Good Scholarship Chances

mom2collegekids
Wed, 08 May 2013 09:15:29 +0000

Not exactly, I’m trying to get half scholarship. My sister’s GPA is .7 lower than mine and she got half to Fordham, and when I talked to my parents, they believed that I could get a full ride to Fordham… but of course they are quite biased.

Merit scholarships are based on test scores, not GPA. So the fact that your GPA is slightly higher than your sister’s doesn’t matter. Your sister’s award was based on her test scores. The GPA part was very secondary.

When you say that your sister got a “half scholarship” to you mean “half tuition”? Does that mean that your parents paid the other half of tuition PLUS they paid for her room, board, and books?

I think the only full tuition scholarship that Fordham gives is to National Merit Finalists and that is based on your PSAT from junior year, and making NMF your senior year.

Again, you need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay.

Also, do NOT solely rely on “maybe scholarships”. If you need very large awards then ALSO apply to a few schools that will DEFINITELY give you the awards for your test scores.

And, you need to be clear about terminology:

Full tuition scholarships: cover tuition, but you still have to pay about $15k-17k per year for room, board, books, fees.

Full ride scholarships: cover all costs, including R&B, books, etc. I don’t think Fordham awards any. If they do, they probably award only a couple to students with perfect test scores and GPA.

Half tuition scholarships: only cover half of the tuition. So at a school like Fordham, your parents would still have to pay about $35k per year (about $20k of half tuition plus about $15k of R&B and books)

Anyway, it’s very doubtful that you’d get a free ride to Fordham. And, if you don’t make NMF, then it’s also doubtful that you’d get full tuition.

Again…find out how much your parents will pay? Also, if you need merit, then remove the non-merit schools like Tufts and BC.