@LitterofOne thanks for the update! Do you mind keeping us posted? I have D21 we are currently on the merit hunt for. Did you apply to Rowan?
Merit from Rutgers is very tough to get and I wouldnât count on it. Even if she gets a merit award, it may only be a couple of thousands If she takes the federal loans, it would reduce your cost to about $27,000. Also, the tuition you are looking at is for last year, it may well go up in 2020. How much are you able to pay?
If she is not interested in U Arizona and doesnât have another desired financial safety, you may want her to consider an application to other schools known for merit that have a Feb 1 deadline. According to the website, Rowan has a Jan 31 deadline for merit consideration. TCNJ is still accepting applications, but their website says that the average merit award is around $2K.
Donât forget to factor is travel cost if she goes to AZ â it is not insignificant
Iâd apply to Rowan asap!
She would probably get substantial merit and instate tuition prices.
Itâs good to have another option closer to home.
Temple might also give her merit, Iâd apply there asap as well.
WVU might also be an option, not sure of merit deadline.
@LitterofOne For reference, I had a 34 ACT and got a presidential scholarship- the max scholarship- from SOE, one of the most competitive schools (merit aid of about $28k) last year. Your ACT score is more than fine for a significant scholarship. The only difficulty is the GPA. It also depends on your extracurriculars
My NPC was the same as yours, so the merit aid was a shock
@Tictacmissus While your getting a presidential scholarship with a 34 ACT proves that it is possible to get a significant scholarship with such score, I would not characterize a 34 ACT as âmore than fineâ for a significant scholarship at Rutgers as the NPC only reports eligibility for scholarship starting at 35 ACT.
@LitterofOne She might check out U of New Mexico. Her stats would qualify her for in state tuition under the Amigo scholarship, total COA (excluding books and incidentals) is less than 20K. Iâm pretty sure it has rolling admissions and is still taking applications. We know a lot of kids who put in OOS applications at ASU, U of Ariz, UT-Dallas, and UNM because the merit money is often generous enough to come in lower cost than many of the east coast flagships, even with travel taken into account.
@NJEngineerDad NPC does not reflect the scholarships Rutgers actually gives out. My other friend in soe who got a presidential scholarship in SOE also had 0 NPC. NPC is just a computer but what determines who gets scholarships or not are actual admissions officials who consider multiple factors. I have 2 friends at Rutgers who got a 1300 and a $13k scholarship with honors college which I would consider a significant scholarship for in state. Her ACT score alone is enough to warrant a significant scholarship, assuming she has everything else. ACT/SAT scores are just a factor as many people at Rutgers already have these scores.
@Tictacmissus You have interesting data points. Did your friends who got a 1300 SAT also take the ACT, and are they in SOE?
In your case, you posted on another thread that while you âonlyâ got a 34 ACT, you also got a 1530 SAT. 1530 SAT is equivalent to a low 35 ACT and I assumed that this is why you made the cut (i.e. that your 34 ACT score was not a factor because it was less than your 1530 SAT score which was the score taken into account), but if your friends only took the SAT it invalidates my theoryâŠ
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/guide-2018-act-sat-concordance.pdf
@NJEngineerDad No my friends who got 1300 were in SEBS and SAS but I just wanted to say that there is no score that will guarantee you any scholarship, nor will a slightly lower score disregard you from said scholarship. There was another person in the honors college for engineering that only had a 1400 SAT but $13k scholarship which again is significant. (He was a minority however which again is another factor to be taken into consideration) A 1530 corresponds with a low 34 according to other websites https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/act-to-sat-conversion and my friends only took the SAT. Scores are only a factor, like one of the girls who got a 1300 had over a 4.0 GPA to compensate with extracurriculars and I was a national merit scholar and had ECs to compensate.
@Tictacmissus OK. Good to know, thanks! But you should not use or quote the Princeton Review ACT to SAT conversion site which is not official, and obviously wrong since it differs from the official info. The official concordance tables can be found on the College Board site (linked posted earlier) and on the ACT site at:
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf
@NJEngineerDad Yes you are right, but 35 is not the minimum for a scholarship for an SOE. In fact, it is the minimum for a FULL scholarship from SOE. There are other scholarships ranging from $5k to $22k SOE gives out. So it doesnât take away from my point that a 34 can still warrant a decently sized scholarship. Especially in SOE. As most people in the honors program for SOE get a $10k scholarship as Richard Weeks donated around $10 million 2 years ago for engineering scholarships at Rutgers
D did not (want to) apply to Rowan but I did their calculator and it would cost us min $10K. D was adamant about not wanting to go there. 
Have a coworker at the Fortune 500 company we work at, whose D attended Rowan for Marketing. She was picked up by Oracle right out of school and is making more than her mom and I are nowâŠ
I know! I tried but D had strong reaction against. Why? Stupid reasons I cannot even post here.
We are also instate NJ and horrified by the cost of Rutgers. Know many kids with top stats that got little to nothing in merit and we are zero on the need-based front.
What about Montclair? Itâs instate, 12 min from NYC, pretty campus. My daughter applied, got some merit, total cost is down to about $28k a year. She is a bit âmehâ on it though. Plus I was worried that itâs not as nationally known (for grad schools, law school, jobs) as Rutgers.
Itâs a lot to process. Good luck!!!
Applying to a school doesnât necessarily mean you have to go there, but many students that want to go away initially change their mind later and want to be closer to home.
Montclair isnât better than Rowan, and if Rutgers is too costly, it might be good to have another NJ school to choose from.
She could visit and check it out further later after all offers are in.
If she doesnât apply to a few more schools right now, she might only have Arizona as an affordable option, which is fine if she is sure that she wants to go there.
Merit deadlines are going to be here soon for many schools. You canât turn the clock back, she is limiting her options if she doesnât apply.
My daughter ended up going to Stockton, and loves it. I love it because itâs free, but she got into many more âprestigiousâ colleges all over the country that I was willing to pay for, but she just loved the fit at Stockton. She received the top $$ award from Rowan and got into their honors college, but just didnât like the whole feel/vibe of the place⊠it felt like a large high school to us, and absolutely no evidence of school spirit of people âlovingâ being there during the visits (and we did 3 visits).
She also got into the Rutgers colleges (2 or 3 of them, I forget) she applied to and into their honors programs (but not the university-wide honors program) but didnât get any money so it was cheaper to go almost anywhere (public of private) than it would have been for Rutgers.
She definitely made the right choice for herself - the whole âbig fish in little pondâ suits here much better than if she would have gone to some of the ânear iviesâ she got into.
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@âJolynne Smythâ Did your daughter already receive her merit notification? I thought that info didnât come out until mid-Feb?
CTCape - my daughter got her merit awarded from Rutgers Camden (about $6k, but since itâs lesser known than New Brunswick wants to go there even less than New Brunswick!).
No merit news yet from Rutgers New Brunswick but based on the next-to-nothing aid my friendsâ kids (with higher stats than my daughter) received we are basically expecting zero. Sorry if that was confusing!
Who knows what goes thru their heads? My daughter wants a bigger school with football and spirit - canât even get her to tour Rutgers! Hard no. Sure would have made my life easier!