I think @DramaMama2021 had a daughter at W&L…maybe she can advise a little more about the school and the Johnson Scholarship if OP is interested?
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Thanks for the shout out.
Yes, my D21 was a Johnson Scholar at W&L. If the OP wants information on her experience, I am more than happy to share. She had an amazing experience and received (and continues to receive) support towards achieving her goals.
While our experience is from 4 years ago, I will point out that many of the full-ride merit scholarships place great weight on service and leadership. We were a full-pay family on a merit search and my D applied for many full-tuition and full-ride scholarships so we could preserve the 529 for medical school costs. The emphasis on service, community and leadership was pretty consistent across the schools she applied to. At that time we had no idea how the landscape would change, but it is even more important now that students with post-grad aspirations consider that with their budgeting.
It is good you are starting this research early. Best of luck!
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There are a lot of top notch colleges that offer full rides, but you are talking about one or maybe 2 of those scholarships and it could change each year.
I think there are differences OP needs to consider. There are full ride scholarships that are “easier” to get, like UNM and some of the lesser known colleges mentioned already. Then there are the incredibly hard to get scholarships (of which only one or two may be available) at individual colleges for the creme de la creme students. Colleges use those as a way to get very talented students who might be competitive enough for, say, HYPSM. Those are offered, not necessarily applied for. There are outside competitive scholarships such as Stamps and JCK. There are scholarships offered by colleges that might require a separate application or extra supplemental writing and the student might be competing against others to get them. Still other colleges guarantee to meet full need if accepted, but your parents might earn too much for this.
OP should consider what type of student they are and how hard they want to work. You’re a great student. Are you also heavily involved in your community? We need more info from you to help you better.
https://blog. Collegevine .com/colleges-with-free-tuition-for-low-income-students
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There are about 20 Woodruff scholars at Emory, 44 Johnson at W&L, 18 Gabelli at BC, 5 Reynolds at Wake, 250 at Vandy (full tuition, not full ride though). Thus, it seems to be better than one or two.
I think OP just needs to work on the schoolwork, pSAT/SAT/ACT, ECs appealing to OP, and come back next year for clearer pathway forward.
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Are these total number of scholars or those in the freshman entering class?
It is a rough number for freshman.
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The problem is, OP is not from a low-income family (Montgomery county, high end of middle class according to OP, which, since it’s a high-COL area might, in sheer numbers, be considered by colleges as upper-middle class). Parents are telling her that they are not (or not very) interested in paying for her college education. Perhaps they simply are unaware of the ballooning costs and assume their competent child can get through with scholarships and small loans. However, it seems they aren’t very willing to be transparent with OP and are avoiding the conversation until sometime in her senior year. Perhaps they are stalling to get a better sense of their own financial situation.
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Or their financial situation is poor enough that they have no room in their household finances to pay much or anything for college.
OP should make plans assuming no or minimal parent contribution, so that if any comes, it will be a good surprise, rather than the unpleasant surprise if the OP makes plans assuming more parent contribution and then none (or much less) comes.
OP also needs to consider plans that do not involve medical school, since nearly all medical schools are likely to be unaffordable (and getting into any medical school is a reach to begin with).
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If that is the case, it would at least open up some need-based aid, which would bring Ivies and other selective schools back to the table. But that’s what OP needs to find out - they can’t really make a college list without that information, at least in broad strokes for now.
Or as was noted for another poster in the DC area, they may be government workers who are okay for now but anticipating the worst.
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agree.
OP- I’ve been keeping track of the people I meet with cool healthcare jobs who are NOT MD’s.
A woman who develops the statistical models for cancer clinical trials. She has a Master’s in Applied Math (took her one year after her Bachelor’s). A woman who recruits for clinical trials and leads the communications with both the family AND the patient– not as easy as it sounds. She’s responsible for identifying and tracking symptoms which may or may not be relevant. She’s an RN (Bachelor’s degree in nursing, a few years as a bedside nurse in a large teaching hospital, then got recruited to a pharma company.) A guy who runs quality control for a device manufacturer– their output needs to be 100% for anything they ship. So he has a team which monitors dozens of different metrics; he leads the team and troubleshoots every time there’s a change (which is constant- they change vendors for their titanium or a different component for plastic that’s huge.) He has a BS in Industrial Engineering and took a few bio courses which is what got him interested in health care.
There are dozens of cool jobs which get you earning a solid salary a lot faster and cheaper than med school- and frankly, are much easier to get. You don’t need a 3.9 GPA and high score and zillions of hours of shadowing to get a Master’s in Applied math!
Just a notion to keep your spirits up if the costs of med school are getting you down….
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Not necessarily. We don’t get any financial aid, even having 2/3 in college at same time. Financial setbacks like a 10 year wage freeze, which was lifted a couple years before our oldest started college. We did prioritize funding retirement accounts, but weren’t able to fund more than $200,000 in total for 5 kids. Very high COL.
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High income people sometimes have high spending that results in poor household financial situations, resulting in having little money for kids’ college when college financial aid calculations assume a much greater amount of money available.
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And parents need to be careful. Right now many many parents are unemployed in DC area but they still need to pay tuition for their kids in college. DH was just RIFed and we still have 2 in college. Money do not grow on a tree, and colleges will not reconsider FA in the middle of the year. We will survive, but it is hard to pay 2 tuitions, medical bills, and huge taxes from one salary.
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Sending hugs. I sound like a broken record to the folks I know IRL but since I was around for several recessions, I know that even a short term unemployment stint (which I hope is what your H experiences…. a few frustrating weeks of searching but then a fantastic job!) can really wreak havoc on even the most solid financial plan.
I was a neighborhood gathering after the financial crisis and the neighbors were comparing notes on who had slashed what expense (sort of the humble brag). I went home to tell my H “We’re in big trouble” (we were down to one paycheck at the time with two in college). He asked why and I said “We can’t cut out the guy who mows the lawn ‘cause that’s you. We can’t cut premium cable because we don’t have it. I can’t stop shopping at Neiman’s because I never started. We can’t downgrade the cars because we both drive old Hondas and the blue book value is so low it’s not worth selling them. And we can’t stop going out to eat because since the kids started college we already stopped. And we can’t cancel our snow shoveling service since that’s me. So what’s left?”
Big hug to you.
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That is our situation. Never at Starbucks, do not have cable, no grass service, do not eat out, do not have premium phone services, and we stopped any shopping. I told the whole family the only acceptable charge is minimum food at Aldi… The rest goes for water, electrical bills, gas, medical, old cars repairs, taxes, and tuition. Everything to the last penny. Dd was afraid to bring car to repair shop. I said that safety first…
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Living in one of the highest COL areas of the eastern US (apart from NYC, of course) they may be in that grey area in which their mortgage and other costs are sky-high, even if their income on paper is high and won’t garner any or much need-based aid. Still, I’d hope for a little transparency for a child who is obviously conscientious about school and her future and is trying to make plans. Junior year IS the appropriate time to get a sense of what your possibilities are. Doing this her parent’s way (we don’t want to pay for your college ….but maybe we would…) She would have to waste a huge amount of time researching various rabbit holes that won’t ultimately be possible or needed when she really could use the time to study, do ECs, and just enjoy being 16 or 17 without such anxiety. Just applying to schools itself is anxiety enough.
Perhaps OP can make a concise list of the facts for her parents to read: the loan amounts she, as a student would be legally able to take out each year; the cost of the Montgomery County CC, the cost breakdown of UMD and UMBC, Towson and Salisbury for the last two years; the full tuition cost of the various schools her parents think she might ED to along with their possible merit scholarship ranges with academic cutoffs for these and how many applicants for these scholarships per spot there have been in the recent past (to gauge likelihood) and what the remaining costs would be (including room and board, if thats’s necessary). Possibly She could try to guess what the expected NPCs might be by running different income levels ? OP, can you make a chart for your parents of these facts in the most easily-read format you can and tell them as politely as possible that you don’t want to worry for the next year and a half or more to begin to figure out your future, especially as it appears they have left this job up to you?
OP, it is also super-important to let them know that they, as well as your school’s guidance counselor will be required to sign any ED application that states that if accepted, you will attend the school and that your parents will pay the NPC that the school determines to be appropriate without likely knowing what, if any merit you’ll be awarded until after acceptance. While this ED agreement can’t be legally binding (you won’t have to attend the school) it is considered a serious matter to decline, and it may mean that the school will hesitate to admit other students from your high school in the future. This is why the guidance counselor also has to sign the agreement. Maybe your parents were instead thinking of EA instead of ED and simply mixed up the terminology? Early admissions schools (and rolling admissions school) give you early decisions without a binding agreement and will also usually give you info around that time about merit amounts you may have earned and total costs of attendance. There are several EA schools that might be generous (College of Wooster pops to mind…it has been several years since my daughter was applying to college so I really don’t know anymore) but still, you or your parents would likely still owe a good amount. Good luck to you!
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Makes you wish you’d “lived it up”, right?
Agree on safety first. Deferred maintenance (house and cars) is one thing- a safety issue is something else.
Hugs.
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Deferred maintenance is not a good thing. Here’s a story.
The condenser recently blew on my daughter’s AC system due to deferred maintenance. The “kill” switch failed. Water damaged ruined floors, walls, and the ceiling below. The repairs are extensive and expensive.
Re deferred maintenance, you can pay me now or you can pay me more later.
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Some schools do take this into account. We are also in a high COL with an income that on paper appears middle-class, but is greatly offset by the ridiculous rent. We did not qualify for a Pell grant, but when D was applying to schools, everywhere she was accepted offered pretty significant aid. So some schools do understand context, even if things like the Pell grant do not take that into account.
Exactly. Whatever the situation is, the OP should at least be given an idea of where things stand. It may be that they have astronomical expenses and live paycheck to paycheck, it may be that they are government workers whose jobs are not secure, it may be health problem with anticipated medical expenses (I had the “luck” of a cancer diagnosis M’s junior year of high school, so I know what that means financially, too). It could be a ton of different situations which we obviously don’t know, nor is it our business. But it is the OP’s business and, even if they don’t want to reveal a lot of details, it also isn’t fair to keep them completely in the dark because it is essential information for starting a list. You can’t build a college list without at least some notion of where things stand.
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