OHMomof2

S was accepted off a wait list last year for a school that was a top choice. Something about not being accepted right away made him like it less. He also made his decision on another school and felt committed. When the wait list offer came on May 2, he was pleased, and they did offer a good FA/merit package....but not as good as the school he'd originally chosen, there was a gap I feel like they must have known would be a difficulty for us.

He turned it down rather than negotiate the package, because he'd fallen in love with the other school by then.

happymomof1

School district superintendents, HS principals, HS guidance counselors, HS teachers, and even families that just live down the street who are invested in the game of "my school/district is better than that one", gain many more points based on the numbers of students accepted at Fill-In-Favorite-Colleges-And-Universities-Here than they do for actual college attendance. They gain even fewer (if it is possible to imagine that small a number of points) for college completion. This means that there is very little incentive for the high school staff members to pay attention to affordability, other than for those students who can score ginormous merit scholarships (which add to the points score of course).

Changing the way the game is scored would be a good start. Tracking college completion is extremely difficult given the unexpected turns that lives can take, but many high schools have a solid notion of which colleges and universities their students do intend to enroll in by the day of HS graduation. Perhaps there is a way to add this into Naviance with a code for "chosen because of cost to student".

Anbu1998

it is all about money in the end so go work

momofmusician17

Okay - I am getting a little worried. My son is applying to several Ivies through Questbridge. That application and the supplements are taking up the majority of his time. I am definitely going to have to get him going on the scholarships.

dodgersmom

WHERE are you getting this message???

College affordability is not about applying for outside scholarships. It's about applying to schools where your family would qualify for significant need-based aid (which your son is already doing) and also applying to schools where your son's GPA and SAT/ACT scores would make him eligible for significant merit aid.

He's doing the first part. Now all he has to do is find several less competitive schools where his stat's would qualify him for merit aid. There are several schools that offer automatic grants for incoming students with grades and test scores above a certain level. Your son can find those here and here. Then he can also look at schools that offer competitive merit awards - focusing on those schools where his stat's would put him in the very top percent of the students applying to that school.

Outside scholarships are not the answer!

happymomof1

A student who gets this far into the Questbridge process, is likely to have the grades and exam scores to qualify for good merit-based aid. Instead of chasing the rare big outside scholarships, a QB candidate should read through the threads in this forum on guaranteed merit aid, and sit down with his/her own guidance counselor to fin out about state and local scholarships that could kick in if that student ends up at a local school.

alejandrabby

That sounds tragic /:

OHMomof2

Doesn't Questbridge itself offer this guidance?