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Post by just PEAchy on Jan 14, 2018 14:47:40 GMT
My senior has been applying to colleges and he is starting to get some acceptances. So, now come the deciding where to go part. He's a fairly good student with an average GPA and a high ACT (3.2 GPA, 30 ACT) The schools he's thinking about are all state schools. If the school was going to offer him anything financially, would it be in his acceptance packet? So far, he hasn't seen anything, but maybe he needs to ask? Who should he ask? We have filed FAFSA, and we do not qualify for any federal aid. He's our first and everything is so different from when I went to college, any insight from those in the know is appreciated  |
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Post by hop2 on Jan 14, 2018 15:01:44 GMT
My senior has been applying to colleges and he is starting to get some acceptances. So, now come the deciding where to go part. He's a fairly good student with an average GPA and a high ACT (3.2 GPA, 30 ACT) The schools he's thinking about are all state schools. If the school was going to offer him anything financially, would it be in his acceptance packet? So far, he hasn't seen anything, but maybe he needs to ask? Who should he ask? We have filed FAFSA, and we do not qualify for any federal aid. He's our first and everything is so different from when I went to college, any insight from those in the know is appreciated sometimes yes, sometimes no. Some schools do it with the regular application, some schools have a separate application for scholarships and earlier or later due dates than the regular application. These things are all spelled out on each universities website. You’ll have to go web surf. My DS got a full scholarship from one state university and not one cent from another. It was weird. Best of luck to you |
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ellen
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Post by ellen on Jan 14, 2018 15:11:09 GMT
What we noticed with the state universities in MN and ND is that they have a scholarship amount that was determined by the ACT score. A 30 would have been something like a $2500 merit award each year. You can usually find that information on the scholarship section of their websites. A high ACT score can also get you some pretty significant merit awards at private colleges. My daughter is attending a private college and we're paying an amount that is very much in line with the public universities in our state.
In March my daughter started getting letters from the schools that accepted her. These letters gave all the financial information so it was pretty easy to make financial comparisons between schools.
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Post by cmhs on Jan 14, 2018 15:13:09 GMT
DD is a college freshman and we found that some state schools sent the scholarship info with the acceptance letter and some made us wait for quite awhile.
She ended up at a state school that gave her 2 great scholarships which pretty much cover everything. Other state schools offered just a few thousand in scholarships.
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Post by mcscrapper on Jan 14, 2018 16:57:03 GMT
I agree with the above posts.
My dd got accepted to both state schools but also applied to a state school one state over, MS State U. She got all of the s'ship offers after her acceptance letters arrived and after she had applied for their in-house s'ships. She has gotten more $ from MSU than both state schools so, oddly enough, going here will be cheaper for us than in-state.
There are several deadlines throughout the year for various s'ships and each time she took the ACT she listed MSU as her preferred school. MSU got her scores every time she took that test and will get the score one more time when the students take the test at school in February.
I always find it interesting to see how other kids score on the ACT vs his/her GPA. It seems that more girls have a higher GPA and lower ACT and boys are just the opposite. My dd has a 3.9 with two AP classes. She cannot break a 25 on her ACT. Her boyfriend scored a 30 and she's completely jealous. His GPA, hover, is a 3.3 with the same 2 AP classes. They are getting about the same in s'ships but she is soooo ticked at his ACT score.
Good luck! All this college and financial aid, grant stuff is overwhelming!
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Post by maryland on Jan 14, 2018 17:29:14 GMT
We didn't get any financial aid/scholarships from their universities for either of my 2 college students. They both had 28 ACT and 4.8 weighted GPA. One was in top 5% and one in top 8%. They did get scholarships from private universities (Duquesne, Robert Morris in PA). I think for my kids, at their universities they were in the bottom 25% admitted, as they are very competitive schools. I really thought we would have gotten financial aid but we didn't. It was very disappointing as we are in PA, and our large public universities are 2 of the most expensive in the country for in-state. We should have researched this before moving back to PA! I feel like we just don't know what we are doing when it comes to college costs! Maybe we are missing something that we should be doing (we have always filed for FASFA, and unfortunately, with my oldest, my husband had a great job the year before, so we seemed very high income with that fasfa. He had to find a new job that same year and his salary was cut by more than half. |
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ellen
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Post by ellen on Jan 14, 2018 17:31:08 GMT
There are several deadlines throughout the year for various s'ships and each time she took the ACT she listed MSU as her preferred school. MSU got her scores every time she took that test and will get the score one more time when the students take the test at school in February. I always find it interesting to see how other kids score on the ACT vs his/her GPA. It seems that more girls have a higher GPA and lower ACT and boys are just the opposite. My dd has a 3.9 with two AP classes. She cannot break a 25 on her ACT. Her boyfriend scored a 30 and she's completely jealous. His GPA, hover, is a 3.3 with the same 2 AP classes. They are getting about the same in s'ships but she is soooo ticked at his ACT score. My daughter sent her scores to three schools the first time she took the ACT test and she did very well on it. We didn't know you could automatically send your scores if you wanted until she told us where she sent them. She took the test a second time and we told her not to send her scores in the event that her score went down. There would be no reason to let the school know that it went down. My brother in law was an admissions counselor for several years and gave us that advice. He recommended not sending scores to schools when you take the test. Wait and see the result first. If a kid takes the test five times the colleges don't need to know that. At the time of your application send in your best one. If a college superscores (averages the best section score from multiple tests to get a new composite) send in test tests that give you the best superscore. My dd's score did go up two composite points so when she actually sent in her applications she paid the $ to send her new score to those schools. In the whole scheme of college costs paying an extra $10 to send the scores didn't seem like a big deal. Some schools will suggest that your kid take the ACT test again if you are a point or so short of qualifying from the next level of merit award. If it goes up, send it to them and they'll increase the award. My dd scored a point higher than her then boyfriend and it bugged him. He thought he was so damn smart, so my husband and I thought it was funny that it irked him. SaveSave |
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Post by maryland on Jan 14, 2018 17:33:55 GMT
I agree with the above posts. My dd got accepted to both state schools but also applied to a state school one state over, MS State U. She got all of the s'ship offers after her acceptance letters arrived and after she had applied for their in-house s'ships. She has gotten more $ from MSU than both state schools so, oddly enough, going here will be cheaper for us than in-state. There are several deadlines throughout the year for various s'ships and each time she took the ACT she listed MSU as her preferred school. MSU got her scores every time she took that test and will get the score one more time when the students take the test at school in February. I always find it interesting to see how other kids score on the ACT vs his/her GPA. It seems that more girls have a higher GPA and lower ACT and boys are just the opposite. My dd has a 3.9 with two AP classes. She cannot break a 25 on her ACT. Her boyfriend scored a 30 and she's completely jealous. His GPA, hover, is a 3.3 with the same 2 AP classes. They are getting about the same in s'ships but she is soooo ticked at his ACT score. Good luck! All this college and financial aid, grant stuff is overwhelming! That's how it is with my oldest and her boyfriend! She has high weighted GPA and 28 ACT. He has 3.2 GPA and 35 ACT. They are both jealous of each other's ACT/GPA! He also got 5's on AP exams and my daughter got a 2, 3 and 4 on hers. |
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Post by littlemama on Jan 14, 2018 17:44:42 GMT
My boss has told me that when she applied to colleges, she had a harder time getting accepted because schools felt that her high ACT and disproportionately low gpa indicated lack of effort.
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Post by fredfreddy44 on Jan 14, 2018 17:46:48 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal).
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ellen
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by ellen on Jan 14, 2018 17:53:37 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). I've heard people say that the SATs are more of a coastal thing and the ACT a midwestern thing. The schools that my daughter applied to did not require the SAT test, so she didn't take it. SaveSave |
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Post by mom on Jan 14, 2018 17:59:44 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). My oldest is at a state school where they only accepted SAT scores. My youngest is looking at Texas A&M and if you aren't in the top 10% then you can qualify with either ACT or SAT. SaveSave |
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Post by mcscrapper on Jan 14, 2018 18:34:17 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). I've heard people say that the SATs are more of a coastal thing and the ACT a midwestern thing. The schools that my daughter applied to did not require the SAT test, so she didn't take it. SaveSaveACT is the stand in the southern schools. When we have gone on official visits and they give out the financial / s'ship info, SAT scores are not mentioned as much as the ACT scores. SaveSave |
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 14, 2018 18:51:28 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). I agree with the Ellen with the ACT vs SAT. My kids did both and both scored better on the ACT. Probably because the ACT breaks up the scoring more based on subjects. mcscrapper , my kids were the opposite. DS had a higher GPA and test scores, DD had both lower than his. But I didn't compare them to their peers, so I'm pulling from a small demographic. DS applied to 2 state schools in Virginia and two private college-Notre Dame and one in Minnesota with a 33 ACT score. He didn't get any merit money from either VA school, but got the top award from the private MN school (and didn't get into ND). DD applied to 4 private schools, 1 in VA and 3 in MN, with a 31 ACT score. She got similar merit offers from all 4 schools, but also was offered a $5,000 and $1,000 scholarship as an out-of-state student, so she is actually getting more merit aid than DS, even with a lower GPA and test scores. We are paying less than our in-state tuition for both kids to attend private universities (we live in VA, but are military). We also did as ellen suggested--we didn't report test scores directly to the schools. For DS, he was competing for a large engineering scholarship and we didn't want lower test scores to negatively affect the interviews. He did get an engineering scholarship, but not the full ride or half ride he was hoping for. With DD, we did the same, although it probably didn't matter for her as she wasn't competing for a large award like that. All the schools we looked at said that it didn't matter for their merit awards--that they took the highest test scores. So we could have saved the money and just submitted the scores at the time of the test. But other than Notre Dame, the kids were pretty much granted admission at the time of their interviews because of activities, grades, and test scores. As for the financial offer, it really varied from school to school. Some sent the award package with the acceptance letters, some sent it separately. I want to say George Mason sent the acceptance early on, but the financial offer came later (but just for a federal loan--we didn't qualify for need based aid anywhere.) |
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Post by idahopea on Jan 14, 2018 18:58:04 GMT
Here are a couple of things to consider as well. Thought I would mention these in case they help any peas.
If you live in the west have your student check out the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE- said "woo eee") scholarships. My son was able to go out of state for 1.5 times the in-state rate of his school rather than the out-of-state rate which would have been a lot more.
If your child is interested in schools in Utah, look into him/her becoming a Utah resident and after the first year he/she may qualify for in-state tuition. Most schools will not let you become a resident in order to get in-state tuition, but Utah does if you follow certain rules. I don't think WUE students can qualify to become residents though so consider everything.
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Post by hop2 on Jan 14, 2018 18:59:49 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). yes. Neither of my kids took the ACT. The north east still seems to be highly SAT based but that’s slowly changing. You have to research each universities scholarship opportunities on their websites. As I said before some universities the deadlines & applications for merit based scholarships ( not need based ) are separate from and often before the general application and once you’ve missed it -you’ve missed it. ( BU, Syracuse & Temple were some ) Also the purpose of the FAFSA is that if/when your situation changes You can edit your FAFSA and often you can contact your universities financial aid office and re-apply |
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Deleted
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May 5, 2024 21:13:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 19:02:46 GMT
My senior has been applying to colleges and he is starting to get some acceptances. So, now come the deciding where to go part. He's a fairly good student with an average GPA and a high ACT (3.2 GPA, 30 ACT) The schools he's thinking about are all state schools. If the school was going to offer him anything financially, would it be in his acceptance packet? So far, he hasn't seen anything, but maybe he needs to ask? Who should he ask? We have filed FAFSA, and we do not qualify for any federal aid. He's our first and everything is so different from when I went to college, any insight from those in the know is appreciated  Every school does it differently. Some will include it in his acceptance, some will notify you later and some wait for you to apply for scholarships. You can do some research on each school's website (recommended!) Or call the financial aid office and ask |
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Deleted
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May 5, 2024 21:13:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2018 19:15:33 GMT
My daughter's scholarships came as an incentive to apply to the college.
Once she chose one, that school sent her even more money in the acceptance package.
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Post by Linda on Jan 14, 2018 19:31:46 GMT
I always find it interesting to see how other kids score on the ACT vs his/her GPA. It seems that more girls have a higher GPA and lower ACT and boys are just the opposite. My daughter took both - she said that the ACT is more geared towards Science and the SAT is more just Math/Language Arts - she did better on the ACT (32) vs SAT (1310) - her gpa is 3.8 (unweighed) |
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Post by just PEAchy on Jan 14, 2018 20:40:09 GMT
My boss has told me that when she applied to colleges, she had a harder time getting accepted because schools felt that her high ACT and disproportionately low gpa indicated lack of effort. That actually describes my ds pretty well. He's very smart, loves to do research but only on things that interest him. He often doesn't put in a lot of effort if he doesn't like the class. Luckily, though, he is getting accepted to the schools he's applying. |
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Post by just PEAchy on Jan 14, 2018 20:41:45 GMT
Everyone keeps mentioning ACT scores for scholarships. Are there any based on SAT scores? My son did well on the ACT (28) but really well on the SATS (1410, 760 math, 650 verbal). We are in Indiana and all of the schools accept both and base scholarships on both. Since ds did so well on the ACT, he decided not to take the SAT. |
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Post by just PEAchy on Jan 14, 2018 20:49:17 GMT
Thanks for all the advice. I started looking at the schools' websites and I'm starting to get an idea of what to expect. All 3 schools he's considering are within $5000 of each for total costs, the cheapest school is the one where he qualifies for the most aid. Go figure. It's also the one he's leaning towards and that was before we even started considering costs and aid.
Thanks again!
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