Where Can I Get Good Merit Aid?

Paying for College
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<p>I'm a high school senior, and here's my situation:</p>

<p>My family moved from Korea when I was 12, and we moved to a very affluent town with a great public school. Our income is very high ($200,000), but much of it is sucked dry by taxes and mortgages and my sister's college tuition which go up to about $60,000 a year. My parents work very hard, and my father even works overseas, but the reality is that I could use some help in terms of paying for college. And I know with our income, we won't get much, if any, financial aid. So what I'm hoping for is some merit aid.</p>

<p>Okay, now that we got that out of the way, I'll start with my grades. </p>

<p>I have about a 4.34 weighted and a 3.72 unweighted (might be off by 1 significant figure because I don't have my transcript in front of me) at a top 5 public school in California, with a difficult schedule with lots of APs.</p>

<p>So far, I've taken 5 APs, and I'm taking four more this year. I took AP Chem (4), APUSH (5), AP English (5), AP Psych (5), and AP Euro (5).</p>

<p>I took the SAT last year and got a 2210, but I'm retaking it next week and I think I can do better. </p>

<p>SAT IIs: American History 770
Literature 720 (retaking this too because I didn't finish)
Math II C: didn't take it yet, but I'm taking it in November. Math isn't exactly a strong suit of mine, but I think I can get a 700 or above. I'd have to study a lot though.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
I'm not particularly spectacular in anything. I played tennis all four years, but I'm not good enough to get a scholarship. I love music, and I play the clarinet, the guitar, and the piano. I'm best at clarinet, and I've done groups like All State, All Southern...etc, but again, I've never been top of the top. I'm also in art, but I'm nothing amazing in that either. I love writing the most, and I would love to be a novelist, but I don't really have any awards or anything to prove it. I've had one publication in the school's literary arts magazine, and that's it. I'm also the president of my school's environmentalist club, but I haven't done anything stellar in terms of that. I just care and I made lifestyle changes, but I didn't save the polar bears or anything like that.</p>

<p>Schools I'm applying to are: Brown, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, UCLA, Northwestern, Washington University in St. Louis, UC Berkeley, UCSD, UC Davis, Oberlin, Grinnell, Kenyon, Colgate, Bowdoin, Wesleyan (open to more suggestions though)</p>

<p>I've gotten emails from schools like Drexel and Rice, and they said they'll let me apply for free and I'll automatically be considered for scholarships. Is it likely I'll get a substantial one from those schools?</p>

<p>Yeah, so do you guys know where I can get good merit aid? It doesn't have to be limited to the schools in my list.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, and I guess people say I'm a liberal arts type of guy. I love reading and writing and I'm more geared towards the humanities. But I'm definitely open to give math and sciences another go in college, even though I haven't been to thrilled about them in high school. I keep hearing that someone like me shouldn't go to a LAC because there might not be enough majors for me to explore... So I don't really know about that. But yeah, if you can help me find some schools where I can get merit aid, that'd be great.</p>

<p>THanks a lot!</p>

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<p>Are you a National Merit Semifinalist?</p>

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<p>Oh yeah, I knew I forgot something. Yeah, I am :)</p>

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<p>Hi OP,</p>

<p>Check out this thread here on CC:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Also…</p>

<p>Check out this link for NMF scholarships… (scroll down for the current list)</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-24.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-24.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Have your parents said how much they can contribute towards your college costs? </p>

<p>Most or all of the schools that you’re applying to don’t give much or any merit aid. If you need merit aid, you aren’t applying to the right schools. It’s ok to apply to a few of those schools to see what happens, but you need to apply to schools that give good merit.</p>

<p>Do your parents also have savings?</p>

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<p>Grinnell offers Trustee Fellowship Awards up to $15,000 and your NMF status helps. The tuition is also lower than many comparable schools on the east coast and all activities on campus are free of charge. See the “why grinnell” thread. You should definitely visit if you can. Great music program if you plan to continue playing. The smallest class sizes of any top LAC which results in a lot of focus on writing by the profs (and no TAs). And pay a visit to the tennis team while you’re there-a very nice group.</p>

<p>As an Asian male, you are an under-represented minority in the midwest. Check out Macalester in addition to Oberlin and Kenyon. You might also consider Hendrix and Rhodes. And yes, you should take a look at Rice too. Don’t know Drexel.</p>

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<p>tikiman53 -</p>

<p>You don’t specifically state the answer to this, so I’ve got to ask: What is your immigration status? If you aren’t a citizen yet, and you don’t have a green card, you can’t be considered for NM Finalist status.</p>

<p>There are scads of very fine, less well known, LACs out there where you can get an excellent education, and that might just throw a bit of merit money your way. Grinnell is the most famous LAC in Iowa, but Coe, Drake, Luther, and Wartburg might be very happy to have you. Pick up the USNWR rankings for this year, and take a look at the top regional LACs. You will be surprised at how many there are!</p>

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<p>happymom makes a good point…</p>

<p>If you only have a green card, you need to know the following for NMF</p>

<p>From the website…</p>

<p>Not now a U.S. citizen? Click <a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/citizenship.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/citizenship.pdf&lt;/a&gt; for documentation required from scholarship candidates who have not yet become U.S. citizens.</p>

<p>Not now a U.S. citizen?
If a student who qualifies to continue in the scholarship competition (as a Semifinalist
or Special Scholarship candidate) has not yet become a U.S. citizen, the following documentation
must be submitted to NMSC with the Scholarship Application:
• A letter signed by the student explaining his or her plans for becoming a
citizen, including the date on which the student expects to be eligible and
will apply for U.S. citizenship
AND
• If the student is a U.S. lawful permanent resident, a copy of the student’s
Permanent Resident Card (Green Card); or a copy of the student’s passport
including the identity/biographical page and the “I-551” stamp showing
that the student has been granted lawful permanent resident status
OR
• If the student has applied for U.S. lawful permanent residence, a copy of Form I-797
Receipt Notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) that
verifies that the student filed the “Application to Register Permanent Residence
or Adjust Status” (Form I-485) on or before January 31 of the program year</p>

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<p>THanks for the help</p>

<p>I’m an American citizen. I’ve lived in Korea for about 6 years, but I was born in the states, and was in Korea as an American citizen.</p>

<p>My parents currently do not have any savings. They’re looking to spend maybe $25,000 to $30,000 a year, ideally. The thing is, they know I have good grades and that I worked really hard all of high school, and they are making things difficult because one minute they are telling me I can’t go to any of the colleges I like because they are too expensive, and the next they are telling me that I worked too hard not to go to an extremely prestigious school. But I guess that is a matter I have to talk to my parents about, and it isn’t really relevant to this discussion</p>

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<p>My parents currently do not have any savings. They’re looking to spend maybe $25,000 to $30,000 a year, ideally.</p>

<p>Your parents earn $200k per year. You won’t qualify for any need-based aid except for a small unsub student loan. They will be expected to pay for ALL your costs…not just $25k-30k unless you get a big merit scholarship. </p>

<p>I don’t want to go “off topic” but here’s my concern (others may think the same or differently). I think it’s a very real concern which could have some unfortunate consequences if not considered.</p>

<p>Your parents don’t have any savings, but they’re thinking that they can pay $25k-30k per year out of current income. That sounds very unlikely. It is almost impossible for a family who doesn’t have savings to all of the sudden change their spending habits so abruptly that then can come up with about $2500 per month for college (and since their EFC will be greater than that, they will be expected to come up with more). </p>

<p>I realize that your parents have a strong income, but if they haven’t been able to save at least a $1000 per month up to now, how will they ever come up with more than twice that.</p>

<p>**The potential problem is this. ** Your parents may want you to go to a prestigious school and so you may forgo some big merit scholarship opportunities and accept at a pricey school. After the first semester or so, the reality of paying that much money out of current income will really hit home and your parents won’t be able to continue and you’ll have to leave your school. :(</p>

<p>At that point, you will not be able to go back and grab one of those big scholarships for your stats or your NMF status. Those only go to incoming freshmen…not transfer students.</p>

<p>Do a little experiment. Ask your family to pretend that you’ll be starting college within a couple of months so they need to start setting aside at least $3000/month immediately. If by next April, your family hasn’t easily set aside at least $20k for college and are happily willing to continue through 4 years of college, then it’s rather obvious that they won’t be able to afford to send you to a pricey college.</p>

<p>In reality, the experiment should require them to set aside $4000+ per month because they are used to paying for the little emergencies that happen in life out of current income (car repairs, major appliance replacement, etc) . Since that ability would be severely limited for 4 years, they would also need to have some money set aside for those unexpected costs that always come up in a household.</p>

<p>Again…with their income, most colleges will expect them to pay for all or nearly all costs…not just $25k-30k. You won’t be able to borrow enough (nor should you!!!) to pay the shortfall each year…especially since there may already be a loan in your package if it’s determined that you have some need.</p>

<p>*one minute they are telling me I can’t go to any of the colleges I like because they are too expensive, and the next they are telling me that I worked too hard not to go to an extremely prestigious school. *</p>

<p>One minute they are facing the reality that they won’t be able to come up with the money, and the next minute they are feeling guilty for not having prepared for this. </p>

<p>Do yourself a favor…have them do the above experiment. In the meantime, apply to a few reach schools just to see what happens. But…expect that they won’t be affordable and apply to a few schools that will give you HUGE merit for your stats (including your NMF status).</p>

<p>Thankfully, you are blessed with high stats and NMSF status. :slight_smile: You have many opportunities for large merit scholarships. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>Others? Thoughts???</p>

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<p>The OP says his parents are already paying up to $60K a year for his sister’s tuition. How much longer will your sister be in college? I agree that it would be a good idea for you to look for full tuition scholarships…at least you will have some choices if your folks decide that they can’t afford to be full pay for two kids.</p>

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<p>*I love reading and writing and I’m more geared towards the humanities. But I’m definitely open to give math and sciences another go in college, even though I haven’t been to thrilled about them in high school. *</p>

<p>What kind of career interests you?</p>

<p>I forgot about the sibling in college.</p>

<p>Is your sister in undergrad or grad school? Where does she go to college?</p>

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<p>Yale and Harvard will expect you to pay like 10% of the earned income if they want you. Look at Yale’s website for more info. Some of these people feedback just drives me nuts. I am in the same boat and I have received lots of responses. You may not get 100% tuition deal, but you may get like 50% off. Good luck</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks for all the advice, guys.</p>

<p>My sister is an undergrad at Duke. I don’t mean to disrespect my parents at all, but over the past few years, they have made some bad financial decisions, despite the good intentions, one of which being moving to a very, very expensive city, with only very, very expensive houses on the market. This was exacerbated when my sister decided to go to Duke instead of any of a number of schools that offered her scholarships. And this of course is understandable too because at the time, well, I guess money wasn’t exactly on her mind, and education is really important to her.</p>

<p>My sister will be going to college for 2 more years (including this year), and then she wants to go to law school, and I’m expecting it to be a very, very high-up-there law school because she is very, very ambitious, and insanely smart and studious. Her goal is Harvard, and to be quite honest, I would not be surprised one bit if she got in. But I don’t think she expects to go to grad school right out of undergrad, especially because she has loans to pay that reach several grand a month for many years to come.</p>

<p>As for what kind of career interests me, I’m not 100% sure yet, so I want to go somewhere where there is room to move around. But I’m really interested in things like Environmental studies, environmental law, psychology, teaching, and writing. Somewhere down the road, I’d really like to be a novelist.</p>

<p>So yeah, that is my situation. To be perfectly honest, I’m not all gung-ho about college like the rest of my family. They all place a lot of value in the name of the college, and with good reason, as schools like Dartmouth and Brown, schools that I like, are VERY good schools. And I guess they’d feel like I’d be underachieving if I didn’t go to the top of the top. I go to a really competitive school where everyone is really crazy about college and pines over harvard and yale. Sometimes I can’t help but get sucked into the madness, and I dream of going to a really prestigious school because I worked my tail off in high school and I think I’m pretty smart, so I feel like it’d validate all the stress I had over the years. But I guess that’s the mentality of most high school seniors, and once you get past this step, you stop placing so much value in the ranking of a school and what reaction you get out of people when you tell them you’ve been admitted there. So that being said, I’m not going to shoot myself if I don’t go to a very prestigious, top ten school, even though I really do like Dartmouth and the area.</p>

<p>All I want is a school with intellectual kids. Kids who care about what they’re studying and kids who genuinely want to do great things with their lives, not just in terms of monetary success. I don’t want to go to the school where all the drug dealing football players of America go to, you know what I mean? I’m not saying I don’t want to party, but I don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of drunk people all day. And I’m just worried that if I go to a school that offers me a full ride because of national merit or something, that will be the case. That is the wrong assumption to make, right?</p>

<p>^Act2400, really? Wow! Even with my income, would I be able to get a 50% scholarship at schools like Yale and Harvard?</p>

<p>And I should probably add that I’m going to work when I’m in college. And I will be doing everything I can to pay for what I can. Would I be able to make much of a dent?</p>

<p>Any more advice would be greatly appreciated! Advice like certain schools, personal experience…etc…</p>

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<p>Both DDs had stats similar to yours. One attends Denison with a full tuition scholarship, the other attends Lewis and Clark with 1/2 tuition. Both very good schools and you would get the same deal as a NMF.</p>

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<p>Disclaimer: I am not familiar with Harvard or Yale and they may be more generous. At Princeton, the relevant aid information is at [Princeton</a> University | Who Qualifies for Aid?](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualifies/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualifies/)</p>

<p>Some families with above $200k in income do qualify, usually because they have 2+ kids in college.</p>

<p>Be aware that the average grant for families above $200k is “only” $17k.</p>

<p>I can’t speak to all full-ride schools, but I know the University of Oklahoma has almost 700 National Merit Scholars on campus. That’s a pretty large group of very smart peers. You can live in housing with other NMFs - your roommate will be one.</p>

<p>Schools such as Alabama may have similar programs.</p>

<p>You can always apply to many places and wait until aid offers are in to decide.</p>

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<p>OP, I attend the University of Maryland Honors College as a Banneker/Key Scholar(I pay nothing). I love it here. Beautiful campus, great fellow students, wonderful choice of classes. I couldn’t be happier. Maryland is a very highly rated school (number 36 in the world by ARWU) My stats were higher than yours (4.0 gpa, more APs) but you are competitive. The application deadline is Nov. 1.</p>

<p>[ARWU</a> 2010](<a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp]ARWU”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp)</p>

<p>[Banneker/Key</a> Scholars - Honors College - University of Maryland](<a href=“http://www.bannekerkey.umd.edu/]Banneker/Key”>http://www.bannekerkey.umd.edu/)</p>

<p>The University of Maryland grants application fee waivers for National Merit finalists or semi-finalists, so you have nothing to lose.</p>

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<p>Wow, 17K is a lot more than I expected!</p>

<p>Maybe I can make this work, if I get a part time job during the school year, and I also work during the summers. That being said, would it be unwise to apply ED to Dartmouth? Because if they admit me, but they don’t give me enough aid, then I’d be in quite a pickle…</p>

<p>And noimagination, thanks a lot. Wow, yeah, that’s good to hear</p>

<p>^ Awesome, Plumazul. Definitely gonna look into that</p>

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<p>*Wow, 17K is a lot more than I expected!</p>

<p>Maybe I can make this work, if I get a part time job during the school year, and I also work during the summers. *</p>

<p>That info is for Princeton…NOT Dartmouth. Dartmouth does **NOT **have the generous aid policy that Princeton has. </p>

<p>Also…keep in mind that you can’t put all your earnings towards direct college costs. While in school, students have daily expenses. No student wants to be the one stuck in his dorm because he has no pocket money to go out with friends for a pizza, a show, or whatever. College kids need some “walking around pocket money.”</p>

<p>*I can’t speak to all full-ride schools, but I know the University of Oklahoma has almost 700 National Merit Scholars on campus. That’s a pretty large group of very smart peers. You can live in housing with other NMFs - your roommate will be one.</p>

<p>Schools such as Alabama may have similar programs.*</p>

<p>This is true. And, Alabama has over 500 national scholars on campus. So, any of these schools that have lots of national scholars on campus are going to have a lot of smart kids as classmates and suitemates.</p>

<p>I can’t speak to all full-ride schools, but I know the University of Oklahoma has almost 700 National Merit Scholars on campus. That’s a pretty large group of very smart peers. You can live in housing with other NMFs - your roommate will be one.</p>

<p>Schools such as Alabama may have similar programs.</p>