NPC, Merit Scholarships and Stress

As a resident of Illinois, she would quality for the Midwest Student Exchange. The states involved are llinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. There are over 100 schools participating in these states. (Check the list—not all school participate and they don’t all do it the same)…Basically, the way it works is the public participating schools agree to put a cap on OOS tuition somewhere not more than 150% of the instate charge, and privates may discount a bit (like 10%).

On another note, for midwestern schools we found that Wartburg College in Iowa is very generous with merit aid for top students and could definitely come in under $20,000 total including room and board after merit scholarships. Very nice, smaller liberal arts college. Campus is beautiful (but small) and I got the feeling when visiting that students really get a very personalized experience. They rolled out the red carpet for our child’s visit but she ultimately decided to attend somewhere else. Wartburg also has a second campus in Colorado and I understand many students spend time at that campus for a semester. (FYI attending a visit day will give you another 1,000 scholarship).

University of Nebraska is also a great value—a big 10 school, great school pride, solid academics, great city campus adjacent to a a downtown, and they have a medical school as well. Their website is very up-front about scholarships. Look at the “scholarship estimator” page and enter her stats…it was right on for us. Total package including room and board could also come in under $20,000 here.

Definitely get your daughter to apply to some financial sure things early in the game so that stress is gone! Early action deadlines are sometimes as early as November 1 to qualify for big scholarships. Be organized and have a plan so you have more real options at decision time!

And yes, there are great schools in the top 50 or so that offer $20,000 or more per year academic merit which is fantastic and worth chasing — but if that means a $70,000 a year school is now only $50,000 a year and your realistic budget is $20,000 plus loans then it might not be that helpful. Focus your energies where they will do the most good. Kids (and parents) get burned out after so many applications and just want it to be done!!

Your daughter sounds like she will have a bright future wherever she goes! As I read once on this site somewhere, the cream always rises to the top. :slight_smile: Good luck.