Wow, tons of awesome advice already! Thanks! And lots of love for Alabama - I will do my research on them!
Several of these posts have raised additional questions. I’ll start with one such question and probably post others later on. Here’s what I see at several college websites - I’ll use Kentucky’s as a good example (which is similar to ASU, BU, and Northeastern):
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
Non-Residents
SCHOLARSHIP TYPE GPA* ADDITIONAL CRITERIA ANNUAL AMOUNT
Otis A. Singletary Competitive 3.80 33 ACT or 1490 SAT Full out-of-state tuition + housing stipend**
Patterson Selective National Merit Finalist or National Hispanic Recognition Scholar; National Merit Finalists must list UK as college choice with National Merit Scholarship Corporation Full out-of-state tuition + housing stipend**
Unweighted. *Housing stipend of $10,000 per year is available for students living on campus in a UK residence hall during the first two years.
So they state for a 3.8 GPA and above and 33 ACT or above (both of which are met) : “Full out-of-state tuition + housing stipend”. This is competitive, which they describe as : “Students must apply for admission, complete the competitive scholarship section of the admission application and submit all supporting documents by December 1, 2018, to have their application reviewed in this highly competitive program. A limited number of awards will be offered. Selected applicants may be invited to campus for interviews.”
How many is a “limited number of awards”? How many applicants are there? If there’s 20 awards and 100 applicants, her chance is 20%. If there’s 2 awards and 500 applicants, well as Lloyd Christmas said “So you’re saying there’s a chance”…
But then they also list the National Hispanic Recognition Scholars with the same full tuition and housing stipend award as “Selective”, which they describe as “Students must have completed the prestigious programs listed. Students must apply for admission by December 1, 2018. No additional application is required.” Does that mean as a NHRP Scholar she automatically receives this award - case closed done deal? In this case, they list in their COA that housing + books is $14K, so with this $10K housing stipend does that mean if she goes to Kentucky our cost is $4K? And if she then gets a $4K outside scholarship she goes for nada, zip, zilch? If this is true (which I somehow doubt it is), then financial aid does not matter one iota!
It just seems like schools’ websites are sufficiently (and probably purposefully) vague in this area, and that makes it really confusing and difficult to decide about applying.