University Scholars and full tuition questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I have a few questions about the University Scholars program. They offer everyone full tuition that's accepted to University Scholars. I was wondering do we get additional money for National Merit or is it possible to get any additional money at all? If I get community or outside scholarships, would they decrease my merit scholarship or would that money be able to be put towards room/board/books/etc? It would be great if outside scholarships could be used towards room/board/books and maybe result in a full ride. </p>

<p>Also, is there anyone in University Scholars that knows more about it? I know there's the scholarship money component but do we get any other benefits beside the money? Sorry, I've actually never heard about this program before so I don't know much about it. And does anyone know approximately how many University scholars are accepted/offered each year and about how many actually enroll? I couldn't find that info anywhere on the website. </p>

2

<p>No, I don’t think you can add NMF money. They don’t stack merit aid. I’m not sure how Scholars generally operates, but usually your grant aid is decreased less the value of any outside scholarships if you have any (and merit aid is considered grant aid). Which seems SO ridiculous to me, and defeats the point of even applying for the scholarships.</p>

<p>It is just a bit cruel to tell a kid their achievements are worth $20k, and then when you go out of your way to apply for scholarships to cover other costs and be a proactive, mindful student thinking about your financial future…they say “Oh, you’ve raised more money? Well, we’ll take away some of the money you earned so your net price is the same. Thanks for helping US spend less!”</p>

<p>Sad, really. If they could originally afford to offer you a certain amount in merit, I don’t see how it’s at all fair to decrease that. You’re still giving the school money when you get outside scholarships, like it’s not costing NEU anything… the money just doesn’t come out of YOUR pocket. Especially when the college has millions of dollars to dole out, and $10,000 is a drop in the bucket for a college while it’s a huge amount of money for families applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>Sorry for that rant. Just drives me absolutely nuts that the school does that when it literally does not cost the school a thing to let us pay with outside scholarship money. It’s borderline stealing…</p>

<p>Note: I think you can use outside scholarships up to the point if it’s over your total grant aid…but if you’re a Scholar, I doubt you can raise $40k+/5 years in community scholarships.</p>

3

<p>@fyshyyy: Scholars program from the NU website:
<a href=“University Scholars Program - Northeastern University”>http://www.northeastern.edu/universityscholars/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Northeastern has a limited endowment. It is not a rich school like the Ivies. Need based grants are given in addition to merit scholarships to those who qualify. The university does not “owe” an applicant or a student anything. </p>

4

<p>Not a rich school, but if they can afford to offer extensive merit scholarships to tens of thousands of kids every year, I’d say they have enough money to swing $2500 they offered in the first place.</p>

<p>I never said they owed a student anything, but it seems a tiny bit unfair to offer a student an amount in merit money- based on MERIT, not need- and then decrease that amount if you go out of your way to find extraneous scholarships. I would understand if they decreased need aid if your need decreased, but decreasing merit just doesn’t make sense to me…</p>

<p>To put it in perspective: a well-off family could have a student receive $25k Dean’s Scholarship. Price tag: $35k. When it’s learned the family has the money to pay regardless, merit aid is still given; this money is awarded because admissions determines the student earned it. Final price: $35k.</p>

<p>A student gets $25k Dean’s. Current price tag: $35k. The student busts his or her butt to find outside scholarships, miraculously raises $25k in outside scholarships. The school takes away all of the aid offered on merit, and price tag remains $35k. </p>

<p>??? Do you see what I mean? This type of policy doesn’t make sense. The school won’t take your merit money away even if you don’t need it, but if you try to raise money to make your own cost less… they take away merit and net cost is the same. I’m not saying the school has to offer merit to anyone, so don’t pull the typical “you’re ungrateful!” routine please. I’m just saying, if they are telling me that I earned a $25k scholarship based on my accomplishments, it seems a little unethical to reduce that amount because a student is finding more outside money. The student is not any dumber or less impressive than they were when they were awarded a MERIT award, so how is it fair to take it away? It doesn’t cost the school a cent to accept money from another source on your behalf rather than your own pocket.</p>

<p>Call me spoiled and ungrateful if you want, but I hope you see how this system is flawed. I know this isn’t just at NEU, and I know I don’t have to go here, plenty of good state schools, yadda yadda yadda…but the way it works is just illogical. Again, sorry for the rant, but I am pointing out why this system doesn’t make sense to me and I do not apologize for expressing my opinion.</p>

<p>Congrats, btw, on Scholars acceptance- that’s insane, I’m sure you worked your butt off so you deserve it.</p>

5

<p>fyshvvv: my daughter is a scholar. Yes, you can use your outside scholarship to pay for room & board. I do believe you can use $2500 NMS money towards room & board & books etc. (my daughter was NM finalist, but no money). Last year, there were about 130 scholars enrolled. A lot of them was accepted to top schools by common standard (Stanford, UPenn, Cornell, UVA, Hopkins etc)</p>

6

<p>Hi! I am a current Northeastern University Scholar and ran across these posts trying to figure out if admissions decisions had been released and just wanted to clarify a few things about the problem to mitigate your confusion.</p>

<p>First, you can not get more money from the university aside from the full-tuition scholarship unless you qualify for financial aid (aka your expected financial contribution from the FAFSA is less than about $15,000). Outside scholarships can be used to cover the cost of room and board. Also, look into Northeastern’s co-op program. I don’t have time to go into detail here, but there’s a good chance that you will leave Northeastern earning more money than you paid for room and board.</p>

<p>Second, the scholars program is much much much much more than a scholarship. We are offered limitless opportunities and resources. There is a USP welcome weekend in March and students’ plane tickets as well as hotel costs are covered for coming to Boston, and I strongly recommend visiting. It’s a really nice weekend and gives you a better idea of what Northeastern and the Scholars program are all about. Also check out the University Scholars website. It’s an incredible opportunity and the students in the program receive incredible offers from other great schools and choose Northeastern over them because of the perks of this program. I hope this helped!</p>

7

<p>Summary for the aid:
You cannot stack other Northeastern merit aid with University Scholars
Outside scholarships will NOT be subtracted from your full tuition scholarship. (It will be additional)
Need-based aid is adjusted based on the total amount of scholarships you have. (This is universal, not just a Northeastern thing.)</p>

<p>And everyone I know who’s in University Scholars seems really happy about their decision. I wish they’d had the program when I started. :)</p>

8

<p>Do you think it is worth it to take the USP over other more “prestigious” schools such as Dartmouth and Cornell or even Yale and Harvard?</p>

9

<p>If you desire prestige don’t go to northeastern - go to the ivy. </p>

10

<p>I believe outside scholarships can be used can be used for room and board. Only if the outside scholarships go over room and board, would they reduce the university scholars full tuition merit aid.</p>

11

<p>@provie I would say a lot of scholars would tell you definitely yes. If all you want on your resume is the name of your school, then go to an ivy league school. At Northeastern, you would be at a top 50 school and given incredible opportunities because you’re treated in a way that allows you to feel like you can grow into something more than you would blending into the crowd at an ivy league school. That being said, your college decision is yours. I strongly recommend checking out the scholars weekend and figuring out what is best for you.</p>

12

<p>Definitely go to the scholars weekend before making a decision - especially since it’s entirely paid for.
Also consider your costs. USP covers full tuition. If you went to the other schools, how much would you be paying and would it be affordable?</p>

13

<p>I know that University Scholars represents the top 1-2% of applicants, which is pretty awesome, and I’m sure there are other perks at the school as well. It’s a full tuition scholarship, and I believe it takes precedence over NMF scholarships since it’s a bigger sum of money. The way I understood it is that you are able to use outside scholarships, though, toward room, board, books, etc</p>

14

<p>Do you need to apply early in order to qualify?
Any idea what kind of stats get you into Scholars? Would top 2% of HS class and 1520 (math/reading) SAT be good enough or is it more competitive? </p>

15

<p>You do not need to apply early to qualify. It’s really hard to give stats for the scholars program because students are chosen so holistically.</p>

16

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I’m a current scholar and I would say you should really go to scholars weekend before making a decision. I met people at Scholars weekend who went to other schools and love it there, however everyone I’ve met in the Scholars program loves it and is so happy to be here. They really care about us, and the director knows us all, what we’ve done, and what we are currently doing. They started a new fund this year called the Scholars Independent Research Fund which -after you apply and write a proposal- allows you to get up to 4,000 dollars to do research over the summer and present it to the school, in the Fall. They’re doing it not only to give us experience with research- although most of us are already involved in some type of research- but to practice for applying for grants such as Fullbrights. If anyone would like to talk more about it, I’d be happy to, just message me. I love coming back to this forum as a college freshman because I was in your position last year, and now I’m so happy that I came to Northeastern, so I want to help people make the best decision for them. Hope I helped!</p>

17

<p>Hello:</p>

<p>My question is…if you name Northeastern for NMF choice and receive the 30k can you use what you recvd. in the NE need based University Award to make up the difference. Potentially up to full-ride?</p>

18

<p>No, it’s either-or. You can perhaps stack minor awards (maybe a music or departmental scholarship) onto major awards (like Dean’s, NM, or University Scholars), but you can’t stack major awards. However, external scholarship money will not affect what you get from Northeastern scholarships.</p>

19

<p>nanotechnolgy:</p>

<p>The Northeastern University Grant is need based and the NHF scholarship is merit based. Are you positive those can’t be stacked?</p>

20

<p>Sorry, I misread the University Award as University Scholars since you posted on the University Scholars thread.
Combining merit aid and need-based aid is somewhat unpredictable. You will not get the full value of the need-based aid when you get the $30,000 scholarship. It will be reduced. By how much is what is uncertain. That kind of combination varies from university to university and depends on your EFC as calculated by the university and what percentage of need they will meet. It’s impossible to say exactly what the result will be in your case.</p>