<p>So I just got a scholarship notification from 2 EA schools</p>
<p>both of them give me 60,000 for 4 years for scholarship… However, I expected full tuition… their tuition is around 160,000 for 4 years…</p>
<p>I’m not sure about this… Is this 60,000 a lot? How much do you guys get for scholarship from your current school?</p>
<p>thanks a lot!!!</p>
<p>Smalllab, We need a little more info. What schools are we talking about? What made you think you would get a full tuition scholarship? Do the schools offer those? Do they award them now or wait until all the RD applications are in?</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>The schools are two private schools with acceptance rates around 50%. Yes the schools offer those and I heard(from Facebook) that some of the accepted EA students got full tuition.</p>
<p>Well I think my ECs and GPA are way higher than their average. I guess it’s because my SAT score, oh well.</p>
<p>I just wanna know if 60,000 is a lot for a school to offer…</p>
<p>Well…I mean it’s better than nothing…lol but still going into debt 100,000 is quite a bit! I know that you can get into some very prestigious schools which you can get just as good of an education for a lot less! Ultimately its up to you if you are willing to undertake such a large financial burden!</p>
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<p>Even IF schools offer full tuition scholarships, they are not numerous, and are awarded usually to the tippy top admitted students. </p>
<p>Also…getting your information from Facebook is probably not the best way to get info. If you want to know the types of awards given, check the school finaid website for scholarships and the criteria for them…AND check the school’s common data set (use the search function on the school site and type in "common data set).</p>
<p>You got $15,000 per year. That is a nice award. Since we don’t know the school you are attending, it’s probably 1/2 tuition or so. I know kids (mine is one) who would LOVE to receive that award. Unfortunately it doesn’t cover all of your costs, but most scholarships don’t.</p>
<p>Hey thanks guys!</p>
<p>yeah it’s better than nothing…but I guess it will be better after adding in Financial aid?</p>
<p>thanks again!</p>
<p>Do only ED notifications come with financial aid info? EA doesn’t come with financial aid info?</p>
<p>Ya financial aid definitely will help!! what about other scholarships you have applied for? have you filled out any big ones like the coca cola or elks or anything?</p>
<p>Yeah EA doesn’t give FA info with the acceptance letter</p>
<p>^
dairy10</p>
<p>I filled out a lot of scholarship apps… So far got rejected by 2 :(</p>
<p>Well there is always other scholarships! lol</p>
<p>smalllab -</p>
<p>OK, you have preliminary financial aid offers from your two early action schools. What about the regular decision schools that you are applying to? Is there any chance that you will see more money from these places? What about your financial safety schools? Did you or did you not apply to at least one school that you can afford without financial aid other than federally determined financial aid? If you haven’t got a financial safety on your list, you need to take a long hard look at your in-state publics and your local community colleges where you can get the first two years on the cheap.</p>
<p>If money is going to be a deciding factor for you, you still have a long hard road to travel between now and April 1.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>what is your EFC? and is this a fafsa only school?</p>
<p>I was only curious because if you came back and said the school cost 50K and you had an EFC of 30K, that might be a reason for a lower offer than you anticipated.</p>
<p>there is not ‘typical’ offer. Each school figures what to offer each student based on their own criteria.</p>
<p>Glad you have financial safety schools. Do not consider taking out mega loans to go to ANY school.</p>
<p>A couple of points to keep in mind…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most college-based merit awards are considered part of your financial aid package. If your “demonstrated need” is $40,000/year at a 100%-need college and the college has offered you a $15,000/year merit award… your “demonstrated need” just got reduced to $25,000/year. Don’t count on a merit tuition reduction being stacked on top of your need-based aid.</p></li>
<li><p>When reviewing award packages, it’s easy to get hung up on the amount of merit aid offered. Sort of like buying a car, the sticker price can be inflated to begin with so that the discount amount can look really big but the dealership is still making a tidy profit and you’re still paying about the same price you’d pay for that car anywhere. What you should look at is the total cost to you, and whether the value of attending that college is worth your cost of attendance. Who defines the value of attending a particular college? You do.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If School X has a TCOA of $160k and offers you $60k in aid, the question you should ask yourself isn’t, “Is $60k enough recognition for me?” The question you should ask yourself is, “Is School X worth $100k to me?”</p>
<p>And if School Y has a TCOA of $60k and offers you only $20k in aid, the question shouldn’t be, “Isn’t it great that generous School X offered me three times as much as stingy School Y did?” The question should be, “Is School X so much better than School Y that I’m willing to pay $60k more to attend School X?”</p>
<p>Good luck. :)</p>
<p>^ </p>
<p>thanks a lot geek_mom!!</p>
<p>it really helped~!</p>
<p>geek_mom, can you point me towards some real life examples of the situation described in #1 above? It seems counterintuitive that a 100%-need college would count merit based awards toward reducing "need " . . . as such colleges would fill the original need with need-based awards anyway. In that case, what’s the difference between need and merit awards if your need exceeds your merit award? I had been assuming that merit based awards were in addition to need based, but I’d be interested in hearing the real facts based on real evidence. Thanks.</p>
<p>There are several ways to look at the situation. A $60K scholarship for 4 years is $15K a year which is a “good” scholarship award. I know with my older boys that they did not get any merit money over $5k. I know a lot of kids with a $5K or under award and it seems to me that it is a little sweetener to entice the student. Not putting my nose up at the money, but when you are talking about schools with total COA up beyond the $50K mark, that $5k is a very small drop in the bucket to meeting such costs. However, when you are talking $50K plus, even $20K or $30K a year still leaves a sizeable amount for the family to pay. If you cannot afford those amounts, the scholarship is not going to be helpful.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the $15K is a merit award and not financial aid. If that is the case, and if you have filed for financial aid, you will get something from the financial aid offices telling you what they can offer you. If the schools are ones who meet close to full need, you are likely to get your full need as defined by those schools (institutional EFC) met. Your FAFSA EFC only entitles you to unsubsidized Stafford loans. So it is pretty much up to your schools to come up with the additional money themselves.</p>
<p>If the schools are giving you merit money through Admissions, and financial aid has yet to come up with their numbers for your need award, you can either get your need met by a financial aid package when added to the merit award will cover your need figure. Or if you have some special award that a school gives on top of need, that merit money can be on top of financial aid. This last case does not happen very often at all. Usually, financial aid integrated its awards with merit scholarships so that the total package does not exceed need.</p>
<p>
Just responded to this point in the thread you started on the topic:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/640193-does-merit-aid-reduce-fa-offer.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/640193-does-merit-aid-reduce-fa-offer.html</a>
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.</p>