My child will graduate in less than 4 months. Right now, we have not found any college - we’ve applied to 10 - who thinks her achievements are worthy of significant scholarships. I know that many of the parents on this forum have students who are very high achievers: National Merit Finalists, 36 on the ACT, volunteer at the animal shelter 30 hours a week, etc. That’s not my child. However, she DOES have a 31 ACT composite, a rank of 30 out of a class of 636, a 4.2 GPA and will finish with a total of 11 AP exams. She also spends 10+ hours a week at a dance studio, where she trains and helps teach classes.
I am in complete disbelief and so frustrated that colleges don’t consider that hard work and performance worthy of significant financial assistance. No one is interested in her, wants to go to bat for her. She’s been accepted to all the schools we’ve applied to, but none are interested in offering more than just the regular scholarship, which covers from one-third to one-half of the cost. If I had known all this three years ago, I would have advised her to take it easy in high school from a course perspective, but volunteer a lot and study for the ACT like nobody’s business. We’ve been applying for outside scholarships, but haven’t heard anything back on any of them. Can you tell I’m frustrated?!?!? My heart aches for my child who has worked like a dog in school. We can afford to help her some, but cannot come up with $20-$30K a year. Maybe I should tell her to take a gap year. 
Did she apply to schools where her stats put her well above the 75% mark for accepted students? That’s where the money will be.
She’d qualify for 100% tuition at UAH
http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships
Scholarships offering 1/3 to 1/2 of total costs – based on merit, not an assessment of financial need – are extremely credible. Your daughter should be very pleased that her preparation and hard work have merited such awards. It is a very competitive world out there.
If I were you I’d be looking at the positive aspects and focusing on the programs and opportunities at each of the colleges.
Thanks for your reply. Of the 10 schools she’s applied to, she was above the 75% mark for 8 of them. Also, she applied to both public and private schools.
A 31 ACT won’t get the big schollys at any school in the top 200. Sorry! It’s very competitive out there. Not sure why you thought otherwise. And why was your daughter working hard in high school only for a scholarship rather than for the sake of learning? What terrible advice that would have been had you advised her to take it easy. A higher ACT without everything else wouldn’t have changed the outcome and she may have received less merit aid than she did.
Good luck with the outside scholarship search!
I hear your frustration. Hugs to you.
You don’t qualify for need-based aid . . . ? Maybe you do?
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I’m sure you’ve tried this but see if you can bargain for a better package. I’ve heard that parents go as often as three times back to a school to ask for a better package as X other school has offered Y amount. Don’t be shy. Think of them as used car salesmen and get your bargaining hat on.
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She should immediately apply to Agnes Scott; St. John’s of Annapolis; and other top-rate schools that for some reason or other aren’t on people’s radar, like Hendrix and Sewanee. They may event take late applications for such a great candidate. Agnes Scott offers lower tuition plus some merit. It also offers cross reg with emory. St. John’s of Annapolis needs girls, doesn’t always fil, is high on USN&WR list of schools and has two campuses, plus old traditions. They may offer her aid. Sewanee is very traditional, has a 13thousand acre campus and has lower starting tuition. Not sur eabout merit though. Centre college is great, in middle of the country so has a harder time attracting people to a great school.
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Also look at other colleges on the list available as of May 1 each year for colleges that didn’t fill.
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you may qualify for need-based aid, you may want to ask her to take a year off and re-apply for next year. I had to do that when I started college. It worked for me. and the year off was terrific. She should look seriously into schools with top need-based aid, such as Grinnell, Smith, Vassar, Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Colby, Bates, U of Chicago, U of Rochester, etc. If she does take off a year and reapply also look to Muhlenberg where she will be in the top of the applicants and they do offer merit. There are other schools like that.
Sadly, we do not qualify for need-based aid. We have some current financial obligations, but according to the FAFSA we are not need-based.
I don’t feel like my daughter’s academic performance is strong enough to negotiate with. (How negative is that?!?) I’m so proud of her, but I don’t feel like colleges will kick in any more than they initially offered.
Thanks for the suggestion of Agnes Scott and St. John’s. I’ll take a look. We live in the middle of the county, and my daughter does not want to go too far, but we will take a look. Hendrix is actually one of the schools we’ve applied to, but
Our oldest did two years of community college and is now at our state flagship. It’s expensive, but it’s only two years, and that makes all the difference in the world to us. We cannot afford our EFC for four years, and especially not that for two kids.
Our youngest was none too pleased, after working so hard in high school, the list of schools I was putting on her list that were affordable. She thought she deserved much better.
People here can help you find affordable schools. Do you know what you are able to pay for four years without putting yourself at risk, financially?
Ouch, itsgettingreal17. No need to scold me. I was being sarcastic when I said she should have taken it easy in high school. She chose her courses based on what interested her and what would challenge her. And I’m not naive enough to think that a 31 will get her a big scholarship to Duke or Harvard, but surely some colleges not in the “Top 200” would consider her worthy. I’m just trying to help her land at a school where she can get a good education.
Harvard only gives need based financial aid, no merit from them
Also,while this is very frustrating for you (and I feel for you), let’s put this in perspective; it was her hard work that got her the scholarships that she did receive. Your daughter got 1/2 tuition at schools where other have received nothing. I am quite sure that you would not want to trade places.
Some schools will tell you straight up the qualifications for their big scholarships;
Some are straight numbers based, if you don’t have the numbers, you don’t get the scholarship. There is no rounding or no just being one point off.
SAT/ACT score + GPA/Rank
Some schools may superscore, while others only look at single sitting scores
Some schools only give merit as an endowed scholarship as part of their need based aid
ETA: Muhlenberg’s comprehensive tuition and fees are $48, 310. Their largest merit scholarship is 18k. This will really not put a big dent in the cost of attendance (once you add in room an board ) for a family with a large EFC
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/aboutus/finaid/applyingforaid/merit.html
DId you apply to your state flagship? Does it have an honor’s college? Maybe that’s a better alternative than a private college that doesn’t offer enough merit. If you say your flagship, people might be able to give you better feedback.
My state flagship is University of Arkansas. Yes, she has applied and has been accepted to the Honor’s College there. We have not gotten any notification about financial awards yet, but hear that they don’t give a lot. They are supposed to send out notifications this week, but I’m not very hopeful.
And knowing an intended major as well as how much you can afford to pay for 4 years are key for any of us to help with suggestions.
My son has stats pretty similar to your daughter’s. The results aren’t all in yet, but so far I feel he has a lot of scholarships to choose from, and several are significant.
You shouldn’t expect any/much from “reachy” schools, but maybe look at your list again! We’re still getting a lot of emails from schools offering to extend deadlines etc.
She is interested in mathematics, so that is what she is listing as her area of interest on all college application forms. Of course, you can go many directions with that… statistics, finance, engineering, etc. We can afford to pay$10K a year.
Did you hear back from all the schools she applied? It is still early in this admission season. If you can’t afford any of her choices community college and transfer to university route might work. My oldest son took this route and landed a successful career.
If she’s from Arkansas, you may want to look at places up north. She would give them geographic diversity, which some schools seek. Vassar tries to get about two students minimum from every state, it seems. She should try there. Vassar has been known to work with students’ finances a little.
She should also look at St. Lawrence U (another great school not on people’s radar); Colby; Bates; Trinity U in Hartford; Connecticut College; Whitman in Washington State; Earlham in Indiana (nice school, nice values, and gives merit); Union in Schenectedy needs girls and may provide great aid. It’s accessible by Amtrak to NYC airports. Marlboro is small but is providing 100% scholarships to the luckiest from each state, called Renaissance.
https://www.marlboro.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/types/renaissance
If she’s interested in sustainibility, Green Mountain College is offering $200,000 scholarship
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/green-mountain-college-announces-200000-scholarship-award-to-help-a-student-pursue-sustainable-education-300387865.html
St. John’s has decent mathematics taught from an interesting perspective. I know someone our age who graduated in math from there. He’s happy with his education.
There are lots of small schools in Pennsylvania that have excellent academics and would love to have your daughter.
We had no need, either, but Muhlenberg found need for my D as part of their preferential packaging. They gave her a lot, lot of money, so you could be surprised there.