I Pit Lack of Finacial Aid for my Kid's College Education!

The BBQ Pit
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And should you only be able to get one of any other kind of scholarship? No mixing two private scholarships? No merit plus athletics or merit plus music performance?

What could be, other than a ridiculous, selfish resentment, the motivation to deny people the opportunity to use any monies that they qualify to receive? Are you really so hard done by the existence of select scholarships for minority students? Are you really ignorant to the fact that majority of scholarship dollars in this country are available to any qualified applicant but most will still flow to white students?

Do you not understand the ongoing inequities in educational opportunity and minority representation on university campuses that are the reason why minority scholarships exist to begin with?

Now, I’m going to go cry tears because I’m not eligible for scholarships from the National Italian-American Foundation, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, the Pulaski merit society, the American Society of the French Order of Merit, the Saint Andrew’s Scots-American Society, the Irish American Home Society, the American Hellenic Progressive Association or the Free Sons of Israel.

Oh, no, wait, I’m not, because I don’t begrudge affinity groups awarding their own, whether its on the basis of ethnicity or club membership or religion or pretty looks. I find what I need for myself and recognize that no one is locked out of the majority of scholarship opportunities. And yet complaints about that only seem to flow one way…

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I believe that everyone should have the shot at college.

I also believe that college should toughen shit up and fail students easier. I spent about 40 per cent of my classes bored out of my mind.

Of all classes I took, I probably made an effort in 30 per cent (my content area).

I graduated just fine, but I’d still like my Women’s Studies and Human Sexuality course $$ back, please.

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If we were in church, I’d be shouting “Preach it!”

The National Merit Scholarships are wonderful and my college experience would have been a lot different if I hadn’t gotten Nat’l Achievement (the program for high-scoring African Americans). But even I know that this was a lucky break for me. Because I have a twin sister.

I happened to do better than her on the PSAT. So I got $$$ and she got zero. On top of that, schools offered me money based on my PSAT. Again, my sister didn’t get such offers.

A year later, she happened to do much better than I did on the SAT. But she absolutely got zero money from that. What. The. Fuck.

It’s not a matter of brains, see. Because I believe my sister and I have similar levels of intellect and work ethic. If anything, SHE should have gotten a higher PSAT score than I did because she was in a more advanced math class than I was. She was the brainy smurf on the high school’s academic team while I was the laid-back musician, playing my violin at weddings and dinner parties for a few extra bucks, and breezing through easier classes (not by choice, but that’s for another thread). But for whatever reason, my PSAT turned out higher than hers. I can’t even remember how high, but we didn’t realize the ramifications until the guidance counselor called me to her office, forced me to fill out the paperwork (which I didn’t even want to fill out!), and I received the notification in the mail.

As far as the “all the scholarships are for minorities!” mantra, yes, I did get a scholarship for, in part, being black (National Achievement) and one for being a woman (a private endowment from my college). But you know what? When my senior high school English teacher posted the announcement about the city-wide essay contest for $4000 of scholarship money, none of the white kids in my class participated. Actually only two kids in my school did. Myself and another black kid. There were other essay contests that year–like one from Coca-Cola. Again, all the kids who wrote essays were black. None of them were white. So while I am sympathetic to middle-class white kids who don’t get money from their schools, I’m also of the opinion that that only means they have to hustle more than everyone else. And from my limited experience, that wasn’t the case. It was the black kids who were doing all the hustling–going after scholarships that no one else seemed to care about. We’d get teased by those white kids for getting into schools because of AA, but we were working our asses off while they were loafing around and smoking weed. Perhaps we were hungrier and knew we couldn’t rely on our parents to pay our way? I have no idea.

Perhaps Bricker has worked extremely hard to make a way for himself. We have no way of knowing if he deserves to thump his chest as loudly as he has. But I know that while I worked extremely hard to get to where I am (not that I’m a CEO or fancy doctor or lawyer, but I’m not doing too bad career-wise IMHO), luck has had a tremendous impact on my life. I wish every kid could be so fortunate.

The OP’s daughter seems to be the victim of bad luck right now, but the story isn’t over. If this girl actually is one of the best and the brightest (which I don’t think are necessarily defined by test scores or grades), she will find a way to become successful. The road just may not be as linear as the OP originally planned.

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Whew! I did not ever mean to imply that ALL the scholarships were for minorities; I know for a fact they’re not. I am sincerely sorry if that’s what anyone took away from that. I can see how that may be possible. I’m not always the best at expressing myself on the fly.

I think everyone that is capable should have a shot at college.

In the end, I was relating my own small experience with that. I happen to know several other of my son’s friends who didn’t get the help they needed and they were all very well rounded students with good grades, everything. Things are tough at the state schools here. In state freshmen admissions were limited to 5400 students at UW this year. There were over 25,000 applicants for those spots. Because our state legislature took funding away from the state schools, the state schools are going for more out of state students. Those students equate to more money. So, besides limiting admissions for in state students, all the state schools are raising their tuition rates, and not by a small amount.

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You’re not kidding - there were in-state, straight-A student class valedictorians who didn’t get accepted to the UW this year due to the limited slots open to in-state students.

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OP, check your private messages.

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Sure, just do a drive by - that’s mature. Well, in the time you will save by not responding to me, how about reading this thread and noting the people that agree with my position?

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You aren’t the only state like that (I may be wrong, but I recall hearing similar complaints about the Texas system - too many students wanting college for the number of slots). We turned down a job opportunity in Washington because of their educational/college system.

Its hard for someone from a state like Minnesota to get their head around. The UofM Twin Cities is fairly competitive, but not over the top. And the State University system has a charter to give pretty much everyone a shot - which means you can get in with a C average in high school and tuition will be under $10k (with another $5-6k in room and board) - still expensive, but not out of reach.

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There are plenty of private schools with engineering programs that would really like to talk to a promising young woman. Actually I would dare to say this is one of the easier demographics to get undergrad financial aid. I was an engineering major, one of the main reasons I picked this degree was that it made me such an attractive applicant and led to a lot of very nice financial aid packages. Being an engineering major shouldn’t keep the OP’s daughter out of the private school funding game, if anything I would think it would make it easier.

But that aside, I agree with pretty much everything else you’ve said in this thread.

250

The googling I did didn’t look like many schools had undergrad biomedical engineering programs at all - public or private - and those private schools that did were mostly in the “highly competitive, need to do a lot better on the SAT than the OP has implied” sort of schools (MIT, Johns Hopkins) to get in, much less get scholarship money.

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nm

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I’m thinking of private engineering colleges – places like Rensselaer, Rose Hulman, RIT, etc. Those schools will have biomedical engineering (those 3 do, i did check) and they’re competitive schools and all, but they’re not really the type of place where, you know, you have to be a competitive figure skater and class president to even be considered. This was the strata of schools I looked at. Yeah they don’t sound like super fun rah-rah party schools, but if someone said their daughter wanted to be an engineering major but they didn’t know how to pay for it, I would highly suggest that’s where they start looking, in addition to their flagship state school.

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I would have thought all three of those would be far more competitive… I know a couple of Rose Hulman grads, and they loved it.

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You’re lucky that California has great public universities. They are much more expensive than back when I was a student but still reasonably affordable.

I wanted more than anything in life to attend CU Boulder. It was patently unaffordable versus the University of California, Davis. UCD was a better school and had a Chinese program (which I didn’t know I would utilize).

I probably have a fairly close profile with your daughter but was A’s and B’s, went to a podunk highschoold and hadn’t even *heard *of AP until my first week at Davis. I worked, Pell Grants and Stafford Loans.

I mean this in the best possible way to the OP. You are ***insane ***if you want your daughter to skip college instead of going into debt. I hope you’re just frustrated and venting here. You daughter needs to afford about 2 years of University to graduate (she can take summer school at a JC) if she wants to just squeeze through. Then she can work for a few years and figure out how to afford the grad school of her choice. Or she can be a Denny’s waitress.

Worst case scenario, she can go to University, rack up serious debt, go bankrupt after graduation and have crappy credit for 7 years. That’s not like the end of the word at age 21. Or she can be a Denny’s waitress.

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I’m fairly certain that it’s darn near impossible to BK student loans, no?

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Nearly impossible, but not actually impossible. However, I think China Guy is referring to the common college student scenario of racking up tons of credit card debt.

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You sure about that? I think impossible is a good description for most people. (Yes, there are circumstances in which they can be forgiven, but they’re along the lines of crippling disability/death: not exactly an outcome anyone would hope for.)

No one should ever take out student loan debt with any expectation of being able to escape it.

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Emigration works too: I’m still paying mine, but there isn’t really anything they can do to me if I stop.

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Definitely competitive but the admissions process is more straightforward. They’re looking for students with the academic background in math in science to successfully get through their degree programs. If you have that then fact that you’re not legacy or that you’ve never volunteered in Haiti shouldn’t be the thing that keeps you out, or keeps you from getting aid. (Likewise, if you are legacy and volunteered in Haiti, but have C’s in math and science, then you’re still probably not getting in to Rose Hulman, let alone get money).

Anyhow, my info is 15 years old, different economy, etc, but my most generous financial aid package was from Rensselaer. I didn’t take it but it was a very nice offer.

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I appreciate all of the comments; yes, even the more <ahem> negative ones. The lack of savings for college has been a boil on my butt ever since she was born. Its not like we didn’t try, we even went to a financial counselor to plan it as best we could, but nobody can predict the future. It would have been easier just to have blown a bunch of money on stupid shit because at least I would have had money to blow and a good time doing it. But the fact of the matter is, we had to make month to month choices; food or savings, hubby’s $1500/month interferon medication or savings, fix the car so I can go to work or savings, electricity or savings, replace 20 year old car that started on fire while driving or savings, dental care (Fed govt does not offer) or savings.

Yes, I was a stay at home mom for a while, but mostly I worked one or two jobs; half of my income going to survival and the other half going into savings, only to be use for another crisis.

And yes, I did apply for WIC then whet on to have a third child five years later. When I applied for WIC, our new baby was 1 month old and the government shut down, leaving my hubby without a paycheck and no indication of when we would be getting another one.

Through AP classes, and night classes at the local Community College the next step is a 4 year institution. She could do one semester at the CC but delaying attendance at a means not being able to start on her pre-requisites for her major, not to mention she would lose about half the scholarships she did get.

She applied to 6 Universities. We couldn’t afford to pay for more applications. Application fees ranged from $95 - $35. On top of that were the fees for transcripts and test scores to be sent to those to which we applied . Now, I know that this may not seem like much to some, but it cost us more than a months worth of food. We picked two private schools, two medium cost schools and two inexpensive schools. Of the two inexpensive schools, both were in California. One was considering not accepting a freshman class at all and the other had just cut a number of programs and of the programs that were left, classes required for graduation had been reduced to classes being offered once every three years or cut all together. This left the students already enrolled totally screwed. My feeling was that this educational environment was a poor investment risk.

She beats herself up on a regular basis over her ACT (30) and her SAT (1500 + ?) scores. She is bright, practical, and can write a hell of an essay, but she isn’t the best test taker in the world. She can work circles around other students, but her test scores are usually in the low 90% range. Now her 15 yr old brother is a champion test taker. That is the only reason he ever passes a class. He can’t complete homework or projects and get them handed in on time; nor can he even keep his damn shoes tied. But he can ace just about any test thats thrown at him. In my opinion, of the two the them, I would think my girl is the better risk.

We don’t expect a free ride. We fully expect to have to take out loans and that she will have to work to get through school. What kills us is the sheer amount we will have to borrow. Her first year is projected to cost $32,000. The scholarships she did get add up to $3,000. Her Pell Grant is for $1,800 and her Stafford Loan with work study is for $2,500. That leaves a deficit of $24,700. This is where we have a problem. It may seem much to many people, but for us that amount might as well be on the moon.

Look, I don’t want to whine about being poor. I think lack of wealth has given our children fair sense of priority, and left us more able to explore more intellectual rather than material persuits. But I can’t help but feel frustrated with the fact that her father and I work insane hours, maintain a spartan standard of living, having our daughter do everything in her power to get herself to college, and have the cost so high we can’t even hope to reach it.

Im sorry if people think I’m looking for a handout or entitlements of some sort, but we have never used ‘the system’. And we would love to be able to work until our fingers bleed to pay for it, unfortunately, as of right now, we can’t get access to that $24,700 to have a chance to pay it back.

As my mother said when I was in school, “If you think education is expensive, try paying for ignorance” (She got that off of a bumper sticker)