@northwesty - so true, but now I’m hungry for pie. 
I believe the primary strictly-merit scholarship at Hopkins is the Hodson Trust Scholarship, of which only about 20 or fewer are granted per year, and provide about $30K in grant money annually. If I recall correctly, there are a few other scholarships that are available for various populations (e.g., there is one for Baltimore public school graduates), and they have ROTC.
Financial aid for my two sons was adequate, although not great. Hopkins offered the fourth-best package to my older son, and the third- or fourth-best package to my younger son, depending on how you look at it. I could have afforded it, but fortunately, they had better opportunities elsewhere. What I liked about Hopkins for my second son was the substitution of a merit/need-based scholarship in place of the $5K/year loan they wanted my older son to take.
Marist College offers a brand new merit scholarship of up to $15,000! There is also around $5 billion dollars in private scholarships.
@OHMomof2
Widespread nearly-every-student-gets-merit “tuition discounting” (to me), means that the school has falsely raised its prices so that it can flatter nearly every appllicant with a merit scholarship.
I remember when a mom was so-impressed that her son was awarded a $10k merit award (for modest stats) at a pricey school. Then she learned that the school had raised its tuition by $10k just to give that phony award…to everyone. Some schools have learned that some people can’t turn down a merit award if its their only one, even if it means spending more overall than they would have. “how can I turn down $40k over 4 years???”
To me, true merit is given to the top 25% or maybe top 33% of students. Larger awards given to the top 10%. Anything more than that is just like those department stores that have 25% off signs everyday.
When a school is giving a merit award to top students, it’s trying to raise its profile…get more high stats students in the seats…because that attracts better profs, which attracts better grants, makes alums happy and generous, etc. When a school gives merit to nearly all students, it’s just getting warm bodies in the seats. It doesn’t “better” the school, it just keeps the lights on.
thanks @notjoe! Does this mean that JHU doesn’t do full ride for anyone?
@fretfulmother, as far as I know, JHU doesn’t have a full scholarship from the university. The university has an office to help folks identify “external” resources that folks might be eligible for to apply to Hopkins’ cost. And there is ROTC.
But the university doesn’t have a university full scholarship, to the best of my knowledge.
1 Like
Thanks, @notjoe!
“as far as I know, JHU doesn’t have a full scholarship from the university.” - I personally know a student who has a full ride at JHU. There is no need based of any kind in his specific case.
For the posters on this thread that have son swimmers that are also outstanding in academics, there is a group of these swimmers for UA - not sure if your sons could compete at that level (I know AU has probably the stronger swim team having had national titles and Olympic swimmers). I know several UA graduates that have also swam (one is getting his PhD in engineering in another state).
My hat is off to the student athlete accomplished in both areas.
UA has invested a lot in engineering and STEM facilities, faculty, etc. They have expanded eng areas (DD is civil eng student and will focus on architectural design, a subset in civil). Honors programs. Lots of smart kids are attending UA. Very pleased with the quality of education and facilities.
Your son has to get on various campuses and weigh out what he likes and what is important to him. And you also have to decide if a higher cost school is cost-effective and if your son will enjoy a campus and do his best academically.
@fretfulmother , there is a handful of scholarships awarded for merit
<a href=“http://pages.jh.edu/~finaid/images/pdf_files/JHU_SFA_Brochure.pdf”>http://pages.jh.edu/~finaid/images/pdf_files/JHU_SFA_Brochure.pdf</a>
Plus ROTC
Merit-based scholarships require superior academic achievement in a challenging program, the highest test scores, and demonstrated leadership in school and/or community, state, regional, or national activities.
■ Hodson Trust Scholarship ($31,500 per year). This scholarship is offered to approximately 20 first-year students. it is renewable for up to three additional years of undergraduate study if the recipient maintains a 3.0 cumulative GPA. No financial aid or other application is required.
■ Charles R. Westgate Scholarship in Engineering. This scholarship provides full tuition for up to two first-year students. it is renewable for up to three additional years of undergraduate study if the recipient remains enrolled in the Whiting School of engineering and maintains at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA. No separate application is required
1 Like
Thanks!! Oh, the Westgate might be what I had heard of.
One has to be very careful with ROTC. If somehow student becomes ineligible (like an injury that disqualifies them from a military commitment), they have to repay. If at an expensive private school, ouch! Always have to weigh out risks. What if student cannot complete the technical program that has them qualify for ROTC?
ROTC is getting more and more selective.
^^ In my opinion, students should never choose to take an ROTC scholarship unless they are relatively enthusiastic about a military career. Truth is, it is not really a scholarship in the strict sense of the word. It is more like a “signing bonus” where the student agrees to enter the military in exchange for a paid education. Taking an ROTC scholarship just for the money is thus unwise, plus the military is likely to see your motivation is mainly financial and this will diminish the likelihood of actually getting the scholarship.
Same thing goes for the rush of students wanting to get into petroleum engineering.
@SOSConcern
You and I are on the same page. The petroleum engineering fad is so weird that some students seem to think that majoring in chemical engineering is insufficient.
SOSConcern Can you please explain your statement. Is anyone getting a free ride to study Petroleum Engineering?
I was just responding about students majoring in something solely because they want to earn a lot of money, just like they should not pursue a ROTC scholarship if they are not enthusiastic about serving in the military.
Sorry to hijack the thread, but also if a student absolutely detests a particular school, it is going to be difficult for them to be motivated for success there even with a lot of financial incentives.
One question about these top scholarships. If a school offers 20 or so per year (as indicated for JHU above), how many do they actually end up having to fund? That is, of those 20 is it typical for 15 or so to go to an Ivy so only 5 students actually have these scholarships? Any way to know? It would seem to me that if most kids aren’t taking these offers, that they are even more competitive than they seem (not 20 out of the number of freshmen attending, but 20 out of the students accepted). I guess that is obvious, but it would be interesting to know the actual number awarded vs offered.
Don’t know about these specifically, but I do know in some merit scholarship cases the numbers are how many actually are on the scholarship, not how many were offered the scholarship. Some schools deliberately over-offer knowing a certain % of students will decline for a better offer or a more prestigious school. Of course there are risks with this, but they look closely at historical figures to know how many they need to offer to get a particular yield. It may be that 20 is how many actually accepted, and they offered to closer to 30 (at less selective schools they’d have to over-offer at a higher rate).
All schools have to manage their yield – the number of acceptances that they get out of the number of offers they make.
Offering a scholarship/discount to an accepted student changes (increases) the yield. That’s a primary reason why the school does it. Schools have a lot of experience managing the yield from different pools of accepted students, including ones that have big scholarship offers. They intelligently overbook, just like airlines do.