Scholarships in the humanities

Paying for College
41

I think you’re missing the point.

Bowdoin, like Brown, is unlikely. While I love your profile and suspect you’ll get into a fine school, there are no assurances.

You’ve been given lists of scholarships but told to be careful. It’s a time suck, odds of winning are low and amounts are low.

Moneys come from colleges.

You are not chasing prestige yet every college you list is prestigious and doesn’t offer merit aid.

I hope the NPCs are right but often people fill them in incompletely.

You say you are upper middle class and that means different things to different people but upper middle class is not getting Brown at $32k.

You are potentially the student who comes back in 8 months and says I got into college but cannot afford to go.

Find schools to supplement your list. Whether it’s an Arizona or U Maine or SUNY New Paltz that might match Rutgers. A Hendrick that might match Rutgers tuition through its Flagship. Sewanee - one of the top literature LACs that’s aggressive aid wise or Furman may not hit your # but are aggressive.

I hope your plan works out. But you are overreaching, potentially financially and if you are, while part time and summer jobs are nice, they don’t fix that delta.

Perhaps you are not upper middle class - by your definition yes but not by most.

I’m saying - please protect yourself and add a few schools - like a Maine, Alabama, Arizona, Ole Miss (fine English) that will 100% be budget compliant. Also Kalamazoo is a fine LAC and is aggressive as is Depauw but not assured like the publics mentioned to hit cost but likely close.

You need insurance - admission but most especially financial.

I hope it works out as you think but you are missing some key components that need to be planned for.

You don’t need more scholarship ideas. You need a contingency plan unless mom/dad can pay more.

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42

thank you. i will look into these schools individually.

43

k is open curriculum btw. As are others.

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44

Iowa could be a good choice, and OP would get merit, not sure it will get lower than what the meet full need school NPCs are showing though.

OP, are you saying that Bowdoin’s NPC showed $11K? And I assume you ran these with your parents’ help?

I think Bowdoin could be a great choice. They definitely want more Asian males (I know things are different this cycle wrt race). I’m sure studying lit at the Hawthorne-Longfellow library (yes, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow both went to Bowdoin) would be cool. But Bowdoin is a reach.

IMO OP would fit very well at an LAC.

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45

OP, you’ve indicated that the NPC for Bowdoin came back at $11k and the one for Brown came back at $26k. As you really like Brown, you’re trying to figure out how feasible it is to come up with $11k+/year in order to make Brown affordable.

You’ve indicated that you have a balanced list of schools that you’re going to apply to. In your previous thread, these were the schools you were considering:

Bennington
Bowdoin -$11k
Kenyon
Pomona
Wesleyan

Have you run the NPCs for those (apart from Bowdoin)? What were the results? Are any of them affordable? Do the ones whose NPC comes back as NOT affordable have sufficient merit aid that could make them affordable (i.e. they offer a full tuition scholarship or full ride, or whatever, that could bring the school within budget?

Please realize that a balanced list should include at least one (and preferably more than one) school that meets 3 conditions: 1) Extremely likely to be accepted, 2) Extremely likely to be affordable, 3) You would be happy to enroll and attend for 4 years. Do you have any schools on your balanced list that meet all three of those criteria? If not, that’s where your focus needs to be, rather than on scholarships for humanities students. Most scholarships come from the universities themselves, and there may not be a significant pay-off for your time with respect to the outside scholarships. So you need to find those extremely likely options for you. Have you found them? If not, what were the results of the suggestions from the other thread (synopsis below, for those who want it).

For people who haven’t refreshed themselves on the other thread, OP was interested in a non-cutthroat student body with a number of quirky kids that offered strong literature and philosophy programming and the ability to study abroad in Japan, which some people (myself included) interpreted it to mean that a Japanese major on campus could be a desirable thing as advanced coursework could be taken during while at the home campus and not just abroad.

These were three school suggestions that seemed to get some traction:

  • Vassar
  • Oberlin
  • Occidental

Additional schools suggested included:

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46

Thanks - the study abroad part could be found at many many schools and if not, there’s always affiliate programs - so that’s easy.

I was thinking Bates (high ED acceptance) or Vassar (higher male acceptance) but neither has need aid.

I wonder how Bowdoin came at $11K and Brown $26K. I don’t, for example, know how either looks at home equity.

I do know we some some parents that say - the NPC was roughly right and others who say - not even close.

Agree with your three points - and having them come from actual cost/merit instead of need - as an insurance policy.

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47

Thank you AustenNut for taking the time to recap my info to this thread.

Please realize that a balanced list should include at least one (and preferably more than one) school that meets 3 conditions: 1) Extremely likely to be accepted, 2) Extremely likely to be affordable, 3) You would be happy to enroll and attend for 4 years. Do you have any schools on your balanced list that meet all three of those criteria?

I do. It’s Bennington College (net cost comes in at around 12k I believe). I can probably also get into Rutgers, which is in-state, but I would be more than satisfied with Bennington.
Lots of NPCs list other schools on my list at about 20k/year, which is manageable if not ideal for my family. [Further reference: Princeton University, which I had been considering for a long time, comes in at around 30k. That is not ideal.]

That said, since it would be beneficial to know what my upper limit financially would look like, I’d like to figure out how 26k is possible. My parents assure me that they can pay 15k. Since I can take out 5.5k on student loans freshman year, I could probably attend Brown if I got 5.5k worth of jobs (which probably won’t be particularly hard to find since it’s a city – please point it out if I’m wrong). Does this seem borderline reasonable?

  • If it turned out to be 32k like you all are saying, it must be within my family’s right to negotiate with the college, right? College counselors have told me that if the college offers something drastically different from the NPC, we could ask the college to offer something closer to the estimated price.

Also, going back to my previous question, are there any scholarships for humanities students? Do they exist somewhere? I’m definitely not going to rely on them, but I think it would be a good thing to apply to (even if I can’t get into them) just so that I have another potential source of money.

48

The issue for off-campus jobs is transportation, and being able to get there and back reliably (not using Ubers which will cost too much). You can make that much from an on-campus job during the year, as well as a full-time summer job (which schools like Brown often expect, and may even include a line called ‘summer earnings’ in your FA package)

Yes, you can ask for more money and yes, you can show the school FA packages from PEER schools. They may or may not increase your FA based on that. Best to not consider it a negotiation, and definitely don’t use that word with the admissions staff. Your best strategy may be to say ‘I will attend if you can get the net cost to $X’.

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49

The issue for off-campus jobs is transportation, and being able to get there and back reliably (not using Ubers which will cost too much). You can make that much from an on-campus job during the year, as well as a full-time summer job (which schools like Brown often expect, and may even include a line called ‘summer earnings’ in your FA package)

Brown said that they offer free access to buses around Providence. I think that’s good, but I must do more research on that topic.

Yes, you can ask for more money and yes, you can show the school FA packages from PEER schools. They may or may not increase your FA based on that. Best to not consider it a negotiation, and definitely don’t use that word with the admissions staff. Your best strategy may be to say ‘I will attend if you can get the net cost to $X’.

Thank you for the advice. If and when that happens, my family will try to be as assertive as possible (since it’s a larger issue for us than it may be for them).

50

Does Bennington College include merit aid in its Net Price Calculator?

I am very surprised that Bowdoin would come in $19k below Princeton and Brown would be $4k below it, as Princeton is generally amongst the most financially generous schools. Is each Net Price Calculator similarly detailed? The more detailed the NPC, the more confidence I would have in its results.

Also, does each of them include student employment, student loans, or family loans? Make sure you’re making an apples-to-apples comparison with each school.

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51

i’ll make sure to check all of those.

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52

I’m assuming your NPC inputs or the schools NPCs have to be off. I can’t imagine the disparity between Princeton, Brown, Bowdoin, and especially Bennington that you described. So you might double check. Who filled in the NPCs - hopefully your parents and hopefully with actual data and not just - top of mind data. Even things like home equity, depending on the school, will impact.

Anyone can ask a school for more money - but a school won’t just give for asking. There has to be great reasons.

The NPC not equaling the actual will not be one. It’s an estimate - and when your family submits the CSS form (and any required documentation such as tax returns some schools require), that will be when you get the actual #.

It’s more than likely that the NPC isn’t being filled out with the correct #s - it’s a quickie and those entering are just guessing - or items asked in the CSS are way deeper in request and a better # is provided…

This doesn’t take away from the fact that you need an assured admit or two (doesn’t have to be Rutgers) at an affordable price - and not one relying on need aid because something doesn’t seem right with the #s you are quoting - and again, I’m stuck on this and perhaps I shouldn’t be - but saying upper middle class (which I know means different things to different people)…most upper middle class are getting no aid or at top schools, little.

Rutgers shows a COA of $32K for next year - sans merit. There may be, but I don’t see for Rutgers - a low income college assistance plan. So given your stats and your propensity not to attend Rutgers, you can find even lower cost schools (assuming there’s no merit to be had at Rutgers) that are OOS - that will most likely require you to keep a 3.0 to keep a scholarship.

But I’ll assure you even at Rutgers and given your majors, the odds of you regularly seeing high school classmates would be very small.

Good luck.

53

I have consulted heavily with my parents and put in the correct values (the NPC provides info as to where to look on the tax forms), and I have gotten these results. As for Bennington, I am only saying 12k because I am guaranteed a 10k scholarship (each year) there. But you’re right about Bowdoin – it’s weird how it’s just 11k. However, given that I will be entering the same information I put on my CSS profile as I have put on my NPC, I think there is something better than a vague line of reasoning my family could come up with when discussing financial aid with the school.

But I’ll assure you even at Rutgers and given your majors, the odds of you regularly seeing high school classmates would be very small.

This is very true. I hadn’t really been thinking about this. Thank you for the heads up.

54

The CSS profile is much more detailed. If I remember correctly, Brown is one of the schools that even asks what kind of cars your family drives. Unfortunately, you can’t rely on the NPC and you won’t really know the costs until you get your actual financial aid packages from the schools.

In regards to outside scholarships, your HS guidance counselor would be your best source for those. And remember that your financial aid may decrease by the amount of the scholarship as was mentioned previously here.

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55

Bennington is $83K+ for this upcoming year. So it has to be a lot of need besides $10K merit.

Your parents (not you) might have a discussion with a financial aid office to discuss to ensure something isn’t amiss. As far as I know, Bennington doesn’t assure to meet need. I would also suggest that your parents are working on the NPCs (not you, even with them giving you info).

Anyway, best of luck - you’re obviously a great candidate and I hope it all works out

Tuition $63,802
Room $10,120
Board $8,520
Fees* $842
TOTAL $83,284

Also, this is third party so but it may help you. Bennington is need aware. That means, they’ll potentially review finances in making an admission decision. There has been stories - I remember one from Lafayette - they turned down a stud just because it would have cost them too much.

You can use this, at least directionally, to compare your schools.

Need-Blind Colleges (■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■)

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56

Oh honey, I say this with kindness: There will be many, many exceptional humanities students. You will likely be the rule, not the exception.

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57

Go back to my first response early on - I gave you links. You can also google more.

Then I also gave you some for the Japanese American students as well.

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58

Realize that no matter how good your stats and whether you are a perfect match for acceptance in all ways, Bowdoin’s acceptance rate is 9%. Brown’s is 6%. And those may be old numbers. And there are hundreds of applicants with stats as good as yours. You talk about Brown and Bowdoin as if they are sure things for acceptance. Not the case.

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59

Does Brown include these in their NPC of $26k? If so, don’t subtract them again.

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60

nope.