@WeSayWarEagle - you can look into departmental scholarships on the Auburn department web sites yourself - maybe you or he already have?
Also consider outside scholarships, usually local ones are worth the time to apply (if your S hasn’t done this yet). Our county has a common app sort of scholarship form that lets one apply to several scholarships at once, sometimes with supplements. GC office usually has the info on these and other local scholarships. Sometimes they are even renewable.
I’d never suggest it was a way to pay for college but $1-2-3K a year could be a big help.
Thanks for tips. We have worked hard to discover all the univ scholarship sources, whether automatic academic/merit, general, departmental and have applied for some external. Process is truly exhausting. We keep reminding ourselves that the effort, starting with son’s years of hard work in class and ECs and then apps and essay upon essay will pay off. We probably need to search for even more externals as a $1000 more here or there covers the dining plan. I do believe it will all work out, even if it isn’t at first choice.
My DS was able to earn $5 K/ summer doing research at USC.
In addition, he did take out a small student loan as well.
I think that for you to have a better “negotiating” position with Auburn, I think it would be wise for your son to plan on taking out a student loan to help bridge the gap , which you could mention in your"appeal "letter. Do send an appeal letter first with copies of all FA awards from peer or more highly ranked colleges, then a week or so later call to ask to speak to the FA director. Or better yet, make an appt to see him/ her during “accepted students week”. Its harder to turn down an alum’s reasonable request face to face.
BTW- Never say you want to “negotiate” with a college’s FA offices. NEVER.
A little give , a little take, may go a long ways to opening up Auburn’s wallet.
In other words, dont lay down the line of “full ride or we walk” to a FA dept unless you want to met by a stone wall.
They are in the drivers seat.
menloparkmom, Thanks for the excellent advice. That is the guidance I was looking for. We visited Auburn yesterday for their equivalent of Scholar’s Day and ran into a student friend of my S, who is now a sophomore. He graduated with a similar resume from same nationally ranked IB school. He was awarded the same automatic Presidential award that covers tuition, and also awarded a general scholarship from a donor for an additional $10K. We are sure hoping for something like that. What was also very interesting is he shared that he plans to be an RA starting this summer and that will cover his housing and meal plan. That is worth nearly $9K. Not sure it would work with co-op at all, but still good info to have in the back pocket, along with the type of paid research projects you mention. Even co-op for engineers (per MSU Fin Aid) earn nearly $30/hr with housing covered. Of course co-op can’t start until soph at soonest.
I shared some of the suggestions given with DS today, and he came up with following, sort of in tiers based on average ACT and selectivity. His mind isn’t very open at this point to any colder climates. We eliminated anything more than 9 hour drive away.
Two in-state publics - Kentucky, Louisville (25 avg ACT)
Auburn, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama (27 avg ACT)
Clemson, Georgia, Centre, Sewanee, Furman, Rhodes (28 avg ACT)
He has the rest of the calendar year to do research on each and hopefully winnow the list, and figure out where he wants to visit next year. We had good discussion on finances and realistic chances for merit. We are remarkably on the same page, which made me feel good. He knows that the chance of merit at the most selective of these will be like a lottery ticket, and therefore he needs to plan accordingly to make sure he has some better options, especially a safety. The safety isn’t too hard because he would be happy to attend UK, and it will be in budget no matter what happens.
LOUKYDAD, sounds like you have approached it with a similar process. My best advice is to go ahead and find out as many of the essay prompts as possible and have your DS start no later than the summer. For each school, there will be essays for general app, college app, honors app (which in most cases you must be invited to apply), and more essays for the “flagship” scholarships, and then even more essays for external scholarships. My S created a massive master document for every response to every question asked. Some essays are so off the wall, but many will have similarities and can draw from a foundation outline. We also created a SS to track all the deadlines, URL, id#, passwords, scholarship names, blah blah blah. My son applied by EA deadline for everything, because all of the competitive scholarships required it. Only 1 university caught us “with our pants down”, and that was NC State. S applied Oct 15 and we discovered that was also the deadline for their competitive scholarships, which S missed out on. So it was a wasted effort. Also know that you can’t wait to the last minute if you are using the Common App as their is a time lag on the transmission to schools that could show you as missing deadlines. We had all apps submitted before Oct 15 and Nov 1 deadlines.
My guess is it is top 1-2% of USC applicants. This amounts to 300 or so who meet scholarship deadline (1%).
My personal view is that it is based on top 1-2% according to USC adcoms and not our own perceptions in terms of scores, GPA etc. 4 years ago, My D had almost perfect scores, NMSF, national AP etc and did not get called. Since she had an MIT admission and there was no way the parents would pay in full to some other school vs MIT, she withdrew.
@WeSayWarEagle, you might want to ‘fact-check’ that $30/hr figure with MSU’s co-op office. (Admissions offices sometimes get this kind of thing wrong, and I’m guessing a FA office might too.)
FWIW, my son is in the second semester of his three-semester ME co-op with a company on the AL/MS border that currently has students from MSU and Bama. (Supervisor is an Auburn alum.) He’s getting $18/hr. I suppose it’s possible that MSU and Auburn students get paid on average more than Bama ones, but I can’t believe it’s that big a difference. I got the impression that most Bama engineering co-ops pay in the $16-$21/hr range (plus a housing allowance, where relevant). Some allow (and compensate) for OT, and other don’t.
Also, do you have a bottom-line figure you’re trying to get to or are you just trying to get AU to somehow patch together a package that will be the equivalent of a full ride? I’m not sure it’s realistic to expect AU to match a full ride from MSU since AU’s overall ranking is significantly higher, which I think might be the more relevant number when you’re seeking merit money.
“Which again countered menloparkmom’s assertion that USC gives merit to top 1-2% .”
" My guess is it is top 1-2% of USC applicants."
Hello?? You are both making assumptions that are incorrect…
I did not say awarding the big scholarships was automatic, ,as some here seem to imply
. USC is holistic in BOTH its admissions as well as in the selection of whom to award big merit $$ .
And If you would BOTH read the exert I copied from the USC scholarship page, it says top 1-2% NATIONWIDE, not 1-2% of all USC applicants.
here it is again:
“Average SAT and ACT scores are in the top
1 to 2 percent of ALL students NATIONWIDE”
I added the caps to make it easier to see.
'Read more carefully next time guys, and then do the math.
2400-1%=2376
2400-2%= 2352
That’s just for starters… then they look at all of these factors.
" In addition to academic criteria, candidates’
talent, perseverance, innovation, involvement
and leadership are considered."
And I will add, they dont award the big $$ to students if they dont feel the student has expressed a genuine interest in going to USC, which is quite different than simply sending in an early application.
I think the point about perceived interest in the school is a good one, both at USC specifically and in general. Another way of saying that is likelihood of attending if the scholarship is offered, as obviously a school wants the majority of those offered full scholarships to attend.
In the case of USC around 50% of admitted students end up attending and I would suspect that yield is pretty high on the list of admissions office considerations even for non-merit aid admits.
One example of this, I suspect, is a student I know who is current a Harvard freshman, but did not get in to USC. Surprising in the sense that statistically it’s much harder to get in to Harvard, and to me the most plausible scenario is that USC admissions felt the student was unlikely to attend if accepted.
@LucieTheLakie, thanks for input. Regarding MSU COE co-op, that info came directly from the breakout session with the dean of engineering and other associates. They stated avg co-op for the entire university was $18K/hr. Of course not all majors offer co-op.
Regarding Auburn, we are hoping to cobble together some additional awards to come close to MSU offer…hoping same from UTk.
When we were comparing schools, I never really explored beyond whether or not a school offered a co-op program, but for families looking to minimize the cost of undergrad, a high-paying co-op program can really help offset expenses.
OP, the strategic approach that you laid out is necessary in the college selection process as we try to find the “best” college for our kids that we can afford. As some others have pointed out, try to find the Common Data Sets for the schools that you are evaluating. Although they are usually dated, they provide a good look at the data such as average test scores and how many students get how much money.
BUT, remember that selecting a school based on a paper analysis could be disastrous. Equally important is selecting a school at which your child will feel comfortable and fit in. That can only really be determined by spending time on campus and checking out the school’s social media vibe. I’ve already seen several of my son’s high school classmates return home in their first and second year because they selected a school that seemed like a good fit on paper.
I did not read all the posts here- so I apologize if I am repeating some of what has already been said.
To get the full ride scholarship at a school, I think it really depends on having BETTER stats on standardized tests than the top 1% of students at that school and also being a student that has traits that they find particularly attractive. Although grades and class rank are important, they are less so than standardized tests because of differences in grading policies for different high schools. For Ivy leagues, being in the top 1% would be sufficient given that all their students are so high stat. However, the student still should be a good match for specific things they are looking for in their scholarship recipients.
For some schools, they are looking for leadership; someone who has been president of many clubs with deep level of involvement would be a front-runner. Other schools are looking for civic engagement and community service is particularly important. I have seen other schools who are looking for diversity of different types- some with under-represented minorities and some looking for students who might help bridge the gap in culture for a high percentage of foreign student enrollment. I have seen small liberal arts schools that are looking for someone who has shown leadership in more creative, artistic, or politically conscious ways. There are research universities who are looking for students who have shown an interest in doing research in high school. I have also seen a research university who also is interested in enrolling top humanities students to even out their classes.
For all of these full-ride scholarships, I think it is particularly important to do very well on ACT or SAT. For SAT, I have learned that they are looking for a high critical reading + math score… not sure how or if that will change for the new SAT. I also learned by researching who the winners of these scholarships were, that there seems to be a preference for NMFs- even though it is not listed as a prereq. in their scholarship description. Basically, the schools are looking to add students who will bring depth and excellence to their program and also be beneficial to the University statistics and provide bragging rights about the excellence of their student population.
The best way to get a full-ride offer is to research past winners and the university website (honors programs, clubs, study abroad, etc) to see what they value. If your child has the stats and their interests and ECs are a good fit, they have a good chance of getting a full ride there. Application essays and scholarship essay should somehow reflect the interests and ECs your child has that the university values.
The only caveat I would add to your excellent post is that the more highly ranked the college is, the lesser your child’s chances are for a full ride or full tuition scholarship.
USC offers full tuition scholarships to only 4% of early applicants. Those odds are not what I would call “good”, but USC is now a top U. with very competitive admissions.
USC DOES value NMF’s and those students have a much higher chance of acceptance and winning a 1/2 tuition scholarship than non NMF’s.
momofsmartdancer, just one point to add to your second paragraph since you mention the Ivy League - the eight Ivy League schools do not give merit scholarships (or athletic scholarships). At these schools any aid is based on financial need only. Students at these schools can receive outside merit scholarships but not from the schools.
I know you were probably using Ivy League just as examples of schools with highly competitive admissions but just wanted to be clear on their policy around financial aid.
That said some Ivies are more generous with financial aid than others - HYP have financial resources significantly greater than the other five schools - but still aid is based on financial need as determined by the schools.
I agree with the poster who said that it is very important to assess your child in the context of the school’s typical applicant, not just their overall performance. My son and a neighbor’s daughter were comparable students in high school. They both applied to state schools. She applied to the top ranked state school and received no merit aid based on academics and my son applied to a slightly lower ranked school (that had a strong program in his major) and received a very nice academic merit aid package and an invitation to the Honors Program with additional scholarship opportunities and benefits. The only difference between the two of them was that at the school my neighbor’s daughter applied to her classes, grades and test scores were not that different than a lot of the applicants, whereas my son’s were better than the average applicant where he applied. It works for us because in his major the school he applied to is actually stronger. I guess this is a long winded way of saying don’t discount second tier schools that have a strong major in the field that your child is interested in - if they have an area of focus - because the funding and resources could be better than a higher ranked school.