<p>mom2college kids,</p>
<p>You are correct, but…</p>
<p>He seems an overly conscientious student who is not aware of how well he compares, based on what he has shared, with other college bound students. He is just entering his senior year and needs to focus on SAT’s and submitting applications with personal stories that reflect who he is. My main concern for him at this point is his anxiety level.</p>
<p>There are external scholarships, some national, some community based he could apply for, loans from other family, university merit awards in addition to full tuition (USC Mork and similar from other universities). </p>
<p>You have helped him become aware of merit/need realities. I would like to encourage him to relax, focus, seek opportunities, write a great application, then bring whatever sources of external funding he can secure to his top private and public university acceptance financial aid offices and see what can be worked out. </p>
<p>If he hasn’t already, he could contact U of W-Madison and determine what his range of possible financial options there would be. I can’t imagine not being accepted there and viewed by them as a most desirable candidate. Again, my concern is he fret about this and it detracts from his best performance on many important upcoming application components.</p>