Merit Scholarships

Faline2
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 06:00:21 +0000

I think it is important to prepare for no merit at Vandy (and any private school), not for yourself but to help you model realistic positive outlooks as your student braces themselves. Reality testing is awfully important as career plans and grad school preparations are made in the coming four years. Our eldest was admitted to Vandy with zero merit money. He had perks (summer stipends, honors privileges) at three other colleges but only his flagship colleges were significantly less expensive than full pay private. We really were naive with the first son. Even his less selective private schools admitted him with things like Early Write letters of admission but no significant merit money except perks. March and April are times where your student has to congratulate/celebrate the good news of others and comfort disappointed classmates. Best to be parentally upbeat on your financial match college no matter what comes. Magical thinking is for the young, the inexperienced and the uncertain. As the decisions come in, there will be very little diff between those admitted, waitlisted and denied. There is also very little diff between merit winners and the profiles of admitted students who are full pay at Vandy. What may be different depending on your family circumstances, is what you can offer your son or daughter re support in their graduate school and professional training rounds. That is what you have to weigh out in April. Med school, Law school and MBA programs are examples of potentially very expensive pathways with little underwriting or reduced tuition. One of my sons is aiming for law school and our state flagship law school considers parental income until he turns 29 years of age. Many med schools consider grad school to be a “family responsibility”. This is a reality that our guidance counselors never talked about.