Private Scholarships - Regular Kid With High Stats

Paying for College
21

No - because the private school is not giving need aid.

I think it’s the type of aid that impacts this.

Merit aid is just them discounting the price to get a butt in seat. So they will not care that you have extra money. Need is different. If you get extra money, then your need is less than determined without the extra which is why they pull back.

It’s we know someone with her stats is not coming for $80k so we made it $50k to entice them.

If budget is your priority, it’s easy to build a sensible list - and hoping for private scholarships, most of which have a need component, isn’t it.

Many of us are full pay families that self imposed a budget.

It’s not hard to make that work.

But it requires openness.

But you don’t need to find private scholarships. You need to find them with no need component. That’s ratcheting up the difficulty five fold. Personally short of my employer and a quick local search on google, I wouldn’t waste the time.

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If you do a chance me/match me thread…you can ask for suggestions. Answer all the questions, including your annual college $$ amount. Possible courses of study, etc. Folks here will respond to that.

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@Mjkacmom, those are some great stats your kids had. I’ve looked at Delaware and Clemson. I love both of those schools. I’ll have to check the current merit aid. I know Clemson was giving out big awards a few years ago, even to OOS kids, but I think it’s more expensive now, even with their top merit award. Maybe still in the 40’s though. I’m going to check them out. Thanks.

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Thanks for the suggestion, @thumper1 . I’m going to do that.

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My kids both went to private universities. Both had scholarships (we didn’t qualify for need based aid). One had a larger scholarship and one had a teeny one.

Both kids had about $6000 in outside scholarships for freshman year only. Colleges did not reduce merit aid. This was Santa Clara University (2006) and Boston University (2003).

Old news so you would need to check policies now…but my understanding is that it’s need based aid that is reduced, not merit aid. But even with that, the reduction in need based aid usually starts with self help like work study and loans.

@kelsmom might be able to elaborate, but in most cases, aid cannot exceed the cost of attendance. Exception would be if a student got a full free ride but was still entitled to a portion of the Pell grant.

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Yeah, I think I came to this conclusion with one of my older kids, but decided to look into it again. Each kid is a different challenge. I’m back to merit aid.

She’s open minded, and knows that the school you go to doesn’t matter a ton when you’re majoring in CS or Engineering, but she still wants to go to a school that’s kind of known for those subjects. There’s a good chance she ends up at Buffalo or Binghamton because of money, but I think we’re gonna give some other schools a try without sinking too much time into it.

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Interesting. Both schools are on my list. It looks like getting merit from BU is pretty hard these days. Maybe a little easier at Santa Clara, but I’m not sure. Just a guess.

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My S24 was a 3.7 UW 1380 SAT unhooked humanities major and was able to get costs down to $40-50k at many schools including UDel, Manhattan College, George Mason, St Joes, Seton Hall, Loyola MD, Marist, and Clark (Mass).

Many of these have CompSci.

UDel, Manhattan, and Mason (at least) have engineering.

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29

She can find cheaper or as cheap but I wouldn’t consider those - Bing and Buff - settling like it comes off in your statement. Great schools.

You might check out the RPI medal and a school like Rose Hulman.

Btw many schools - especially large flagships - are known for these majors.

If she’s rock solid, she’ll be fine. I believe it’s moreso the student than the school. Sure a name can help but it’s the student that has to sell themselves.

30

Miami Ohio has a very good CS program. Gorgeous campus. They have a chart with minimum merit awards based on stats. It should meet your budget.
Miami-Ohio merit awards

Some shoot for the moon, competitive big merit scholarships:
Duke - Robertson
UVA - Jefferson
UMD - Banneker Key
UNC (not a fit for engineering) - Robertson, Morehead Cain
NCS - Park
GaTech - Stamps
UGA - Foundation Fellows
Vandy - Cornelius Vanderbilt
WashU - Danforth
(These are off the top of my head so should be confirmed on the school sites. Take note of the application deadlines as many require early apps and a couple need a school nomination.)

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31

No. I am not aware of schools that would reduce their own scholarships, assuming that they are not need based, in this case. If the merit scholarship is restricted to tuition & outside scholarships are also restricted to tuition, a combination of the two in excess of tuition would probably result in the school decreasing its scholarship. If tuition is not exceeded, though, I can’t imagine any reduction.

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32

SMU Presidential

W&L Johnson but not ABET accredited

And more but great list of Hail Mary merit you noted.

Stamps at many schools. Could be a good list to peruse.

https://www.stampsscholars.org/our-program/partner-schools/

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33

Good suggestion. The Stamps Foundation offers amazing opportunities. I’ll note, however, that the award is determined by each school. So some, like GaTech and UGA, are full rides but others may be full tuition (Oregon?) or just a set $10k per year. So each school needs to be checked as there is no standard award.

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Well she was there about 10 years ago, or so. There were not a lot of females in either department. Every professor knew her name and called on her often because they knew she had the answers. They knew that she was extremely social and could form cohesive study labs and groups. They asked her to be a tutor for engineering.

She was able to miss a lot of the snowstorms that came during the breaks. She was home in California during the rough weather. We pre-booked her flights through Southwest.

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35

Like others have said, it is very school dependent. We were not a full pay family, only full pay for in state public universities, which would have been very very hard on our finances.

My eldest went to W&L and got a merit aid scholarship for full tuition that increased with tuition increases.

My youngest went to an instate public uni and received a 4 year 50% off tuition scholarship.

My older S - a high stats kids - applied for dozens of National scholarships. Got nada. Big waste of time and money. He also applied to a lot of local ones and got roughly $15K+ the first year and about $5K the following 3 years. It was stacked with the merit aid at W&L.

Younger S was an average excellent kid. Did not bother targeting National ones and instead we really honed in the local ones. The guidance office should have a list of local ones plus applications. Some schools have this online. With older S (‘2016) it was still all paper applications in a drawer. But we watched who won what each year and could figure out which one younger S had a shot at. He wound up getting more than older S.

And his uni also allowed stacking. With the covid refunds, he got $$$ back after the first year which covered his second year. All we had to pay for him was his apartment costs and a little bit on the meal plan

But we also live in a poor area where not many go to college.

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36

I don’t see either school happening. You want $40k - head south. Bama and smaller and respected UAH will beat $20k. Ms State, Ole Miss, Texas Tech and more will be great.

FSU mid 20s if you deliver on the SAT but the engineering school is off campus. UF mid 40s. UCF another winner as is USF.

Schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State would work as would big city UMN with $15k merit you’d likely get. Mizzou and Missouri Science and Tech would both work. Nebraska and Louisville too.

Wouldn’t waste my time on Clemson but U of SC could be worth a gamble. The Clemson rep is stronger but the $$ aren’t.

If aeronautics were of interest both Embry Riddle and Florida Tech could work.

If smaller schools are desired, programs at Tennessee Tech, UAH, and Missouri Science and Tech are worth a look.

And I hear Rose Hulman goes deep. York College of PA is a private with low tuition and merit.

But the definite price getters are the schools are those with auto merit (Bama, UAH, Ms state, ku, etc) so there’s no guessing and they crush your budget. Or full price like UF and Purdue that hot regardless albeit with little wiggle room.

Then you mix in schools like UMN, U of SC, Miami Ohio, Ohio State, Michigan State, UGA - that could meet your target. Note the word could, not would.

You can throw a Santa Clara, BU and Clemson but it’s very small odds they’ll work.

But if you want small, many will have CS like CNU. But these may have engineering physics or electrical but not meche.

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That’s fantastic on the private gets.

Do you recall to help OP how many were need vs merit alone based ?

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None of ours were need based. While I am considered to be poor on CC, I am considered to be well off in my city. We steered away from anything need based.

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I think it’s fine to apply to BU, but I don’t think you will get to your price point. Acceptance is tough these days, and merit is highly competitive (nothing against your daughter who sounds like a great applicant!).

Look at TCNJ. It’s an underrated school and it is possible (not guaranteed) she will get some merit.

Bing and UB are strong schools and it’s nice to hear that your D is fine with attending one.

As noted, the best merit comes from the school.

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40

Thanks. That’s an OUTSTANDING haul.

I’d like to think you were extra special getting that but perhaps you can share strategies for others. I don’t think that’s the norm.

Most I read have a need component. Not sure how they measure it as they likely don’t have an aid committee on a $1K scholarship - but they typically state need.

So I bet a message of the “how” would prove helpful to so many in the future. Heck, maybe even a thread on how to find private scholarships. You clearly had a fantastic searching strategy. I know you listed a little of it above.

Call me impressed.

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