I recently got a letter from NDSU offering a full scholarship to national merit finalists and I was wondering if this was a common thing. I have a 35 ACT, unweighted 4.0 gpa. I also have 35 college credits through U of M and SMSU. Are their any higher end schools that would offer something similar to NDSU, or is this kind of scholarship mostly just big public schools? Is this big enough to affect my decision, or should I try to focus on what colleges I like and worry about scholarships later?
What are your parents saying? Will they happily pay all costs to any school? If you don’t know, ask them.
Every year we see kids who didn’t worry about cost posting very sad posts in the Spring because they have no affordable schools. They just assumed that either their parents would pay or they’d get lots of aid…and then sadly found out the bad news.
It’s good to apply to a few schools (maybe 3) that give very LARGE awards for NMF…those can be your financial safeties.
Alabama gives a very large award for NMFs. It enrolls about 180 NMFs every year.
What is your major and career goal?
No, you shouldn’t worry about scholarships later. The scholarship deadlines are often in Nov and Dec.
My family has very little ability to actually pay for my college. We have $10,000 saved, with me and parents combined. They seem less worried about it then I am though because they assume that I’ll be able to get scholarships from good scores and being a first generation college student, but I’m a lot less sure. Ideally I’d like to major in mathematics, but I expect something like CS of engineering to have better job opportunities.
Have you taken the SAT? You need to do that to “certify” your PSAT score. Your ACT won’t do that.
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My family has very little ability to actually pay for my college. We have $10,000 saved, with me and parents combined. They seem less worried about it then I am though because they assume that I’ll be able to get scholarships from good scores and being a first generation college student,
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First Gen students rarely get scholarships.
Your parents don’t know any better because they didn’t go to college. They are making wrong assumptions.
Have your parents run the NPCs on various schools’ websites…
What schools are on your list?
Also, apply to 3 schools that you know FOR SURE that you will get large scholarships.
Have you taken the SAT?? You need to do that by Dec and send your score to NMCorp
Yeah, I’m going to be taking the SAT on Nov. 7. I’ll probably apply to NDSU and U of M then, because they both have pretty big scholarships. Is it worth applying to more selective schools too? People have tried to push me towards things like UChicago and MIT, but the acceptance rates are so low.
My other worry is whether or not credits will transfer. I would expect credits from University of Minnesota to transfer well but I’m not as sure about the ones from Southwest Minnesota State. I was told that I might not want to apply to Carleton or Macalester because credits don’t transfer well. is this the same for most high end schools?
Most top schools only accept a limited number of hours or none at all. However, they generally allow you to test out of classes should you be able to prove competency.
If you don’t apply to the most selective schools which generally give the best aid, you’ll automatically get rejected.
Many of the schools use their Nov 1 EA deadlines for scholarships so I would not hesitate.