Please share if your high school senior received a large college merit scholarship

[ctinct]

DD got the following offers this year-$10,000 at a private school in NY, $15,000 from an upstate NY private, half tuition (sorry, forget how much) from a private school in RI, full tuition as an oos student to a large Southern public university, full tuition plus a $2500 one time stipend for research/travel to our state university (only offered to some valedictorians and salutatorians) (please forgive my spelling), and $25000 from a private school in PA. Her ACT score was pretty high; her SAT not so much--we used her ACT scores. Interestingly, all the schools offered grant money also, which also varied widely. The most expensive school, in PA, gave her the largest grant and met nearly our full need, with the fewest loans. The other private schools left gaps of about $12000 to over $20000. If I had to do it over again, I would filter schools before visiting by % of need met.

 

[collegejunkie]

tulane, u pitt, oregon state, utah state, u alabama, and other state schools looking to attract competitive out of staters usually have some nice merit scholarships. top privates typically don't give out merit scholarships because they have no need to (the ivy league does not give our merit scholarships, but it's possible that others in the top 20 do). of the ones i listed, i think tulane is the best bang for your buck if you get one of their scholarships. it's a great school and to go for a fraction of the price just makes it better. check their website and apply early.

 

[tar heel]

Once my son was named a National Merit Finalist, he received several free ride offers at schools he had not expressed any interest in. The most presigious of the group was the University of Florida. Western Carolina, part of the UNC system, offered him full tuition, room and board and a computer. Clemson, which was one of the schools he considered, was going to give him in-state tuition.

He went to NC State University where he got $1,000 a year.

 

[Cathy baby RN]

My son rec'd Merit Scholarships to 3 of the 4 school's he applied to. Of course, the school he chose is the one that he didn't get an award! His largest award was $6,000 a year, tuition $36, 000(private). Based on GPA, ACT, etc(he got a 27, GPA 4.3/4, class rank 14/306). Two other out of state public univerities offered him anywhere from 4-5K based on ACT and choice of major.

Hey Psychodisney....I'm right up the street from you(kids go to Grant HS).
So far 4 of our children have graduated from the University of Illinois. They have been in the top 10 of their class, great grades and ACT scores and did not get any $$ from U of I. We have 2 more children in high school. We've been paying tuition to U of I since 1999. At one point I had a freshmen. a sophmore and a senior in college at the same time!! I will say they got a great education and found jobs upon graduation.

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

My DD graduated high school in 2009. She was offered approximately $100,000 for four years at Tulane. That only covered a portion of the cost. So, she decided to go to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. We could get one year of school at U of M, for the price of one semester at Tulane. This year the tuition and fees cost $20,358.23, straight off the school bill. She does have some scholarships, however. The school awarded her $1000 for two years. My husbands employer has a foundation that has awarded her $2000 for four years. Another organization, linked to my husbands industy, awarded her $2000 each year, for the past two years. This scholarship has to applied for annually. Going into college she earned 30 credits from AP classes. She scored a 34 on the ACT. Her high school GPA was 3.919/4. She did have some honors credits that made her official GPA 4.544. She was, easily, in the top 10% of her class. The high school was looking at doing away with class rank, due to the highly competitive nature of the college application process.

 

[Tink9295]

My DS is a freshman at a small college in Mass. He received a $11,000 a year merit scholarship and a $4000 grant. His tuition is $38,000. Hopefully next he'll receive more as he was invited into the honors program.

 

[Debbie7452]

There's a huge list of free ride or close to it schools for National Merit Finalists on College Confidential.Some are automatic, not competitive. I printed it out after DD got her PSAT's back and we knew she would get National Merit. Boy are we relieved we don't have to pay for her school! So far she is interested in U of Alabama. Their package is pretty compelling. We are really hoping to get Texas A&M to match their offer. I've heard they will match other schools if they want you bad enough. The real letters and interesting offers will start rolling in next fall when she is officially named a semi-finalist.

As far as Stats go: DD has PSAT/223, SAT/2290, ranked #6 out of 600+, our GPA is on a 100 scale...107.67. University of Alabama has offered full tuition/ room, summer study abroad, extra money for food, and a laptop.

She is one of four kids, with one already in college so we needed some help. We don't qualify for financial need based aid.

 

[nancycg56]

DD got a merit scholarship for 15K a year and it was renewed all four years. When she went to college, 2002-2006, the state of Virginia also gave tuition assistance grants to kids going to private colleges in Virginia. It varied from year to year but ran from about 2K to 3K. With both, we ended up paying the same amount we paid for our son to go to a state school so it worked out well for us. As I recall, it was about 22K/year.

 

[imsayin]

2 chess players from our community last year got scholarships. One got MIT and the other got Harvard. Another one got into some top liberal arts college whose name I can't remember, also a full ride.

I fully expect my son to get a scholarship as well, if he keeps playing (he better)

Just to clarify, none of the Ivies, MIT or several other top notch schools give merit, athletic or other talent scholarships. All their money is given based on need. I'm a bit obsessed with merit scholarships at the moment. As someone noted above, the collegeconfidential is a good source of finding schools that do give merit aid.

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

DS18 1400 Verbal and math ~3.75 weighted GPA offered tuition,fees,room and board to UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth dependent on maintaining college grades. So about 20k per year. Doesn't cover personal expenses so he was offered loans for 3k each year.
UMassAmherst (the Flagship campus) offered 2k out of ~20k per year.
He was only a Commended student based on PSATs rather than a National Merit Semi Finalist.

Also offered 15k for Wentworth out of 35K.

He wishes he could go to Worcester Polytechnic Institute but was offered nothing but 3k per year loan out of ~45k per year.

His choice of major was Electrical Engineering. I think sometimes major affects aid award.

 

[linnylu]

One of our discussions is how much assistance a guidance counselor gives in helping seniors locate these college scholarships. Of course that might vary with the size of the high school and counselor's case load. I also had to visit 10 public and 10 private school websites and see how easy it was to locate and determine potential scholarships.

Personally speaking I have a junior who has a good chance of being named a national merit semi finalist. I will be interested to see what kind of scholarship offers she receives. I have looked at the list on college confidential but didn't see any at Ohio schools. My senior ds received a presidential scholarship to his school of choice which was for about 1/2 total cost of the school (tuition +room,board).

 

[Princessmom2]

Wow, good for your daughter. My son has his eye on Auburn in the future! My DH got his Masters there and I was an academic adviser there some years ago when there was not much scholarship money. Alabama offered all the big scholarships. I'm glad to hear that Auburn has more to offer now.

Yes, they really have-and good luck to your son! Did you know Dr. Wayne Alderman? He was an accounting professor and became head -or something!- of the scholarship office when DD started. (He was my favorite professor!) class of '83

 

[Debbie7452]

Our Guidance Counselor was a nice lady, but she was no help in locating good scholarships for our DD that is currently in college. She just refers everyone to Fastweb.com. Well everyone under the sun applies for those awards, so your chance of getting one is really slim. That doesn't mean don't apply....

At our last meeting with the GC I mentioned CollegeConfidential and she had never heard of it! Our GC writes good rec letters and is very responsive to filling out forms, but I learned more on my own and from other parents. We are a large high school (about 600+ kids in Senior class) We have multiple counselors though, so I don't know their caseload.

 

[amykathleen2005]

I went to a private college, Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, OH. I received a $10,000 a year merit scholarship (the highest at the time, now they've increased it to match tuition increases). A $2,000 year achievement award for leadership and some various other grants and scholarships.

 

[Coloradomom]

DS was a National Merit Finalist and, among others, received two full ride offers (tuition, fees, room and board). One was from an out of state private and the other from an out of state public.
He ended up at the private even though the public was actually a little more lucrative(they gave a book stipend AND you could keep any additional scholarships, where the other one used any additional ones to offset their aid).

His ACT was 34 and I don't recall his SAT but the National Merit really worked well for him, especially since he was very flexible in his choice of schools. He never had his heart set on one place.

It worked out well-he graduated magna cum laude and stayed at that school on an all expenses paid fellowship to earn his masters, and now is off at another school earning a second masters with 75% of costs paid.
Can't complain there.
DD is in nursing school instate, and received $1,300 per year scholarship renewable with grades.
Agree with the OP -always make sure the scholarships are renewable before deciding.
And while the kids HS counselors were very helpful (high achieving suburban high school) I did most of the legwork looking at options because after all who has the most to gain or lose? It's my pocket at the end of the day.

 

[bluesaturn]

.

 

[juliebean]

Interesting that there are so many national merit scholars (I was one too and did get a my tuition paid at an out of state public university as a result.) - and absolutely congrats to all of them. BUT, it is both 1/2 of one percent of students and also completely dependent on a standardized test. I know way too many excellent students who either had a bad day on the day of the PSAT's or just are not great at standardized tests.

Since you are going to be a guidance counselor - the National Merit scholars are probably the group that needs the least assistance with finding scholarships, they have colleges begging them to come. It's the students with 3.7s and middling scores - and who will probably be successful college students - that will need the most help. Just something I think is often not discussed...

Honestly, doing scholarships for a univ. - I hated having students with 3 - 3.5s and stellar scores - some are so smart they could breeze through hs lazily and they never learned how to work hard and study. Too many of them end up losing their scholarships the first year because they all of a sudden get a C or D. Then the tears and begging... The system rewards the high scores more than they should... And sadly enough my teenager is this way - gets perfect scores on standardized tests and then doesn't take notes, turn in stuff or study and gets a 96 on a geometry test, but a B for the overall because of the missing hw - drives me nuts!

 

[Debbie7452]

oh, I agree with the above poster. I'm surprised that National Merit still carries the prestige that it does. Yes, it worked out for one of my kids, so I'm happy but I realize it is kind of ridiculous in the scheme of things. I was also a National Merit in my day and got a full ride and I still thought this then.

My oldest was one of those excellent students(101 GPA) with good but not steller scores. She applied to every scholarship under the sun. Wrote beautiful essays and sent out paperwork to every scholarship we could find that she was eligible for. She approached it as her job and wanted to find enough money to pay completely for her schooling. In the end, she won one non-renewable $1000 award from Burger King. Our GC said she had never seen a child work as hard at trying to get scholarships as our DD.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

My DD is a senior, gets good grades, and received middle-of-the-road scores on ACT/SAT...we are one of thousands of families that are getting diddly-squat as far as financial aid or scholarships. We've worked hard and lived below our means to pay off our debts and keep money in the bank for emergencies. If we want to finance our two kids' college education, it will wipe out everything we've worked for. I know education loans are available, but with the job market the way it is -- we don't want our kids to start their careers deeply in debt when there's no guarantee they will find a job right away.

It's very overwhelming and I'm only posting this to warn other parents with young children at home to start preparing now for your child's education...don't assume for even a minute that they will be getting a free ride somewhere because those types of scholarships are few and far between, and there's huge competition for them as enrollment at colleges and universities is the highest it's ever been. Your child has to be at the head of the pack academically, involved in multiple extra-curricular activities like clubs, sports, fine arts, etc. and have hundreds of hours of community service...they have to work so hard, when do they have time to just be a kid?

 

[disykat]

Your child has to be at the head of the pack academically, involved in multiple extra-curricular activities like clubs, sports, fine arts, etc. and have hundreds of hours of community service...they have to work so hard, when do they have time to just be a kid?

Actually, I'm starting to realize it's ALL about PSAT (for National Merit) SAT/ACT etc. My son has a 3.95 GPA, 5's on a bunch of AP tests, leadership positions at school, musical prowess, and lots of community service, but got nothing from the state school he wants to attend. He did not get National Merit or anything close to perfect on SATs, although his scores were reasonable.

He is filling out a ton of local scholarships, hopefully he'll get some money - but it will be smaller amounts and non-renewable. My younger son, who isn't a super achiever like his brother, doesn't have a prayer IMO.