Thank you @sseamom That means a lot to me.
@sophmore1 congratulations on the outside scholarships! Care to tell us more about it? How many outside scholarships is she applying to?
Iāve been trying to figure out the balance in the effort required for scholarship applications and the potential reward.
Hereās our current our list:
two fastweb type scholarships (not expecting much she knows already she didnāt get one of the two)
employee scholarship offer by DHās work (good chance)
local community involvement scholarship (50/50 chance)
a national scholarship related to her major (good chance)
she was nominated by our church for a scholarship for graduating seniors in our region (it was huge surprise and an honor to be nominated!)
her German teacher also nominated for a language scholarship from his professional organization. (no idea what the chance of this is)
a scholarship from our credit union (good chance)
a scholarship from the local womanās club (long shot but easy app)
a scholarship from the local Girl Scouts (good chance)
a scholarship from our local utility company (long shot but $$)
a state specific scholarship loosely tied to her major (long shot but $$$) actually not sure if this one is being offered this year
From OU, in addition to their National Merit scholarship:
she was invited to apply for their Global Engagement Fellowship
and she auditioned for a scholarship for her instrument
I donāt think weāll hear about any of these scholarships until March at the earliest and some donāt have deadlines until May. Her school keeps a list of local scholarships but that wonāt be out until early March and apps are due back the end of March. I donāt think sheāll qualify for any of those though.
Itās been a real challenge to identify scholarships that she qualifies for, we donāt live in the school district where she attends school some local scholarship require you to live in that school district and others require you to attend the local high school. Sheās not a minority, disabled, child of a veteran, homeless, nor does she qualify for free or reduced school lunch or need based FA. Texas offers some great grants but they can be only used in state and sheās going OOS.
I hope everyone will post a list of what outside scholarship their kids got, maybe at the end of May? Iād love to see what kind of scholarships kids are really getting outside our area.
What theā¦!?
D16 is completing her housing application and the meal plan is crazy. For one academic year, the meal plan is $4,300 and the school says that covers 14 meals per week in the dining hall (no ādining dollarsā for the snack her). Thatās not even three meals a day M-F with at least two brunches and two dinners on Saturday and Sunday. I know this school is a suitcase college, but how is a kid supposed to live on an average of a meal and a half a day?! This is for a 17-week semester. Something is whack. This is upsetting to me as we make one of our first concrete moves toward setting up D16 at her chosen college. This canāt be right.
D14 signed up for āunlimited mealsā her first semester because she didnāt want to stress about where her next meal was coming from. She quickly learned that that was way too much. She goes to Walmart a few times a semester and gets yogurt, instant oatmeal, etc. and has that in her dorm in the morningsā¦she also is able to take a piece of fruit or small item out of the dining hall, and she does that daily to supplement her ābreakfastā stash in the dorm. Once in awhile she buys more when she is out and about on campus in the mornings, but that is just occasionallyā¦and what she spends is a whole lot less than if she had the upgraded meal plan. She also finds that since she has been there, made friends, some of which are off campusā¦she eats with them at times for meals on the weekends, helps cook at their house/apt. Soā¦@dyiu13ā¦if the meal plan isnāt enoughā¦she can purchase a la carte, shop and keep a stash of yogurt, granola bars, fruit, etcā¦and she will probably save money in the long run vs. expensive āall you can eatā meal plan.
I just put housing deposit for USC. We are still waiting for results from many schools, but it is just $45 and housing priority goes by application date.
I agree that very few actually eat breakfast in the dining hall in college. so sounds like lunch and dinner are covered daily. However, doing the math 4300/2/17/14=$9 per meal. Seems like a lot to me, but maybe that is the going rate? Pretty sure she can get some breakfast cereal for cheaper than that!
In other news, filed the PROFILE here. Hopefully the last money Iāll give to College Board for a while.
@dyiu13 At my S14ās school, the dorm meal plans are ~$2,500 each term. One chooses 14 meals + $20/week food debit, or 10 meals + $40/week food debit. Almost everyone gets the 10 meal plan because that is the most flexible (food debit is used at the many eateries/snack machines/coffee shops, lots of people want to order pizza or leave campus for weekend dinners). My S very rarely woke up for breakfast and bought cereal and fruit to keep in his room. He also ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. He had hundreds in food debit at the end that he used to purchase canned goods for food bank donation; this was not unusual. Given the cheaper price for the meal plan at your D16s school, maybe the expectation is that parents or jobs provide the additional cash for groceries and meals not at the cafeterias.
@dyiu13 I hear ya. It reminds me of concessions at the movie theater. Popcorn, soda, and a candy? $20 please. Boo!
As Iām comparison shopping among schools, Iāve noticed many use Sodexo for dining services, but the same plan at different schools can vary by over $1000. Obviously, some colleges are better at negotiating contracts than others.
That does seem like a lot for a few meals. Dās schools mostly offer 19 meals on the āunlimitedā plan. I think thatās a nod to the fact that many kids sleep in on weekends. I havenāt seen any that top out at 14. All of them offer ādining dollarsā of some kind as well. Youāre D will def. need to supplement with other food. And in addition to that hefty fee! So sorry about that!
Some of Dās schools require freshmen to have a certain plan, but after that they can get as large or small a plan as they want. Without a real kitchen, though, Iād want at least 2 meals a day though.
@LKnomad & @CAMidwestMom Hope your kids feel better soon.
@Booajo If anyone does the math for room or board (ie: divides it to figure the daily cost or per meal cost)ā¦the numbers are staggeringā¦it is just the cost of living on campus!
The unfortunate thing is that with some schools the R&B total is less than 9K and at other schools R&B tops out around 15Kā¦and what the student gets is pretty similar.
I think weāre looking at over 11K for S16 at Temple. I donāt think thatās too bad for an urban university in that part of the country. A coworkerās son is at St. Johnās, and theyāre paying a lot more than that.
@dyiu13 that looks similar to OUās meal plan
2015-2016 Meal Plan Rates
Freshman Meal Plans - $2,134 per semester
There are five basic freshman meal plans. Enhanced meal plans may be purchased for an additional cost.
15 Meals/Week
12 Meals/Week & 300 Meal Plan Points/Semester
10 Meals/Week & 450 Meal Plan Points/Semester
8 Meals/Week & 600 Meal Plan Points/Semester
6 Meals/Week & 750 Meal Plan Points/Semester
D will have a mini fridge, microwave and electric tea kettle in the dorm. We plan to send her with some oatmeal, tea, granola, soup, mac and cheeseā¦ We are going to start with the 12 meal a week plan. The main cafeteria on campus is amazing like a huge mall food court and everything is all you can eat, they even have an all you can eat chick-fil-a and the salad bar there is the best Iāve ever seen! They have signs posted about what you can take out to go (x pieces of fruits, one smoothieā¦) so they can take some food out for snacks.
As a dorming student, she needs 3 meals a day, M-F, and brunch with dinner on Saturdays and Sundays. There apparently isnāt even a option for this. Iām contacting Food Service to figure it out. Something seems wrong.
D will be a dorming student and I know there is no way she is going to eat three meals a day in the cafe. OU is not a suitcase college, ALL Freshman live in the dorms and Iāve posted their freshman meal plans. Itās similar to other schools we looked at but OU has the best food;-)
From DD experience at summer program I would probably buy the least expensive plan. Cafeteria food is cafeteria food, so on weekends they normally were going out. Also knowing my child, she often did not wake up early enough for breakfast, at least on weekends.
Most of our schools require unlimited meal plan as Freshman.
One reason this meal plan disappoints me, as far as I understand the plan, is that dorming students then donāt sit with each other at least 3 times a day. I didnāt realize how much meal plans have changed since when I was eating mastadon in the dining hallā¦
At my daughterās university a similar meal plan costs $6000 per year. We take the unlimited because it is only $250 more per year.
Another reason the cost of meal plans is going up is because the meal plans are subsidizing capital improvements.
āYet the particulars of the contracts reveal that much of the meal plan cost does not go for an individualās food. Colleges use the money to shore up their balance sheets, create academic programs and scholarships, fund special ātraining tablesā to feed athletes, and pay for meals for prospective students touring campus.ā