@menloparkmom - definitely hoping for good result on the PSAT. Prep - I am not sure. He does pretty well typically without it. He took it for practice last fall. Don’t want him to feel any needless pressure
DS was on the edge with his Soph PSAT score, and I figured a little bit of tutoring wouldn’t hurt since we wanted to be sure he would qualify.
If you explain to him that a few hrs of practice might be worth $ 150,000 to you and him, I’ll bet he’ll agree.
I think part of the strategy for getting a big merit scholarship is to know when you apply that your child is off the charts compared to the other students applying to that university and that intended degree program. Instead of hoping for big money from a reach university, hope for big money from a place where he will really stand out. If he is interested in a particularly popular and competitive major, see if there is a similar major at the university where he would stand out more as an applicant. (This is most important at universities where admissions is based on which department you are applying to, but may also be taken into consideration at other places.)
Your son still has junior year to build up his chances. He should make sure he has a leadership position (he can start a club related to his intended major and be its president if that’s the easiest for him at this point), some volunteer work (preferably related to intended major), and some related awards and honors from outside the school. Depending on his interests, he should be able to research online and find various local, state and national competitions that he could enter. The more obscure and less-known the competition is, the more likelihood that there are few applicants and he could possibly win. That will give him some recognition in his area of interest that he can put on the application. Summer should also be spent doing at least one thing worthy of putting on a college application.
As some others have pointed out, watch out for the required GPA to keep a scholarship. As my daughter decided which universities to apply to in hopes of big scholarships, we ruled out any that required a GPA of over 3.5 to keep it. Even 3.5 seems very high if your son is interested in science, engineering or some other field that is extra competitive and often has low GPAs or very difficult classes early on. Also look at whether the scholarship can be reinstated if the GPA falls below the minimum. All the fine print…
" Instead of hoping for big money from a reach university, hope for big money from a place where he will really stand out."
THIS^^
DS had and has a genuine interest in an area that does not attract too many applicants [ in fact it was announced at his graduation lunch that he was the FIRST declared …major who had graduated with that major- most other …graduates changed their major into the dept after a year or two.]
“DS was on the edge with his Soph PSAT score, and I figured a little bit of tutoring wouldn’t hurt since we wanted to be sure he would qualify.
If you explain to him that a few hrs of practice might be worth $ 150,000 to you and him, I’ll bet he’ll agree.”
It would be nice certainly if he was able to “lock that down” so to speak. Two of his likely safeties - the U of Kentucky and the U of Louisville - become automatic full ride (tuition, room, board) if he is NMF. KY residents also get a lottery funded scholarship known as KEES, max of $2,500 a year if you keep 4.0 and have ACT of 28 or higher. I think the schools stack it with the large awards at least up to the COA. He seems pretty open to UK, at least as his safety. He seems to have an interest in U of Alabama also, and we are aware of their generosity to NMFs.
I don’t think he has settled on it, but one likely path for now seems to be pre-med. If he does settle on it, I could see a scenario where these are the only schools he decides to apply to. He took Honors Bio as a freshman, Honors Chem and AP Physics this year. Junior year will take AP Bio and Anatomy, then perhaps AP Chem senior year. Somewhere in the middle of that I hope he can discern if medicine is what he wants to do.
I have absorbed the consensus on CC that if you are 100% sure you are pre-med, there is not much reason to reach for higher ranked schools. Can be counter productive from a GPA/med school app standpoint.
@greeninohio great info!
May I ask how you went about it?
Thanks!
@LOUKYDAD Someone mentioned to me in my thread asking about schools - Case Western. It supposedly gives good merit and depending on where you are in KY may not be that far away in Cleveland.
“I have absorbed the consensus on CC that if you are 100% sure you are pre-med, there is not much reason to reach for higher ranked schools”
That may be short sighted as only 1/2 of all pre med students actually end up getting into any med school. A LOT change their minds and focus after getting less than great grades in notorious weed-out classes a like organic chemistry.
Your DS is only 16- its hard to KNOW if he will change his mind about medicine after a few years in college.
@menloparkmom I kind of hope he doesn’t. Seems like a tough path. There are a lot of other things to do.
D is pre-med and took all those courses in HS. But what really made her pursue it/stay with it was shadowing. As many different types of docs as she could, even if just for a day. I highly recommend doing that whenever he can.
If your S know he wants premed when he applies to college, you may want want to look for schools that have a BS/MD program. Entrance to those programs is VERY competitive, but guarantees med school acceptance. A friend of D15’s knew she wanted to go to med school (did many internships and volunteer stints at local hospitals) and was accepted. She has a very rigorous undergrad path and will finish her studies in 3 years and then goes right into that schools med school w/no additional application except passing the MCATs, which the program helps study for and pays for.
My sense is that students getting significant merit aid are likely to be admitted to a school higher up the selectivity ladder. So it’s a way of getting students who otherwise wouldn’t be likely to attend.
As noted with the increase in financial aid at some of the wealthiest schools, a significant number of students will still turn down full tuition scholarships to go to some place a bit higher up the selectivity ladder. E.g. I recall reading that Duke - obviously a very strong school - has a relatively low yield on its full ride offers, as a good number of students offered the full rides end up going to HYPS. I guess the most likely to accept in that case would be students from families too wealthy to quality for any need based aid, but not so wealthy that paying full freight is trivial.
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Just a little perspective from a parent who has done this three times with most of the schools the OP mentioned. I think when you are looking at the top scholarships–true “close to full ride” opportunities, you have to have the complete package–grades, test scores, community service, leadership, and ability to interview. Then, on top of all that…you also have to have a little luck. One daughter, immensely qualified, was turned down for the FF at UGA. Yet she was offered a full ride at a Top 20 school. Another DD has the Academic Elite Scholarship at Alabama–only 8 awarded each year (and yet offered only $8000 a year at Ole Miss.) It’s literally like winning the lottery sometimes.
If your desire is to truly go after some of these top scholarships, cast a wide net, spend a ton of time prepping scholarship essays, go to “interviewing school”, study for the ACT/SAT and attack it. Then recognize that some of the decisions that are made won’t make sense to you. If you get turned down for one, just move on to the next one. However, I would strongly encourage you to have a sound “back up plan” if none of the “big scholarships” come your way. Embrace the safeties just in case. Chasing the merit money is a hard thing to do in this era of super qualified students.
This is not the consensus. The CC wisdom is to make to decisions that help you the most financially while getting a great education.
- If you have an EFC of 10k and HYPS offers you an admission asking only for that 10k, you might accept the admission.
- If you have an EFC of 50k and HYPS offers you an admission, then you think about it a lot more with the understanding that it costs you 200k for undergrad and you may need another 200k for medical school. Many say the answer is to ignore HYPS and go to a school that costs a lot less. If USC offers you a full tuition scholarship you might take it instead.
There is a need to maximize your GPA and do well on MCATs. However, the primary driving factor for premeds is determined by overall cost of an education that lasts 8 years but might result in an accumulation of debt that one may not be able to start paying back for several years even after completing at MD since many can’t afford any payments during residency.
If you’re white or asian, have two or less siblings and your parents aren’t on food stamps the odds of getting one is slim to none.
I don’t know is USC is that generous.
Three yrs ago, my D, rank 4/400, 4.0 UW, 5.6 WGPA, SAT 2270, 13 APs, ECs … the only thing she missed was NMF by 2 pts.
She was accepted to USC, but $0.
I have wondered how to launch such a discussion with a Financial Aid/Scholarships contact in an attempt to boost an award offer with first choice. My S’16 has applied to 12 schools, from Vandy to Miss State. All ranked in top 100 for engineering. Miss State is the safety net. Figure Vandy won’t offer sufficient aid, even IF he is accepted. He has very respectable qualifications, other than not being a NMSF. All that being said, he really wants to attend Auburn, my alma mater. He has a tuition offer already and accepted into Honors College. we are hoping for a general and or departmental to at least cover housing to make attendance at Auburn possible. Presently holding full ride from MSU, Tuition/OOS Tuition U Tenn. Clemson, UK & aTm holding OOS Tuition waiver + $12K($3K/yr), waiting for decisions from UF, VPI, Duke and NC State. Deferred by GT. Just don’t know how to initiate such a discussion tactfully. What I wish I could say (to Auburn) is that my son has Auburn as his first choice, he truly loves Auburn and always has. He has been accepted to other univ of higher or equal standing with more valuable awards, including their Honors College programs. Are there any additional award avenues that can make my son an Auburn man? If we at least add the value of housing, it would be certain. End of plea… We should know within the next few weeks if a general or departmental award can bridge the gap at Auburn, or UTk for that matter. So, if I call… When should I?
fire123- I DID add this caveat regarding USC and the big merit awards in my original post.
"Granted- getting one of those full tuition scholarships is as hard statistically as getting in Stanford [<5%] "
For the top scholarships USC does place a lot of weight on a student having tip top SATs- i.e. the top 1-2% of all students nationwide, not just of all applicants.
DS’s SAT’s were 2350.
From the USC Scholarship PDF
“Average SAT and ACT scores are in the top
1 to 2 percent of all students nationwide. In
addition to academic criteria, candidates’
talent, perseverance, innovation, involvement
and leadership are considered.”
So, if I call… When should I?
After all of his applications results have been received. Colleges usually wont discuss increases in “aid”, [ $$ is $$ regardless of what its called- Financial aid, grants, scholarships- it’s all aid- it comes from one pot] until then.
And my STRONG advise is to ONLY talk about what Auburns “peer” or better U’s [ like Duke] have offered.