Colleges That Award Grants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, meant to mention that we're not eligible for financial aid, but we do not have enough money to pay for the $60K plus cost of private schools. DD really wants a small school and many of the terrific ones -- Bowdoin, Hamilton, Williams, etc. -- would be great fits for her, but we can't afford the tuition, even though the schools seem to think we can (huh?). If DD doesn't get merit aid, she's going to state U, huge, but better than no college.

There are plenty of small schools, less highly ranked but still terrific, that DO offer merit aid. Macalester, Oberlin, Richmond, Colorado College, Kenyon, Lafayette, Bard, Mount Holyoke, Sewanee, Union, Whitman, Dickinson, St. Olaf, Gettysburg, Beloit, St Lawrence, Lawrence, Kalamazoo, Wooster.....

[Anonymous]

^^ I'd add Washington & Jefferson College to that list. Great pre-med program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of them. It is referred to as merit aid.

Yep, only a very small number of schools DONT give merit aid. Pretty much only the Ivy League, Stanford, and a handful of highly ranked SLACs have policies against merit aid.

duke, MIT caltech and Carnegie mellon don't give merit either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost all of them. It is referred to as merit aid.

Yep, only a very small number of schools DONT give merit aid. Pretty much only the Ivy League, Stanford, and a handful of highly ranked SLACs have policies against merit aid.

duke, MIT caltech and Carnegie mellon don't give merit either

CMU offers merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Duke has merit aid as well.

[Anonymous]

I guess it depends on what your student is like. Harvard-caliber, maybe she'd get merit aid from Duke, CMU, etc. But unless your student would otherwise get into Ivies, I would not go into the process expecting that she'd get aid from Duke, CMU, etc.

[Anonymous]

OP, tell your DC to go to his high school counseling office. They can point him to online and paper lists of scholarship sources offered by colleges, foundations and other donors who aren't connected to a particular college.

For example, there's actually college scholarship money for kids who speak the Star Trek language Klingon. That probably doesn't apply to your kid (or mine). But it's an example of some of the more obscure sources of aid that your kid might qualify for. More likely, Joe and Mary Smith will have donated a $2,000 annual award for students at their alma mater, college X who are studying Y (usually Joe or Mary's own department).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, tell your DC to go to his high school counseling office. They can point him to online and paper lists of scholarship sources offered by colleges, foundations and other donors who aren't connected to a particular college.

For example, there's actually college scholarship money for kids who speak the Star Trek language Klingon. That probably doesn't apply to your kid (or mine). But it's an example of some of the more obscure sources of aid that your kid might qualify for. More likely, Joe and Mary Smith will have donated a $2,000 annual award for students at their alma mater, college X who are studying Y (usually Joe or Mary's own department).

We've looked at the Fastweb scholarships and really can't figure out how DD will be able to win $40K in scholarship money (repeated for four years) that will enable her to go to the very nice SLACs she's qualified for (and likely to get into) that would put the price of those SLACs on a par with the price of our state U. Has anyone's kid found $40K in scholarship money? We also found out that even if DD gets, say, $20K in merit aid from no-name SLAC, any outside scholarship money she wins will be DEDUCTED from her merit grant!!

I went to a great private college many years ago, when it was completely within reach of the middle class. Now Ivies and top-SLACs are for the poor and rich. The middle class are completely shut out unless they want to take out extra mortgages or break into their retirement funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, tell your DC to go to his high school counseling office. They can point him to online and paper lists of scholarship sources offered by colleges, foundations and other donors who aren't connected to a particular college.

For example, there's actually college scholarship money for kids who speak the Star Trek language Klingon. That probably doesn't apply to your kid (or mine). But it's an example of some of the more obscure sources of aid that your kid might qualify for. More likely, Joe and Mary Smith will have donated a $2,000 annual award for students at their alma mater, college X who are studying Y (usually Joe or Mary's own department).

We've looked at the Fastweb scholarships and really can't figure out how DD will be able to win $40K in scholarship money (repeated for four years) that will enable her to go to the very nice SLACs she's qualified for (and likely to get into) that would put the price of those SLACs on a par with the price of our state U. Has anyone's kid found $40K in scholarship money? We also found out that even if DD gets, say, $20K in merit aid from no-name SLAC, any outside scholarship money she wins will be DEDUCTED from her merit grant!!

I went to a great private college many years ago, when it was completely within reach of the middle class. Now Ivies and top-SLACs are for the poor and rich. The middle class are completely shut out unless they want to take out extra mortgages or break into their retirement funds.

Yesterday, we did a tour/information session of Princeton. DC will compete with 20,000 of their closest academic friends.

But what really stood out was the financial aid package. In addition to talking about holistic admissions, she said that with income of $120,00-$140,0000, the grants cover a whopping 86% of the tuition! $180,000-$200,000, 65% of the tuition. Of course, this is tuition and does not include room and board but the lower the income, that's when room and board is included.

I won't post the entire financial aid list (pretty sure it's online) that's in the information packet provided but the speaker said that Princeton's purpose is not to graduate any student in academic debt. The most debt is about $5500 and that's because a student purchases things like computers, etc.

Yes, the admissions acceptance is abysmal but if DC can get in, no way is DC turning down Princeton if they will pay the tuition. No way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, tell your DC to go to his high school counseling office. They can point him to online and paper lists of scholarship sources offered by colleges, foundations and other donors who aren't connected to a particular college.

For example, there's actually college scholarship money for kids who speak the Star Trek language Klingon. That probably doesn't apply to your kid (or mine). But it's an example of some of the more obscure sources of aid that your kid might qualify for. More likely, Joe and Mary Smith will have donated a $2,000 annual award for students at their alma mater, college X who are studying Y (usually Joe or Mary's own department).

We've looked at the Fastweb scholarships and really can't figure out how DD will be able to win $40K in scholarship money (repeated for four years) that will enable her to go to the very nice SLACs she's qualified for (and likely to get into) that would put the price of those SLACs on a par with the price of our state U. Has anyone's kid found $40K in scholarship money? We also found out that even if DD gets, say, $20K in merit aid from no-name SLAC, any outside scholarship money she wins will be DEDUCTED from her merit grant!!

I went to a great private college many years ago, when it was completely within reach of the middle class. Now Ivies and top-SLACs are for the poor and rich. The middle class are completely shut out unless they want to take out extra mortgages or break into their retirement funds.

Yesterday, we did a tour/information session of Princeton. DC will compete with 20,000 of their closest academic friends.

But what really stood out was the financial aid package. In addition to talking about holistic admissions, she said that with income of $120,00-$140,0000, the grants cover a whopping 86% of the tuition! $180,000-$200,000, 65% of the tuition. Of course, this is tuition and does not include room and board but the lower the income, that's when room and board is included.

I won't post the entire financial aid list (pretty sure it's online) that's in the information packet provided but the speaker said that Princeton's purpose is not to graduate any student in academic debt. The most debt is about $5500 and that's because a student purchases things like computers, etc.

Yes, the admissions acceptance is abysmal but if DC can get in, no way is DC turning down Princeton if they will pay the tuition. No way!

Correction....$120,000-$140,000, 97% of tuition; $140,000-$160,000, 86% of tuition.

[Anonymous]

Those Princeton "grants:" Are they for anyone?

Your daughter will be competing with non-legacy applicants. Good luck.

(For Princeton's class of 2015, 33% of legacy applicants were admitted. The overall admissions rate for that class was 8.5%.)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/legacy-kids-have-an-admissions-advantage-2013-6#ixzz3BtYvhji6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those Princeton "grants:" Are they for anyone?

Your daughter will be competing with non-legacy applicants. Good luck.

(For Princeton's class of 2015, 33% of legacy applicants were admitted. The overall admissions rate for that class was 8.5%.)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/legacy-kids-have-an-admissions-advantage-2013-6#ixzz3BtYvhji6

What part of 'acceptance is abysmal' in the PP's post did you miss?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, tell your DC to go to his high school counseling office. They can point him to online and paper lists of scholarship sources offered by colleges, foundations and other donors who aren't connected to a particular college.

For example, there's actually college scholarship money for kids who speak the Star Trek language Klingon. That probably doesn't apply to your kid (or mine). But it's an example of some of the more obscure sources of aid that your kid might qualify for. More likely, Joe and Mary Smith will have donated a $2,000 annual award for students at their alma mater, college X who are studying Y (usually Joe or Mary's own department).

We've looked at the Fastweb scholarships and really can't figure out how DD will be able to win $40K in scholarship money (repeated for four years) that will enable her to go to the very nice SLACs she's qualified for (and likely to get into) that would put the price of those SLACs on a par with the price of our state U. Has anyone's kid found $40K in scholarship money? We also found out that even if DD gets, say, $20K in merit aid from no-name SLAC, any outside scholarship money she wins will be DEDUCTED from her merit grant!!

I went to a great private college many years ago, when it was completely within reach of the middle class. Now Ivies and top-SLACs are for the poor and rich. The middle class are completely shut out unless they want to take out extra mortgages or break into their retirement funds.

Yesterday, we did a tour/information session of Princeton. DC will compete with 20,000 of their closest academic friends.

But what really stood out was the financial aid package. In addition to talking about holistic admissions, she said that with income of $120,00-$140,0000, the grants cover a whopping 86% of the tuition! $180,000-$200,000, 65% of the tuition. Of course, this is tuition and does not include room and board but the lower the income, that's when room and board is included.

I won't post the entire financial aid list (pretty sure it's online) that's in the information packet provided but the speaker said that Princeton's purpose is not to graduate any student in academic debt. The most debt is about $5500 and that's because a student purchases things like computers, etc.

Yes, the admissions acceptance is abysmal but if DC can get in, no way is DC turning down Princeton if they will pay the tuition. No way!

Correction....$120,000-$140,000, 97% of tuition; $140,000-$160,000, 86% of tuition.

Is that gross income or AGI?

[Anonymous]

to the PPs posting about Princeton's great FA.

#1, $120-$160K is pretty low wages for the DC area. No way can a family of four (on average) pay $60K+ for college on a $160K income.

#2, Princeton's FA is not offered if you have assets, a paid-off mortgage on a cheap for DC house and retirements savings not in a retirement account.

We're a family of 6 living on a very low income for the DC area, but we're savers and live frugally, so have paid off our mortgage and have some retirement savings. Too much to qualify us for FA, according to the schools. It's very frustrating to us because we can't gut our retirement fund or take out a mortgage on our house to pay for DD's tuition at a private school. If DD doesn't get a lot of merit aid from a "lesser" school, she has to go to our Big State U, which would not suit her.

It's crazy that private schools cost $60K!!! They ought to cost $30K, then they'd be within reach of the middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to the PPs posting about Princeton's great FA.

#1, $120-$160K is pretty low wages for the DC area. No way can a family of four (on average) pay $60K+ for college on a $160K income.

#2, Princeton's FA is not offered if you have assets, a paid-off mortgage on a cheap for DC house and retirements savings not in a retirement account.

We're a family of 6 living on a very low income for the DC area, but we're savers and live frugally, so have paid off our mortgage and have some retirement savings. Too much to qualify us for FA, according to the schools. It's very frustrating to us because we can't gut our retirement fund or take out a mortgage on our house to pay for DD's tuition at a private school. If DD doesn't get a lot of merit aid from a "lesser" school, she has to go to our Big State U, which would not suit her.

It's crazy that private schools cost $60K!!! They ought to cost $30K, then they'd be within reach of the middle class.

Princeton's FA package may not work for you but there are many folks out there making $160K who don't have mortgages paid off AND who live in the DC area who do qualify. Every situation is different, and there are a folks including myself that don't consider $160K low wages although you might with 6 people in your family.

If Princeton says (and it's in writing...I checked) they have a no loan policy and their goal is to graduate students with no debt, I would have to believe that there is some merit to what they're saying.