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Paying for College
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<p>Mom22039 - Your contribution is appreciated but it does not look to be accurate as your figures don’t sync up with the 2013 figures published by college board (<a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-2013.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt;).
What did you think our local option was that had those numbers?</p>

<p>His critical reading was 750 (or 98th percentile), Math was 580 (or 70th percentile), and Reading was 590 (80th percentile) which puts him closer to the top 20% than to the mean you indicated.</p>

<p>Here is the actual verbiage in the FAQ from the local college we are discussing here…

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<p>Regardless of the calculations, what actually matters are the ACTUAL out-of-state scholarship offerings (listed here witht he names changed to protect the…lol)…

Although these ARE the bottom level scholarships, they would be sufficient to allow us to make our decision. The Woodrow would be a “no-brainier” (for us).</p>

<p>Here’s another possibility at this same institution…

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<p>As you can see he meets this one as well and we “think” that it also comes with a waiver of out of state tuition fees. You see, we aren’t seeking any “full” or even any significant $'s other than waiving OOS so while others may be seeking larger $'s out of a college. That is nor the case here.</p>

<p>A helpful Analogy - Just as I would shop around for the best price on the top of the line motorcycle and then buy it for 18% off list from a quality dealer with excellent service, we compare our collegiate options and will select the best match for our pocketbook. Those that same “This is the industry best Widget as verified by (substitute whatever paid advertising company you want here). You have to pay full-boat retail to buy it from us” will never get my business because, well, there ARE others who are more than willing to negotiate openly. You should also know that I also realize that it’s not all about price as I seldom take the lowest priced option. Other factors must ALWAYS be considered. Just like I needed quality service and a local dealership for the bike, I prefer a local college where we can drive down and help our student to one that we would need a plane trip to get to. What’s the value of that locality? I am not going to say here but I can tell you it ain’t $36K!</p>

<p>Rubber meeting the road - What is the college willing to offer to get the $100K my son has budgeted to spend on his education. University’s that say… “Because you have $'s, we won’t give you a dime…” simply won’t get our business because we can send him to a similar school for $36K less which helps us meet our funding target. Now, what will the local college offer to help us decide to spend it locally? As someone else in this thread mentioned, scholarships are basically a way for a college to offer a “discount”. We are simply asking for the discount that he qualified for based on THEIR guidelines, right?</p>

<p>PS - Of course, I would be more discrete with the actually colleges on this particular factor but for this audience on this forum, this is the clearest I can be.</p>

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<p>As I noted above, the one complicating factor is the impact of state budgetary constraints on aid policies when you are dealing with public schools. Much of that stuff is public information, however – it probably doesn’t take too much digging to find out if the target school has been struggling because of state budgetary cutbacks (generally the colleges raise a huge fuss whenever that happens – you’d find press releases or even a page on their web site focusing on this issue. </p>

<p>By the way, its worth doing some digging into this issue anyway, because it also impacts the quality of education. You don’t want your son starting college at a school that is laying off faculty or cutting back on courses because they are short of money. That’s the situation my son found himself in when he transferred into a Cal State back in 2006. Budget cuts often hit foreign language departments particularly hard. (It’s possible that with the economy improving that this won’t be as great a problem going forward as it was during my son’s college years – but it’s still worth considering). </p>

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<p>The University of South Carolina says that they announce scholarship decisions in mid-March via U.S. mail for the freshman class entering in the fall, although departmental award notification varies. They also say that “different scholarships have different requirements, and award criteria vary from year to year… students must present SAT scores of 1200 or better (CR+M) or an equivalent ACT score of 27 or higher and have excellent high school grades to be considered for scholarships.”</p>

<p>I would think that both the Woodrow and Sims awards are within your son’s reach, based on the criteria that USC provides for those scholarships and what you are reporting.</p>

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<p>Good luck to your son. Hopefully, he has a number of choices all within price range. I’ve been through this a number of times and there are always some surprises in the mix. Until the awards are given and the final numbers of what one is asked to pay are on the table, one can’t make firm plans. </p>

<p>Though sometimes, some negotiations might work, with state school, in particular, the options are sometimes limited. We’ve had fin aid counselors here on this board and they have outright said, that the giving of financial aid is by formula in their situation with very little wiggle room. THe same can go with merit awards. If the gap is close,maybe sometimes, something could be found, but sometimes it 's a no go. Until the numbers are in, hard to say. But I’m rooting for you and your son.</p>

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<p>Good call, calmom.
My nephew began at WSU because of a certain program, but part way into it, it was discontinued and he had to change his major, since he didn’t want to deal with transferring.</p>

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<p>If a kid gets merit aid, it is conditional on academic performance.
They would be told up front, the same rule applies from Mom and Dad, you perform
or we will not be your bank of last resort when you lose the scholarship.
You will transfer to a public school. Some motivation never hurts.
That said, I would want them to explore things without fear, and risk
bad grades in a new subject, One of the advantages of a public school
education, but I think a hard working kid can overcome one bad grade in
one class.</p>

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<p>Merit aid does not necessarily require a specific GPA above and beyond the requirements that are part of need-based aid – some awards do, some don’t. None of the awards my kids were offered had any GPA requirements tied to them, except for my son’s National Merit award. </p>

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<p>Blevin - This sure comes out of left field. Were you intending to reply to someone in this thread? if so, you might want to place their moniker into your reply like I did with your name here. I don’t think that anyone in this thread was questioning how merit aid works so I am a bit confused by your prose.</p>

<p>If it was in any way directed towards myself or my son, please don’t jump to conclusions that just because he has funding that he doesn’t appreciate his fortune. He understands what is required of him. Generally, individuals do not react favorably to threats. Rather, people are usually motivated by what they want in life. My son wants to live in Japan. He knows that the path to that destiny is tied to his performance in school and in life. His motivation is internal.</p>

<p>Both of our children attended public school as we saw no benefit to private schools. We are lucky enough to have some very high quality public (Charter) schools which are actually rated higher than some of those expensive private alternatives. We have nothing against those that want to spend on private schools as we can acknowledge others may feel differently.</p>

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<p>Been a couple of weeks, and yes I must have been replying to a comment, but can’t find which looking back now.
The main point was, if one is on a tight budget, and really counting on the merit aid, kids need to be aware
that while it’s a mystery sometimes how it’s granted, there is no mystery about how it’s retained, min GPA.
Much of the thread was about how best to get the aid, but keeping the aid should be an equally important
consideration. This can be a consideration for need based too (some schools better than others at
fair evaluation each year), and there were also discussions around change of circumstances and eventual
need for aid, that is not justified freshman year. Since the granting process is fairly well hidden,
one can only go on anecdotal evidence for getting/keeping need aid. Merit, keeping is simple,
but it does present a consideration. Send your kid to a public school you can afford without the aid,
happily take merit if you get it, and the child can take classes that might result in bad grades (exploring),
but going to an expensive private school where the aid is a necessity,
I would think some might be more conservative in selecting classes in topics of comfort with grade outcome.
Of course a kid must be self motivated, or I would not even consider a private school we can only afford
if he does what I don’t think he will do ! Fortunately my S1 is very motivated and will give his best,
so not worried about him losing merit aid (and he will only get merit typically at schools for which
he is overqualified anyway). </p>

<p>Anyway, best of luck as we come down to decision time.</p>

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<p>Blevine - Thanks for the context as that helps (a bit). The reality is that decision makers should pick a a school and cost that meets their availability model INCLUDING scholarship $'s. If situations change at later dates, then you make the changes at that point (e.g. send him/her to a public school when they loose their ride). Why would anyone “skip” a scholarship to a good school that allows them to spend the EXACT same $'s they might for a cheaper, less complete school experience…up front, simply because they would be worried that their child might not be astute enough to retain the scholarship they EARNED?</p>

<p>I do agree that parents should NOT be sending their kids to exorbitantly priced schools that are beyond their ability to pay cash for right up front as we do not believe in saddling graduates with debt before they are even in the job market. IMHO the degrees obtained at expensive schools are (generally) not worth the premium over a degree from a less expensive school IMHO (but that is an entirely different thread)</p>

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<p>Some kids test well (SAT), do not study. Those kids can get and lose merit.
But yes, kids may mature, why not take the chance, and face transfer later if need be.</p>

<p>As far as need aid, some schools seem to have a bad rep with giving/taking back.
It’s an issue of trust, though most evidence/rep is anecdotal in nature.</p>

<p>One of the main purposes of this site is to share information to help find/select the place
that is the best fit for a student. Success implies you do not transfer, unless it’s
a move upward to a top school after good grades at the initial school. Losing a scholarship
and leaving, means the wrong school/major may have been selected, and there was a failure
in the process we all seek to accomplish. Does not mean there can be no recovery
from such a failure, but this is not the goal of anyone researching/discussing on this site.</p>

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<p>Our son received the Sims Scholarship offer in the mail today so the odds are high that he will become a Screaming Chicken in the fall. He still has to make the final decision.</p>

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<p>Our EFC is 57,000. We still filled our FAFSA form. </p>

<p>Our child received a few merit scholarships with his acceptances. We are still waiting to hear from two other colleges.</p>

<p>One thing that surprised us was that we were given an additional $1000 for filling out The FAFSA early with one of the merit scholarships. So, filling out the form in our case did help us.</p>