Seeking merit-based full scholarships

Paying for College
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<p>slithey - I appreciate your posts because you’re the only one, aside from maybe lerkin (U Minnesota via USNWR), who’s actually given specific, credible, well-substantiated NAMES. That’s all I wanted. I’m just creating a list, and am nowhere near even thinking about financial particulars or the admissions process. Again, our boy’s only in middle school! </p>

<p>UCSB is a good choice because we may be able to arrange some kind of research for our boy with a professor there during a summer while he’s in high school. This will help him refine his interests and maybe get a leg up on the admissions process for that school.</p>

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<p>Um, I gave you a suggestion to look on the parent forum at the 60+ page thread about schools known for “merit aid” ;)</p>

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<p>

Good point SteveMA! Given the way both scholarships and kids change over the years, this whole exercise is really not worthwhile for a middle schooler. OP is looking to identify particular opportunities that may not even exist in the future, and hopes to somehow prepare her son for those scholarships. The only worthwhile advice is the same advice that is applicable to every young student with high aspirations–take challenging courses and work hard to excel at them; try new things to determine where your extracurricular interests and passions may lie and then pour yourself into them; tend mind, body and spirit.</p>

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<p>OP, given your focus on top tier schools there is a simple (but time consuming) process to knowingly get the precise correct answers to your questions … look up the information on each schools web-site. Given your tier preference you’re talking about 50 schools tops and that is before culling the list because of majors, geography, religious affiliation, etc … and then you have the information you want in an unfiltered unspun version you want … and the time required is probably not a lot different than filtering information on CC. Finding merit schools gets trickier when a family is willing to move down tiers and there are a lot more schools … then researching all schools isn’t really feasible.</p>

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<p>Thibault, M2CK has given excellent advice. There is no “poisoning” going on. Perhaps you should thank her and take her advice into account. There is simply no merit aid at Ivy League schools. Merit at MIT, Stanford, top OOS publics, etc. is so unlikely that I would call it virtually impossible, unless your kid is a world class athlete or cures cancer. Stop focusing on those schools, be thankful people told you now instead of later, and cut the snotty attitude. Look, I did EPGY in seventh and eighth grade, and do did hundreds, if not thousands, of other kids. There aren’t even that many full tuition scholarships at top schools out there! </p>

<p>I’m not sure why I’m giving advice, but here it is: Northeastern, Pitt, University of Alabama. All three have full tuition scholarships complete with honors programs and fantastic science programs. The the other option is a community college then transferring to a public school or commuting locally.</p>

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<p>kat - thanks, v helpful. </p>

<p>"But as time has past there have been large changes on the financial aid front/merit scholies. As the economy has tightened as has merit money.</p>

<p>“I can only envision in each progressive year, monies will dry up and be moved to more need based aid as it has done in the past ten years.”</p>

<p>I understand this is a dynamic area that may well look different in another 8 years. But all the movement will not be in one direction ie toward less merit-based aid; I think there’s a lot of evidence that we will see new merit-based packages coming to the fore as more and more multi-millionaires and billionaires - from all fields, not just the shiny new tech-bubble industries - start addressing this very serious problem for our nation.</p>

<p>Case in point: I’ve learned that CalTech has cut out merit aid entirely, for the reasons you mention. At the same time, across the street as it were USC has ADDED over $100m in merit-based endownment money courtesy of the Mork family (not Mindy and Robin W - I mean the oil baron from Colorado). Mork’s money amounts to about 40 full-tuition scholarships each <em>year</em> at USC. </p>

<p>So CalTech taketh away while USC giveth. There are now being created 15-20 billionaires each year in the mobile/social/local internet and cloud-computing tech company space, which means by 2018 there will be at least 100 additional, newly-minted billionaires, any one of which could easily afford another Mork-style gift supporting merit-based full tuition somewhere.</p>

<p>Add to this the increasing social and even political pressure in this country on wealthy individuals, and I suspect that more and more of those individuals will try to deflect some of this pressure through huge charitable donations that make education more affordable. Some will throw away er, give $100m to dysfunctional public school systems a la Z and Newark; others will follow the path of Mork and Irwin Jacobs.</p>

<p>So, in response to another poster’s comment, no, I don’t believe this is a fool’s errand. Our society is changing. It is still extraordinarily wealthy and is still creating extraordinarily large private fortunes each year. Some of that money will, I believe, seek to avoid the taxman and do some good by funding generous merit-based scholarships. We’re not closing the door on the possibility at all, even as we retain a prudent CA-based safety school strategy.</p>

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<p>take a look at these threads:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1312876-ridiculous.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1312876-ridiculous.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1315579-colleges-offer-rich-kids-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1315579-colleges-offer-rich-kids-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1314309-how-find-assured-admissions-safety.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1314309-how-find-assured-admissions-safety.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1314152-am-i-being-irrational.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1314152-am-i-being-irrational.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314328-rejections.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314328-rejections.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314179-angry-over-college-admissions-process.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314179-angry-over-college-admissions-process.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1313058-please-help-student-who-has-been-rejected-every-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1313058-please-help-student-who-has-been-rejected-every-college.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>those are just a start…you will find hundreds of threads just like these on CC.</p>

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<p>thibault, I hope in 8 years when your kid hits the college ap process, the world HAS changed. Because right now, this process stinks and is very unfair. If your vision does come to be, and you are putting your bets on that change happening, then none of the info we provide you will make any difference. So this is a worthless thread. </p>

<p>Good luck to you and your son. I hope the world lives up to your expectations in 8 years!</p>

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<p>Endowed scholarships often times have constraints placed upon unknown to the reader of a school’s financial aid/department/major website. Sometimes buried within the terms of the scholarship there are restrictions, location, major, urm, and not always disclosed need.</p>

<p>WPI has a full-tuition scholie…Chavez…has restrictions most do not meet. Colby has preferential packaging, again not disclosed. Penn also offers “preferential packaging” for certain students. Amherst, Swat…</p>

<p>Vandy offers a diversity scholie, extremely competitve, and Emory (scholars program), Georgia Tech offers a full-tuition scholie, University of Chicago offers a sunstantial one, Fordham, St. Louis U, University of New Mexico, Duke’s Robertson…</p>

<p>We know of these not from website’s but because my kiddo’s were awarded them. Cast a wide net and applied vastly. But many of these have very,very strict limitations.</p>

<p>I wasn’t basing my view that monies would be drying up on one child rather on 5 children who are also going through the graduate school process. 10+ years of filling out financial forms (FAFSA) you tend to see where the money is and isn’t.</p>

<p>Florida scholies (bright futures) have shrunk, NMF scholies have shrunk from what they use to be, the nevada ones have been limited. I am not guessing based what I think the future holds rather on what has been and when merit money was plentiful. It just isn’t anymore nor are students applying to just a few schools. The Common App has changed the face of admissions and in doing so changed the financial aid outcomes.</p>

<p>More people wanting more money leads to less people receiving it.</p>

<p>As to looking to the future, we used to live in CA.</p>

<p>I saw how bad it was with the UCs and CSUs.</p>

<p>Moved all 5 kiddos to NC. Gotta love that in-state tuition here!!! Grad school is even
better.
UNC Chapel Hill is $7500 for next fall, NC State $7600 (when daughter attended few years ago it was $4000) for the year not semester. ECU’s med school is about $10,000 for the YEAR. UNC Chapel Hill’s is $14,000. For med school.</p>

<p>Best merit scholarship we ever received was moving from CA to NC.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>3togo - thanks, I’ve pretty much come to the same conclusion. The problem is that the schools’ websites are often badly designed/maintained and don’t always have accurate info. It sometimes requires lots of digging, phone calls etc to get the real scoop on just what’s available, how many are given, etc.</p>

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<p>Hey, I hope you are correct with your optimism, because college costs have far outpaced inflation for the past 20-30 years. It is to the point that few can pay out of pocket full cost. Only the poorest get financial aid, and the rest have to beg, borrow, and steal to make it happen. </p>

<p>The past 4-5 years there has been a dramatic decrease in merit aid at the majority of colleges. </p>

<p>So I do hope you are correct. I am being honest by saying that.</p>

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<p>kat - agree, California is Greece on the Pacific. There aren’t enough Facebooks to keep this state from the fiscal collapse that’s already devastated the central valley, the city of San Jose, plenty of other municipalities. </p>

<p>Alas, chronic health issues make it tough for us to leave the warm weather, so we’re stuck here. Otherwise, RTP would be a good move for us. </p>

<p>All in all, it could be worse. We’re making the best of it, accentuating the positive etc. </p>

<p>Thanks for your thoughtful and courteous suggestions.
best,
t</p>

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<p>vlines - I think there is no question that there will be a shakeout of the third-tier private schools. Subsidizing these, indirectly or directly, is a colossal waste of state and federal money that is desperately needed now just to keep the nation’s public pension plans from being permanently under water. </p>

<p>We need a new political class, but our political <em>system</em> is still flexible and capable of real reform. The absurdly overstaffed college administrator cohort will be scaled back, and the growth in tuitions will slow.</p>

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<p>

Agreed … I emailed the admissions and financial aid offices of all the schools which were on SecondToGo’s long list before he applied … to ask about merit and if they required FAFSA to be considered for merit aid … some web-sites appeared to be clear … many did not … I thought it was safer to just email them all since it was a manageable list.</p>

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<p>Best kept secret…shhhhhhhhhhhhh weather here is similar to northern cali only not as cold during the summer.</p>

<p>Think napa, sonoma. Especially in the fall when the grapes are harvested.</p>

<p>Reason why NC has the fastest growing vineyards in the US.</p>

<p>And low cost-of-living. With OOS attendance capped at 18% it is extremely difficult for gaining admission as an OOS. Much, much easier as an in-stater.</p>

<p>And today the temp is 70, supposed to be 75 Tues and 80 on Wednesday.</p>

<p>And is so Carolina Blue, not a cloud in the sky!</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>thibault, you’re ignoring some really wise counsel just because you happen to like my posting style. I’m not a FA professional. I’m not a professional guidance counselor. There are others posting on this thread who know far more than me. Ignore them at your peril. </p>

<p>Think about the dollars first. Really. Do not be one of those parents who tells their kid that the money will all work out, because your kid is wonderful and deserves the best. We all feel that way…and then you end up with a kid who is crushed when they learn later on that they can’t afford to go to their expensive dream school. If there are limits, better to tell your kid early on.</p>

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<p>Admission at the UCs is primarily number driven, and does not use letters of recommendation. This isn’t going to give him a leg up on admission at UCSB. If you have a connection with a prof there who could give him an opportunity to get involved with a research group, that’s great, but consider it only for its own merits (being something your kid wants to do, helping him figure out if it’s something he really is interested in, building experience).</p>

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<p>The school websites and admissions offices are interested in getting you to apply. Giving you accurate, in-depth information that will be useful to your particular situation is not high on their list. Making a phone call, some student who answers the phone tells you something, but there’s no traceability there if it turns out it was wrong info. Beating the same drum, that’s why CC is useful, because you can look at forums for specific schools and see people whose kids received merit aid reporting on their kid’s stats, hooks, ECs, and the like. They’ll tell you if a school is looking to bring in more males, or students from specifically targeted states or ethnic backgrounds or interested in a specific major.</p>

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<p>SteveMA,</p>

<p>are you sure your friend’s child named UofMN as their first choice (for NMF scholarship)? I have to double check, but I think to get 10K you are required to name UofMN as your first choice. </p>

<p>The 5K that student was offered was probably not the NMF 10K he could have received and it is stackable. Also, what year was it? 10K used to be 7.5K couple of years ago. </p>

<p>I might have a skewed view because I don’t know about how out of state awards are offered, but I found UofMN pretty generous for in-state students with high stats. There are also many privately-funded 4 year scholarships, for which all students are automatically considered. (I also saw a trend on these boards that out of state students had harder time to get accepted to UofM compared to the similar stats in-state students. So maybe the same is true with scholarships.)</p>

<p>OP,</p>

<p>I also wanted to mention University of Wisconsin (Madison), they have many highly ranked engineering programs and comparatively inexpensive for out of state. They do have some high paying scholarships, but those are much more competitive than UofM (As I stated before UofWI does not have to try as hard as UoM to attract talent).</p>

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<p>As a parent who aimed to check on merit scholarships knowing fully well there is zero FA at our income level for schools that only have FA, here is our experience this year (national merit, almost perfect SAT I and II scores).</p>

<p>Caltech - no FA, possible merit scholarships funded by industry after first year only.</p>

<p>MIT no FA, merit - none</p>

<p>Columbia - No FA, merit none</p>

<p>Stanford - no FA, merit none</p>

<p>Chicago - supposedly there are merit (none full tuition as far as I hear from others who made the cut) - no admit</p>

<p>Duke - there are some merit scholarships, none listed as full rides and most list need as an attribute. Duke-UNC cross admits under some trust program (Robertson?) do get a full tuition. waitlisted</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins - 50-70 2/3rd tuition scholarships - admitted to their top rated BME program, no scholarship</p>

<p>USC - not invited to trustee interview which comes with a full scholarship - withdrawn</p>

<p>Wash U- several different types of scholarships - interview, essays etc. not invited to interview - withdrawn. Know someone admitted to top ivies, called for interview got only half tuition.</p>

<p>Pittsburgh - full tuition + 4k engineering</p>

<p>Minnesota - National merit gives all kinds of money and they threw in some more recently.</p>

<p>UT - Engineering honors and Plan II honors - 10k (about covers tuition)</p>

<p>It is great to know who has scholarships. Getting an admission and getting a scholarship on top of that while badmouthing people who are trying to be helpful - PRICELESS.</p>

<p>goodluck getting anything from any school in eight years.</p>

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<p>Texas,</p>

<p>What will you do? Is it worth full pay at places like Stanford?</p>

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<p>Attending a university that is generous with AP and IB credit can help, too, if that means you can do your undergrad in 3 years instead of 4. Does anyone know if University of Alabama limits the amount of AP/IB credit you can get? If not, my daughter could claim over 60 credits.</p>