My son got accepted into the University of New Hampshire. It’s his first choice and he’s thrilled about it. We don’t qualify for need based aid beyond the Stafford loan. He is just below the required GPA/ SAT score for merit aid, so got nothing for that. We are in state, which puts his net cost at about $21,000. It’s a stretch for us, but doable. The only school that has a lower net cost for him doesn’t offer any engineering (he’s going into civil engineering).
My question is, should he contact UNH to ask to be considered for merit aid, or is it a lost cause? He’s our first going to college, and we’ve heard that this school doesn’t give much aid. Even the scholarship he almost qualified for is only $1,000 per year.
You could have him work summers and contribute $2k per year (pay for his books and maybe course fees).
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It's a stretch for us....
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This is a red flag. Paying for college is a 4 year commitment. Every household has at least 3-6 unexpected largish expenses every year…car repair, dental work, home repair, medical expense, major appliance replacement, and on and on.
If it’s going to be a “stretch” for you, how will you deal with the 12-24 unexpected expenses that will pop up over the 48 months that your child will be in college?
The student is asking for MERIT aid…not need based aid. Merit aid is based on strength of applicant and/or stats…not financial need or unusual financial situations.
Merit based aid isn’t concerned with things like medical bills @SeekingPam
And if the family is trying to get need based aid based on medical bills, then a high income family would need rather HUGE medical bills for it to make a difference EFC wise. There’s a formula where medical bills have to exceed a certain % of income in order for EFC to be adjusted, and even then, it’s not a dollar for dollar adjustment.
We can afford it, but were hoping for at least some merit aid. He’s a good, solid student at a rigorous private high school. His GPA is a 3.56 UW and a 3.84 W. His SAT is a 1590/2400, but he has dyslexia and took it with no additional time. His math was great, but reading was low.
He has played varsity basketball all through high school and also works. Basketball takes up most of his time, so other EC are limited. He’s not a D1 or D2 level player and doesn’t really want to play in college. He’s got plenty of service hours.
My gut is that he is out of luck, but I hate that such a good solid student is not worth any merit aid in his own state.
Colleges can do with the information what they want. Sometimes they need an excuse to give or increase aid, if they want the kid. I realize it is merit aid which OP just misses, since that was OPs question. However, maybe there is something OP had not considered in her recent expenses and further, it can be nicer to say, thank you for your offer however we have a problem because of recent expense X, as opposed to we want some money! Or just ask, it cannot hurt, worst they can do is say no.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of better solid students, so they are most likely getting the merit offers. Best bet is to work summer jobs. Any chance for work study?
Do you think he could do better on the SAT with extra time? If so, see if UNH will award him merit if he can bring his scores up on the June exam. Cant hurt to ask.
No chance of federal work study with our EFC, but he will find some kind of job on campus. His current job will help with some of the expenses. He’ll continue working in the summer.
Unfortunately that is his superscored SAT. He took it three times and had a prep class. He’s just not a good tester…never has been. He’s an amazing outside the box thinker and problem solver, just not on a standardized test. He has overcome many struggles in school related to his dyslexia. We are so proud of his accomplishments. He has worked hard to be where he is.
I hate that such a good solid student is not worth any merit aid in his own state.
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I think some don’t understand what merit is for. A good solid student is worthy of ADMISSION. And, he was admitted. The idea that being a “good solid student” is worthy of merit is just more of the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. Schools don’t give everyone a trophy (exception: some overpriced privates give phony merit to everyone)
Schools award merit to get their TOP applicants to enroll.
How merit is typically awarded:
There is a HUGE pool of students with high GPAs (largely due to grade inflation and/or less rigorous curricula)
There is a smaller pool of students with high test scores.
There is an even smaller pool of students with high test scores AND high GPAs. <== These are the students who typically get the merit from the schools that give merit.
As someone who has been around colleges for many years (decades), I respect students with learning disorders who want to achieve without accommodations - however in most cases I’ve seen it is in the student’s best interest to get documentation and take advantage of the accommodations for which they qualify. Don’t let your child start out at a significant disadvantage. They can always drop accommodations if they don’t need them, but if they get to the end of the semester and are not doing well, they can’t go back and get a redo with accommodations.
If you were looking for merit aid, then taking the SATs with extended time could have made a difference.
I’m coming to this kind of late, but my dd is a freshman at UNH (and has dyslexia, incidentally). We did ask for a review of her financial aid award and they did increase her scholarship a bit. Not sure why. It’s worth a try, but honestly, don’t send him if you can’t afford to without a scholarship, cuz UNH is very fuzzy about their scholarship renewal requirements (we are in a bit of tiff with them now over some rather vague language in their scholarship award letter). Having said that, there are a lot of additional scholarships available at UNH for current students – most are specialized in some respect, but my dd routinely gets notice about them. She just got a full ride to go out to the Shoals marine lab for a two-week summer course there. So if your son does enroll there, he should stay alert for those sorts of scholarship opportunities. Other info that might be helpful: non-work study jobs are a bit scarce, but the dining halls are always looking for extra help, so he should definitely apply there if he needs to work. Also, buyer beware – there are lots of individual course fees; 'not just for lab courses, but for things like English and foreign languages that one wouldn’t think would have additional costs. It does feel a times as though you’re being nickeled-and-dimed. One way to save money is to request a triple room in housing. They are usually happy to have volunteers to live in triples – last year they had to put a lot of freshman in force built-up triples because they didn’t have room for them all. Hope this is all helpful.