http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/twins-offered-1-6-million-photo-192217985.html
That’s nice. How many colleges did they apply to? 
Well, since they got 56 acceptances, AT LEAST 28 apiece and more if there were some rejections in the mix. That seems terribly excessive. The parents probably had to pay app fees, unless they got a waiver, as well as fees to get scores sent.
I’m glad S applied to far fewer and D to just 1!
If their stats were great, they could have looked to see which schools would give them automatic merit awards and remove some guesswork. Their strategy seems quite excessive, to me.
Who wants to bet they may be wanting to write a book on how to get merit awards or similar? Very onerous to counselor and faculty writing recommendations.
That was a lot of schools to apply to and must have been very time consuming.
I wonder what their school counselors and teachers who had to write recommendation letters thought of this.
I can’t imagine a counselor recommending this.
This translates into an average of about $27k per school. And it is possible that some of those “scholarships” are need based grants. Which isn’t that impressive. The article is light on facts.
They may be lower income and was chasing aid/merit to get a full ride to be able to afford it.
It looks like the girl twin received much more money than her brother, and was recruited for a sport. But good for them. Obviously they were excessive, but Better to spend their time applying to colleges than any number of other things.
Depending on the COA, they may or may NOT have gotten any “full rides” for schools they want to attend and hay still be unable to afford what they want.
I’m sure many CCers got a ton of merit and FAid, even if most of our kids applied to fad fewer Us.
My relative got $320,000 total merit from 3 Us–$80k at each, but so what?
Maybe the Pell and federal loan amounts included in packages were counted multiple times.
Probably excessive applications, yes, but good on them for their results - HuffPo suggests each has 2 full ride options.
LOL
I got accepted by 5 colleges for a total of 500,000 roughly… My tuition and fees costs 1.2million though…
I find the wording to be curious. “Earning” scholarships.
It’s likely that, at least for the brother who is not mentioned as being offered an athletic scholarship, that it’s need-based financial aid. Does one “earn” need-based aid or “qualify” for need-based aid.
Semantics aside, it’s commendable they cast a wide net and didn’t just apply to Ivy and NYU. And it speaks volumes about their character that they didn’t want to financially burden their mother.
Congratulations to them!
Here’s a little more information: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/phenomenal-twins-get-into-56-colleges-earn-13-million-in-scholarships_us_571634e8e4b0018f9cbb0aa2
Adding up all the aid they receive like its some giant lottery payout? Blech. I hate stories like this.
I mean, great for them. Except a good chunk of those schools are not exactly noteworthy. This story doesn’t sound miraculous to me. Perfect attendance and 40+ awards, these schools were almost all matches/safeties for them.
What would have been really incredible is if the lists were almost all lacs or national universityies…both with highly ranked programs.
Good for them, some publicity to start dialogue. Unfortunately the cynic in me laughs at how so many of the schools have graduation rates lower than the odds you’re right flipping a coin.
56? They kind make those kids who apply to all eight Ivies look like application underachievers.
Good for them for getting into college with FA, but count me among those unimpressed by the acceptance collecting.
For instance, is it really such an achievement to be admitted to a school with a 3.8% 6 year graduation rate?! Yes, three point six percent.
http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/paul-quinn-college/academic-life/graduation-and-retention/#
@veryhappy Thanks for posting the updated article. When the news came out there were just short clips from ET Online.
I am sure their mom is thankful for their efforts in finding funding for college. It seems the teachers and counselors were very supportive and hats off to them for taking ownership in finding affordable opportunities.
Glad they each got 2 full rides, so they do have a choice that won’t cost their folks. I do suspect their ‘awards’ are including merit + FAid.
Let’s hope this doesn’t start a “let’s see how much we can get” trend. I am glad they will be able to afford college with little or no debt, but IF waivers were used then this feels like an abuse of the system. The UK allows for 5 apps per student which calls for upfront legwork, doesn’t overwhelm the GC’s and saves the admissions team from umpteen hours of paperwork.
I don’t think it says whether the awards are counted for one year or four years. It is a lot less impressive if they are counting all four years.