College Search for future Sorority Girl

[HQWest]

These are all good points Hart. I would just add something else that we deal with on a regular basis. If you go to a school in large part based on the financial aid - be sure to read all the fine print!! You could be pleasantly surprised and find that the four year scholarship includes money to study abroad one summer - or if you choose to be in a program like engineering that it can be very difficult to go abroad, some will allow you to use your abroad money for a summer of undergraduate research. A few schools will allow you to use all four years of scholarship even if you finish early - for example, use the fourth year to pay for the first year of pharmacy school or your MBA.

Some folks have been unpleasantly surprised to find strict rules on what gpa you must maintain every semester in order to keep your scholarship or that the school can reserve the right reevaluate your financial status - I.e. a merit scholarship to get you there and the amount reduced after your first year.

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by HQWest

Some folks have been unpleasantly surprised to find strict rules on what gpa you must maintain every semester in order to keep your scholarship

Yes -- absolutely. I don't know Alabama's GPA policies for various scholarships -- but allowing a GPA to fall won't improve one's chances for acceptance in post-grad professional programs either.

Also -- scholarships may not cover summers in addition to the specified number of semesters (this may matter, especially if a student is OOS).

About 10 years ago, a smart young lady I know had a very nice academic scholarship at Ole Miss. She let her GPA fall, and lost her scholarship as a sophmore. She loved Ole Miss, so she took out loans to stay there (worse yet, she was an OOS student). She is now married with two children and still paying back those loans. Student debt can affect a family for a long time -- I just cringe at the amounts some students are taking out in loans these days.

Originally Posted by HQWest

or that the school can reserve the right reevaluate your financial status - I.e. a merit scholarship to get you there and the amount reduced after your first year.

Oh wow -- they can reduce the amount of your merit scholarship? That is super scary -- I'd be worried about the unknown. I'd look for the more straight-forward kind of merit package -- the kind guaranteed unless you mess up.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by HQWest

Some folks have been unpleasantly surprised to find strict rules on what gpa you must maintain every semester in order to keep your scholarship or that the school can reserve the right reevaluate your financial status - I.e. a merit scholarship to get you there and the amount reduced after your first year.

Yep, the old bait-and-switch. It's fairly common, since schools want to improve their yield (the percentage of accepted students who attend).

I didn't realize that the OP's daughter is an IB student--yay! After finishing the diploma programme, I found college to be a breeze.

Also, I don't feel comfortable providing shameless plugs for either of my alma maters anymore.