<p>Hey OP, update us on how that appeal went. We sent an appeal and got $0 from S’s number 1 Nat’l LAC. We are waiting for his #2 Nat’l U to respond but don’t expect much.</p>
<p>Our family is in a similar economic bracket and S’s merit awards at most of his preferred schools typically left us with a $35-$45K bill. He got a full ride at a decent OOS U (at the end of the Top 50 Publics), and after a scholarship our StateU cost would be only for room and board and personal expenses of about $16K. So we told him it would be crazy to give up $120K+ to go to his dream school but that he could pick either the OOS or our State U. He is looking pretty sad about it but he’ll get over it. IMO kids of this generation will definitely need to go to graduate school so if the household can’t or won’t pay the high $$ they are better off going to a StateU for undergrad and then focusing on those expensive highly ranked grad schools.
BTW for what it is worth, I think that the $ awarded this year are a bit lower than the past. We had S target some schools that give merit based on the experience of similarly situated former students at his rigorous HS. Some of them didn’t give him any $$ and others gave him less they had given another student who was almost identical 2 years ago.
Last, ignore the snarky responses. Sharks love a feeding frenzy :-)</p>