I am not elligible for fin aid ( at least this year - Parents inherited some money) .
I got 6500/ yr from UT Austin , UAB -9000/yr
Yesterday Rice gave me 35,000 /yr!! That just made me gasp.
I have good stats( I hope it is good enough) -I don’t know being a girl interested in engineering made a difference in merit scholarships.
Many of my classmates who have similar stats ( but applied for arts& science in the same schools ) did not get that much.
on the Liberal arts choices , my classmate got a very hefty offer(merit ) from amherst.
Amherst does not give merit scholarships.
You are right. I did not get my friends message correct.
I apologize for misinformation
But my scholarship informations are all correct.
My D was offered a $25,000/year Presidential Merit Scholarship at Brandeis, with no financial disclosure required (unless I missed something in the fine print), a $10,000/year Regents Scholarship at UCSB and a $4,000 entry year grant at McGill.
[Scholarships</a> - UTD Financial Aid Office](<a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/student/finaid/scholarships]Scholarships”>http://www.utdallas.edu/student/finaid/scholarships)
Superstepmom,
It is important to self-prep. Class is design for a HS student, it is not specialized to your D’s needs. She needs to self-evaluate her own needs and develop her own strategy. And, yes, taking ACT could be beneficial, since some kids (including my D.) are better at ACT. My D. took SAT prep. class, did not do too well (2140) and said that class was complete waste of time. She developed her own strategy to prep. for ACT, spend about 6 days, 1 hour/day and got 33 on her first try which was enough to apply to selective programs and be accepted to 50% of them. She evaluated her personal needs in regard to each section of the ACT test and concluded that in her case, it make sence to practice only math (her very strong subject) section and not to waste precious time on anything else. It worked!
Good luck!
…forgot to mention that D. is on full tuition Merit scholarship (combo of many Merit scholarships) and was offered Merit $$ at every school that she applied. Having spent 1 week, about 7 hour total was definately worth it. Well, they do need high GPA (D’s was 4.0uw)
I think some are believing they received merit scholarships/grants, when in reality they got need based?
as for taxable grant income, certain fees are considered in the qualified expenses, so don’t miss out on that. Also, books can be deducted from the grant income for the student. You can’t count them in your return but the student can. With the new credits some parents are better off filing for them than letting the student claim themselves for education credit purposes. You have to work the different scenarios to make sure you maximize the tax credits. In my case, letting my Dtr absorbed the grant income and me taking the credits means considerably more refund money. You have to work different ways of filing before deciding which is best. I have 3 different scenarios for my dtr and about 4 for me, and it looks like with the American opportunity act, I get over a thousand back than letting the student take the lifetime credit. Don’t trust that your accountant knows all that is needed and is working his butt to make sure you get the best.
My son didn’t receive a scholarship to his top choice school. The school gives a very generous merit scholarship to the top 10% of the applicants.
His grades are really good(32 ACT, 3.8 GPA), several AP classes, high workload, excellent community involvement. They told me his GPA wasn’t as competitive as the other kids. I’m trying to show them the side of my son they don’t see through the stats.
I figured it’s worth the attempt. I’m thinking some of the kids who got the scholarship may not go to the school, in which case, there maybe additional funds available.
Has anyone done this with any success.
Let him have those conversations. If you keep talking he’s deader than a duck. There is a place for parents in a financial aid discussion. Trying to sell them on “the side of my son they don’t see through the stats” ain’t one of them. JMO.
jamgee, you might want to start a separate thread on this topic; you’ll get more information.
While kids do turn down schools with merit aid, that aid is rarely offered to other students. Schools offer more scholarship money than they actually have, estimating the number of students that will turn them down, just as they do with admissions. Even if there is money left over, that money generally just goes back into the investment fund for the following year.
I agree with previous posters, the schools offer more money than they actually want to give out knowing a certain percentage will not accept. Also, your son should be the one doing the talking/campaigning. Perhaps he can talk to his GC and see if there is anything s/he can submit at this time to suppliment the original rec.
Jamgee, if you are still trying to negotiate, I want to suggest that you talk to your son’s school counselor. My friend’s daughter who did not get the package she wanted and really needs to go to her school has discussed the situation with her counselor who is talking directly to the school. It looks like there will be some give.
I know that private schools often have that situation when they do not weight courses, or have a population that is high achieving. In those cases, the counselors at those schools are pretty skilled and experienced at explaining the situation. I know for certain scholarships, many private schools need to have an attachment from the counselor because of depressed grades.
Be aware, however, that it does not always work. UVA, for example, has refused to budge for our school. There has been dialogue a number of times. But sometimes a school will listen.
My son had his merit award doubled when he spoke to his school. Still wasn’t a huge amount but that and an independent scholarship made the difference. It’s worth the shot.
Just saw the tax information that has been posted for the merit aid. Unfortunately parents may not claim the child if child makes more than $3650 or if the parent did not provide over 50% of their support. If the merit aid covered room, board, books and tuition, most parents can’t claim the children. However, many of the tax breaks are disallowed for the child if they are filing a separate return. This is one the the things that the IRS is looking at this year in detail.
I agree -it’s definitely worth a shot. Many parents don’t bother taking the extra step.
My advice is to focus on the school’s perspective - what it wants - not your needs. The admissions office wants to add to the quality of its student body with high achieving, intellectually curious, diverse kids who say “yes” when they are admitted (the “yield.”)
If you can cite specific characteristics and achievements of your child that would augment your appeal. Telling them that your child will attend if they can goose their award to you is also something they should know about.
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<li>Andy Lockwood</li>
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. I believe that the college amounts are removed before considering issues of support. I don’t feel like digging for this info, but it’s out there somewhere…
College amounts related to room and board are generally NOT removed, just as government assitance for low income housing and food stamps are considered for head of household and support issues. The IRS sees this as a third party (in this case the government, school outside scholarship) as providing the support, not the parents. Another tax issue comes when the student gets the loans in their name only so even if the parent pays a significant portion, then 50% support barrier can’t be breached adn tax breaks are lost. It is often better for parents to cosign on loans so that they can get the full tax break.
For many public universities, getting a good GPA (3.5 +) and good SAT (1300+) scores will get you the instate tutition rate at many public universities.
IRS Pub 501. <a href=“http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf[/url]”>http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf</a>
MizzBee, from what I’ve read in IRS publications it seems that non-taxable merit scholarships are not considered support (ie. tuition and required fees/course materials) and the $3650 does not apply to qualifying child exemptions, only qualifying relatives. I believe the taxable portion of scholarships (room, board, etc) does apply to the support test, as do student loans. I’m not sure that co-signing would accomplish anything as the loan is still in the student’s name. Parent Plus loans would be in the parent’s name and would count as parental support.