Situation: Daughter with 31 ACT, top 5% of class, 4.7 GPA gets into U of I Champaign but offered not one penny of financial aid. She is so disappointed. I know 31 is not the top ACT score for Engineering but her other stats are wonderful plus she works and does several extra curr which are reflected in her resume. She was so excited about getting into Engineering only to have to decline her admission because of lack of financial aid. PS we are out of state.
Other schools she applied to offered generous amounts of financial aid, not all tuition/room and board was paid but the vast majority was. University of Alabama made her the best offer. I know the Engineering program is not a strong as Illinois, but why struggle with paying the bill and all the anxiety that comes with that just to go to a “better” school. Mizzou has made her an attractive offer as well.
Am I wrong to be so disappointed too? I feel as though she did everything she was supposed to do (grades, GPA etc) and she was awarded nothing by a good state school. Her cousin, who lives in state was offered zero too and he is 3rd in his class with 33 ACT.
Also wondering if anyone has any current information about Alabama or Mizzou Engineering programs since that are the two we are deciding between. Got accepted to Missouri Science and Technology (Rolla for us old people) but probably not going to go there because of size, she is wanting something larger.
What makes you say the engineering program at Alabama “isn’t as strong” as UIUC? UA has a state of the art facility, and is amongst the highest ranked public universities in a number of fields. And like UIUC, the programs in engineering are ABET accredited.
And if your daughter is OOS for Illinois, the expectation for significant aid was not a reliastic one.
I don’t understand this thought. You are upset that your D is not truly valued as much at UIUC as at other schools. The competition is tougher at UIUC. Why try to get into that school? Have her go where she is valued (and receives merit aid). BTW, why should UIUC offer ANY OOS student merit aid? It seems that UIUC doesn’t really have the funding to offer much merit aid at all. And being OOS you don’t have any dog in that fight.
Wow fast replies… I was not trying to imply that Alabama was a “lesser” school. It is a beautiful campus with a very nice/robust engineering program. But when I researched it, U of I was ranked higher and we have a family tie to the school which leaned us in that direction originally. She is very willing to attend and excited to be going to Alabama but going to college with her cousin at a school multiple family members have attended would have been awesome.
I am not sure why any OOS school would offer an OOS student aid, but Alabama has/did so I assumed Illinois would offer something…
I am new to all of this and still trying to figure things out.
Don’t be bitter. What I have learned in our search instead of being surprised we researched which colleges DID offer OOS merit aid. This was something you could’ve done ahead of time to avoid disappointment.
The hunt for merit aid is an interesting one…in about a week, i’m writing a sum-up of what happened when my kid applied for merit aid…like you, only a handful came through…but we’re grateful that we have choices…
It is disappointing. But merit aid from top ranke programs at state universities is hard to come by. She was competing against kids with 34-35 ACTs, and probably similar or higher grades. It doesn’t diminsh you Ds accomplishments, it just is what it is.
Welcome to the world of college admissions where every school is different and where it pays to do research prior to applying to have an idea of what is likely to happen.
Fwiw, our ds was offered large fixed amt scholarships from some schools, no aid at all from another, full tuition at another, and full rides at 2 (one of the full ride offers wasn’t even an advertised scholarship. The dept created it for him bc they were strongly recruiting him.) The school where he was awarded nothing is not known for out of state aid and he was hoping for one of their very competitive scholarships which he was not awarded. He was aware of the long shot going in.
Fwiw, he is now attending Bama. He loves it. He can’t imagine himself anywhere else. No regrets.
Yes, most people don’t know that the majority of the big awards come from the schools themselves so picking schools that have a lot of merit money is important to have the best chance of getting nice awards and also making sure you are at the top of the heap in terms of test scores and grades in the the school’s entering class. IF 20% of the kids get merit money, it stands to reason that you had better be in that top quarter and well up there to get an average award. If in the midstream or barely making that top quarter, without something that the school really wants, you aren’t likely to get much at all.
Some schools, including the Ivies and a number of the top schools give NO merit money at all. Something to be aware of when picking schools.
I think it’s fair to be disappointed even if you do understand why. But that disappointment should be outshined by the fantastic opportunities she still has!
Why would you be disappointed that your OOS D with lowers stats wasn’t offered merit aid?
My H is an UIUC alum and I’d love for my children to go there too. Although I think they would get accepted, they won’t be encouraged to apply because we are OOS and know they don’t offer enough (if any!) merit aid to make it workable. I think it’s silly to waste time and money applying to schools that are financially out of reach. I’m glad your D was wise enough to apply to some great financial safeties!
My son applied to 7 schools and was accepted to 7 schools. He was awarded nothing by one of the schools,Santa Clara University and was offered almost full tuition at Loyola Marymount University, both LAC’s. He was given 1200 for one year by our state university. Needless to say he has committed to Loyola Marymount University and it wasn’t initially his first choice, but as he says, “I’d be stupid to turn that kind of money down.”
Santa Clara and Loyola Marymount often have overlapping applicants. But the schools are very different in terms of the competitiveness of applicants for merit aid. And if your kiddo is an engineering applicant to SCU, it is even more competitive for that merit aid.
Congrats on Loyola Marymount!
(While SCU feels like a LAC, it is actually a masters university…not a LAC)
My D had similar stats and also went into engineering. We found that although she was accepted to schools that she might not have if she was a boy applying to the same schools, the merit aid was not more.
She applied to a variety of private and in state schools. She didn’t apply to any OOS schools as we were pretty sure they would not be affordable. (No Alabama scholarships were in play at that time). We also applied before they had NPC either so everything then was a calculated guess. One in state school offered her a better package than we expected and I am sure it was because of her desire for engineering and their desire to expand their engineering department. She went to a private school which met our need and we were happy to pay what they calculated that need to be.
One thing I want to say which is not directed to the op. Do the NPC’s at every school your child is applying to. Believe them. If you still apply there expect the NPC to be correct (if you aren’t divorced or own your own business, in which case the NPC’s are not accurate). If the school offers more than what you expected, be suprised then.
The Net Price Calculators will not be accurate if the family owns a business, parents are self employed, parents are divorced, family owns real estate other than the primary residence…or the student is an international student.
OP: well done to your daughter. she’s worked hard.
i have to say when we started the college search/scholarship process, we had no idea how it all worked; and how OOS did not often offer scholarships. We had never heard either way about it; we just figured all colleges offered scholarships to top kids no matter where they lived. This web site has absolutely been eye-opening on costs & FA & scholarships and how it all works. Slightly disappointing, but once its all explained, it makes sense.
While it is a wonderful score, a 31 ACT is not likely to be even in the top half of admitted, out-of-state students in Engineering at Urbana-Champaign, and extra-curricular activities that are not truly special are unlikely to significantly contribute to a merit award.
Alabama has a great program, and I’m glad that was a good option for her.