Thanks, ohiobass. I think we’ve crossed paths on the music parent’s thread too. 2013 is my trumpet player, so looking to get him some “talent” aid, though he could also qualify for some merit aid at the right school. For a variety of reasons, we want to keep him in state (Va), and he seems OK with that. It’s the 2014 who will be tricky – great grades and SAT and an athlete, probably Division III. He’d love Charlottesville, but can’t count on making the Div. I cut. I want a small liberal arts school for him anyway, like Claremont. Just need to get him thinking along those lines …
Claremont has something on their website I haven’t seen on others. They list ranges of aid packages for students by family income ranges. The ranges of aid appear to include financial and merit aid. Looks very generous, even for those with a high EFC.
Isn’t the Rutgers Presidential scholarship only for in-state? It’s a fantastic award though - it will even give a generous allowance for off-campus housing if the student chooses to live off. Congratulations momworried.
Michigan State has an incredible merit based scholarship called "The Alumni Distinguished Scholarship:
Full ride for 4 years
Includes: room, board, tuition, and $1000 / year stipend
You can attend the Honors College
And, very likely to get a 2 year Professorial Assistantship
My son won this in 2010 and it is turning out great.
Is there a consolidated list of colleges that give full ride / full tuition for SAT scores above a certain range or ACT score above a certain range, in addition to a good GPA?
tfairy, please check your facts. The Ivies do not give merit aid at all. On another thread, you mention your daughter’s “inheritance” and this WILL affect your need based aid awards at ALL schools. ALL. Congratulations on your daughter’s acceptances…I hope the finances work out.
My daughter applied to some schools that do very well with need based aid:
Swarthmore (rejected), Penn (wait listed), Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Barnard (accepted). They will be affordable because of great financial aid.
She also applied and was accepted to the following schools where she got merit aid:
Muhlenberg (20k), Ursinus (30k), Goucher (full tuition) and UDel (10k - instate). The last three of those four are affordable based on Merit aid.
If you mean good scholarship offers for national merit finalists then the top schools include OU (Oklahoma), UA (Alabama), UCF (Florida) and there are roughly 100 more. Look at NMSC’s website for the list. Presidential Scholars can get full rides. Minimum SAT ranges are rougly in the 2100 range for all three parts. Of 1.5 million seniors less than 8,000 make it to the finalist stage.
And typically a 2000 is more than high enough to make finalist. The first challenge, of course, is having a PSAT score that meets/exceed a student’s state’s cutoff.
Appreciate the discussion here re more prestige versus more aid. My son is facing this right now: 3rd generation UC acceptance (most went to Berkeley), where there is zero aid so far as I can ascertain versus a bunch of great private universities offering him everything but room and board. So, 15K per year in loans, etc., versus 30K+in loans per year. He still graduates with debt, but not 120K. Do you take the prestige over the money? Seems a lot of you say, follow the money.
" a bunch of great private universities offering him everything but room and board. So, 15K per year in loans, etc., versus 30K+in loans per year. He still graduates with debt, but not 120K. Do you take the prestige over the money? Seems a lot of you say, follow the money"
Even $60k in debt ($15k per year) is too much. $120k debt is absolutely ridiculous. That’s about 4 times more than what’s reasonable.
Since it sounds like the parents aren’t contributing anything towards college (which seems odd since it sounds like they’re UC grads), I would suggest that the student work as much as possible over the summer to get the loan needs down to about $10k per year…which is still HIGH.
Just returned from Mary Washington (Dprtocollege) and the music department basically pays the orchestra kids with top players getting very good merit/talent money. I was very impressed with their attitude about the orchestra, like the athletes, represent the school and deserve to be paid for this. Also, kid can play with them during the summer to try it out. Summer classes and paid… What is not to like?
Please see the special scholarships offered at Wake Forest for fine and performing arts. Full ride…yep…I wish mine had kept up the instrument…
Posting this for others because it would have been very useful info to have had when applying last fall for schools. D’s stats: NMF, 35 ACT, 4.0 UW GPA, great EC’s (no sports) including GS Gold Award. Our EFC is high and we received no additional aid (other than loans/work study) to the scholarship/grants listed below. Everything is per year.
Alabama - full tuition
Butler - $17,000 scholarship
UChicago - $18,000 grant
Cornell - $19,000 grant
Denison - $42,000 scholarship
Haverford - $26,000 grant
Northwestern - $16,000 scholarship
URochester - $17,000 scholarship (+ one time $3000 research grant)
Skidmore - $22,000 grant
Wooster - $20,000 scholarship
I think it would be helpful for further generations of college students if people would not only post what merit aid they received but what the COA for that school is. It’s great that someone got a $20,000 scholarship somewhere, but if that still leaves $40,000 out of pocket it doesn’t look that great. But if that $10,000 aid leaves you $10,000 out of pocket, fantastic. Even at the above Alabama example, what are the rest of the costs after tuition?
