At Texas A&M there are plenty of free rides for athletes but few for academic athletes. This is is no small part due to higher education cuts at the state level. My son has numbers in that ballpark and we heard crickets aside for a small spacial scholarship and dependent children of employee support. Sure, a significant part of that is related to working 70+ hours a week for A&M (whether paid or not during the summer) 52 weeks a year for 20 years.

He received a larger scholarship and decent load package for Georgia Tech, which has a better biomedical engineering program. Looks like he's Atlanta bound.


Not that he would want them, but Baylor offers pretty sweet financial aid/scholarship packages. We turned down one with a President's scholarship at Mary-Hardin Baylor for my daughter to be an Aggie. We just hope to get through O-Chem now.

This thread is very whiny.

Doesn't sound like this kid was National Merit. He would have gotten $40k from A&M automatically if he were. Doing well on the ACT doesn't mean he did well on his PSAT junior year.

You can't count on getting a ton of money from A&M when you have 35k kids applying for a small amount of aid. Like others said, there are tons of outside scholarships. He needs to use his good work ethic to research and find those opportunities and apply for them. Many scholarships go unused each year from outside organizations because no one applies for them.

The Terry Foundation brings in ~55-60 students each year. They receive 1000s of applicants and only about ~200 are interviewed for the scholarships.

If your son has the metrics you mentioned above then he should have been strongly considered for the award. What most likely happened is that he did not perform as well as others in the interview.

What I suggest is using Higher Education consultants to help with such things. They are skilled and knowledgeable in these areas, and are able to increase the student's visibility for admissions and scholarships. Also, many can help students prepare for interviews or assist with their essays.

Often students leave a lot off of their application or is not formatted properly that results in certain areas being looked over. I suggest that many parents look into using a consultant, which by spending a little bit of money can produce more positive results.

Hiring a consultant for how to fill out a college app? Wow.

Milam County had the best person ever at filling out applications for admissions and scholarships. I'm so glad I learned some from her before the evil Cancer took her in January.

Find someone in your community that is good at such things. No need to pay someone. County Agents can be very helpful also.

I can sympathize with the OP. My son was very close to #1 in his class with a high 1500's SAT score. His scholarship offer was $2500 per year for four years at A&M.

He is going to UTD instead, where they offered a full ride in a science department which is higher rated than A&M.

Snowflakes aren't unique.

They're all frozen water.

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and participating and winning just about every regional and state UIL award from Computer Science to Math to Debate to Tennis

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Did he apply for the UIL scholarships at the state meet? I got a scholarship almost equivalent to PES from UIL.

For Valedictorian, the state pays your first year tuition at a public school. That also adds up.

Those in addition to PES should put you on pretty darn good footing.

My parents didn't make a whole lot, but I still made it through school on merit scholarships and taking out my own loans. (20k total)

All I can say is that you can't expect people to hand you anything. You have to look for the scholarships and not just expect to have money thrown at you.

I had a full ride and then some at A&M as a white boy from a financially secure family. NM+PES+ a couple corporate scholarships. And I filled out all the forms myself.

Ulrich - what year did you enter into TAMU?

Same story as ulrich but swap brown foundation for corporate scholarships. Was national merit but otherwise just like every other high achieving high schooler (top 6%, IB diploma, good SAT, community service, had a summer job etc). Started A&M in fall 2008.

So this turned from a whiner thread to a geek brag off?

It's the Internet, what did you expect?

I'm quite familiar with the academic and scholarship process at TAMU. Unfortunately, their merit scholarships do not go as far as they once did and there are a small percentage of entering freshmen who receive a full ride on A&M scholarships alone.

Back in the 90s, the PES award would cover almost 100% of the tuition and fees. In the mid 2000s, recruiting of National Merits became a priority at the institution and the basic package would allow for about 75% of the COA to be covered. This continued up until a couple of years ago. Nowadays, the NM package has been reduced and only covers about 50%.

The Terry Foundation Scholar award is probably the most coveted since it will guarantee a debt free bachelors. The National Merit package is probably the second most coveted and the Brown Foundation scholarship is also a highly sought after scholarship.

As for higher education consultants, most of them can help simplify the college search process and provide individual attention that cannot be matched by their high school counselors. Also, they can bring a skillful eye and objective view into the college search equation.

Students who have their eyes set on one college may not need it as much as those who are shopping around. However, it is in the best interests of the student and the parents to apply/visit multiple schools and see what the range of options that are available to them.

And avante prep basically restates everything on the thread.

Van Zandt - How have you contributed to this thread besides call them geeky and whiny?

I started in '06.

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Should he be punished because his grandparents - Class of '62 - have saved for their grandchildren's education? Should the fact that he is probably falls into the "privileged socio-economic class" cause his extreme effort and God-given ability to just be ignored when it comes to scholarships and funding of his education?

I say no (being one whom has the old-fashion belief that Merit is the true “level playing field”), but the society we live in now says, that other kid over there that has not worked near as hard, but does not have the "means" - as if I can really fund my retirement, his education AND his sister's education on my somewhat above-middle class income - and to he!! with Merit!!

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When you pay to put hundreds of kids a year through college for free, you can give your money to whoever the hell you want to. It sounds like you are ranting about the Terry Board and not TAMU, which is just utterly ridiculous. They've donated what amounts to hundreds of millions to help who they've determined needs it, and I don't see any way you can frame what they've done as less than awesome.

Speaking of National Merit, I have seen elsewhere online that TAMU has previously asked to see (in writing) other schools financial aid offers and has matched (or nearly) those offers. So a free ride offer from schools that aggressively recruit National Merit scholars was used to acquire substantially increased FA offers from TAMU. Does anyone have recent experience with this process?

I ask because Texas A&M's National Merit package looks like it covers about half the cost of attendance. While anything would be nice, a free ride would be super sweet. Like the original poster, generous grandparents will have eliminated any scholarships that require demonstration of 'financial need' and it would be nice to have some of that $$ to pay for grad/professional school and/or younger siblings.

Josey Wales: Now remember, things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb mad dog mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is.

[This message has been edited by JT88 (edited 5/5/2013 1:15a).]

People where I come from need things like the Terry Scholarship, middle class whites dont need it.

I was pretty upset when I heard kids talking about their parents buying them a car because they paid for their own school via their Terry Scholarship. My mom didnt give me a nickel and I paid for my own clothes since I was 12 and paid rent since I was 16.

I also got a scholarship my senior year at A&M because I wrote an essay about "how you met people of other cultural groups while in college" well .. I wrote about how I had to learn to deal with rich white suburban honkies and not hate them as much (Im also white, surprise!). I think that they were expecting some fluffy BS about how some suburban whities met a foreigner and it was all cute, I gave them an essay about whats really up.

This whiney thread makes me gag, folks from where I come from dont go to college because they dont have anyone in their entire social group who even knows what the money that private schools were offering me looks like, they dont earn that much in a year. Its awesome that your kid is great, but I promise you .. there are those of us out there that are just as smart and didnt have half of the help or a stable home life and thats who needs more help than your kid, he will be fine.

[This message has been edited by Randy03 (edited 5/6/2013 3:40p).]

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This whiney thread

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Pot meet kettle

Crap, forgot which board this is. Ignore my trolling.

Rich folks whining that they didnt get more money while starting with huge advantages in life of being a 3rd generation upper middle class person is certainly far from most ideals of "need".

But keep on hatin there fella.

I agree that it's kind of crazy to be mad at the Terry Foundation didn't give your kid a scholarship, but I don't think a merit-only scholarship that disregards financial support from parents is inherently wrong.

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Speaking of National Merit, I have seen elsewhere online that TAMU has previously asked to see (in writing) other schools financial aid offers and has matched (or nearly) those offers. So a free ride offer from schools that aggressively recruit National Merit scholars was used to acquire substantially increased FA offers from TAMU. Does anyone have recent experience with this process?

I ask because Texas A&M's National Merit package looks like it covers about half the cost of attendance. While anything would be nice, a free ride would be super sweet. Like the original poster, generous grandparents will have eliminated any scholarships that require demonstration of 'financial need' and it would be nice to have some of that $$ to pay for grad/professional school and/or younger siblings.

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Two things to remember:

1. TAMU does review SFAID packages from other schools in an effort to present a counter offer. This is never dollar for dollar, but TAMU will certainly try to be competitive with their offer. It's also important to note that this is not only available to National Merit Finalists. Any student is allowed to submit a request for a counter offer.

2. The cost of attendance varies. TAMU's published cost of attendance is $21k per year. However, many students can get through a year for $14k-$16k (and many spend a lot more than $21k).

And Randy with the kill shot...

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As for higher education consultants, most of them can help simplify the college search process and provide individual attention that cannot be matched by their high school counselors. Also, they can bring a skillful eye and objective view into the college search equation.

Students who have their eyes set on one college may not need it as much as those who are shopping around. However, it is in the best interests of the student and the parents to apply/visit multiple schools and see what the range of options that are available to them.

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IMO, if you can't handle the college search and application process on your own, you're probably not cut out for college. With the internet and competition for students, the information is easily available.

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I wrote about how I had to learn to deal with rich white suburban honkies and not hate them as much (Im also white, surprise!).

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Nice, I should have done this.

Randy it appears you still need some help.

I understand his point completely. I think the majority of students fall into the "not poor but not rich" which makes college a financial strain on student & family. This also rolls over into scholarship apps. But to play devils advocate: maybe a prospective student on par with his achievements came from a very poor family.

As valedictorian, he'll get year 1 tuition free. Great accomplishment.

It is just my way of looking at things, but if I were very wealthy and chose to spend some of it at TAMU, I would

- NOT give any money to the 12th man unless I could choose the sport where the money was spent. It would not go to football. It would go to Olympic sports.
- give some portion of my money to out of state outstanding students in engineering and sciences because I want additional exposure for A&M nationally
- I am not a minority but I would dedicate money to outstanding minority candidates in engineering and sciences. I want more minorities to experience the greatness of A&M.
- save a few scholarships for outstanding students regardless of need

There are far too few merit based scholarships based on excellence now. And too many scholarships wasting dollars on feel good social programs.

That is a reflection on our society now though.

[This message has been edited by Gap (edited 6/3/2013 5:38p).]