SageWoman

Greetings. I'm new to the site, but have been reading voraciously and wanted to share my experience thus far.

DS1 is a high school senior, 3.5+ GPA at his tiny non-ranking Charter High School. His first round of SAT yielded a 1350 and he's retaking in hopes of doing better. Our school is so rural and small that we don't have AP or IB classes available (our entire school is 20 students) but he has gotten a very good education and writes quite well, so he should ace any essays. Functionally, he's much like a home-schooled kid. He wrote his first (unpublished) novel at the age of 15, has designed websites, and wants to be a sci-fi writer. His interests for college majors are foreign languages, Asian studies, and linguistics.

Long story, but our family has decided our budget is $20K USD per kid, per year (inflation adjusted of course) for our three sons. Unfortunately, our EFC is around $30-$40K due to inflated real estate values of our rather undeveloped rental property. (We have no IRAs or 401k plans as we are self-employed and were poor as church mice until recently when our business started doing well.)

So we have a middle-income "gap" of around $10-$20K depending on how the numbers work out. DS1 has Asperger's Syndrome (High-functioning autism) -- but due to intensive socialization at high school and home passes as a regular kid, if a bit of a "Professor" type. He needs the social support and personal attention of a small, residential-based LAC so virtually all the California state schools are out of the picture. (DS2 would probably do great at a CSU or UC, fortunately.)

We are looking for about $10-$20K in merit aid and have narrowed our local search to: Willamette (match), Albertsons (safety), Whitman (stretch for merit aid), UPS (match) and possibly, my alma mater, Lewis & Clark. (Which doesn't seem to be giving out much merit aid lately.)

Farther afield, we are investigating Rhodes, Hendrix, Macalester. Earlham, Dickinson, Grinnell, Southwestern, Drew and Rice (huge stretch, I know.) I'd also like to bring to the list's attention our three Ultimate Safety Schools: St. Francis Xavier, Mount Allison, and Bishop's. You've probably never heard of these schools, but they are Tier 2 LACs in Canada, and they have international costs that total around $20K US per year so they are within our budgets.

Any advice would be helpful, but I mostly wanted to share our process and point out that there are excellent schools in Canada which, even for US resident/citizen students are wonderful values. All three of the schools we have picked are well-ranked for LACs, but public. (There are no private universities in Canada.) Most Canadian public universities are huge, but there are about a dozen (including those above) which are LAC and fairly small. Well worth looking into if you are willing to look "outside the box."

john2k07

hi, i am new here. Does lack of comunity service hurt my chance to aplly for scholarships ingeneral?
thank everyone

Catfish

Indiana University
Wells (Welles?) Scholarship
Full ride into honors college, study abroad, living stipend

ajbergs

Ann/ladylimodriver- U Pittsburgh is a good school to look at for scholarships, they offer full tuition and a full tuition + room and board that are definitely within your son's reach. It's rolling admission and you don't have to fill out any extra application, they tell you if you've qualified and they responded to me three weeks after I applied.

LBP

ajbergs, did you get any merit $ from UPitt? Will you share your stats? Thanks!

freddy89

LSU
Golden Oaks Scholarship
Full tuition+
4 years

Nebraska
Hispanic Scholar Award
Full tuition

catbagheera

I realize it is competitive but I am a Merit Semi-finalist (expect to be named Finalist--90% of Semi's are named "Finalists")

We also have financial need based on FASFA

I am Native American and an Oklahoma native.

I represent the 4th generation of my family attempting to reach the goal of obtaining a first rate, prestigious university. Much effort, sweat and hard labor by my great grandparents, grandparents (farmers and ranchers) and parents. My Mom has sacrified a great deal so that I could attend a private school and have the necessary preparation to excel.

In your opinion, is it worth my time to apply for the full ride scholarships and UNC and Wake Forest?

catbagheera

I realize it is competitive but I am a Merit Semi-finalist (expect to be named Finalist--90% of Semi's are named "Finalists")

We also have financial need based on FASFA

I am Native American and an Oklahoma native.

I represent the 4th generation of my family attempting to reach the goal of obtaining a first rate, prestigious university. Much effort, sweat and hard labor by my great grandparents, grandparents (farmers and ranchers) and parents. My Mom has sacrified a great deal so that I could attend a private school and have the necessary preparation to excel.

In your opinion, is it worth my time to apply for the full ride scholarships and UNC and Wake Forest?

Rick Tyler

Cat, first off, congratulations. I was actually the second person in either side of my family to earn a college degree, since my mom went to college when I was a boy and earned her BA when I was in 8th grade.

To get the scholarship you need to be admitted first. I assume from your question that you are already pretty sure you will be admitted to UNC and Wake Forest? If that's so, go ahead and apply for the scholarship! What's to lose?

You probably already know that OU will give you a full-ride if you are a NM Finalist, right?

Good luck!

Calewis

Can anyone list some scholarships primarily for community service - my A. has an amazing project since 9th grade and has won tons of awards, - also a great student

HOBYNC

In direct response to your question about scholarships for community-service, I must first preface my remarks by stating that just about every college or university is excited to see a student involved as extensively as you mentioned in service to their community. While 4 service specific awards stand out, the Prudential Spirit of Community, the AXA, the Presidential Service, and the Coca-Cola, practically every major merit based award contains a substantial service component. Please take note- this means they are looking for students who live in a mindset of service to others. They are not looking for a student who conveniently managers to obtain a position volunteering at a community agency in his junior year, just in time to build a lucid facade of altrusism. We are looking for a citizen-of-the-world outlook that transcends the lines of a resume. Keep that in mind. However, if the student is truly devoted to a single service project, has the support and recognition to show for it, this one thing could in and of itself land that student numerous scholarships and acceptances. So, make sure to keep that up and highlight the achievement. If you have specific questions, please contact me personally through a PM.

cptofthehouse

Sagewoman, if you are willing to send'em east, check out some of the smaller SUNY schools, York College, Grove City, Elon, UNCAsheville, Mary Washington, Evergreen State, Mesa State, UMaine-Presque Isle, --actually Maine, West Virginia, NY have some smaller inexpensive state schools. PA maybe too, though their cost has been rising astronomically.

RedJayhawk

Cat, many congrats on Natl Merit recognition. With that accolade, and your status as a Native American, I feel very, very confident you will be a very highly valued candidate to most any college you apply to. This is the case from my observation for Natl Merit black students, so I belive it will be even more the case in your situation since there is an even smaller group of Native American National Merit students. So apply to UNC and Wake, but aim higher too! Remember that private schools usually offer a sweeter deal than out-of-state public schools.
Good luck! You'll do great!!

RedJayhawk

This site purporting to list Natl Merit free ride sites may be helpful:
http://homepage.mac.com/l_j/secondho...nal_Merit.html

MissMichelle

Purdue offers a scholarship to instate students called the Indiana Top Resident Award--it's good for full tuition/fees. Preference is given to NMSF's--basically, that's a shoo-in for the award. There is also one called the Academic Success Award that is about $9000 spread over four years.