Boston College has a good reputation for financial aid, but they are not known for merit aid.
Itās going to be very telling this year. I didnāt linger long, but in the supermarket yesterday I heard a mom talking to a father of children in her sonās school. She was saying they got a lot of acceptances EA but the aid letters were lackingā¦she didnāt know what they were going to do. He seemed to be a strong student, but he gap between what they should pay and would pay was depressing.
Rice prefers Asians, or is it the other way around?
Does anyone know of any selective 4-year liberal arts colleges that offer more than $2,000/year for NM Scholars? Very few sponsor NMS at all, and those that do, seem to limit the amounts.
The āofficialā amount for a college-sponsored NM scholarship is $2000/year. Colleges may offer additional scholarships in a package to entice NM semifinalists. If your student is NMF, then in most cases (excluding some of the very selective colleges) they will be offered other additional scholarships.
UVa offers full-ride merit scholarships to about 30 undergraduate students a year. The studentās school must nominate the student. The website is [Jefferson</a> Scholars Foundation](<a href=āhttp://www.jeffersonscholars.org%5DJeffersonā>http://www.jeffersonscholars.org).
ayogimom, look at University of Minnesota Morris (full tuition for NMFs, academically respectable public LAC) and Denison University (private LAC, 20-30 competitive full-tuition NMF awards per year).
DePaul in Chicago offers a nice package automatically when applying.
Just a note about our merit aid journey. My son was adamant about attending a small school- he wanted to be able to have discussions with his professors. That pretty much pointed to his attending a private school. We have been saving for both children to go to college from the day they were born but even so, I am a āvalue shopperā. We would not qualify for financial aid so we knew we were going to be responsible for the whole package, and it was a daunting amount of money. I wasnāt sure if I could stomach that sort of expense (although I know plenty of people do). I told him that if he worked hard in HS and could get merit aid that would make it an easier decision.
Well, that started my merit aid research and it was eye opening. First, not all schools offer it. Those that do vary widely in the amounts and the number of students they distribute it to. I found the financial aid links to provide most info but it was usually vague. Once we got more focused on the schools we were interested in I sent emails to the financial aid staff. If they replied with continued vagueness I emailed right back (eg, How many āFamous Donatorā scholarships do you give out per year, how much are they worth and are they a guaranteed award based on a set criteria such as GPA or is it based on the relativity of that yearās incoming students?).
Jump forward to today. My S is at the University of Redlands with an award that is nearly half the tuition (4 years). He is an extremely happy person there. The other school in contention was Occidental. They offered half the amount, $7000 and their tuition is $5000 more. Redlands was my sonās first choice based on the campus, improving prominance of their math/science departments and the generally friendlier experience we had on both our visits. The two schools illustrate a basic fact- your merit aid is relative to how big a fish you are in that pond. Occidental is harder to get into, they have a much better known school. But for my kid, the fit was best at the other place.
Lastly, I would recommend parents read Lauren Popeās Colleges That Change Lives. It does a great job of making you think about the issues in making these choices.
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Thanks for the valuable tips, maenidmom. My S is a HS junior whoās obsessed with the idea of going to a good West Coast school, and Stanfordās out of reach so Iām now adding Redlands to his list of places to look into along with Occidental. May I ask what his scores and GPA were to get those offers?
Secondly, I have just ordered Lauren Popeās book from Amazon based on your recommendation and some others I read online. So, nice public service with that post.
It might be easier if you post what your Sās scores & GPA are, as well as his interests so folks can make suggestions that might be helpful. A friendās D got good merit aid at Seattle U; Willamette is also known for generous merit aid. USC gives good merit aid IF your grades & scores are very high.
Son is a 2008 grad of U of Redlands. He is there now for his masters. My nephew just visited him yesterday for a tour. My ādataā is just based on what students and parents have told me so while it could be completely wrong, everyone seems to have similiar Merit award amounts (12) Redlands has several categories that they use to give Merit $. Leadership, Scholarship, community service, talent and I think writing. Students they are interested in seem to get about 1/2. Iāve seem kids (son) who received awards in all
Categories = 1/2 and students who received awards in just 2 categories receive 1/2. When son applied/interviewed the interviewer told husband that FASFA might not help us & that they would negotiate if we were not happy with award. I believe they want FAFSA now, even if you donāt plan on loans. We were pleased with the way we were treated and didnāt feel that asking for more was right. Son has had a wonderful experience and education. It is amazing to see his freshman calculus teacher come to his concerts and congratulate him. Students are often treated to home cooked meals at profs homes.
LA
D applied to Redlands, U of OR honors college, Willamette and Occidental. 1310 SAT, 4.0 uwgpa, great ECs. Got around 20K from each school through a variety of scholarships and grants. However COA differed widely, so scholarships arenāt everything.
Re: GPA/ SATās, etc. in regards to S receiving good merit aid at Redlands. He had a 4.0 weighted GPA (yes, some Bās!!), high math SAT (760), the English score somewhere around 630 and writing score I truly canāt recall- but I donāt think he broke 600 (that frustrated him! He thinks of himself as a good writer). His grades were generally high across the board though math is obviously his strength. Heās looking to major in the sciences (biochem?). He scored 4 in AP Bio, 5 in the AP math he took. Played sports in high school, Varsity and club teams, zero community service. He did meet with an admissions officer after our tour and I really think that visit helped. When I was invited back to join them the energy in the room was good! My S doesnāt have the scores of some kids Iāve read about that have made my mouth drop open. Heās laid back and easy going but very inquisitive. I imagine that he got good merit aid in part because the admissions officer thought heād be a good fit there.
To Illinois Dad, our southern Cal college journey swept through Occidental, Redlands, and the Claremont Mckenna campus (five distinct colleges sharing facilities/classes). The west is a big place! I found the collegeboard tool that lets you narrow your choices to be very helpful. Remember to book your tours ahead of time once you plan a trip out here.(And lots of good options near Portland and Seattle)
Thanks for the details maenidmom ā more inspiration for the search. Yes, weāre also looking at Willamette, U of O and Lewis & Clark (though it doesnāt appear they give much merit aid) in the Portland environs and Puget Sound in Seattle and may do a monster driving tour this summer. S also is most enamored of the U of Victoria after I encouraged him to look at more affordable options north of the border. Your sonās scores and background are in the ballpark with mine. Hereās hoping one of those schools comes through with big $$$ in the end!
Like Maenidmom, weāve saved enough money to pay for our two childrenās undergraduate educations, and will not be eligible for financial aid. Two of the schools my S is applying to, Boston University and Fordham, require you to submit a FAFSA and CSS Profile in order to be considered for some of the merit aid scholarships they offer. I talked to someone in the financial aid office at Fordham who told me that in order to receive certain non-need based merit scholarships, you must submit the FAFSA, but that we could wait until my S was offered a scholarship before submitting it. To be considered for a Deanās Scholarship at BU you must submit them both by Feb. 15 and although you donāt need to qualify for financial aid, your expected family contributions must not substantially exceed the cost of attendance.
I donāt know how the FAFSA and CSS Profile work. Is it possible to submit them to a college after the March 2 deadline, because we probably wonāt hear from Fordham until April 1st? Iām reluctant to send it now because I think he may be more likely to receive some merit aid if they donāt know he doesnāt require need based aid.
Iām wondering if Iām wasting my time because we will likely have an EFC that exceeds the cost of attendance at BU. The question is whether it āsubstantiallyā exceeds it.
If anyone has any experience with either of these schools or these forms and merit scholarships, Iād appreciate any advice.
Luckyme, I suggest you re-post this on a new thread with a heading of something like FAFSA/CSS deadlines ā¦ itās likely to get lost on this thread.
Agree with ^^^, but I sent you a PM. Our son got a BU Deanās Scholarship last year and did not qualify for need-based aid. You should file the forms on time.
Colorado College has offered a $5K/year merit scholarship to my kid, who is not an NM scholar but was NM ācommendedā (or something like that). They have not yet given us a decision about need-based aid. We are still waiting to hear from other schools, too.
CC has been on the lower end of selectivity among its peers (small, highly selective liberal arts colleges). My understanding is that a strong applicant may have better luck getting merit aid from such a school than from the most selective LACs (such as Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin or Middlebury). Grinnell is another example of a high-quality LAC, slightly off the beaten trail compared to the New England competition, that reportedly grants a lot of merit aid.
Amherst and Williams donāt offer merit aid.