<p>How many of you folks turned down a full ride at a Tier I State U Honors Program? Explanations, justifications, and rationalizations are welcome.</p>
<p>My son turned down a full ride to include tuition, books, fees, dorm, food, monthly stipend, etc... School was Michigan State</p>
<p>Justification and rationalization is quite simple. He received 2 other full rides and chose one of them instead.</p>
<p>I would like to add however to the many people out there that question scholarships, grants, etc... No, not all money to go to college COMES FROM THE SCHOOL IN QUESTION. Many people ask about "Merit" scholarships and money. Yes, this is money that comes from the school. And yes, there are schools like Harvard that don't have Merit Scholarships. But there are a LOT OF PRIVATE scholarships out there. Some from Alumni, corporations, individuals, etc... You CAN get a full ride to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, or any other school out there. Are they ALWAYS available to EVERYONE? No, they aren't. But there are a lot more out there than people know.</p>
<p>No. We didn't. Our D turned down entrance to an elite school, because they offered zero aid. We would have to wipe out our savings, borrow a ton of money and basically forget about our two younger kids to pay for Elite University's tuition. The Honors College at our State U looks to be a fabulous opportunity, and they want my daughter there so badly, she's getting great housing, and beaucoup bucks in scholarships.</p>
<p>Luckily my D's full ride school ended up being her first choice -- but we held our breath during the process trying not to influence her and wondering whether we really would pay full price some where else if that was her choice.</p>
<p>I turned down full tuition, room, board, fees (and a stipend) at a state university (not Tier 1...probably the 3rd best in my state but the best for my major). </p>
<p>Instead I went to a liberal arts college that gave me a half-tuition scholarship. Help from my family, plus a lot of work during the school year and summers, covered the rest so I didn't have to take out loans. It was definitely a great choice for me.</p>
<p>We turned down the same MSU offer as Christcorp for son to accept a full tuition scholarship at UofM. Reason is: that's where he wanted to go and we felt he deserved it.</p>
<p>As an NSM, my son got a number of full ride offers - for schools he didn't even apply to. Univ of Central Florida was one. I think Univ of Arizona said they would pay everything and he would have $2000 left over for "expenses."
I thought these were outstanding offers, well worth at least a brief visit. My s didn't agree. He went to his own State U honors college with multiple scholarships. He did get into couple of top 30 privates with zero dollars/
We are grateful... and I believe he is too since he's got money coming to him after he graduates!</p>
<p>DD turned down full ride at PSU Honors College to go to an Ivy. We always told her we would pay the EFC wherever she was accepted and wanted to go. Fortunately, the school in question was very generous in determining need and next year it looks like things will even be better.</p>
<p>She loved PSU, always thought that's where she would go, but she fell in love with her current school when she visited and was so happy to be accepted. She loves the diversity of the student body as well as other aspects of the school.</p>
<p>We have no regrets about her choice and we feel lucky that the financial aid was so generous.</p>
<p>To those of you whose child received a full ride from MSU, do you mind posting you child's stats or anything that you think helped them get the scholarship? That is one of the schools my son may be applying to in the future and I am wondering what kind of stats are needed for those scholarships.
Thanks</p>
<p>As I mentioned earlier; there are a lot of scholarships for school that AREN'T part of the school. My son's full ride was NOT from MSU. It was a PRIVATE scholarship. He had to compete and work his way to a short list. There were 4-5 full rides from this organization. And for what it's worth; MSU is a fantastic school. One of the best Research schools in the country. I definitely rank them very high. Had my son not been offered his #1 and #2 schools, MSU was a given. it was definitely his #3 school.</p>
<p>But, to answer your question. GPA 4.0 (Unweighted); Class Rank #1; IB program; SAT 1950 (only took once because ACT is more common here out west); ACT 30; EC; sports, clubs, officer positions in clubs, volunteer time, etc... </p>
<p>As I mentioned in some other threads, getting accepted to a school goes beyond your stats. It matters a lot WHERE you live; sex; race; desired major; and other things that make you "Unique". I.e. A student with a 1900 SAT can possibly have a BETTER chance of getting into a school compared to a kid with a 2100 SAT. Schools want diversity.</p>
<p>My daughter turned down the NatMerit full rides - with our blessing. (Do those count as Tier I?) We all agreed she's more of a small LAC type kid. Even with the honors colleges within a big U, it's a different environment.<br>
She got just enough merit money from her school that we can manage. If she hadn't, she was prepared to move down her list to a more affordable school (also small).</p>
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<p>My D turned down National Merit full rides for Yale. No riding for her. But couldn't resist the singing bulldog.</p>
<p>D was another one of the NMFs who turned down many four year free rides. We saved all the offer letters (sigh...). She visited many of the schools with the great offers, but in the end she wanted to attend a school that would be FULL of like-minds and wanted to be challenged to the "umph" degree - neither of which she had in h.s. She is at a top 12 school getting only a very small NMF scholarship (and another small gov. scholarship), but is in intellectual heaven. </p>
<p>Older D chose the StateU honors program route and has also been gloriously happy with her choice. To each his own. One year of younger D's education will cost us more than older D's entire four year education. We are just very fortunate that we could afford to let younger D chase her dream.</p>
<p>My son has yet to make his final decision, but I think he is turning down a full ride to UCB and UCLA (Regents Scholar) to go to Stanford (at minimal cost due to their new financial aid initiative).</p>
<p>All three are great schools. He is a lucky kid.</p>
<p>Like Dragonmom's daughter, my DD, also a NMF, turned down unsolicited full rides UCF (Fla), Univ of Oklahoma, Arizona State, Texas A&M honor's programs, and even a sizeable scholarship at Trinity U in San Antonio. She chose a small LAC in upstate NY for the intellectual stimulation with no merit scholarship. Both DH and I support her decision, but I am a little sorry for the lost $$.</p>
<p>Fresnomom,
no I'd say he is a VERY lucky kid! Congratulations!</p>
<p>I turned down a full ride at the University of Maryland-College Park to go to Harvard, where my parents have paid retail. It just seemed wisest to take the amazing opportunity I'd been given, and I also didn't take very well to the hugeness of UMD. My parents fully supported and even encouraged my decision, as they thankfully had planned ahead to be able to pay for all four years of college without a problem. It's all worked out well - I've loved my college experience and now I'm going to graduate school on a full-tuition scholarship. So I'd say that if you're in a position to turn down a full ride comfortably, and have good reason to do so, you should go ahead and do it if "Elite College" is really where you feel you want to be and will thrive.</p>
<p>My daughter turned down a full tuition to a good LAC for a larger and (yes) for an ivy. In our case, we always knew we were going to pay the full fare, therefore finance wasn't really an issue, but at the same time we all could do with extra $160,000. We gave her a choice of going to the LAC and we would help with graduate school/down payment for an apartment, or going to the ivy. She made her choice and also offered to pay $10,000 a year through student loan. We supported her decision because 1) she killed herself in hs to get into a good school, 2) these 4 yrs will be the best years of her life and we wanted her to be happy, 3)possible better employment opportunity. We did it for a lot of intangible reasons. A year later, I think we made the right decision. She is very happy and is doing well.</p>
<p>You would be surprised how many students at elite colleges have turned down full rides at Tier I State universities or second tier colleges. The main reason colleges offer merit aid is to attract students who would not matriculate otherwise. </p>
<p>As most of her classmates at MIT, my D. was offered full rides at several other excellent colleges. MIT only loses 3% of its admitted students to public universities such as Berkeley, UCLA or Michigan. If they turn MIT down, it is nearly always for another elite private college which does not offer merit aid. I am sure the statistics at other elite colleges, both universities and LACs, are similar. If you look at the donor patterns at many of these schools, few alumni seem to regret their choice.</p>
<p>We showed S his college savings/investment account as a HS junior. Told him to apply where he thought best. Similiar to Oldfort. We were full pay but under new guidelines of the money'ed schools, we would be eligible for no loans. </p>
<p>The advantage of being able to pay is the ability to make choices.</p>