<p>“I therefore would guess that anyone who can afford to choose to live in a dorm is considered to not have extreme need and that they save higher allotments for kids who can’t even afford to live in a dorm.”</p>
<p>I disagree: I think it’s better to say you will be living on campus because then they can assess total need. You aren’t going to get any extra money for living at home.</p>
<p>Btw, at the time i checked out press releases that gave the total number of presidentials given out statewide for recent years. It wasn’t many. You may think, hearing all the bragging at jps, that everyone there is a shoe-in, but the numbers prove it’s simply not true. My kids figured out it’s in vogue to brazenly lie, loudly, about sat scores. Your sat is great, and i believe good enough already.</p>
<p>Do whatever you can to raise that gpa, then ask for reconsideration.</p>
<p>Respectfully, i think it is easy to forget that some applicants are outstanding students who have, against all odds, done amazing things in their communities, but who come from homes where there is virtually zero income. Living in a dorm is completely out of the question. Their only chance to attend a 4year college is to have their tuition covered, which the upper level of scarlett almost does. I don’t remember how the head of admissions phrased it, but she made it clear that those are the students she has in mind.</p>
<p>Also, if you happen to be good in calc and lousy in gym class, see if YOU redo your gpa using only “relevent” classes, might it shoot up? The equations are in the student handbook.</p>
<p>Happened to talk to d today and mentioned info i gave here about presidential. Turns out she knows of only one student who got it. He had zero ecs. Zero extra courses. Zero work or volunteer experience. Nothing but a top sat and top gpa.</p>
<p>So, the sad truth is all those ap classes will shave a year off college but may have cost you the presidential. Appear to not enhance scarlett. The real benefit of ap classes is they make high school a lot more interesting and college a lot more fun.</p>
<p>Sure you don’t want to apply to a private school where you might get credit for all your extra effort? There are schools in the country that would give you a free ride, but i never found any nearby.</p>
<p>D had friends who unnecessarily dropped from honors to general classes to ensure their gpa. That’s the kind of insight i wasn’t aware of ahead of time.</p>
<p>Scarlet is not strictly merit, it’s a combination of merit/need based aid. They will consider an additional amount (Dean’s scholarship) if you file FAFSA by Feb 15. They don’t look to see if you are living on campus. Some kids might have to live on campus in order to attend. They would get needs based aid or they could take out loans.</p>
<p>Sorry but it seems like you’re advising people to say they won’t live on campus and to not take APs so they get a better scholarship. That’s bad advice.</p>
<p>I said scarlett is merit/ need.</p>
<p>I said they will consider giving more, but i don’t think it’s coincidence that about 50 kids on the floor of my d’s honors dorm ALL got $3500 except the kid who got the presidential.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply they should say they won’t live on campus. I meant some people will never be able to afford it, at least without incurring an impossible debt.</p>
<p>Is there another need-based scholarship that pays a lot? Sorry if i missed that. My mistake. I didn’t focus on additional need based criteria because fafsa had already decided to take my retirement savings to pay tuition. My mistake again, because i didn’t read the fine print ahead of time.</p>
<p>Aren’t student loans now limited to $2500 a year? </p>
<p>There’s work study. Doesn’t pay a lot.</p>
<p>But i stick by my main point. It is a fact at rutgers and some other schools that a perfect gpa in college prep courses is the top screening tool used for certain benefits. That’s my point. People should be aware of this. Read the fine print for any public or private school you’re interested in well in advance.</p>
<p>If it helps your assessment of me, i refused to let my d drop the quality of her math classes to ensure a perfect gpa. I would rather pay more for her education, even knowing she would probably never use calc again. That’s why i drive a 15 year old car. But a lot of her friends did it, and it paid off, especially at private schools. Remember too that some private schools don’t accept ap credits. If other people are using these tricks, everyone deserves to be aware of them.</p>
<p>Her ap courses saved her a year at rutgers and got her into honors. Honors allowed her to choose her dorm. That alone made it worth it to her:)</p>
<p>It takes a lot of research, you have to wade through a lot of misleading or wrong information, and it is sofrustrating.</p>
<p>Well, earlier this week, I was speaking to an RU freshman who got the trustee scholarship for $16,000. He mentioned that you are going to be compared to other people from your school. Is this true? Dang, I’m screwed :(</p>
<p>Oh, and I got accepted on Friday :)</p>
<p>sofrustrating: merit awards/needs awards and how they determined cause a lot of drama on these boards. I hate ‘how much money will i get?’ questions much more than ‘chance me’. </p>
<p>The reason I don’t like them is because they are really non-answerable and non-comparable. For example, your daughter was the only one she knew who got a Presidential, in her dorm. otoh, my son knew several people, from his school (take heart, variable) who got Presidential awards. They did not necessarily attend Rutgers. </p>
<p>My son got a Presidential, and did not attend. He had excellent GPA and SAT, but by no means, ‘perfect’. He did have a very good, long term EC. Why did he get it? Who knows. </p>
<p>The best bet for determining awards is to look at the school’s web page, review what loans are available, review how TAG grants are awarded. That’s all you can do. Why? Because every student is an individual case. When someone tells you ‘how much they got’, you really have no way of knowing how much was merit, and how much was need. Some people may have gotten a higher Scarlet scholarship because they had more need, but you will hear people complaining that students with ‘lesser stats’ got ‘more money’. </p>
<p>Even when people get need-based aid, sometimes they ‘think’ it is ‘merit’. “It’s a scholarship, right? My kid doesn’t have to pay”. Even when they know it’s need-based, they often won’t offer that information. They may be embarrassed. Again, who knows. </p>
<p>Regarding APs- yes, it is good to get As and Bs. But if you are getting Cs and Ds in AP classes, maybe you shouldn’t be taking them, and maybe you are not really qualified for a merit scholarship. Just something to consider. (nothing to do with your child, just a point I am putting out). </p>
<p>If you get Presidential at Rutgers, and live off campus, your award is reduced by half. Something to consider, and the reason I was saying that you shouldn’t assume you will live off campus. When applying to a school, I would say that I planned to live on campus in order to get the most financial aid consideration. If, after reviewing your award, you can’t do it, talk to the FA office. If it’s still not possible, at least you tried. </p>
<p>There are always parameters for awards, but those parameters often don’t seem to align with what you know about the student. My point is, you may not know everything, so it doesn’t help to jump to conclusions and then advise other students what they should do based on your own experience. All students have different situations.</p>
<p>~Congratulations~ to variable7 ;)</p>
<p>@rualum
Thank you! I guess at this point it’s just a waiting game :(</p>
<p>My son got his award notice on Dec 16 a couple years ago, so mid December.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what the trustee scholarship at Rutgers is? Is it only for the Newark or Camden school because I do not see it listed on the scholarships for Rutgers.</p>
<p>Hey, I just wanted to update this thread, since I just took the SAT in October and got my scores back. Now I have:
Single-Sitting
2330
770 M
760 CR
800 W 11 essay </p>
<p>How do my chances for a Presidential look now?</p>
<p>As long as your grades are that strong, you’ve got it in the bag. :)</p>
<p>Congrats on those scores, they’re amazing. :)</p>
<p>Actually, I’m very worried about my grades. While they’re not horrible, I don’t have all As either. Has anyone ever gotten the Presidential without having a 4.0?</p>
<p>and thank you @jmvm</p>
<p>My D received a Trustee Award. I don’t know why it isn’t listed on the scholarship page. We never heard of it and were quite surprised. We had been hoping for a Presidential and were told she was on the bubble (stats were SAT 2280, GPA 3.78/4.0 uw, 4.58/4.8 w), so the TA certainly softened the blow.</p>
<p>Lawmom she got it already? or in the past?</p>
<p>How much is a Trustee Scholarship worth? (I couldn’t find it either)</p>
<p>What school was it for? Her stats are good but SAS is very competitive.</p>
<p>Just curious.</p>
<p>No, not this year. It was originally awarded by SAS for $16,000/year, but she wound up enrolling in another RU college and they matched it. I have been told by a very good source that RU is actively tying to recruit good OOS students in order to compete with other top flagship state universities (read “Big Ten”) and that may have given her a leg up. She is also a National Merit Scholar (only $1000/year, boo), so being a Semi-Finalist at the time she applied obviously didn’t hurt.</p>