<p>My daughter so far is accepted at three schools and waiting on a few others.
Each of the three has sent a letter about 2 weeks after the acceptance offering her a 16k per year (64k total) “presidential scholarship” with the proviso of maintaining a 3.0 gpa.</p>
<p>She had not applied for such scholarships but i’m guessing that they offer them to students with a gpa over a certain number. Is this correct and what is that magic number ?</p>
<p>Is there any advice on how to best deal with these offers ? Can they increase or ?
Thanks and Happy New Year !<br>
JF</p>
<p>It may vary from school to school. I think most schools would give info on their websites under the scholarship sections. Look at Dickinson for an example, where they define their three levels of academic scholarships.</p>
<p>There is usually a set requirement and it can probably be found on each specific college’s website (look for the “scholarships”–usually in the financial aid part of the website). Usually the applicant must have a certain HS GPA along with a specified minimum ACT or SAT score–info that is provided to the college via the complete application. Read the fine print but usually the amount is set and stays the same each year and is renewable each year as long as the student maintains the specified GPA requirement set by the college.</p>
<p>My son has a similar scholarship. Itdoes not increase and is only renewable if the gpa stays above 3.0. There may be some provision for a probation period if one semester dips, his has a provision but he hasn’t had to use it.
Pay attention to other requirements, some schools require the student to fill out the FAFSA every year regardless of eligibility for need based aid.</p>
<p>I assume that those scholarships must be handed out by some sort of GPA/SAT standard, but in my case, I received the 16k scholarship instantly for being a National Merit Semi-finalist, so I can’t give you any indication of what the magic numbers are.</p>
<p>In my experience, this scholarship does not increase, it just maintains over the four years. In addition, at my school, they will not grant some of the departmental scholarships to people with the presidential scholarship.</p>
<p>My DD knew what the magic numbers were. She went back retook her ACT and upped her number into the next bracket getting $500 more per year. But her motivation was to get a perfect in English and she was one point short.</p>
<p>My D was offered that kind of deal from Goucher, Wooster, and Brandeis. She had high grades, rigorous curriculum, decent (but not amazing) test scores, and strong ECs with a couple of national awards.</p>
<p>However, she picked Dickinson, and her stats weren’t high enough for the big ones there. Fortunately, she did get some other scholarships from them as well as a couple of good outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Son has a presidential scholarship at his large private university. It is for 1/2 tuition and goes up as the tuition rises. He also has to maintain a 3.0 to keep it. His was awarded by being a NMF.</p>
<p>Every college will have a slightly different criteria. These merit awards are used to entice a student that the college feels has likely gained acceptance to a higher ranked institution. Most good students that have dutifully applied to their reach, match and safety schools will then be faced with the dollar weighted choice of attending their reach school at full fare (if they are lucky enough to gain acceptance) a match school at some discount or a safety at a deep discount. These are usually nice choices to have, but ultimately painful for the parent because kids tend to choose their “dream school” with no money!</p>
<p>My son was offered presidential scholarships at both WPI and RPI two years ago. Neither institute says exactly how good you have to be to get one. (For what it’s worth he had a 97 UW GPA, 2260 SAT1, 2400 SAT2, and 5s on all his APs.)</p>
<p>When D1 got one at Syracuse, we had no idea they even existed. It was a nice surprise that came in the mail a week after her acceptance (and took the sting out of being rejected at UNC). We assumed all scholarships required separate applications.</p>
<p>So when D2 got one from Muhlenberg, we weren’t quite as surprised (in the sense that she got one without submitting supplemental applications).</p>
<p>I have to tell you, getting those scholarships, based on whatever (obviously accomplishments recognized from standardized testing, GPA, etc.) was a wonderful, unsolicited reward for years of very hard work in high school. They earned them.</p>
<p>D2 has one 16K Presidential already in hand from an in-state private, but may have to wait until early March to hear about the other one, from an out-of-state public. From that school, she’s already received $5600/yr x 4, and their Presidential is $13K stacked on top of that. In this economy, that would be sweet.</p>
<p>Problem is, her top choice–another out-of-state public–is notoriously stingy with frosh scholarships but apparently tends to open up for junior & senior years given a high GPA.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that if you anticipate being eligible for at least $16,000 a year in need-based financial aid (subtract your EFC from the cost of attendance), that Presidential Scholarship would take the place of need-based aid - not be in addition to it - and may not actually provide any cost break over other schools.</p>
<p>she was nmf, 32 act…
she was initially named nmsf in the fall and i think the offers came after that announcement and before the nmf announcement.</p>
<p>You have to remember that, to me, need-based aid=LOANS. Loans have to be paid back, which I’m doing with D1 right now. And with the interest rates near 8% on these loans, by the time all’s said & done, plenty of interest will be accruing. 'Course that was our decision there because, at the time, parent loans were the only option. It’s still best if you don’t have a bunch of money just lying around. </p>
<p>And like a lot of folks on CC, we’re in that EFC purgatory, with too much income for real need-based grants but far from being able to afford most any decent college without taking out loans.</p>
<p>With D2, it’s conceivable that if she gets this other Presidential scholarship, her out-the-door cost could be down in the low teens per year, for a Top 60 public. If that happens, I may have to strongly suggest she attend (it’s her #2 choice), working the cost into our monthly budget & living frugally for a few years. But she’d be debt-free upon graduation (and we’d only be paying off one set of loans), which to me trumps all the other stuff.</p>