Summer Before Senior Year Things to Do

[mirabillis]

What did you do summer before senior year? (I figure I should do course descriptions, transcript, counselor letter, school profile together, etc etc)

What did your rising senior do? (start on essays? take a break, wait til fall?) What did you do?

When should we look for scholarships? Or hope for merit-aid or need-based aid? Suggestions?

I think our earliest action school would be Nov 1 application so mostly Nov-Jan applications we're looking at.... I'm new to all this, so help!

 

 

[8filltheheart]

If your student has not already created their college list, that would be my immediate goal. I question that bc of your comment about when do you search for scholarships. It doesn't sound like you have a strong understanding of how college FA works.

The best (in terms of both likelihood and $$ amt) scholarships come from the universities themselves. Scholarships fall into varying categories:published automatic (x stats=x $$) , unpublished but generally automaitc (these take researching posts on places like CC to  reverse engineer the most likely profile of x stats=$x. Temple,  Pitt, Case Wstern are examples), competitive (school website typically provides #, general background of recipients, and the likelihood of receiving is significantly lower than that of an unpublished but generally automatic scholarship), and extremely competitive (statistically lower than admissions to single digit admission schools.)

Scholarships at some schools only have any real $$ value if your family's expected contribution is greater than your demonstrated need. For a simple example, say COA is $70,000 and your expected contribution is $20,000. Your student is awarded a $30,000 scholarship. At that school the scholarship has a couple of outcomes--worthless in terms of what you see on your side bc your need would have given you $50,000 in institutional grant $$, so now it is just renamed $20,000  grant, $30,000 scholarship. Or possibly the student's expected contribution might now be $0 (say they expected the student to take out $3500 in loans and $2000 from summer employment.) That $30,000 scholarship has only netted your family a real difference of $5500. The scholarship makes a $0 impact on parental contribution. It is extremely rare  that parental contribution is reduced at meets-need schools. So if you can't afford what the net rice calculators are saying, you most likely will not be able to afford those schools. (Outside scholarships typically replace school grant $$ dollar for dollar, again with $0 reduction in parental contribution.)

Understanding your financial piece, imo, should have taken place during 10th and 11th grades with a narrowing down of school list based on ability to pay. That is the biggest hurdle for a family to check off on the list. Then the student should focus on their application (asking for LOR, writing essays, etc.) If $$ is at all an issue, be prepared for just how much it costs to apply. It can cost $75-100/school once application fees and sending test scores are factored in. Filing FAFSA is free but the CSS is charged per school. 

Edited June 15, 2019 by 8FillTheHeart

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

If your kid will be applying via common app then start on the essay while there is no pressure from other course work. A quick google search should turn up the topics for the year. Many applications open in August and you can start creating accounts and filling in all the forms. If you are considering any military academies or ROTC scholarships, the applications are probably already open and you should be starting down that path ASAP.

Best of luck!

[teachermom2834]

In my family the first step is setting a budget. Even for families with a bigger budget than we have, I have not known many who didn't need to set a budget. Most schools are out of reach financially for my dc, so that limits the choices significantly right off the bat. Even if your budget is three times as high as mine you will still eliminate some schools due to cost. If cost isn't an issue then yay for you! This will be way more fun. But if you don't have unlimited funds I would sit down and figure out what you can/are willing to pay.

As far as the other things (course descriptions, counselor's letter, etc) those are important to be thinking about but you may not need much of that, depending on where your dc apply. My oldest applied to ten schools and  my second to six and we didn't need those. My oldest needed a couple short essays (like why do you want to come to this school?) for just two or three colleges. My second didn't need any of those. My second didn't do common app and really all he needed for his schools were his transcript and test scores. My third ds has a short list working (upcoming junior so no hurry) and so far one school does require course descriptions. Of course we aren't trying for highly competitive or prestigious schools and that is a factor for sure. Though my oldest did apply to some fairly selective LAC that didn't require much.

It is fantastic to have kept up with course descriptions and pondering a counselor's letter and common app essays if you'll need them. But you might not so I would look into how much of that you really need before you get too deep. Of course if you really need them I would highly recommend doing anything possible over the summer.  🙂

It sounds like you have a list you are working from and know due dates so you probably should know which of those things you are going to need. But for anyone else lurking all of those things aren't always necessary. 

The "hope for merit or need based aid" comment above sets off the same alarm for me as it does for 8FilltheHeart. In our house hoping for it would be a disaster. We had to go find it and that determined our list of applications. My boys have had both merit and need based but they were not surprises because we had applied to the schools understanding what the likely offer would be. 

So, really the list of things to address this summer is entirely dependent on the list of schools your dc is applying to.  

 

[City Mouse]

My DS is finishing up his last require merit badge, and working on the last bit of planning for Eagle project which planned to be finished up this fall. He is also attending two different big scouting events this summer in his last summer as a “scout”. He and I are also going on our last family road trip. 

[daijobu]

Check out some of the books on how to write a college application essay.  Some have nice worksheets with exercises that get your student reflecting and thinking about what they want to write about.  It may take some false starts before they figure what will be an effective topic, so better to get those out of the way early. 

If you don't have a Common App account, you can get that started now.  Familiarize yourself with the different parts of the CA.  It's a little overwhelming, but not so bad once you wrap your head around it.  

[Lori D.]

Congrats on nearing the finish line, Miribillis! And great ideas everyone! (:D

And, you might check for more ideas in the "High School Time Table" thread (linked on PAGE 1 of the "High School Motherlode #1" thread, pinned at the top of the High School Board). 🙂

[Kareni]

My daughter worked on college application essays in the summer before senior year.

I had already begun working on documentation prior to that summer; however, I became more serious. One thing I noticed was that my daughter's reading list was very lopsided as regards fiction versus non-fiction, so I provided her with a basket of non-fiction books and asked her to read six of them over the summer.

Regards,

Kareni

[mirabillis]

Thanks for everything. Yes I am woefully ill-informed in some regards re: FA and/or scholarships. I've spent the last 3 years knee-deep in getting his academics where they need to be, AP classes, SAT IIs, SAT, ACT, grades, etc - didn't really spend any time on any of that. He has his list of colleges, more or less. So we're ok there. I just remember when I went to school, I got a bunch of outside scholarships like $1000 here, $5000 here, etc - I don't recall any school-based scholarships at all. And I do see that as a standard thing around here.

Love to hear more of what you did, your rising seniors did... most helpful.

 

[8filltheheart]

5 hours ago, mirabillis said:

Thanks for everything. Yes I am woefully ill-informed in some regards re: FA and/or scholarships. I've spent the last 3 years knee-deep in getting his academics where they need to be, AP classes, SAT IIs, SAT, ACT, grades, etc - didn't really spend any time on any of that. He has his list of colleges, more or less. So we're ok there. I just remember when I went to school, I got a bunch of outside scholarships like $1000 here, $5000 here, etc - I don't recall any school-based scholarships at all. And I do see that as a standard thing around here.

Love to hear more of what you did, your rising seniors did... most helpful.

 

Can you afford to pay out-of-pocket the cost of attending the schools he has selected? If you can, than your are fine. If you can't, then his having a list of colleges might be completely useless.  Without more information, anything we share is either hitting a target or like tossing a stone in the ocean. There is no standard answer. FA is family dependent.

i can share our family's situation. It is absolute irrelevant what schools that can get accepted to. Period. Full stop. The entire focus of any and all conversations about college selection revolves around that one single point. For other families, that conversation is just a blip and then they move on to college matches, safeties,reaches based on student profile. My kids' matches, reaches, and safeties are based on financially being affordable. We find affordable schools and then, and only then, do they start looking at whether or not they like the school, etc.

For example, my ds who is now at Berkeley for grad school had outcomes ranging $0 to $40,000/yr after he received all of his acceptances and FA packages. Our budget for each of our kids is only around $10,000 (essentially the cheapest room and board in existence. Room, board, books, fees can vary between $10-18,000 depending on the school. So, even full-tuition scholarships can leave a gap in what we can afford and what it will cost for them to attend.)   Schools, otoh, expect our parental contribution to be approx 3x what we know we can realistically afford to pay across all our kids.His outcome variance came down to the size of the scholarships he received. At some schools he received their most competitive awards which led to full cost of attendance being covered. At others he got their scholarship that basically replaced institutional grant $$. We always add in the student contribution  and hidden loans on top of all expected parental contribution bc that is the real dollar amt the school costs. Schools like to package their FA offers with all sorts of illusory breakdowns making it look like loans are aid and not real costs, etc. The bottom line $$ of total cost of attendance minus any FREE $$ equals your real family contribution, regardless of how they want to present the numbers. 

 That ds's application season taught me a lot. We made a lot of missteps with him. He applied to schools he shouldn't have wasted his time on bc even with acceptances, he couldn't afford to attend. Acceptance without financial viability is really just a complete waste of time, energy and $$ (bc applying is not free.)  IIRC, I think ds had to eliminate something like 4 schools off his acceptance list just due to costs exceeding $20,000. (For us it seems like costs are either close to what can afford or over $20,000. Not many fall into the range between  $10-20,000 for whatever reason.

Our dd's application season's outcomes left her with a much broader range of affordable options bc we targeted schools with a much better understanding of how FA really works and how students are selected for scholarships. Her options ranged from $0 to $20,000 (and the $20,000 school covered full-tuition and fees. Their out-of-pocket costs were strictly room, board, books, and transportation costs (required flying vs driving, so that $$ amt cannot be ignored.)) She was awarded several schools' most competitive scholarships, several competitive scholarships, and  also automatic scholarships. She had more options to select based on what she personally wanted vs just cost. Only Fordham (the $20,000 school) had to be eliminated based on financial outcome. She had several good fit options to choose from and accepted the one that she liked the most. (Oops.ETA bc I had forgotten about it.....she also had to eliminate URochester. She didn't apply bc she was interested in it. She applied bc she didn't have to really do anything additional other thanclick on it on the CA and I asked her to. I wanted to see if she could get accepted as a homeschooler without any APs, DE, or real outside classes.  The answer was yes, but it was unaffordable like I knew it would be. It was really just a simple curiosity check for me.)

If that Dd had created a list just based on academic fit and matches (she had a more balanced app profile than her brother with higher test scores, NMF, and multiple international awards, etc) her list would have 100% different and the schools she did apply to wouldn't even have been on there. And, when all was said and done, I expect she might have been accepted to several of them (she recently found out that the other kids who were part of the international Olympiad team with her are all attending schools like HPYSM or other top competitive LACs)  And, after getting those acceptances, she would have been forced to take a gap yr in order to reapply bc she wouldn't have been able to attend any of them bc we cannot afford 1/3 of what they expect us to pay. Acceptance without affordability is a piece of paper that ends up in the trash.

So, that is a VERY long way of saying, does he have a list of real options that he can afford to attend or does he just have a list he created based on stats and personal desires bc those are definitely not the same thing. Schools that are meet-need only and do not offer scholarship $$ (like HPYMS), you can tell before they apply if they are financially affordable if your financial profile is fairly uncomplicated (no rental properties, no family-owned businesses, no non-custodial parent). Net price calculators will give fairly accurate results if information is input accurately.  Those are also the schools where outside scholarship $$ will likely only ever net $5500 in gain, regardless of the total amt of the scholarships.

Schools where they apply for competitive merit, those are trickier and definitely need to be considered reaches equivalent to HYP, etc in terms of % of likelihood. They can also have very early deadlines (your Nov 1 to mostly Jan timeline is another giveaway that you don't have a strong understanding of competive scholarships applications. Many schools typically have an Oct 15 to Nov 15 scholarship consideration deadline. GT's is Oct 15. USC's Honors College app states that they should apply for general admission by Oct 15 but that students have until Nov 15 for the HC/scholarship application deadline.) Some automatic merit schools have later deadlines varying from Dec 1 into Jan. Again, there is no single answer, but not knowing can mean being eliminated from being considered if the deadline isn't met.

If you share more info, you will get more specific help. Otherwise, all responses can be like this one.....generic but probably useless to your ds's specific situation.

Edited June 16, 2019 by 8FillTheHeart

[RootAnn]

Like 8's family, $$ was our biggest consideration. So, once we figured out what we, as a family, could afford, DD could come up with her list of schools.

While there might be some good scholarships locally (regionally, nationally) to apply to for $$, my DD's biggest bang for her buck were all school-specific. It really depends on what type of schools you are looking at and your family's $$ situation. If scholarships are just icing on the cake and you can afford $20,000+/yr up to $80,000/yr schools, going after those $1000+ scholarships might make sense.

My DD that is headed to college in a couple of months hated to write essays, so if she had to write one, there better be a big payout. She ended up applying for only one local scholarship (because we made her). She received it - a one-time $500 award. Her school-based scholarships were all much, much larger than that. Some required nothing extra of her because they were based on test scores & GPA. Others required a personal statement or essay. One required an extra trip to the school for interviews. (Other local kids wrote lots of essays & filled out many scholarship applications to get $2,000-$5,000 in local $$.)

I think all of her applications were done by November 1st. Scholarship information often followed acceptances so she was writing or interviewing well into February (with one later than that).

Senior year is busy & application fatigue is real. She hadn't eliminated any schools off her list by this point last year, but she had by Sept 1st, so definitely have your ds do more research on his school choices over the summer & prioritize applications. By the time they get near the bottom of the list, they are sometimes exhausted mentally &/or run out of time.

I'd make sure his first (or second) application is to a safety school that he would be perfectly content to attend and that you guys can afford (maybe with guaranteed/automatic merit). Even if it is a rolling admissions school, I'd get that one in the bag right away. Then, he can focus on matches & reaches (both from an acceptance & financial standpoint).

The big question is what you parents will do based on an acceptance to a high $$ school. Some parents agree to take on significant debt if their child gets into their dream school. Others just can't, so it is best to have the kid not apply if you know you can't (or won't) make it work. I read a story of getting into Yale and then finding out it was unaffordable because an outside scholarship the family thought would cover the family's contribution only reduced Yale's contribution.

Your job this summer includes coming up with your magic number & running NPCs on your ds's list of schools. Those NPCs are eye-opening. My DH didn't really get it until he saw a college's cost of attendance statement after taking into account my DD's full tuition (but not including fees) scholarship to a local state school. That is your new homework.

[teachermom2834]

My oldest ds has a large 4 yr scholarship that he was eligible for through my husband’s employer. His previous employer also had a scholarship program for dependents that included grandchildren of employees. So check into that if there are any special programs that your ds might be eligible for. That was competitive for ds, because it is a large company, but not so much as something national like the Coca Cola Scholarship. In a really unusual circumstance, the private school ds attends did not reduce their own financial aid offer based on this award so it made his private school very inexpensive. This is rare as explained above and most schools will not “stack” an outside scholarship on top of their own financial aid grant. My third ds has a good shot at this scholarship too but we are not looking at private schools for him because we will want to be able to apply this scholarship (if he wins it) to whatever he has left on his bill after scholarships and not just have a financial aid grant reduced. 

We did not bother with smaller one time $500 or $1000 scholarships. They just weren’t worth the time investment for us when time and emotional energy for college application season is finite. 

I can only agree with what the two posters above explained about costs. Our list is built from affordability first. Then we think about what other factors we want. My rising junior has a short list that we expect to be affordable (based on his current test scores and the current level of automatic merit aid offered). That list may get longer as he improves his test scores or may get shorter if the schools reduce their scholarships. 

On my third kid and having watched so many friends and acquaintances suffer through college admissions and financing disappointment and stress, I cringe when I hear someone ask a young teen where they want to go to college. I feel like the question should be “Have your parents figured out where you can afford to go to college?” 

Now perhaps your situation is that you can afford the schools on the list but you are just looking for scholarships as a bonus. But it is unclear if that is the situation. 

[Lori D.]

14 hours ago, mirabillis said:

Thanks for everything. Yes I am woefully ill-informed in some regards re: FA and/or scholarships...

As previous posters have mentioned, the financial aid and/or scholarships is a whole, separate conversation. (:D There are some really great threads on the topics of "Money Matters", "Financial Aid", and "Scholarships", all linked on PAGE 3 of the "College Motherlode" thread pinned at the top of the College Board.

A few threads linked in that pinned thread to help "quick start" you on Financial Aid:
Understanding financial aid
Can someone please walk me through how financial aid works in the USA 
I think I need help with guidance counseling, I.e., I’m clueless

...and on Scholarships:
Preparing for College: what scholarships/grants to apply for --- summary explanation of "inside" and "outside" scholarships, and the scholarship search process
Scholarships -- search process, inside vs outside scholarships; explanation of Financial Aid equation: COA-EFC=Need
What colleges give most merit scholarships? -- ties into discussion of college search process + how financial aid works

And then a few threads on "alternate" ways of paying for college or reducing college costs:
s/o Cautionary Tale/high college costs — a brainstorm $$ ideas thread! 
How are YOU managing to pay for college? -- lots of real-life creative ideas
College as cheap as possible: need advice 
College breaking the piggy bank? -- how are homeschoolers affording college ideas/discussion

BEST of luck as you enter the most complex and "hair-tearing" part of homeschooling -- searching for/applying to colleges and $$ !

Edited June 16, 2019 by Lori D.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

15 hours ago, mirabillis said:

Thanks for everything. Yes I am woefully ill-informed in some regards re: FA and/or scholarships. I've spent the last 3 years knee-deep in getting his academics where they need to be, AP classes, SAT IIs, SAT, ACT, grades, etc - didn't really spend any time on any of that. He has his list of colleges, more or less. So we're ok there. I just remember when I went to school, I got a bunch of outside scholarships like $1000 here, $5000 here, etc - I don't recall any school-based scholarships at all. And I do see that as a standard thing around here.

Love to hear more of what you did, your rising seniors did... most helpful.

 

The cost structure of college has shifted significantly from the time I was applying. Not only has tuition gone up (much faster than the rate of inflation), but also fees and tuition are also higher.

I would recommend doing one of the EFC estimators.  I like FAFSA4Caster and also the EFC estimator on College Board's Big Future site.  You will need tax return info from two years ago and also your info on current assets for you and your kids.

The EFC generated is the amount that schools will consider the minimum that a family should contribute. It will be based not only on current income but also on savings (including non-cash assets) and future earnings (via eligibility for loans).

You should also run Net Price Calculators at every school your kid is considering. Double check that they consider the whole cost of attendance.  For example if you live far away does it include travel home over winter break or just one trip there in fall and home in summer. If there are extra fees for certain majors (engineering, art, nursing) is that included. 

Consider these results in light of your family's ability to pay.  Sometimes a family is pleasantly surprised by unexpected grants, but don't assume that a miracle will occur. If the end result of the EFC and NPC estimates is completely out of reach there is a good chance that it will still be out of reach in April. 

Don't assume you can predict affordability by general labels like public and private.  Some private schools are dependent on tuition revenue. A student is more likely to attend a school with $30k tuition and a $10k scholarship than a $20 tuition school. So some private schools do a lit of tuition discounting.  This shows up as a grant from the college (what other posters are referring to as scholarships from the college). Other private schools have large endowments and have committed to meeting need (though this is based on an expectation that they are paying the EFC).

Public schools may have lower tuition rates for in state students, but can be quite selective depending on the school. Many have a stiff out of state tuition rate.  On the other hand, if a student is seen as highly desirable there may be grants that bring tuition down to in state rates or lower.

It's just not a hope for the best process.  Shop for the best matches the same way you'd shop for a good fit between features and price for a car or a house.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Sebastian (a lady)

[8filltheheart]

36 minutes ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

 

Don't assume you can predict affordability by general labels like public and private.  Some private schools are dependent on tuition revenue. A student is more likely to attend a school with $30k tuition and a $10k scholarship than a $20 tuition school. So some private schools do a lit of tuition discounting.  This shows up as a grant from the college (what other posters are referring to as scholarships from the college). Other private schools have large endowments and have committed to meeting need (though this is based on an expectation that they are paying the EFC).

 

It's just not a hope for the best process.  Shop for the best matches the same way you'd shop for a good fit between features and price for a car or a house.

I agree with everything you posted except for the bolded. There is a difference between token merit which is really just bringing down tuition costs to what it has been determined people will pay and given to about every single (all) student(s) and is equivalent to basic institutional grant $$ vs merit scholarship $$ which essentially buys top students from attending more highly ranked schools. Those scholarships come in varying flavors--they can be given to everyone with a published stat (and no one else receives it, so they are buying higher stats) or to a handful of students who receive not just $$ but significant other perks as well (special mentors, special counseling/courses/meetings/internships/study abroad, etc) These scholarships are not the equivalent of institution grants which are given to all students who are accepted with $x of demonstrated need. Need is not factored into it all. Neither are they offered to all accepted students. Grants are typically more "equal opportunity" in terms of to everyone according to their need.

Edited June 16, 2019 by 8FillTheHeart

[Lori D.]

On 6/13/2019 at 8:16 PM, mirabillis said:

... I think our earliest action school would be Nov 1 application so mostly Nov-Jan applications we're looking at.... 

 

On 6/15/2019 at 8:41 PM, mirabillis said:

... He has his list of colleges, more or less...

This summer, In addition to researching affordability of the schools on his list (see above posters' suggestions), you might also check *acceptance rates*.  Schools with an acceptance rate that is below 15% are long shots. Schools with an acceptance rate below 30% are selective/competitive and should not be counted on too highly. Be sure that 1-2 of the schools on his list have an acceptance rate of at least 70%.

You can find acceptance rate numbers by researching colleges at the College Data website, or via a quick online search for " ___college name___ acceptance rate". Both College Data and a quick online search can also give you information on each college's average (50 percentile) and top 25% (75th percentile) for SAT/ACT score and GPA score. The closer to the college's top 25% -- or top 10% -- of freshman scores your student's SAT/ACT and GPA are, boosts your student's chance at acceptance AND for merit aid.

Here's a random example for Michigan State:
- acceptance rate = 72% (that means 72 of every 100 students who apply are accepted, while 28 of every 100 students DON'T get in)
- average (50%) GPA = 3.71  . . . . .  75th percentile GPA (top 25%) = 3.9+
- average (50%) SAT score = 1204 / 75th percentile SAT score (top 25%) = 1320 (or a 28+ ACT score)

What do these figures mean? That it's not too competitive to be accepted to Michigan State -- but that a student needs to have higher scores to be competitive for substantial merit aid.
 

On 6/15/2019 at 8:41 PM, mirabillis said:

... I am woefully ill-informed in some regards re: FA and/or scholarships... when I went to school, I got a bunch of outside scholarships like $1000 here, $5000 here, etc - I don't recall any school-based scholarships at all...

Basic Financial Aid Equation:

Cost of Attendance     minus  EFC      =       Financial Need
- tuition & fees. . . . . . FAFSA generated #. . . school offers Financial Aid pkg. of:
- room & board. . . . .  that gov't & school. . . . loans+grants+work study+scholarships
- books & supplies. . .expect families to. . . . .to help with part or all of this Need
- transportation. . . . . pay out of savings, . . .  (between 60-100%) -- any Need NOT covered
- other expenses. . . . earnings, loans. . . . . . . by school's FA pkg is called "Self Help"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(i.e., more family $$ from savings, earnings, loans)

Just a start of what you can learn from the financial statistics from a college before running a Net Price Calculator (and here, continuing the example of Michigan State):

Financial Figures for Michigan State University (MSU):
- only 67% of freshmen who apply for FA -- actually receive aid (mostly Federal loans+grants+work study, and college-awarded scholarships) 
- only 61% = average of Need met by MSU in their FA pkg. (so, approx. 1/3 of the Feed is NOT met by the school's FA pkg.)
- only 9% of freshmen receive merit-based aid (scholarships) AND ALSO had no financial Need
- 50% of students must take out loans, and graduate with an *average* of $32,000+ debt
- $3,766 = average amount of "need-based self help" *

* need-based self-help is the term colleges use to mean "money you need to come up with out of savings, earnings, or more loans to finish making up the difference between your financial need and the school's offered FA pkg. (of LOANS, scholarships, grants, work study)

Other factors to consider:
- 36,000+ students applied to MSU, 71% accepted, for a freshman class of roughly 26,000
- 9% of those freshmen (roughly 2400 out of 26,000) receive merit-based aid (scholarships) AND had no financial Need -- so, a total gift, no "Need" attached
- $10,000 is the *average* award of that merit aid with no Need
- $28,500/per year cost = tuition & fees ($14,500) + room & board ($10,000) + books & supplies ($1,000) + other expenses ($3,000)
- just 51% of students graduate in 4 years (which means more $$$ because it takes more than 4 years to graduate)

What does all of this mean?
- if you have financial Need, very likely less than 2/3 of it will be covered by MSU's FA pkg -- and part of their FA pkg. will be an offer of loans
- half of all undergrad students have debt of $32,000 by the time they graduate -- so you can expect you'll probably be paying for a big chunk of college
- half of all undergrad students need more than 4 years to graduate -- and most merit-based/need-based scholarships are only for 4 years
- even if you are an in-state student and you are one of the lucky 9% of students who do get the average amount merit-based scholarship ($10,000) that doesn't require also having Need, that amount will cover about 2/3 of tuition & fees, still leaving $18,000 per year in remaining tuition & fees, room & board, and other expenses for the family to cover
 

On 6/15/2019 at 8:41 PM, mirabillis said:

... When should we look for scholarships? Or hope for merit-aid or need-based aid? ...

"Inside" scholarships are awarded through the college, and you find out about those in the financial aid package that the school sends a few weeks after sending an acceptance notice -- so, in the Spring of the senior year. Also -- your student may need to plan on attending a "Scholarship Day" in the Spring (some colleges have them in the Fall), in which the student goes to the school they are interested in and have applied to, and does interviewing, with the hope of landing a larger scholarship -- so again, probably find out in the Spring.

"Outside" scholarships are awarded by institutions or individuals other than the school. Note: these are usually much smaller awards (a few hundred $$ to a few thousand $$), AND are usually NOT renewable (i.e. -- one-time awards, rather than the renewable/4-year freshman awards given by the college). Also, many colleges apply outside scholarships toward reducing the amount of scholarship $$ they would have awarded to the student, which means the student is NOT receiving any more aid/scholarships than they would have -- AND after the freshman year, those outside scholarships go away, and the student's renewable award from the college can be LOWER for the next 3 years than it would have been, if the student had not accepted the outside scholarship.

So, if planning on applying for outside scholarships, make sure the college accepts "stacking" of outside scholarships on TOP of what they plan to award. If they do not allow stacking, then outside scholarships are likely NOT helpful for you, unless they are for a large sum AND are renewable.

Also, a large amount of "outside" scholarships have a "need-based" requirement to them, even if they are "merit-based".

The deadlines for many "outside" scholarships are the previous spring/summer/autumn prior to 12th grade -- so, now through November. (And you usually find out if you've landed the scholarship at the end of the Fall Semester, or early Spring semester.)

Hope something there is of help. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Lori D.

[MamaSprout]

We are much earlier in the process with our youngest, but with our older kids, we found that pretty much however you sliced it, we ended up paying slightly less than sticker-price tuition for for our state school. We had four in college at the same time. One was in a private school, the rest public. The less competitive private schools brought the tuition down to state school prices. 

We got creative with housing arrangements to lower our overall cost for them (we're solidly middle class and they were above average but not stellar students). If we had it to do again, we probably would have done community college for at least one of them first.

We are focusing on SAT/ ACT scores for youngest, which seems to be another way to budge the college cost needle a little lower. She has the benefit of a little more time for us to get money saved, too. I have a OneNote file set up to track various aspects of college search for her. I have found that she's pretty much going to need to apply to 8 or 10 schools when the time comes and wait and see what merit aid comes back. Some schools publish how much aid for what scores right on their site (Alabama), many automatically include merit aid as part of the application process, and some have merit aid tied to their honors program.

Edited June 17, 2019 by MamaSprout

[BlsdMama]

On 6/13/2019 at 10:16 PM, mirabillis said:

What did you do summer before senior year? (I figure I should do course descriptions, transcript, counselor letter, school profile together, etc etc)

What did your rising senior do? (start on essays? take a break, wait til fall?) What did you do?

When should we look for scholarships? Or hope for merit-aid or need-based aid? Suggestions?

I think our earliest action school would be Nov 1 application so mostly Nov-Jan applications we're looking at.... I'm new to all this, so help!

 

 

My .02 - Make sure you are done taking SAT/ACT by October.  

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 6/16/2019 at 10:05 AM, 8FillTheHeart said:

I agree with everything you posted except for the bolded. There is a difference between token merit which is really just bringing down tuition costs to what it has been determined people will pay and given to about every single (all) student(s) and is equivalent to basic institutional grant $$ vs merit scholarship $$ which essentially buys top students from attending more highly ranked schools. Those scholarships come in varying flavors--they can be given to everyone with a published stat (and no one else receives it, so they are buying higher stats) or to a handful of students who receive not just $$ but significant other perks as well (special mentors, special counseling/courses/meetings/internships/study abroad, etc) These scholarships are not the equivalent of institution grants which are given to all students who are accepted with $x of demonstrated need. Need is not factored into it all. Neither are they offered to all accepted students. Grants are typically more "equal opportunity" in terms of to everyone according to their need.

 

I'm not thinking about the top levels of merit scholarships with my comment.  I'm thinking about schools that advertise that 98% of their students receive "merit scholarships" and where these grants are given to even students with 2.5 averages and high family incomes.  That is tuition discounting for enrollment management, not an effort to buy high quality students.

I toured a college a couple weeks ago that fell into this category.  What's more when they described the honors program, they mentioned that it had higher associated costs, but that students received a scholarship.  There is a certain amount of emotional shell gaming there.

My point was not about schools that offer lucrative merit aid for students who bring a lot to the table.  It was more an observation that you can't really take sticker price at face value at many private colleges.  So if there is one that seems like it is a match, do the extra work to run the NPC and look at the Net Cost tab on College Navigator.  That can give more reliable information than just going by the listed cost of attendance.  

University of Redlands is an example of this.  I think it might be a good match school for some students.   It has a stated cost of attendance of almost $70k.  However if you run the NPC or look at College Navigator, the average net cost (inclusive of tuition, fees, and room & board) is $21k-36k.  That is a drastic discount in my mind.  Perhaps not low enough to count as a bargain, but very different from the sticker price.  The take away is don't make assumptions; take the time to run the estimators and price calculators.  

[saw]

Getting essays done (at least in draft form) proved to be a sanity-saver later on. DS did a Common App essay draft as well as a draft of a second essay of a similar length. His "thing" is music and history, and so he wrote the Common App about his music, and the second essay about his interest in history. The second essay was not in response to a particular prompt but was focussed on his intellectual development and highlighted what he has done in high school re history (summer classes, papers written, etc). He also wrote short essays focusing on two additional extracurricular activities, with a view to highlighting community involvement and leadership. Again, these were not in response to particular prompts.

Once he started the applications in the fall, he was able to revise each of these essays with only minimal effort to respond to each college's prompts. It helps if the second big essay is written in a somewhat modular form, allowing a sort of mix-and-match approach later on. DS had a super-busy fall and said to me several times how glad he was that I'd forced him to work o the essays (and it was pretty much forced, lol, because I took him on a college tour for two weeks and every evening I'd sit him down in the hotel or wherever we were and tell him to write). It is not necessary, imho, to have all of the prompts as it's quite possible to get four essays in draft form that can then be put to use for the apps. 

Also, if you're doing music or arts supplements, summer is a good time to figure out what you're doing and how you'll do it. 

[Miguelsmom]

 

My son is a rising senior: He graduates with an AA and AS in May 2020.

 

Already- Picked out and toured “affordable” colleges (It’s in quotes because if he can not pay himself he can not go.We are not in a position to help.)

Filled out Common APP (waiting until July to fill in the application date and turn in)

Took and sent in SAT 3x

Filled out and sent in the NACAC application fee waiver form.

Filled out the Self-reported Student Academic Record

Sent incomplete transcript and Dual enrollment transcript

 

Tomorrow- Super late but finding out if we can get an SAT waiver (needed to ask last summer)

July 1st @ midnight- Applications open finish applications and turn in before bed.

July- Finish summer DE class and volunteer at summer camp

August 1-19 - Turn in volunteer hours to the school board, Study SAT 2 hrs a day and fill out scholarships

August 20+ - Start DE classes, Study 1 hour for SAT,

September- Sign up for SAT, Study 1 hour for SAT,

October-  1st- Fill out financial aid, take SAT,

End of October/ beginning of November Sign up for orientation, housing application, pick housing and start looking at work study opportunities.

August - February- 1 scholarship application a day

April- Take SAT last time if haven’t hit 1300

Sorry it won't let me un bold it.

 

[saw]

Further to my comment above, I just rewatched Ethan Sawyer's video on writing a Super Essay, as he calls it, in which he dissects one essay to show how it can be used for multiple prompts and purposes. The video should be available on his site College Essay Guy, and I think it's free (I don't recall paying for it).