scholarship search

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.

Like where? What's your definition of second and third tier schools??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.


Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.

+1. My DC got large merit scholarships from Colleges that Change Lives Schools with a 3.45 wGPA and a 30 ACT, and ended up attending an OOS public school with a more modest scholarship (total cost about $33K).

If your kid wants a bigger school, a 3.6 and decent test scores will probably get him merit aid at most public flagships in New England. Ohio State has a $13,500 scholarship for kids who are in the top 25% of the class and have a 29 ACT or 1330 SAT. University of Delaware has $8000 for OOS students with a 3.5 and a 1370 SAT. Schools with marching bands might have a small music scholarship on top of merit if your kid wants to do that. There are plenty of merit scholarships out there for merely "good" students if you don't turn your nose up at schools that aren't at the top of the rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.

Like where? What's your definition of second and third tier schools??

DP (I'm the one who posted the Kiplinger's guide). If you do a sort by % of students with no demonstrated need receiving merit aid, you will see that Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Rhodes, University of Dallas, DePauw, St. John's College, Centre College and others all give scholarships to almost everyone admitted. I think that all of those schools are in the top 100, and generally of good value, especially if you plan on grad school of some sort. In general, these schools have pretty big endowments but are in rural areas that are out of favor. You can still get an excellent education at these schools, IF your student is interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.

Like where? What's your definition of second and third tier schools??

DP (I'm the one who posted the Kiplinger's guide). If you do a sort by % of students with no demonstrated need receiving merit aid, you will see that Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Rhodes, University of Dallas, DePauw, St. John's College, Centre College and others all give scholarships to almost everyone admitted. I think that all of those schools are in the top 100, and generally of good value, especially if you plan on grad school of some sort. In general, these schools have pretty big endowments but are in rural areas that are out of favor. You can still get an excellent education at these schools, IF your student is interested.

Almost all private schools give out "merit" scholarship - usually 15k/year or so. The problem is, while helpful, it's usually not enough to make the school affordable. Families still have to make up 45k + per year. Not many families can do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We r in the Boston area also. The college coach - just makes sure u submit all the materials needed on time. If u are well organized, u can enter all the info in a spreadsheet. This is what I did to help my kids - enter all the essay questions for all the schools they wanted to apply to. This way you can see the similar questions to narrow down the number of essays.

Look overseas also - Canadian schools and even British schools. U can finish in 3 years over there.

Look at out of state like Alabama who gives $$$ to north east kids.

You sounded like you were way too involved and your child did very little

[Anonymous]

op here-thank you everyone, great info! We will not qualify for need based assistance, and my son is open to all schools, we are not hung up on labels. He would not do well in a very conservative, competitive school. I am hoping he can bring his GPA up, he has two years until we need to apply just to give him as many options as possible. He wants to major in biology,in hopes of working in the medical field in some capacity. He goes back and forth between pediatric medicine and genetics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here-thank you everyone, great info! We will not qualify for need based assistance, and my son is open to all schools, we are not hung up on labels. He would not do well in a very conservative, competitive school. I am hoping he can bring his GPA up, he has two years until we need to apply just to give him as many options as possible. He wants to major in biology,in hopes of working in the medical field in some capacity. He goes back and forth between pediatric medicine and genetics.

With an interest in the medical field, take a look at Case Western. It might be a bit of a reach for him (depending on his GPA when he applies - he's a little below the median now - also depending on scores), but not a massive reach. If his GPA comes up and/or if he scores well on SAT or ACT, he might even get some merit aid there. They're very good for medical-related careers and have a nice atmosphere that sounds like it would fit what you're describing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most, if not all, merit scholarships are stats driven unless your kid is a recruited. Realistically, with 3.6 weighted GPA, it is very unlikely.

Actually, for a boy especially, a weighted 3.6 GPA will get merit aid at second and third tier schools.

OP, look at Colleges That Change Lives schools.

Like where? What's your definition of second and third tier schools??

I don't have one. The point is, if you go down the USNWR rankings past about #25 or 30, you will find solid schools that award merit aid to good students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op here-thank you everyone, great info! We will not qualify for need based assistance, and my son is open to all schools, we are not hung up on labels. He would not do well in a very conservative, competitive school. I am hoping he can bring his GPA up, he has two years until we need to apply just to give him as many options as possible. He wants to major in biology,in hopes of working in the medical field in some capacity. He goes back and forth between pediatric medicine and genetics.

Consider Juniata, College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, and Allegheny.

Juniata in particular has outstanding science departments and would give a good merit aid package to your son.

We loved it when we visited - I was very impressed.

[Anonymous]

NP here -- I've done some of the College Solution free webinars and may sign up for the course -- she always gives a coupon out at the end of the free webinar. She is definitely a big believer in the Colleges that Change Lives.

Another point she makes is that you *cannot* let the kid be in the driver's seat of choosing colleges if you can't afford to pay full freight everywhere he might get in. There are a lot of posters on this particular board who throw fits about helicopter parenting/you're raising a wuss/your kid is the adult and it's his responsibility etc., but when it comes to paying tens of thousands a year in tuition and costs those posters are full of crap.

We are also in the boat of making way too much to ever qualify for financial aid and not having saved $300/K for each of our three kids to pay full freight at an Ivy or similarly-priced private college or university. So you can bet we will be very involved in our kids' college searches, because there is absolutely no sense in them picking lists of 12-15 schools that simply aren't affordable under any scenario.

My oldest is on track to have a very strong GPA and scores, and I know he wants to apply to several top-ranked schools because he's heard of them and they have good programs in what he wants to do. But it is not realistic for him to apply, because we just can't afford them if he gets in. My husband and I are both legacies of the same Ivy and we have a deep legacy history with that school, but there is no way my kids can apply ED (which is when the legacy helps, but you still have to have the table stakes of grades/SATs) because we couldn't afford the sticker price. So we are really hoping he wants to go to our state university and we are going to have to help him find other schools, whether out-of-state state universities or smaller colleges that give sufficient discounts through merit aid to make it affordable. He's got to focus on his grades, and he neither can -- nor should he have to -- figure out the financial range of what we can afford to do for him. That part is our job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here -- I've done some of the College Solution free webinars and may sign up for the course -- she always gives a coupon out at the end of the free webinar. She is definitely a big believer in the Colleges that Change Lives.

Another point she makes is that you *cannot* let the kid be in the driver's seat of choosing colleges if you can't afford to pay full freight everywhere he might get in. There are a lot of posters on this particular board who throw fits about helicopter parenting/you're raising a wuss/your kid is the adult and it's his responsibility etc., but when it comes to paying tens of thousands a year in tuition and costs those posters are full of crap.

We are also in the boat of making way too much to ever qualify for financial aid and not having saved $300/K for each of our three kids to pay full freight at an Ivy or similarly-priced private college or university. So you can bet we will be very involved in our kids' college searches, because there is absolutely no sense in them picking lists of 12-15 schools that simply aren't affordable under any scenario.

My oldest is on track to have a very strong GPA and scores, and I know he wants to apply to several top-ranked schools because he's heard of them and they have good programs in what he wants to do. But it is not realistic for him to apply, because we just can't afford them if he gets in. My husband and I are both legacies of the same Ivy and we have a deep legacy history with that school, but there is no way my kids can apply ED (which is when the legacy helps, but you still have to have the table stakes of grades/SATs) because we couldn't afford the sticker price. So we are really hoping he wants to go to our state university and we are going to have to help him find other schools, whether out-of-state state universities or smaller colleges that give sufficient discounts through merit aid to make it affordable. He's got to focus on his grades, and he neither can -- nor should he have to -- figure out the financial range of what we can afford to do for him. That part is our job.

+1M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:op here-thank you everyone, great info! We will not qualify for need based assistance, and my son is open to all schools, we are not hung up on labels. He would not do well in a very conservative, competitive school. I am hoping he can bring his GPA up, he has two years until we need to apply just to give him as many options as possible. He wants to major in biology,in hopes of working in the medical field in some capacity. He goes back and forth between pediatric medicine and genetics.

Consider Juniata, College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, and Allegheny.

Juniata in particular has outstanding science departments and would give a good merit aid package to your son.

We loved it when we visited - I was very impressed.

These are great! Wonderful resource, thx!