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rzberrymom

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    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, catz said:

    We got a decent merit package at the University of Denver.  Though we got more merit elsewhere (and still waiting for more info).  Mountain views from campus.  We absolutely loved it actually.   Digging around in Colorado for options might be an idea.

    Yes, I think Colorado must have something good! Fort Lewis in Durango stands out—just have to figure out the WUE discount plus financial aid thing!

    • Like 1

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, EKS said:

    Keep in mind that the farther afield the kid goes, the more it costs to travel back and forth.  That may diminish the value of the aid.

    In California, UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced might be worth a look.  Unfortunately Santa Cruz is a high cost of living area.

     

    A parent went to UCSC and so the kid doesn’t want that one. I’ll never understand why some kids are like that. ☹️

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    26 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

    It depends on how low the student needs to go for costs. Private colleges that are "buyers" (aka, need to use aid to fill their incoming class) may offer lower net costs than state schools, especially if the student has some good academic profiles.

    Look at University of Puget Sound and Western Washington University, if the student is trying to stay west coast. I also have a crush on the Oregon State University Cascades campus in Bend. Not as many majors as the Main campus, but gorgeous.

    I have a friend who teaches at UPS and yet completely forgot about it! This kiddo fell in love with WWU, so they’re on it with that one. I had forgotten the new OSU campus in Bend too!

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    52 minutes ago, Eos said:

    For spiky artsy, Bard College near the Hudson River in NY has a fantastic arts/liberal arts program and gives merit aid.  Not giant mountains, but it's near-ish the Berkshires and the Hudson River Valley area is lovely.  Bennington College is another one in VT that gives merit and is very arts-oriented.  Both of these schools have slightly different academic formats than the usual and neither is highly selective.  Bennington is incredibly beautiful.

    Son received both financial and merit offers from both but ended up elsewhere.

    Perfect! Thanks!

    • Like 1

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, kokotg said:

    It really just depends on how low their income is what the best bet is for financial aid. It looks like with the top automatic merit at Missoula for WUE students, out of pocket would be just room and board, which they estimate at around $12,000. Then he could take the federal loans on top of that and possibly a pell grant if he's eligible; at that point he'd be looking at maybe $4-5000/yr or less. Just as an example (I might have gotten a little fixated on Missoula and decided I wish I could go to college there 😉 ). But if his family is in that income range, private colleges that meet need would be just as good (or better if it's a school that doesn't include loans in FA packages, but those are few and far between and generally VERY difficult to get into--though sounds like the photography could be a hook). So they probably need to run some net price calculators to see where they stand. And if he's eligible for a lot of need based aid and has a shot at super selective schools, Williams or Amherst come to mind as mountainy ones. 

    You guys are the best—this is so helpful!!

    I think things like Williams and Amherst would be too much academically. His grades are strong, I think we can help him get his SAT score up, but he’s probably not going to thrive at an elite school.

    The photography is at such a stunning level that I think it would definitely be a hook. 

    I’ll suggest they run some EFCs and see what it looks like.

    • Like 2

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    41 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

    If he needs way more than WUE discount then maybe he needs schools that meet full need instead of merit scholarships? I could have this really wrong, but I think under certain income, full need schools offer the best deals. Merit is great, but privates with merit and little need are going to cost more than WUE schools, I think. 

    Ok, got it. They likely would qualify for financial aid. I don’t know why but I just assumed a WUE school wouldn’t meet that financial need, on top of the WUE discount. But, am I making the wrong assumption there?

    So yes, he would need merit plus financial aid.

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted · Edited by rzberrymom

     

    18 minutes ago, Frances said:

    I don’t think it is in a state park. It is right in Portland. Granted it’s in a more of a residential neighborhood, as is Reed, so not really urban around it. Both campuses are green and beautiful. Anyway, I think it attracts a similar student as Willamette, but Willamette is known for generally giving much more merit aid.

    We used to live in Portland—it’s right at Tryon Creek State Park. There’s a sign pointing you to the law school on the hiking trails. That always gave me a giggle. We used to see Great Horned Owls quite a bit—I think it would be a dream location for him, if he could get enough aid.

    • Like 1

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    51 minutes ago, kokotg said:

    I just checked University of Montana, because we were just in Missoula last summer, so I know there are lovely mountain hikes right next to the campus...looks like their top automatic merit would get cost of attendance down to around $30,000 (including room and board). I'm guessing some other mountain west states might be similar.

    I’ve been hunting around for info on the mountain state schools, and University of New Mexico is the only one I’ve seen so far that has good merit aid for OOS. I’ll check if Missoula is one of the WUE schools—hadn’t thought of that one!

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    56 minutes ago, Frances said:

    Virtually any college, public or private, in the Willamette Valley in Oregon would be about one hour from the Cascade mountains and one hour from the beautiful OR coast. And the Willamette Valley was just named one of the top 50 places in the world for 2023 by Time magazine.

    https://time.com/6261537/willamette-valley-oregon/

    I know that Willamette and Linfield both give good merit aid with Lewis and Clark generally not giving as much, since I think the Portland metro area is usually more desired by students. Reed gives only financial aid. I would especially encourage him to consider Willamette, as they really use merit aid to get the students they want. And I think they just acquired an art college, so maybe that would be a good fit for his photography passion.

    While U of O, Oregon State, and Western Oregon all have pretty good merit aid options, especially for top students, I’m not sure how it would pencil out for an out of state student.

    I had thought of Lewis and Clark because of its location in the state park, but I didn’t think of Willamette! Thanks!!

    Merit aid AND near mountains or scenic nature areas?

    in The College Board

    Posted

    Funny question, but does anyone know of schools with good merit aid that are located near mountains?? Or near scenic natural areas? 

    We know a staggeringly good 15-year old photographer (a lot of national and international recognition already), great GPA, but needs merit aid. Being near mountains or scenic natural areas will let him keep working on his photography while he’s in college. Rank or prestige doesn’t matter—he just wants to be near beautiful stuff. 

    I’ve been looking through all of my lists of schools with the best merit aid and can’t find anything near scenic stuff.

    Anyone happen to have any ideas?

    resources for college application essays

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I looooovvveeeed this piece and it helped so much. We read it aloud together and then the ideas started flowing:

    Hack the College Essay

    For the nitty gritty stuff, this helped a lot too:

    How to Prepare a Standout College Application

    She also kept a list of quirky thoughts as they came to her. A lot of these made it into the essays later.

    I think it’s great to get an early start, but a huge amount of maturing (emotional and intellectual) happened during the summer before senior year. We also started junior year, but I sort of wish we had built in some time towards the end of the summer to work on it instead.

    • Like 2
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