Scholarships reality

[thumper1]

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After doing all the research, I have come to some conclusions and these are my findings which I hope will help others:</p>

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<li>If your family income is less than 60K, or 40K depending and you have stellar grades and SAT/ACT scores, you pretty much can pick any school and get a low cost education if admitted.

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<p>Um…no. The vast majority of colleges do NOT meet full need for all accepted students. At MOST colleges, you would get a $5500 Direct Loan, and any portion of the Pell Grant to,which you are entitled. With a $60,000 income, that Pell would be $0.</p>

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2. University ideal student = High grades/scores + high family income. Its the Robin Hood story. If every high performing kid gets a scholarship, who pays? Remember its a zero sum game.

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<p>Not sure what you mean. But every school is delighted to have full pay students. And merit awards to high performing students are institutional money the school has decided to allocate.</p>

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3. Full tuition/everything in top 50 schools = Very rare and competitive.

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<p>Full tuition scholarships at every college are rare and competitive.</p>

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4. Read the fine print. Eg Cornell U say they will provide no more than 5K loan for family income less than 120K. That 5K is for the student and family is expected to fork out a large portion.

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<p>Colleges do NOT give need based financial aid to cover their calculated family contribution. This is not unique to Cornell.</p>

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5. Either you are in the Ivy or not, there is no significant difference between the 15th and the 50th university in the workforce. But a grad degree makes a difference.

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<p>Again…not sure what you mean here. The top 50 colleges are terrific, but believe it or not, there are some mighty terrific colleges outside of the top 50. </p>