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I thought the more prestigious school would give less money because every top performing student wants in the best schools and the less prestigious schools would give out better scholarship packages because they want to entice the high performing kids to their school from the better schools.
That is EXACTLY how it was!
The prestigious ones did not need to dish out lots of cash, so they didn't.
I was wondering if the prestige of the school was a factor in determining how much they would offer in scholarships but I wasn't sure which way that went. Which is information I was hoping to find out here. I thought the more prestigious school would give less money because every top performing student wants in the best schools and the less prestigious schools would give out better scholarship packages because they want to entice the high performing kids to their school from the better schools. I'm not sure what class ranking my friend's daughter had but I assume it was very high because she got accepted into University of Michigan which is not an easy school to get into. I also assume that her GPA was way up there for the same reason even though all I know about her GPA is that she qualified for the highest level of scholarship the "presidential scholarship" which she said required at least a 3.8 GPA. I also assumed that she went to the less prestigious school over U of M because the scholarship package was better. Thanks for posting. I appreciate the information.
The more prestigious schools tend to give out more money because they have more money to give out, especially to recruit high-performing but low-income students. They have generous alumni.
The more prestigious schools tend to give out more money because they have more money to give out, especially to recruit high-performing but low-income students. They have generous alumni.
Some people are saying it's one way and some the opposite. Maybe it's both and just depends on each applicant's circumstances and how bad the school wants them? I guess I'll find out which is the case once we get to that point. Well, at least at the schools my daughter ends up applying to. Thanks again for your posts.
The more prestigious schools tend to give out more money because they have more money to give out, especially to recruit high-performing but low-income students. They have generous alumni.
This is need-based aid, which is not given out on the basis of a student's performance (of course, to get into Prestigious U, a student needs to be pretty good). In general, the more prestigious a school is, the fewer merit-based awards they give.
Perhaps the OP could give us names of the schools she/he is considering. Getting a full-ride at an obscure, regional private college would be considerably easier than getting a full ride at Duke.
How high performing does a HS student have to be academically to get a full ride scholarship to college? Top 1% of their class, top 10%? Is it even possible for anyone besides a handful of very top performing students? I understand that each school determines their own requirements for whatever merit scholarships they may choose to offer but I was wondering if there might be a general rule. I asked a friend about it since she has a high performing daughter that went off to college last year. Her daughter had a GPA above 3.8 unweighted (don't know the exact number), scored 32 on her ACT, was in the NHS, was in band, soccer, track, student counsel, did a lot of community service work, was active in her church youth group, took advanced classes in HS and only received $7,500.00 merit scholarships through her university (she had an additional $7,000.00, one year only, local scholarships) and she didn't even end up going to a high nationally ranking school even though she was accepted into U of M. Her school is at the top of the ranking list within our state though. I thought she would have qualified for a higher scholarship from her school due to her achievements and the fact that they aren't ranked high nationally. The amount they offered her still left her with $6,000.00 out of pocket for her first year and $13,000.00 per year after that unless the school offered more once she used up her one time $7,000.00 scholarship money (not sure how that works). I was wondering if that is normal for most schools? Maybe she qualified for a lower amount based on her parent's income? I don't know how income factors into a scholarship offer. I ask because my daughter is a junior and I was trying to get a feel for what we could generally expect for merit scholarship offers when she applies to colleges since she will have to take out loans to cover any amount not covered by scholarships. I would appreciate information from anyone who has first hand knowledge of how the process works. Thanks
My experience is that full ride academic scholarships are rare. Students who are very poor may get enough financial aid so that they do not have to pay anything but full ride academic scholarships are unusual no matter how smart the student is.
Some people are saying it's one way and some the opposite. Maybe it's both and just depends on each applicant's circumstances and how bad the school wants them? I guess I'll find out which is the case once we get to that point. Well, at least at the schools my daughter ends up applying to. Thanks again for your posts.
The most prestigious schools have more money to give, but they usually award that money on the basis of financial need.
This is need-based aid, which is not given out on the basis of a student's performance (of course, to get into Prestigious U, a student needs to be pretty good). In general, the more prestigious a school is, the fewer merit-based awards they give.
Perhaps the OP could give us names of the schools she/he is considering. Getting a full-ride at an obscure, regional private college would be considerably easier than getting a full ride at Duke.
strawflower, my original post was just asking generally how difficult it is to get a full scholarship offer from colleges so that I would have a general idea of what to expect for my daughter when the time came for her to apply. But you're right in that it would be much easier getting a general idea if I actually knew what schools she wanted to go to. Unfortunately, until my daughter takes the ACT next month and gets her results back we're not 100% sure where she'll apply because we know her test results will in a big way determine where she will be accepted. We live in Michigan so if she stays in state and her ACT scores were good enough she might apply to U of M. I know she'll do well enough to get into Michigan State and Grand Valley State University. Those are the only in state schools we're considering. The problem we have is my daughter would prefer a smaller school and she's not into partying so would prefer a school that isn't known for that. She's not interested in any of the smaller private schools in state so I was looking out of state but was concerned about the high tuition costs and again until we find out how well she does on her ACT, don't know which schools she would even have a shot at getting into.
Last edited by searching4info; 02-03-2015 at 03:51 PM..
strawflower, my original post was just asking generally how difficult it is to get a full scholarship offer from colleges so that I would have a general idea of what to expect for my daughter when the time came for her to apply. But you're right in that it would be much easier getting a general idea if I actually knew what schools she wanted to go to. Unfortunately, until my daughter takes the ACT next month and gets her results back we're not 100% sure where she'll apply because we know her test results will in a big way determine where she will be accepted. We live in Michigan so if she stays in state and her ACT scores were good enough she might apply to U of M. I know she'll do well enough to get into Michigan State and Grand Valley State University. Those are the only in state schools we're considering. The problem we have is my daughter would prefer a smaller school and she's not into partying so would prefer a school that isn't known for that. She's not interested in any of the smaller private schools in state so I was looking out of state but was concerned about the high tuition costs and again until we find out how well she does on her ACT, don't know which schools she would even have a shot at getting into.
Does she have an idea what fields interest her? What is she good at, and what does she enjoy? And generally speaking, what's your financial situation? Would you be eligible for need-based scholarships?
My experience is that full ride academic scholarships are rare. Students who are very poor may get enough financial aid so that they do not have to pay anything but full ride academic scholarships are unusual no matter how smart the student is.
That's what I thought about full ride academic scholarships. Despite the fact that I started this post asking about them, I know my daughter isn't a good enough student to get one. I'm just hoping she can get a decent scholarship and was surprised my friend's daughter didn't get more. I'm thinking now after reading comments on this post that the reason is my friend was in too high of an income bracket to get more. Thanks for your help.
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