Do people really get 60K full scholarships?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or when they say that do they mean full tuition scholarships? Even that seems huge. Well, unless you have sports or some unique story.

I notice a lot of low and middle class kids brag about their "full scholarships" when it's really just financial aid.

The T20 universities give really really really generous aid packages.

I'm a PP, and the student I was talking about absolutely did not qualify for aid ... not by a long shot. Didn't even ask for aid or money or anything. The full scholarship offer was a happy surprise. So yes, there is real merit $$ out there.

Yes, there is merit money out there. T20 schools do not award merit scholarships, with a couple of exceptions (U Chicago for example).

[Anonymous]

Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

[Anonymous]

DD just got her first email laying out what amounts she would be eligible for, specifically $24,000 based on GPA and test scores. Unfortunately, not a school or location in which she's interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

What is your point, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

Getting a big merit scholarship doesn't guarantee success in college. It's a reward for past actions, not forward looking one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

What is your point, exactly?

Nothing. Other than a girl was effectively given a free diploma from a highly regarded college and threw it away.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I saw the offer letters for a child I know from multiple top 10 (Ivy+ Stanford) that included virtually everything. Top student with other characteristics many schools had to compete for. Not an athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, Harvard has deep pockets

Harvard has great financial aid - and meets full need at a much higher salary level than many other universities - but they do not offer any merit aid.

That's true of all the Ivy League. There are no academic or athletic scholarships in the Ivy League.

But Harvard and a number of other Ivies, maybe all of them, also have a program whereby if the Household Income is less than $60,000 than the child attends the school for free (absolutely no charge for tuition or room and board). It is a great program and they definitely do it, not just talk about it.

Follow up - I am not disagreeing with the prior poster. Because Harvard does not offer merit aid and none of the Ivies offer scholarships (academic, arts or athletic) but Harvard, Yale and other Ivies do offer a program for those students whose Household Income is below $60,000.

That's financial aid, not a scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

What is your point, exactly?

Nothing. Other than a girl was effectively given a free diploma from a highly regarded college and threw it away.

That has no relevance to this discussion. None. WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I saw the offer letters for a child I know from multiple top 10 (Ivy+ Stanford) that included virtually everything. Top student with other characteristics many schools had to compete for. Not an athlete.

Yes. Financial aid. Not scholarships, financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had a classmate who was offered a virtual full ride at Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. This was years ago when the full package was around 30k a year. Only thing she had to pay out of pocket were daily necessities easily covered with a part time job or parental assistance.

Chose Bryn Mawr and dropped out summer after junior year. Decided to take a year off to "find herself" but never returned and years later still doesn't have a BA from what I understand and is working at a lowly non-profit somewhere in California.

What a girl.

What is your point, exactly?

Nothing. Other than a girl was effectively given a free diploma from a highly regarded college and threw it away.

That has no relevance to this discussion. None. WTF.

Why are you so angry?

OP asked if people really received full rides at expensive colleges. People are chiming in with yes answers. As I did and went ahead and added an anecdote about what happened to the person I knew who got a full ride. Would you like to keep criticizing me?

[Anonymous]

There is such a thing as a financial aid scholarship. The Quest Bridge scholarship is a full ride to the best universities and LACS out there. Students admitted in the first round get a guaranteed full ride. It is very competitive, with less than 5% of applicants getting in. Even though the app is reserved for low income students, colleges tend to take the best in that first round, so it counts as a merit scholarship.

[Anonymous]

That has no relevance to this discussion. None. WTF.

Why so angry?

- np

[Anonymous]

When people say, "So-and-so got a full ride to Harvard or Yale or whatever" they're talking about full need-based and not merit aid but they don't know the difference. Even newspapers don't make this distinction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When people say, "So-and-so got a full ride to Harvard or Yale or whatever" they're talking about full need-based and not merit aid but they don't know the difference. Even newspapers don't make this distinction.

This. Elite colleges' financial aid packages actually use "scholarship" repeatedly.

Even non elite privates do this with high sticker prices ... but then give every Tom Dick & Harry an annual $15,000 "scholarship".