applicannot

Loans are loans. They suck! Paying for college if my responsibility. If I want to go out of state to an expensive school, unfortunately, I'm going to have to shoulder a lot of debt. For me, it totally sucks, but it's a reality. PrincetonReview has American listed at 96%, but if 68% is more reasonable, ugh. I'm hoping that I do not have to graduate with more than $40,000 in debt. The $30,000 number is probably realistic - CC is not a cross-section of the U.S. How many kids went to community college for two years? How many kids went to school in state? Those kids have considerably less debt than some of the high-reaching CC kids.

cyberadius

My S has been admitted to Uni Of Oklahoma Honors program. National Merit Finalist. Outstanding academics and ECs. They are offering almost a full ride. Anyone know anything about the program?

renascentia

Notre Dame does NOT give merit aid (these cases are rare). Their aid is based solely on financial need. I have had this confirmed by students as well as the financial aid advisor himself. However, they do give generous need-based aid.

Texas A&M awarded me several scholarships amounting to $73,000 thus far. $2000 was made from being a NMSF, and another $34,000 from NMF with A&M as my first choice college. With my scholarship application, I earned the remainder.

To summarize my credentials:
- 4.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale, SAT 2350, top 1% of class
- Student council president, two years as class president, and one year as Student Council secretary
- NHS member
- Orchestra member
- Three essays submitted with scholarship application.

Good luck and gig 'em!

Jstyles18

A friend of mine just received the full tuition scholarship at University of Richmond. She was picked as a finalist then had to go to Richmond and audition for 3 days. It's valued at $143,000!!!

chaospaladin

This is a helpful thread for students with high income who do not qualify for need-based aid.

turquoisepearl

You're going to get a good education anywhere you go so you could just apply to local schools that are still good schools but have trouble attracting good students and they'll give you good scholarships. A good "tell" for these schools are those with a high acceptance rate but a moderately high drop out rate and a big range of SAT scores (from very high to pretty low - because not enough competitive people go there). And usually small.

sk8rmom

Slightly OT, but I found a page on finaid.org that lists schools with tuition freezes, cuts, and level tuition for all four years. Some info about schools that guarantee level grants for all years too. It seems to be up to date for the 09/10 year:

FinAid | Tuition Freezes, Tuition Cuts and Level Tuition

LightBright

This is true, I've received 24k scholarships to both Tulane and UM. Unfortunately, they are not my favorite schools. :x

But they are both very good schools, and as a Miami resident, I can tell you that UM is looked upon very fondly for those that study medicine and health sciences and intend to do research.

springy

For U of Richmond friend receiving merit scholarship + interviews required, can you update that info? What was the outcome & what are her plans now? We just visited U of Richmond & liked it.

daffinito

I would love to know the stats of the Richmond scholarship award winner. My D was hoping for that based on her stats and their profiles, and didn't even get to the first phase. When we inquired why, given her stats (4.0 UW, 8 APs with 5's and 1 4, 2280 SAT) we were told it is a "holistic" evaluation. That reads minorities, etc.. to me....not truly merit.

twomules

Richmond has some pretty clear guidelines as to what they are looking for:

Richmond Scholars Selection Process

First-year admission applicants who apply by December 15 of the senior year compete for 50 Richmond Scholar awards. As is the case with consideration for admission, the evaluation process is highly personalized and holistic. The writing sample is crucial because it is the medium through which the potential for special contributions to the University community can be assessed. While grade point averages and test scores are critical, they do not represent the whole student and are not used for either automatic inclusion or exclusion.

Successful candidates demonstrate one or more from the following list of accomplishments and qualities:

Outstanding and engaged scholarship
Desire to be at the forefront in the creation and discovery of new knowledge
Leadership skills
Desire to be a leader in service to society
Broad worldview
Excitement about learning from people who are different from themselves in a diverse community of scholars
Recognition of the importance of personal integrity and ethical decision making
Enthusiastic pursuit of self-improvement
Desire to make the most of opportunities presented
Exceptional talent in artistic expression

I imagine that there is a lot of competition for these scholarships. Please don't blame a hypothetical minority for your disappointment.

soccersamdude11

not the best college, but St.Johns University gives you full tuition and half room/board if you have over 1350 on the SAT and above a 95 GPA automatically.

sharonohio

springy, my D was one of the Richmond scholars winners. After the initial application is submitted (and there is an early date for the submission), the school does an initial screening and selects and notifies semifinalists to apply for the particular Richmond scholarship program they are interested in (there are 3 different ones). They do this on a rolling basis so not everyone is notified they are a semifinalist at the same time. You can apply to 2 of the 3. The student has approximately 2 weeks to complete the application which includes at least one additional essay. You can submit additional recommendations if you want as well. They then narrow the semifinalists to finalist who are invited to 3 days on campus for an interview and visit. The main interview is a panel interview (for science my D had an interview with members of 5 different departments). The actual Richmond scholars are notified within a few days of their visit.

As an aside, I believe the number of Richmond scholars has decreased to 45 (I saw this somewhere but don't remember where).

mom at home

chaospaladin, what would you term as "high income"?

mombear

Hi,
I was wondering which St. John's you are referring to, my son just looked at the one in MN and is very interested.