When are "all the cards on the table"?

<p>He has applied for many, many scholarships, so far has only received a "guaranteed" one (for any kid with x gpa and attending that school) and a 80% full ride from a tiny college with only about 1000 population that doesn't have courses for his major. He will reject that offer just on the fact that he would not get what he needs or wants there. The scholarships are not coming in yet, if they even will. It's not his GPA (3.9), his EC (stu gov pres, ES, NMS commended, etc), and definitely not because of his ACT (35). Doesn't qualify for needbased and DH thinks that is part of the reason. </p>

<p>So the question is: when do most of the scholarship notifications come in? Is it too late and we should start making other plans (in spite of what FASFA believes, we can't spend every spare dollar on college).</p>

<p>My son’s merit offers all arrived within a week or two of his acceptance letters.</p>

<p>Also, although the things you listed above are all wonderful and probably gained your son his admissions offers, whether or not they are good enough to get him merit money depends on the school you’re talking about. If he’s looking at very top tier schools they will have dozens of accepted students with 3.9 GPAs and EC’s out the wazoo. If he’s been accepted at slightly less selective schools, they might offer merit money to encourage him to come there.</p>

<p>Merit money is not a reward for high school achievements. It’s a way for a college to entice a student they really want to attend there. If your student doesn’t really stand out from the rest they won’t get a merit offer, and you wouldn’t believe the <em>amazing</em> students that are a dime a dozen at some of the top LACs. (no knock on your son intended!)</p>

<p>There are 2 factors(maybe more) that are working against your son (and my D) getting merit aid. The sheer numbers of students graduating this year which translates into more outstanding kids than ever before, and the economy.
Even though my D has very good stats and has been accepted to some very good schools and is waiting to hear from 3 more, she has not been a finalist for any scholarships that require an application nor has she been given any merit money except at Alabama, Baylor and Furman (5K).(Accepted to WashU,Rice,UVA-Echols-as OOS!,W&M-Monroe-as OOS! and Furman-Furman scholar). Waiting for Duke,Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.
If you do not qualify for need based aid, I really wonder if these schools are quietly selecting some of the exceptional kids who need aid over equally exceptional kids who don’t qualify for aid in order to reduce their handouts in the face of devastated endowments. I can’t say I blame them if they do, but it is disappointing nonetheless.</p>

<p>It’s like Lafalum says, they have to be applying to a second tier school. Both of mine ended up with merit money but they are attending honors programs at schools where they were in the top percent of applicants.</p>

<p>Merit (non-need-based) awards normally come with the acceptance letter (if RD) or within a week or two of that – definitely by early April.</p>

<p>What the other posters have said is absolutely true. Whether or not merit aid is offered – and how much is offered – is very much up to each individual school and will depend not on your son’s stats per se but on where your son stands with respect to the entire applicant pool. A student usually must be in the top 10 - 15% to receive any significant $$$. </p>

<p>I trust that he applied to some schools that do offer generous merit aid. Most of the very top schools offer little or no non-need-based aid (so your DH would be absolutely right at those schools).</p>

<p>The type of school’s worriedmom is referring to would fall under the realm of financial safeties. Schools he would be happy to attend and you could afford regardless if any aid (merit or need) came through.</p>

<p>For our family our local community college was our financial safety if part-time employment was also held. And one daughter did in fact begin her college education there and soon after transferred to a school she could not have gotten into straight out of high school.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

<p>I would suggest that the card playing analogy just does not fit very well. Most highly selective schools are very upfront about scholarships and provide little or no merit-based support.</p>

<p>S was accepted into Honors, but no Honor scholarship (the list of places those kids were from is more like Republic of China, etc), not an ivy school but a state school. I would estimate that he clearly would be in the top 10-15% since at the time of application he was at 4.0/35. Just thinking a state school was probably a mistake.</p>

<p>Several years ago our oldest child received some large merit scholarships from state flagship in April. These were awards that were not publicized at a school that gives few free rides or merit scholarships, so you never know, it may not be too late. But I should add that in our case it was clearly aimed at recruiting a female to engineering.</p>

<p>I sympathize with your situation. It is very tough to have a kid who has done everything right and is not satisfied with the financial choices.</p>

<p>Assuming nothing comes in in the next month it seems to me that you and your son have to make a decision. Either go with what he has or have him take a gap year, figure out what you are willing/able to pay, and do a really thorough search, looking for schools where he has a chance for substantial merit money (if the 3.9 is unweighted, I think that there are a number of state schools that might fit the bill–Pitt comes to mind immediately). In making the search, a) call the schools that look promising and b) look at the CC acceptance threads. The threads often contain stats and scholarships.</p>

<p>Thanks EMM and others. There won’t be a gap year. Our oldest did that, got a job, and that was all she wrote. College is a distant dream that is talked about alot now that 30 is knocking on the door, but kids, family and life happened and it’s just too hard to squeeze in. </p>

<p>S is determined and is going in the fall to the school of his choice, “no matter what” to quote him. According to FASFA we can pay the whole tuition but FASFA has no clue at what the economy has done to our retirement money with no pension plan in the picture. I’m sure it is that way for many, many people. As a frustrated and concerned mom, it’s hard hard to turn down 80% tuition from one college just because his heart (and the gf) are set on going to one that seems to offer nothing. Study hard and work hard is what we have taught him, and yet now when it seems that it doesn’t count, it is very disheartening and depressing. He says he will get loans but the fact that he wouldn’t have to get as much if he would take the scholarship just makes little sense to me. In the long run, I KNOW it’s his life and his decision. I just hate for it to begin with a financial struggle.</p>

<p>Son was admitted to 8 schools. Merit aid offers came with the acceptance letter to 6 of them. One followed within a week. One took about three months.</p>

<p>Back in December Son completed the app for scholarships for his state safety. The deadline was Feb. 1. I finally got antsy and called yesterday and they said that notifications would be going out around April 1.</p>

<p>If there is a specific scholarship for which your child has applied that you are really impatient about, call or email the school…they may roll their eyes, but you won’t see them.</p>

<p>Also, don’t know if you saw my post a while back on the 09 thread, but one school had an on line chart of what $ a student got for what scores, classes,etc. I thought Son was $1000 short a year so I got up the courage to email the adcom. He ended up getting another $5000 a year because they had missed some things on the transscript. </p>

<p>SO, if you really think that some $ should be coming, go ahead and contact the school.</p>

<p>We planned our applications with our third one so that he would be likely to get merit money. We learned that after our oldest who was a recruited athlete with good stats only got one athletic/merit award which was from his safety school. He got into a goodly number of schools, but not a dime was offered. The second one did get a number of merit awards, mainly for performing arts talent, but not a one was over $5K which isn’t very helpful when you are looking at $50k+ COA. </p>

<p>So for the third one, we deliberately looked for good schools that would want his SAT. Not schools where many of the kids had high test scores. Also looked for schools that were girl heavy in applicants and added some that were out of geographics. Also looked for the more unusual majors, but that was mainly because he did not want to go into a traditional liberal arts program. We also selected schools with low sticker prices. So we had a nice assortment of colleges that would want him for a number of reasons. </p>

<p>His offers ranged from full ride + to zilch. Not surprisingly, the zilch was from the schools that were a bit of a reach for him that had many kids from our area applying there. I know many stellar kids from the NE with far better numbers than my son who did not get a dime from Holy Cross or BC, for example. But move the action to the midwest or southwest, and the scholarship offers were rolling in.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the way to get merit aid in this climate is to apply to second- or third-tier schools, and apply against type. For instance, if your S is willing to attend a school with more girls, he could conceivably wind up with substantial aid. A student from an under-represented geographical area might get aid as an inducement to enrollment.</p>

<p>Missypie - Similar thing happened with my daughter. We emailed to ask if there was anything additional she needed to do to apply for a particular scholarship I thought she qualify for with her newest ACT score. I got a very nice reply saying unfortunately she did not actually qualify for it and that they were sorry and knew it must be disappointing. We replied very nicely thanking them for responding and said in passing that yes it was disappointing as, when we had initially asked about the scholarship qualifications, we thought she would qualify which is why she retook the ACT. Thought that was that. The person we corresponded with (who I think was actually the department head) decided to go check my daughter’s records himself and discovered someone had entered her stats into the computer wrongly. This meant she wasn’t flagged as eligible for that and a couple of other scholarships we had hoped she might get. A couple of days later she was offered the scholarship which was worth several $000 a year more than her initial scholarship (and more than the others she had missed out on). I could have just gone and hugged the person who took the time to actually check it out. </p>

<p>I am not usually a squeaky wheel type but it paid of in this instance. So it is always worth asking.</p>

<p>And we negotiated our merit award up. So it is definitely worth bringing up the issue with financial aid and admissions.</p>

<p>Second the last point. Found out to my dismay at the end of the process that one school explicitly asked if S had merit offers from other school with the possibility of matching. So go to lower tier schools, get money and bargain hard. (I HATE that idea, but if those are the rules…)</p>

<p>There’s something very hard about asking someone to “notice” your child if they have overlooked them the first time around, but I sent an email and got response within minutes stating they would forward the email to several others to reconsider his file. At this point the answer felt like a probable “no” so as many have said…what would it hurt? We will soon find out if there is any hope left.</p>

<p>^^^^
Totally understand your feelings of frustration. Our D’s chosen a state university (didn’t want to go far from home and has everything she wants to study). It’s always been her first choice, and yes, academically, it’s the best fit for her in the state. But it’s frustrating that even at a state school, she’s been offered no merit aid. Her stats are 4.0u.w./4.7w, 35 ACT, valedectorian … etc. etc. She was sick the day she took the PSAT, so she missed semi-finalist (made commended). And, just like you (and the rest of the country), our EFC with two kids in college … well, we’ll make it work, but with the current economy we don’t have easy access to certain funds. Seems crazy that someone with those kind of stats qualifies for nothing from the university … sigh. </p>

<p>zebes, still hoping she gets the corporate national merit award (they will pay for both semi-finalist and commended, depending on the year and how many kids qualify)</p>

<p>EMM1,</p>

<p>My opinion, FWIW, is that schools only “match” when they are close. They see no need to match with lower tier.</p>