<p>My daughter will be a high school senior this year. We have visited many colleges in our area. What is the truth about state universities and financial aid? We are looking at a few great universities oos, and people are saying they don't give money. My daughter is highly qualified 4.4gpa, leadership, volunteer work, etc. In particular, Penn State, U of Maryland, UNC. We won't be able to afford $40 grand a year, with our income. I know that we will be filling out FASFA but, I am inquiring about scholarship money.</p>
<p>We will apply to private colleges as well, which seem to offer more scholarship money, but She really liked U of Maryland and it had the programs she wants to study.</p>
<p>very few publics cover full need-based aid for OOS students; their obvious focus is instate, long-time taxpayers. Many non-top publics do offer merit aid to attract OOS. </p>
<p>UVa is one public school that does cover full need-based aid for OOS. UNC is extremely difficult for OOS, so your D better have top grades and test scores, and apply early.</p>
<p>Like all things, it depends on the school. Some state schools do want OOS students and have some nice scholarships for them. UBuffalo is an example. Some state schools don’t have much in scholarships for ANYONE, like Penn State. As a rule, most state schools do not meet financial need for most of their kids. If you look at the average need met for a student, the numbers are often below 50%. Yes, there are kids who get 100% of need met, but they are the top of the applicant or someone the school really, really wants. I know that for UMD if a student comes from certain underrepresented, disadvantaged parts of the state, that is taken into consideration both in financial awards and admissions standards.</p>
<p>Look at the stats for your schools as to what % of need is met and look for merit awards listed on the web site so you can see which ones OOS kids can also receive. THat’ll give you some idea what the chances of getting any money.</p>
<p>My friend’s D graduated from Penn State. She was an OOS student, was in the honors college and graduated at the top of her huge class. I believe all she got was about $2500 in scholarship money. The parents paid over $30K a year for the education and that was some years ago. Another very good student we know went to Miami of Ohio and didn’t get any merit money at all. She did get merit money from a number of private and in state schools, but was stuck on MOO. </p>
<p>We are looking at some OOS colleges because they do come in at around the $35K range which is our limit. Our son is not likely to get any merit money from the schools on his list, which means that the pricey privates are out of range. So it comes down to commuting privates, OOS public schools, low sticker price school, extreme safety schools, and in state publics. But some OOS publics are over the $35K mark with costs close to private schools.</p>
<p>OOS publics typically do NOT help OOS students with financial aid. Publics have very little money to give, so they usually reserve it for their own state’s students.</p>
<p>HOWEVER…some (not all) publics will give generous merit scholarships to OOS students who have high stats. </p>
<p>**Your child’s current choices are not the best for big scholarships. ** Those schools don’t offer assured scholarships - only some competitive scholarships. She can try, but she needs some “back up” schools since those may not yield scholarships. There are schools that will give ASSURED scholarships for stats.</p>
<p>ASSURED SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Merit Scholarships given for stats… </p>
<p>You don’t want your D to only have a handful of acceptances at unaffordable schools in the spring. She should also apply to some schools that she KNOWS for sure will give her scholarships.</p>
<p>My daughter is highly qualified 4.4gpa</p>
<p>Great GPA, but schools use SAT and ACT to really determine scholarships, since too many kids have high GPAs. What are her test scores?</p>
<p>How much can you spend each year on her education?</p>
<p>Word to the wise in addition to the great OOS schools youve indentified, make sure your daughter picks at least the top one or two in-state public colleges she is completely willing to attend. And by willing; I dont mean Oh, I guess I can go there if things dont work out but schools that she is truly interested in, even if they are not quite as good as her dream schools. Any great private or OOS public school is going to be very competitive and you may end up with few good options if you dont have a strong in-state public option to use if needed.</p>
<p>My son did well in getting a number of scholarships that ranged from full ride + to those schools that did not offer a dime with quite a bit in between. His best deals by far were the in state publics, followed by commuting to local privates. Though the two OOS schools were in the ballpark because their full price was still within our $35K limit, neither of them offered him any money. He applied for scholarships at one of them but did not make the cut. He did not get into the honors college of the other which would have meant a small automatic scholarship. (grades not great but test scores up there). So, there you go. </p>
<p>Those who posted that test scores are very important in scholarship money are dead on. That’s what it really comes down to for the more substantial awards.</p>
<p>Because money is an issue, this student should pick out a couple of financial safety schools since her favorite OOS publics don’t give assured merit - so there’s a good chance that they could be unaffordable. </p>
<p>In Artspeak’s daughter’s case, a financial safety school could be…</p>
<p>A school that KNOW you can afford to pay all costs (such as an in-state public, a commuter college, etc.), </p>
<p>or…</p>
<p>a school that you KNOW that you can afford because your daughter is ASSURED a good scholarship, and you know that you can cover the rest of the costs with family contribution, and perhaps a small student loan and some work-study.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. Her SAT’s 2000, with another try in October. I think $30,000 is the top. Maybe we could some help from Grandparents if it’s really more then this.</p>
<p>Have your daughter take the ACT as well. Some kids do better on that. </p>
<p>Right now, her SAT isn’t high enough to likely get enough scholarship money at those OOS schools.</p>
<p>Look thru the link that is above. That will give you some ideas.</p>
<p>The FAFSA EFC is rather meaningless for those who don’t qualify for free aid and will be applying to OOS publics and other schools that don’t meet need.</p>
<p>Artspeak, out of your choices, if your daughter can get into UNC (doesn’t look likely at this point), they guarantee to meet need. Getting merit aid is even more difficult. But, I know a lot about the Morehead-Cain and merit through admissions. Message me if you want more info about what they are looking for.</p>
<p>*if your daughter can get into UNC (doesn’t look likely at this point), they guarantee to meet need. *</p>
<p>Yes, but it doesn’t sound like the OP would have a low enough EFC. The COA for UNC for an OOS student is about $40k. So, even if the family has an EFC of - say - $30k, that doesn’t mean that the school is going to give them $10k in free money. UNC would meet that need with a loan and work-study. That can be surprising to some who had hoped to use the student loan and maybe the work-study to go towards family contribution.</p>
<p>* Getting merit aid is even more difficult. *</p>
<p>Very true…</p>
<p>To have the best chance for good merit at the schools that give them, a student should have the test scores to be in the top 5 -10% of the freshman class (and a good GPA as well). </p>
<p>For instance…for UNC-CH…the top 25% of their freshmen, have SATs that are over 2100. So, the top 5-10% would have SATs that are much higher than that…probably 2250+.</p>
<p>Test Scores of the Middle 50% of First-Year Students </p>