<p>Hello there! I am a NMF, and I am about 90% sure I'll be going to WPI next year. Do you any of you know how generous the school is with its scholarships for NMFs?
Thank you!</p>
<p>Two years ago the (per year) scholarship for NMF was $2k from NMS plus $17k from WPI (Presidential Scholarship).</p>
<p>DragonLady is right, the minimum scholarship you will receive as a NMF is (still) $19,000, via a combination of Presidential and other possible scholarships. My S was initially offered a merit scholarship of $14K (before we knew he had become a finalist) so we know he would have been offered at least $5K more. The problem is, WPI will not give you an updated financial aid estimate until AFTER you name them as your #1 college choice. We asked, twice, via email and phone, and they said No. This seemed very risky to us, because once you’ve been offered a Natl Merit scholarship, there’s no going back. You can’t then change your mind and choose another #1 school. So, you need to be very committed to WPI before naming them as #1. For my son, it was a virtual tie between WPI and another school, and the other school offered him a full ride academic scholarship, including room & board - if he named that school as his #1 choice. And that’s what he did. So, we will never know exactly what WPI would have offered him. WPI was my first choice for him, so I’m a bit disappointed it turned out that way, but I’m sure he’ll do just fine at the other college.</p>
<p>Hmm, for some reason CC isn’t letting me edit my post so I’ll reply to clarify something I wrote earlier. Whichever college is your #1 choice, at this late date in the scholarship process you should be committed to whichever college you name as your #1 choice, not merely WPI. It’s OK to change your mind one or more times until early to mid-March, but then it starts getting dicey.</p>
<p>Thank you, DragonLady and goodncolo, I didn’t realize the $19000 included other scholarships. I have already been offered $15500 a year, so that’s really not that big of a difference. My mind is set on WPI though, so it looks like I’m going to have to figure out a way to come up with at least $15000 more for freshman year alone…</p>
<p>Yes, that fact is easy to miss - we did at first too! Here is some info that you might find useful as you consider the cost of WPI… (And BTW, I do think that the cost, though high, is reasonable.) </p>
<p>About loans… The guideline I’ve read is that debt shouldn’t be higher than what you expect to have as one year’s salary once you graduate. For a technical degree such as comp sci or engineering, it seems reasonable (though not fun!) to allow for a debt of up to ~70K upon graduation with a B.S. degree. The “reasonable” debt amount would be much lower for an education degree (to my regret!) or for a liberal arts degree.</p>
<p>This series of Q&A articles on financial aid (from the NY Times “The Choice” blog) was priceless to me, maybe you’ll find it helpful also - although much of it is “too late” for a graduating h.s. senior.</p>
<p>[MARK</a> KANTROWITZ - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/mark-kantrowitz/]MARK”>Mark Kantrowitz - The Choice Blog - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Thank you, I really do need to read up on that. But the good news is, I’ve just received an email from WPI saying that they have upped my scholarship from 15K to 21K a year. That’s already something.</p>
<p>This is GREAT news - congratulations! I’m especially glad to see this because my younger son has basically already decided that he wants to attend WPI, so having this info about revised scholarship amounts is very helpful to me.</p>