Will your child need scholarships to attend college?

[Aliceacc]

I think that depends on what you want to do with your life.

I'm a high school math teacher. I've been one since 1980, and I love what I do. Aside from International Jet Setter, there's not another career in the world for me, and I've been sure of that since I was in elementary school.

So, for me at least, it was college and grad school, no question.

My daughter wants a major in Fashion Mechandising. Again, college and not trade school. My son would love to work one day for the FBI-- he's pursuing a Criminal Justice Degree.

You're going to be working for decades. You've got to find something you can do for 40 or 50 years that will bring you joy, or at least contentment.

If that means trade school, or some other avenue, then great. But, like college, I see it as one viable option for some kids. An option that more should consider, certainly, but not for everyone.

 

[cleverclovers]

What type of grants are you referring to?

Most government grants go to those classified as extreme need.

"The maximum award changes yearly. The maximum award for the 2015-2016 academic year is $5,775. Your eligibility is decided by the FAFSA. Students whose total family income is $50,000 a year or less qualify, but most Pell grant money goes to students with a total family income below $20,000."

You have yo do your research. Grants are awarded for many things. Sometimes there are local groups who award grants and scholarships.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think that depends on what you want to do with your life.

I'm a high school math teacher. I've been one since 1980, and I love what I do. Aside from International Jet Setter, there's not another career in the world for me, and I've been sure of that since I was in elementary school.

So, for me at least, it was college and grad school, no question.

My daughter wants a major in Fashion Mechandising. Again, college and not trade school. My son would love to work one day for the FBI-- he's pursuing a Criminal Justice Degree.

You're going to be working for decades. You've got to find something you can do for 40 or 50 years that will bring you joy, or at least contentment.

If that means trade school, or some other avenue, then great. But, like college, I see it as one viable option for some kids. An option that more should consider, certainly, but not for everyone.

The thing is, you don't know if you are going to love a job until you do it. A good friend of mine works in fashion, and hates it (went to college in NYC for it). It was fun when she was younger, but now? She has to work in the city, there is zero job stability (always have feelers out), it's cut throat, the hours stink (comes home from work at 7, but has to on overseas calls later on).. But, her education and work experience have pigeon holed her into this field. She gets laid off every few years, always manages to get another position rather quickly (small world, everyone knows each other and they help each other out), but rarely gets more than a week's vacation time. She's almost 50.

 

[teller80]

Yes, yes, yes to this. I have both a Nursing Major and an Engineer. Once they get to Junior year tuition jumps. Plus they have a lot more fee's. I didn't know that going in.

And both girls got academic $$ and let me tell you, that is STRESSFUL worrying about keeping that GPA up!! Now we can afford these schools without the academic $$ but now that we've had that free money we want to keep it, but it is a lot of pressure on the girls. The Engineering major is right at the GPA she needs to keep the scholarship she can't go any lower or the money goes away. Luckily she is in a co-op program and will hopefully make enough money in her co-op to pay her last year of school.

And a little about athletics, Engineering DD also ran track at her D1 school for the first two years before she had to drop out. It was just too hard to keep her grades up with the time she was required to put into her sport, which was year round as a distance runner. She did Cross Country in the Fall, Indoor track in the winter, and Outdoor Track in the Spring. Plus she got a new coach that she wasn't too crazy about.

And since it was mentioned about how "easy" it is to get athletic scholarships, this link http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html will show you just how many full rides each sport gives out per sporting team at the different divisions.

Can I ask what GPA your DD's need to keep the scholarships? Our friends son needs a 3.5, I thought that seemed kinda high but he hasn't had any problems. My son needs a 3.0 to get a discount on his car insurance, and there are semesters that he sweats it.

 

[DawnM]

Depends.

We have told the kids we have enough to cover state schools (here that is around $22K per year including R/B) but if they go over that, they are responsible for it with either loans, scholarships, etc....

That may change, since we are seriously considering moving to a HCOL area and there will be more colleges to choose from locally there.

But for now, that is where we stand.

And by the way, we aren't even counting on ANY scholarships.

ETA: We currently have one in college but he is attending the CC and living at home. The cost is about $3500-$4000 per year, totally doable. I am not sure what he will do once we move. Once we figure out when we are moving, we will start looking.

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

I am very fortunate to work for a large private university in California. As part of my benefits, after I am here for 5 years, I am eligible for a tuition assistance up to half of this university's yearly tuition (currently almost $50,000 so I would now get $25,000 a year) to pay for DD's college. She's only 10 so by the time she is college age, the amount will have increased. It won't cover everything, but it will be a big help, for sure. I plan on working here for the rest of my career, if they keep me! It's an amazing benefit!

 

[Colleen27]

Vocational degrees can lead to well-paying jobs like electrician, mechanic, machinist, pharmacy technician, nuclear technician, and dental hygienist, with room for growth and managerial potential in each field.

That all sounds nice in theory but there are downsides to the trades too. A big one is that many of them are still heavily gender biased. It doesn't matter how well my DD does in school, if she decided to be a plumber or a pipefitter or a welder she'd have an uphill battle to find work. The "female" trades don't tend to pay nearly as well as the "male" (building and manufacturing) trades. Another is that the working conditions are often (not always) more challenging than office type professions. Job stability is often an issue too, especially in building trades and manufacturing but also in non-essential service industries; while it is hard to export some of the the work (manufacturing trades certainly do get exported!), it isn't hard to import cheaper labor. It also doesn't take long to hit the top of the pay scale, at which point your real income starts to decline because COLA increases are a thing of the past and benefits get more expensive every year. And I'm not sure how many of those fields actually have potential to advance into management; management positions tend to call for a completely different set of skills and education and not many places seem to promote to management from within these days. Probably the most common boss vent I hear from friends and relatives in the trades is that their managers are college educated professional managers who know business but not the nitty-gritty of what the people they oversee actually do.

Don't get me wrong, I think the trades are a viable path for someone with the interest and aptitude to go that route. But I don't think they're the golden ticket this article paints them as. There's a lot of glossing over the bad parts to focus only on the good.

 

[sk!mom]

You have yo do your research. Grants are awarded for many things. Sometimes there are local groups who award grants and scholarships.

But see I have done research, and your vague statement pretty much sums up the point of the thread.

People have heard rumors that financial aid is out there so they tell themselves that their child will go that route only to get to the day of college acceptances and have their student offered a fraction of the total cost.

As a personal example of the rumors, my DD is a citizen of the Cherokee nation. I can't count the number of times people have said, "there are scholarships for that." And yes, there are but they have parameters that eliminate her as a candidate.

For the record, due to research, my DD did receive a couple of local awards for college. Both of those were small one time scholarships. They helped that first year but the biggest help was our savings.

 

[robinb]

If you asked my last year, I would have said "no". We have set aside a big chunk of money and my DH's mom will also help, but we're looking at 7 years of school total for a Physical Therapy degree. Now that I am in the throes of the college search for my DD, my answer is now "maybe" and I wish we had done things differently so my DD would be eligible for more merit money for out of state schools. My DD had always said that she wanted to go to the University of Minnesota which has tuition reciprocity with our state (Wisconsin) so merit scholarships were not even on our radar since we could easily afford the UMN or UW-Madison. I tried to stress the importance of the ACT/SAT but I met with a wall of resistance. Standardized tests came easily to her friends but not to my DD and she was unwilling to study for the tests other than last minute cramming. I think she felt stupid compared to her friends and was too bummed to try harder when they didn't have to try at all. She took the ACT 3 times and got the same score the 1st and 3rd time with a 2 point increase the middle time. She dug her heels in and refused to take it again. In retrospect, I should have leaned harder on her to study more over the summer but I was trying not dictate to her. I *thought* it would be important to her and it just wasn't.

She now realizes her error. She has been waitlisted at both the UMN and UW-Madison, mostly because of her lousy ACT test score (her GPA is good with honors and AP classes). That led my DD to apply to other out of state schools: the University of Iowa and University of Kansas. They are $29,000 and $25,000 respectively. The real kicker is that if she has just gotten ONE point more on her ACT Kansas would have given her $10,000 per year which would have made it reasonable. Iowa would have given her something too. Her ACT score gets her a big fat $0. It was good enough to get admitted but not good enough to make it affordable. It's sad, because Iowa would have been a great choice for Kinesiology but I don't think I can bring myself to pay that much for a state school.

Luckily, she has options. She's been accepted to other good schools that are affordable and we already have a deposit on one of them. We're still waiting on Minnesota and Wisconsin.

My PSA: Look at potential colleges and determine the GPA & ACT/SAT requirements for merit scholarships before your child applies so you know the score that your child needs. ALSO, look at GPA and test scores of the middle 50% of the students that are admitted into those schools to determine your chances.

 

[aprilchem]

My middle child is killing me today. Our situation is a bit different as I am married to a professor who teaches locally, so all of my children are eligible to receive 144 credit hours in tuition remission (free school) My middle child had been planning to attend, but now that she's 18, she's busy hanging out with friends, and isn't sure if she wants to go. If she does go, she only wants to go part time. I don't want to force her to go, but at the same time, she'll be giving up something that many people would give anything for.

I'm planning on telling her if she wants to go, it will need to be full time. We'll help her get a car, and she has free room and board. If she doesn't want to go there or to a trade school, (which I am fine with, but she will have to take out loans and pay for it herself) then she will need to get a full time job, save up for her own car, and pay rent. (and I'd want to make it an amount that she can pay, but that won't be exceptionally easy or exceptionally difficult.)

I'm open to input on this...

We are in the same boat - I'm a college professor and as a benefit of my job my kids get free tuition at my institution and a whole bunch of others. We will have money saved for them for room and board, but if they choose to attend a non-free college they'll have to come up with the tuition themselves.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

If you asked my last year, I would have said "no". We have set aside a big chunk of money and my DH's mom will also help, but we're looking at 7 years of school total for a Physical Therapy degree. Now that I am in the throes of the college search for my DD, my answer is now "maybe" and I wish we had done things differently so my DD would be eligible for more merit money for out of state schools. My DD had always said that she wanted to go to the University of Minnesota which has tuition reciprocity with our state (Wisconsin) so merit scholarships were not even on our radar since we could easily afford the UMN or UW-Madison. I tried to stress the importance of the ACT/SAT but I met with a wall of resistance. Standardized tests came easily to her friends but not to my DD and she was unwilling to study for the tests other than last minute cramming. I think she felt stupid compared to her friends and was too bummed to try harder when they didn't have to try at all. She took the ACT 3 times and got the same score the 1st and 3rd time with a 2 point increase the middle time. She dug her heels in and refused to take it again. In retrospect, I should have leaned harder on her to study more over the summer but I was trying not dictate to her. I *thought* it would be important to her and it just wasn't.

She now realizes her error. She has been waitlisted at both the UMN and UW-Madison, mostly because of her lousy ACT test score (her GPA is good with honors and AP classes). That led my DD to apply to other out of state schools: the University of Iowa and University of Kansas. They are $29,000 and $25,000 respectively. The real kicker is that if she has just gotten ONE point more on her ACT Kansas would have given her $10,000 per year which would have made it reasonable. Iowa would have given her something too. Her ACT score gets her a big fat $0. It was good enough to get admitted but not good enough to make it affordable. It's sad, because Iowa would have been a great choice for Kinesiology but I don't think I can bring myself to pay that much for a state school.

Luckily, she has options. She's been accepted to other good schools that are affordable and we already have a deposit on one of them. We're still waiting on Minnesota and Wisconsin.

My PSA: Look at potential colleges and determine the GPA & ACT/SAT requirements for merit scholarships before your child applies so you know the score that your child needs. ALSO, look at GPA and test scores of the middle 50% of the students that are admitted into those schools to determine your chances.

I hear you about the SAT/ACT scores. DD needed to up her score on the math section. I paid $600 for a summer prep class. The class got cancelled due to low enrollment and was rescheduled for September. School had started, homework was ramping up, and DD was in the middle of volleyball season. She did the work, but really didn't have the time to make it worthwhile. Plus, there were 7 kids in the class, and the teacher went really fast. Her SAT score went up 10 points in math - only 10 points! In retrospect, I should have ponied up the $1200 for a private tutor just for SAT math prep over the summer. Had she raised her score 100 points, she would have qualified for the automatic merit money at University of Tennessee. Hind sight is 20/20!

 

[mnrose]

If you asked my last year, I would have said "no". We have set aside a big chunk of money and my DH's mom will also help, but we're looking at 7 years of school total for a Physical Therapy degree. Now that I am in the throes of the college search for my DD, my answer is now "maybe" and I wish we had done things differently so my DD would be eligible for more merit money for out of state schools. My DD had always said that she wanted to go to the University of Minnesota which has tuition reciprocity with our state (Wisconsin) so merit scholarships were not even on our radar since we could easily afford the UMN or UW-Madison. I tried to stress the importance of the ACT/SAT but I met with a wall of resistance. Standardized tests came easily to her friends but not to my DD and she was unwilling to study for the tests other than last minute cramming. I think she felt stupid compared to her friends and was too bummed to try harder when they didn't have to try at all. She took the ACT 3 times and got the same score the 1st and 3rd time with a 2 point increase the middle time. She dug her heels in and refused to take it again. In retrospect, I should have leaned harder on her to study more over the summer but I was trying not dictate to her. I *thought* it would be important to her and it just wasn't.

She now realizes her error. She has been waitlisted at both the UMN and UW-Madison, mostly because of her lousy ACT test score (her GPA is good with honors and AP classes). That led my DD to apply to other out of state schools: the University of Iowa and University of Kansas. They are $29,000 and $25,000 respectively. The real kicker is that if she has just gotten ONE point more on her ACT Kansas would have given her $10,000 per year which would have made it reasonable. Iowa would have given her something too. Her ACT score gets her a big fat $0. It was good enough to get admitted but not good enough to make it affordable. It's sad, because Iowa would have been a great choice for Kinesiology but I don't think I can bring myself to pay that much for a state school.

Luckily, she has options. She's been accepted to other good schools that are affordable and we already have a deposit on one of them. We're still waiting on Minnesota and Wisconsin.

My PSA: Look at potential colleges and determine the GPA & ACT/SAT requirements for merit scholarships before your child applies so you know the score that your child needs. ALSO, look at GPA and test scores of the middle 50% of the students that are admitted into those schools to determine your chances.

Did your D consider the branch campuses of the U of M? In particular, I'm thinking of U of M, Morris, and U of M, Duluth. Both would be excellent candidates as prep for physical therapy, not to mention that your degree comes from the same University of Minnesota as the main campus. Granted, both are in communities quite a bit less urban than Minneapolis, but both are excellent schools....indeed, for undergraduate education, they are probably superior by many measures.

 

[runwad]

Can I ask what GPA your DD's need to keep the scholarships? Our friends son needs a 3.5, I thought that seemed kinda high but he hasn't had any problems. My son needs a 3.0 to get a discount on his car insurance, and there are semesters that he sweats it.

A 3.0!! I never dreamed my girls would have a hard time getting that in college!! They both graduated high school with a 3.6 unweighted taking honors and AP classes. My engineer is right at a 3.0 now. She took post secondary (college credit plus now) in high school and had a 3.5 GPA from that going into college and it has consistently went down every year. I prepared myself going in that she wasn't going to be getting a lot of A's as an engineering major but it is nerve racking. This semester she should be bringing her GPA back up as she's taking her other requirements for her major; ethics, logic, history, psychology so non engineering classes and she has all A's so far.

My other dd who is a freshman in nursing took college credit plus too but her gpa didn't transfer to her school just her credits. She got a 3.0 her first semester. She's taking a lot of anatomy, chemistry, biology..she's got her work cut out for her too.

And about the ACT I didn't know with my oldest, I had read the more times you take it the worse it looks to the colleges. So she took it twice, got what she needed to get in the college she wanted to go to and we called it quits. I had no clue that had she gotten a higher score she'd of gotten more $$. She got a little.

My 2nd DD her school of choice told us to take the ACT as many times as we wanted they didn't care and they'd give scholarship money based on the highest score. They said she could even take it in June after she graduated. So that's what we did. She was mad at me cause I kept making her retake it, she took it 5 TIMES!! But she finally on the 5th time got over the hump and brought it up to get the 2nd highest merit $$ at her school. Plus after she graduated in May she had more time to study, she never really studied the other times. So I say call your school up and ask about taking the test multiple times and if that counts against you or not. It was worth it to me to pay the $250 or so that I paid to have her get the equivalent of almost 2 years tuition in scholarship $$.

 

[traviesojmt]

Can I ask what GPA your DD's need to keep the scholarships? Our friends son needs a 3.5, I thought that seemed kinda high but he hasn't had any problems. My son needs a 3.0 to get a discount on his car insurance, and there are semesters that he sweats it.

I'm not the poster you asked, but my DS has to maintain a 3.0 to keep his scholarships. My son would have problems maintaining a 3.5. I think he is somewhere in the 3.4 range right now.

 

[robinb]

Did your D consider the branch campuses of the U of M? In particular, I'm thinking of U of M, Morris, and U of M, Duluth. Both would be excellent candidates as prep for physical therapy, not to mention that your degree comes from the same University of Minnesota as the main campus. Granted, both are in communities quite a bit less urban than Minneapolis, but both are excellent schools....indeed, for undergraduate education, they are probably superior by many measures.

You can apply for free to all the branch campuses after you apply Minnesota Twin Cities. I tried to get my DD to apply because it was free, but she refused. She insists on a BIG school. I think it's because she has grown up with the University of Wisconsin in her back yard and that's what she's used to. As a UW grad, *I* think she'd do better at a smaller school ... but I can't force her to go to a smaller school or it will backfire.

My 2nd DD her school of choice told us to take the ACT as many times as we wanted they didn't care and they'd give scholarship money based on the highest score. They said she could even take it in June after she graduated. So that's what we did. She was mad at me cause I kept making her retake it, she took it 5 TIMES!! But she finally on the 5th time got over the hump and brought it up to get the 2nd highest merit $$ at her school. Plus after she graduated in May she had more time to study, she never really studied the other times. So I say call your school up and ask about taking the test multiple times and if that counts against you or not. It was worth it to me to pay the $250 or so that I paid to have her get the equivalent of almost 2 years tuition in scholarship $$.

I wish! Kansas' deadline was the December ACT and Iowa's was the February ACT. Neither will super-score for merit either. I will check the other schools where she's been accepted on your advice though!

 

[traviesojmt]

A 3.0!! I never dreamed my girls would have a hard time getting that in college!! They both graduated high school with a 3.6 unweighted taking honors and AP classes. My engineer is right at a 3.0 now. She took post secondary (college credit plus now) in high school and had a 3.5 GPA from that going into college and it has consistently went down every year. I prepared myself going in that she wasn't going to be getting a lot of A's as an engineering major but it is nerve racking. This semester she should be bringing her GPA back up as she's taking her other requirements for her major; ethics, logic, history, psychology so non engineering classes and she has all A's so far.

My other dd who is a freshman in nursing took college credit plus too but her gpa didn't transfer to her school just her credits. She got a 3.0 her first semester. She's taking a lot of anatomy, chemistry, biology..she's got her work cut out for her too.

And about the ACT I didn't know with my oldest, I had read the more times you take it the worse it looks to the colleges. So she took it twice, got what she needed to get in the college she wanted to go to and we called it quits. I had no clue that had she gotten a higher score she'd of gotten more $$. She got a little.

My 2nd DD her school of choice told us to take the ACT as many times as we wanted they didn't care and they'd give scholarship money based on the highest score. They said she could even take it in June after she graduated. So that's what we did. She was mad at me cause I kept making her retake it, she took it 5 TIMES!! But she finally on the 5th time got over the hump and brought it up to get the 2nd highest merit $$ at her school. Plus after she graduated in May she had more time to study, she never really studied the other times. So I say call your school up and ask about taking the test multiple times and if that counts against you or not. It was worth it to me to pay the $250 or so that I paid to have her get the equivalent of almost 2 years tuition in scholarship $$.

I just want to agree with what you posted. High school was always easy for my son and a 3.0 seemed easy. Lol. College is a different animal. My DS is a chemistry major and the semester he took organic chemistry and calculus was a very stressful one. He is currently somewhere in the 3.4 range but every semester has the added stress of staying above the 3.0.

 

[smiths02]

My oldest DS is 10. My twins are 4. We haven't been able to save for college yet really because of the high daycare costs that we have had with 3 kids. (It seemed as soon as our salaries started growing and our first son was out of daycare, then we had infant twins. And we have put retirement savings as priority.)

Anyhow, we've already talked to my oldest son about options. I know our high school has dual enrollment with a local community college which could save money, even if he doesn't qualify for AP classes in high school. We have talked about doing some basic requirements at a community college and then transferring to a state school. (There is at least one state university that is more a commuter campus anyhow and within driving distance) We have also talked that he might need to have a job and go to college. (I got a scholarship for undergrad that covered tuition, fees, and books, and I got some money for the first year on campus, but I supported myself fully by working the last 3 years in college and living with a roommate)

 

[sk!mom]

Can I ask what GPA your DD's need to keep the scholarships? Our friends son needs a 3.5, I thought that seemed kinda high but he hasn't had any problems. My son needs a 3.0 to get a discount on his car insurance, and there are semesters that he sweats it.

Not the one you asked, but my DD has to maintain a 3.0. It can be tough. Many 'A' students coming out of high school find college classes to be much tougher. My DD certainly did. Even more difficult than the AP classes. Mostly due to daily class meetings and the material spread over a year in high school.

 

[runwad]

You can apply for free to all the branch campuses after you apply Minnesota Twin Cities. I tried to get my DD to apply because it was free, but she refused. She insists on a BIG school. I think it's because she has grown up with the University of Wisconsin in her back yard and that's what she's used to. As a UW grad, *I* think she'd do better at a smaller school ... but I can't force her to go to a smaller school or it will backfire.

I wish! Kansas' deadline was the December ACT and Iowa's was the February ACT. Neither will super-score for merit either. I will check the other schools where she's been accepted on your advice though!

Not super score, which I understand is to cherry pick the highest subject scores from each time you take the ACT.

Her school would take the highest total composite score from one sitting of the ACT. If I could find some place that super scored she'd of been set. It was always the math that she struggled to get higher to bring up her total score.

 

[Kellydelly]

But see I have done research, and your vague statement pretty much sums up the point of the thread.

People have heard rumors that financial aid is out there so they tell themselves that their child will go that route only to get to the day of college acceptances and have their student offered a fraction of the total cost.

As a personal example of the rumors, my DD is a citizen of the Cherokee nation. I can't count the number of times people have said, "there are scholarships for that." And yes, there are but they have parameters that eliminate her as a candidate.

For the record, due to research, my DD did receive a couple of local awards for college. Both of those were small one time scholarships. They helped that first year but the biggest help was our savings.

So does that mean it isn't true that those with Indian heritage get free college? I have often heard that.