My daughter has applied to multiple schools, only one in-state. We know that the in-state school may be our only/best option, but there are several schools that she prefers that are OOS. I would like to be able to afford OOS and give her some options, but we aren’t sure where to look for scholarships.
I am a recent widow, and affording college will be tough. I believe my EFC is about $2,000. She has a 2300 SAT, with 790 Math. 4.0 unweighted GPA and approximately 10 APs with mostly 5s on exams so far.
She has applied for a local scholarship, and will apply for scholarships through Society of Women Engineers. Not sure where else to look. She is also applying to all available scholarships to the schools she wants to attend, but I know state schools don’t offer much to OOS students.
The best aid comes from the colleges. The best course of action would have been to apply to colleges that give large merit for her great stats or to colleges that ‘meet full need’ as you have large need. I hope she did, as there are lots of them but most deadlines have passed. If not then she has missed a lot of opportunities, hate to say. If you only applied to OOS that don’t give aid to OOS students then it is time to scramble, speak up.
A lot of outside scholarships are one time only and won’t cover the costs of OOS tuition. SWE is the most comprehensive source I know. Have her search for renewable scholarships.
Here are colleges still accepting applications. X check with ‘meets full need’ and those that have engineering. Lafayette is one that comes up a lot JAN 15 deadline. She has missed the merit deadline but not the JAN 15 for USC in socal and they meet need. Smith is a women’s college with engineering MEETS NEED and gives merit and research funds to some students JAN 15. I’m sure there are more. http://time.com/money/3652370/best-colleges-late-application-deadline/
Stay home from school tomorrow and bang a few of these out.
She has applied to a few of the schools on the list that meet full need. Unfortunately those are the super competitive ones so we know it’s a long shot!
I just want to make a statement on the engineering program at Smith College. My daughter went there for one year. She choose Smith because of the reputation and they gave her a lot of money. My daughter feels that whole years worth of tuition was wasted money. She now is at Rensselear Polytechnic paying more than twice the amount BUT when she graduates she will not have to go on to a graduate degree, which one does from Smith. She is learning what she needs to have a career in BME where at Smith you receive a broad range, survey type of an engineering education. My daughter also speaks about how little she learned that one year and that she is behind all the students where she is now. Please don’t go to a school just for the money. We learned the hard way
Another thing for us to consider - transportation costs if she goes far away. Plus the hassle, etc. of travel. She has applied to some schools that would require flying home for holidays, etc., but I greatly prefer something 3-5 hours away, just for the ease and cost of getting home.
The best advice I can give is be patient. You will be getting your financial aid information in late March, early April. Be sure to get your FAFSA/CSS profile in expediently and wait. Your D has excellent grades and you may find that some schools will offer to meet much of your need through grants or need based scholarships along with work study. These awards are seldom given until you receive your financial aid package from the university. If your EFC is what you say it is you’ll likely be eligible for some federal grants as well. If your D is so inclined she can choose to seek co-op positions which she then can use some of that money to pay for school. I currently have a D in engineering and we were all set to send her in state until the financial aid packages came out. They surprised us. Some schools we thought would be more generous gave her little, others that we were frankly convinced would be unaffordable were actually the best deals. Your D’s scores are stronger than ours. Good luck.
Thanks. That is encouraging! I submitted my FAFSA on January 1 and will do the CSS Profile as soon as I get all my tax info - planning to have it done by early February.
Highly recommend you apply to Rensselaer. Deadline is 1/15 and they give lots of aid to students, great reputation and great businesses recruit there every year for internships which can help a lot.
Where do you live? If you only want to go 3-5 hours away, we need to know the epicenter. Another thing your daughter can do is ask the schools where she applies if they have a list of sponsors that have given scholarships to students in the past.
<<<
Please don’t go to a school just for the money. We learned the hard way
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Not only does the family here have NO CHOICE but to choose based on money…Most eng’g schools would NOT have that bad experience that your D had at Smith.
I know MANY people who have chosen their schools based on money and had fabulous experiences. To assume that a school that gives the most money will somehow be a bad choice would be extremely short-sighted…even if it was a bad experience for your D. Likely Smith - a women’s school - would have been obviously not a good choice for eng’g…simply because it is all female. That would not apply to coed schools.
I am concerned that some/many of this student’s schools were not chosen well. it’s very likely that schools like VT (OOS) and GT (OOS) may not be affordable.
What was her PSAT? is she a NMSF?
NC State will likely be affordable with a combo of merit, state and fed aid.
Yes - I started a 529 with SSI we are receiving. Realistically, $5000 in savings/year, possibly a Pell grant of $3000 or so, $5500 loan, and I could probably manage $5000 of my money if I had to. So $18000 or so. And she would definitely be willing to do work study, and hopefully an internship or co op to earn some $$
Ok, so ‘all in’ $18k/year - so you need a reasonable amount of additional need/merit. It doesn’t sound insurmountable, given her stats.
Is your daughter an URM?
(In the future, if she does study abroad, there is a scholarship which only Pell recipients can apply for - Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship).
West Virginia? $32,000 OOS, but she’d probably qualify for a $14,000 scholarship - maybe more. There are probably better schools/deals out there, but many of the deadlines have passed. I have seen Case Western mentioned as a school with a lot of merit aid. Their deadline is January 15.
I am concerned that some/many of this student's schools were not chosen well. it's very likely that schools like VT (OOS) and GT (OOS) may not be affordable.<<
[/QUOTE]
What would you have done differently? We tried to do as much research as we could, and it seems like most of the engineering schools are either state schools or super competitive private schools.
Considering all that we have been through, I think she and I have done well for her still to have straight As, to have gotten 5s on last year’s APs and to have gotten through the college application process at all. This is stressful no matter what, and we have had a lot of additional stress to deal with on top of it.
Case offers a 3/2 Engineering degree, BTW, so your daughter could start at a place like Wooster or Kenyon and finish an engineering degree at Case. Most of the 40 partner schools are in Ohio or Pennsylvania, but there’s one in Nashville. http://engineering.case.edu/delpp/dual-degree/participating-schools
Your D has done very well and she should be very proud of her accomplishments. Case offers up to 30K merit scholarships, plus additional essay scholarships that you have to apply separately for, all due 1/15. Did she apply for the VT engineering merit and honors scholarships? Was Vanderbilt on her list? With her grades, she has a chance.
