Question about college tuition
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Anonymous
| My son will start high school next year. He is good academically but not much into sports. What kind of activities should he do to qualify for any kind of merit or scholarship aid. Also what categories of financial aids are available for college tuition? Can someone please guide. We are immigrants and have no idea how colleges work. Also, I do not think he will qualify for low income financial aid. Please advise. Thankyou. |
Anonymous
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Sometimes schools will offer scholarships for music performance, but if he doesn't already play an instrument/sing, it is probably too late for him to get good enough for that.
The most important thing is for him to get high grades, and (possibly) SAT scores. I say "possibly" about the SAT scores because at this time many schools are allowing students to apply test optional, but we don't know how long that will continue. Do you have money saved for college for him? |
Anonymous
| talent based scholarships - music, sports, and whatnot - are hard to come by if your kid is not recruited. I'd forget that. Your best chances are 1) save agressively; and/or 2) have high stats/ECs. |
Anonymous
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1) For schools he is interested, check the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on their website under financial aid. You might qualify for financial aid at some schools because they are generous with their formulation. It also is a good exercise to get a sense of how much it will cost for different schools so you can plan accordingly.
2) Some schools offer significant merit aid, some schools don't. If he will need merit aid, he will often have to go to a school that is lower than he could get into without merit aid. This forum discussion here has a good list of possibilities: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1047107.page 3) It's very difficult to be recruited as an athlete if your kid isn't already competing at a very high level in a sport. There are some scholarships for arts or music, but they often are fairly small and are usually at private schools that are quite expensive. Some competitions give scholarships as awards, and sometimes you can get small scholarships from your work, community, church etc. if you enter. But most merit aid is for being among the top academic candidates at a given school. It's better to focus on doing sustained activities that your kid enjoys than to try to use it to get merit aid as it's not a very predictable process. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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Merit scholarships from colleges are generally just based on grades/test scores so the top priority is doing well in rigorous classes (don't overdo it on advanced classes if they can't keep up strong grades). Do activities they enjoy and can deepen involvement over time but really ECs don't mean that much. When the time comes, ID colleges where your student will be above the 75%ile in GPA/test scores AND have a record of giving strong merit aid awards -- that info is in their common data set.
Know in advance that the highest ranked schools do NOT give merit aid. However, they can be more generous with need aid (but not all of them and that aid may be loans and needing aid may lower your chance of acceptance). |
Anonymous
Start reading now about options as there is no magic source of money for college, especially if your family does not qualify for what you call "low income" financial aid. As some of the PPs suggested, check out the calculators for a few schools (but a range of private, public, instate, etc) to determine what works with your budget at the moment. Less selective colleges, especially in the Midwest, provide merit aid. If you can only afford an in-state university and your DS wants to attend a liberal arts college, those can be good options. Finally, be realistic with your son now about the options. Some months ago there was a thread on a kid who got into Cornell, the parents were divorced, and the dad said he would not pay for it. The parents - married, divorced, etc - should have been clear with their DC years earlier that an Ivy education was not in the cards, then helped the kid make decisions accordingly. GL! |
Anonymous
This is a helpful post. OP, also pay attention if the merit aid or scholarship is a one-time offering or available annually over the four years. Many community, religious, and similar organizations make one-time awards on graduation. This may defray the cost for one year, but can also obscure the true cost of attendance for a student and family. |
Anonymous
| OP here. Thankyou for the replies so far. I heard some kids play special instrument for college scholarship. Is it true? What kind of instrument? Is it too late to do it? |
Anonymous
The kids who get accepted, let alone merit aid, to play an instrument have been playing for years and have mastered it. Unless your kid is a prodigy, it is already too late for that. |
Anonymous
Playing zill will guarantee you scholarships. |
Anonymous
I would second the high GPA/SAT/ACT and let him pursue the EC of his choosing to the maximum. If it is something he's been into since MS, even better. See if he can think of a creative project to apply those EC skills. Also, do not be afraid to chuck applications to private institutions which are high in price, but you might get lucky and they like what your kid has to offer in just that EC, and they are willing to give you grants to make it affordable. This is what happened to us. We had no expectations and let kid know it would only happen if the college would come down in price. Some really surprised us. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
Anonymous
| OP, thousands of thousands of families try these shortcuts every single year. I'd just focus on making sure your kid is academically as ready as possible rather than wasting time trying to find a hidden path to jackpot. |
Anonymous
Did you even read the very first response? |
Anonymous
If you have to ask.... Simply playing a special instrument is not sufficient. Your DC has to be more than proficient, they have to be good enough to keep pace with the other kids, many who've been playing for over a decade. |
Anonymous
And have played in recitals, showcases, orchestras, etc. OP just playing the oboe or banjo won’t cut it. They need to be a superstar. |