. If she’s designated herself as a Hispanic student on her PSAT, then she’s eligible for National Hispanic and National Merit. I was a National Merit Commended Student, but a National Achievement Finalist (which is the African American version). However, that depends on how she identifies herself - if she identified herself as Asian or “other” she may not have been counted at eligible.</p>
<p>Honestly, UGA’s deal is going to be hard to beat - free tuition, fees, and a book allowance; room and board is only ~$8,000 a year there. So she’d either have to find a school that’s lower and/or equal to UGA that costs her parents less than $8,000 a year out of pocket, OR she’d have to find a school that’s acceptably more prestigious in her parents’ eyes to warrant shelling out the big bucks. There are some schools (a lot actually) that I’ve seen suggested that are worth the extra bux, but I don’t know if I’d pay full pay at Tulane or Brandeis instead of going to UGA with essentially no student debt and very little yearly burden on my parents, you know what I mean? I can sort of see her parents’ point.</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t choose full-pay at Tulane or Brandeis, either, but she’d certainly get merit money from Tulane and perhaps Brandeis. What I’m not sure about is whether her parents will pay >8k/year but <full-pay for middle-top schools.</p>
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<p>As I stated previously, several students on the Hispanic subforum failed to identify as Hispanic/Latino on their PSAT but later contacted NHRP and were designated as scholars. It may be too late at this time for the OPs friend, but it is possible.</p>
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<p>Please reread post #25 carefully. I suggested, among other schools, Brandeis and Tulane in response to the OPs request for schools with substantial merit aid for her friend, NOT as full pay alternatives to UGA for 8k/yr.</p>
<p>Tulane could be a big merit aid opportunity, but honestly if I was your friend’s parents UGA would look very very good unless you’re comparing it to Top 15 or 20 schools. She would probably get into the Honors program at UGA, and I know a lot of people that aren’t willing to pay for UNC, UVA, etc. if their child gets into UGA Honors. If I was your friend I would concentrate on her reaches and maybe one or two merit opportunities, while knowing UGA is a more than acceptable safety.</p>
<p>Bard is a strong school for writing. Check out the EEC scholarship.</p>
<p>Bumping this with new SAT scores, which are as awesome as I predicted: 2310–800 CR, ~750 M. How does this change things?</p>