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PS---The naming of the college as a top-choice thing isn't written in stone, the schools know they are dealing with 17-year olds. The top-choice can be changed.
Being designated a semi-finalist is a preliminary to being named a Finalist. His selection was based on the PSAT scores. As long as his GPA is good and there are no character issues he should be designated a finalist. He will hear from a ton of schools and many will offer him full scholarships to attend. The number of Merit Finalist is bragging rights for some schools and they will pay for that. Designating a school his first choice can be VERY important. Some schools will offer a full ride if you designate them your first choice. You need to find that out from the colleges you are interested in early. If they don't do that then don't designate them a first choice. Remember you can negotiate scholarships from like schools based on offers from schools they consider similar and competitors. Private schools will not consider public schools competitors. Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins are competitors. As far as scholarships go the more unique you are the better your chances. If you live close to the school you and how many others in your geographic area want to go there? If you live a great distance away you become unique. At any rate congratulations and best luck.
Oh, by the way, you and your son probably don't want to hear this, and nobody asked for my opinion, but I would drop the Middle Eastern Studies major idea.
Yes.....thanks My son has researched so much because he really wants to make sure that he takes advantage of all the hard work he has put in over the last 12 years!!!! It sure makes it a little easier when he is so motivated.
Being designated a semi-finalist is a preliminary to being named a Finalist. His selection was based on the PSAT scores. As long as his GPA is good and there are no character issues he should be designated a finalist. He will hear from a ton of schools and many will offer him full scholarships to attend. The number of Merit Finalist is bragging rights for some schools and they will pay for that. Designating a school his first choice can be VERY important. Some schools will offer a full ride if you designate them your first choice. You need to find that out from the colleges you are interested in early. If they don't do that then don't designate them a first choice. Remember you can negotiate scholarships from like schools based on offers from schools they consider similar and competitors. Private schools will not consider public schools competitors. Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins are competitors. As far as scholarships go the more unique you are the better your chances. If you live close to the school you and how many others in your geographic area want to go there? If you live a great distance away you become unique. At any rate congratulations and best luck.
Thanks for the input.....His GPA is very good, very good SAT scores, and is well respected by the faculty and students so hopefully he will be named a finalist. He has put a lot of thought into the schools he put first and second but you never know.....16 year olds tend to change their minds like the wind sometimes!!!!
Well, ok... let me qualify my statement a bit... I guess that came out pretty harsh. "Middle Eastern Studies" could be a good choice if your son has his heart set to work for the State Department, an ambassador to Saudi Arabia, be a journalist stationed in Iraq, or to go into the military as an officer in Iraq or Afghanistan. If that's what his plans are, then I'd say, go for the goal! In that case, ignore everything else I have to say. If, on the other hand, like 90% of other young men and women entering college, he doesn't really know what he wants to do with his life, and instead wants "Middle Eastern Studies" because it sounds exotic, fun, and interesting... I'd watch out.
A lot of 18 year olds (or in your case, 16 years old) entering college in liberal arts majors haven't really thought much about what they are going to do with their life after they graduate. They like to pretend that 4 years is an eternity away. Well, it's not! I can't even believe how fast the last 3.5 years have gone-- I'm already a senior. A lot of these people have a fuzzy notion in their head... "well, I can always go to law school!" Or a romantic idea of "money isn't important to me... I just want to become an intellectual." It's easy to think that way when you're a freshmen... or a sophomore... but the closer and closer you get to graduation, the more the question of career choice becomes a burning issue.
Then, once you start going to career festivals at your school, talking to potential employers, it hits you over the head. You go into these career fairs with a printed name tag with your name... and your major. Right off the bat, about half of the recruiters out there won't even waste their time with you if your major isn't in a business field, or communications perhaps. All the jobs requiring highly specialized technical education in science and engineering are out for sure. For the employers that are willing to listen to you, the conversation usually revolves around why you are "x___" liberal arts major. It's a problem for traditional, established liberal arts major like English, history, and philosophy, but even more of an issue for any major with the title "Studies" in it-- where many people haven't even heard of such majors. That's why so many liberal arts majors, instead of facing their problems, try to delay the inevitable prospect of getting a job by going into graduate school-- or law school (even though most don't even really want to become attorneys anyway).
Right now, as a liberal arts major who will be graduating next May, I am literally going through HELL trying to decide what I want to do with my life. I don't wish that any anybody.
Okay, I see your point. So funny about the first paragraph....you described him almost to a "T".....he does want to work with the State Dept and would love to work at an embassy some day. His plan is to go an university that offers a study abroad program so that he can study overseas, then after graduating with his degree he hopes to join the State Dept or become an officer in the military to further his government service. He is a very goal oriented boy and I see him doing great things with his life. Of course, I am probably a little biased...:-)
I agree with the going thru HELL not knowing "what you want to be when you grow up".....it is a terribly hard thing to figure out. I wish you good luck and thanks for the thoughtful and well stated response.
Okay, I see your point. So funny about the first paragraph....you described him almost to a "T".....he does want to work with the State Dept and would love to work at an embassy some day. His plan is to go an university that offers a study abroad program so that he can study overseas, then after graduating with his degree he hopes to join the State Dept or become an officer in the military to further his government service. He is a very goal oriented boy and I see him doing great things with his life. Of course, I am probably a little biased...:-)
I agree with the going thru HELL not knowing "what you want to be when you grow up".....it is a terribly hard thing to figure out. I wish you good luck and thanks for the thoughtful and well stated response.
Thanks. I'm on this forum to help figure out what I want to do and where I want to live... but when certain topics I'm intimately familiar with come up like this thread I like to help others out.
In your son's case, studying abroad will be a great idea! When you are comparing the different scholarship offers, find out for sure exactly what the scholarship/ tuition waver covers. Here are some questions to ask: Does the scholarship cover study abroad? Does it work for foreign exchange programs? Will the study abroad delay graduation-- and will your son's scholarship run dry before he has graduated? Does it cover summer study abroad programs? Summer sessions? What are the requirements to keep the scholarship?
Even though I can't really complain about free money, I am somewhat disappointed by the National Merit scholarship I have at ASU. It does NOT cover summer sessions or summer study abroad sessions (and from what I've heard, the Barrett Honors College at ASU has some great summer programs in Europe). Even though those programs cost thousands of dollars as it is (for which there are need-based scholarships available), you still have to pay university tuition on top of that! Since I'm not an Arizona resident, I would have to pay ridiculous out-of-state tuition to do those summer programs. It would cost $1,200 per class! Same thing with summer internships-- if you want to get college credit for a summer internship, you have to officially sign up for a class-- and pay tuition money-- even though you're working for free. I haven't done any of those programs, since I plain and simply don't have the money, and refuse to blow thousands and thousands of bucks on out-of-state tution at a 3rd tier school. On the other hand, I've heard that OU's national merit scholarship DOES cover summer sessions.
Thanks. I'm on this forum to help figure out what I want to do and where I want to live... but when certain topics I'm intimately familiar with come up like this thread I like to help others out.
In your son's case, studying abroad will be a great idea! When you are comparing the different scholarship offers, find out for sure exactly what the scholarship/ tuition waver covers. Here are some questions to ask: Does the scholarship cover study abroad? Does it work for foreign exchange programs? Will the study abroad delay graduation-- and will your son's scholarship run dry before he has graduated? Does it cover summer study abroad programs? Summer sessions? What are the requirements to keep the scholarship?
Even though I can't really complain about free money, I am somewhat disappointed by the National Merit scholarship I have at ASU. It does NOT cover summer sessions or summer study abroad sessions (and from what I've heard, the Barrett Honors College at ASU has some great summer programs in Europe). Even though those programs cost thousands of dollars as it is (for which there are need-based scholarships available), you still have to pay university tuition on top of that! Since I'm not an Arizona resident, I would have to pay ridiculous out-of-state tuition to do those summer programs. It would cost $1,200 per class! Same thing with summer internships-- if you want to get college credit for a summer internship, you have to officially sign up for a class-- and pay tuition money-- even though you're working for free. I haven't done any of those programs, since I plain and simply don't have the money, and refuse to blow thousands and thousands of bucks on out-of-state tution at a 3rd tier school. On the other hand, I've heard that OU's national merit scholarship DOES cover summer sessions.
When you were weighing your options as a NMS....what made you decide on ASU?? Since you are out-of-state...did you really want to leave your home state and live on campus?? Was it the scholarship itself that drew you??
Just curious.....my son is anxious to be "on his own" but I nervous to have him too far where he can't get home by car if he really feels the need to come home at anytime for a visit. Also, I guess I want him close enough where we can go visit for a night or two without incurring a huge cost.
Good points on the scholarships and I will look out for the caveats on the summer/study abroad programs. He has actually looked at OU because of the full tuition. One other university he is really interested in has a satellite campus abroad so we are hoping a scholarship would just stay with him while he was there. Then another offers all kinds of perks to a NMS....full tuition, books, room and board, etc. There is so much to learn and it is such a big decision, we want to be as informed as possible.
When you were weighing your options as a NMS....what made you decide on ASU?? Since you are out-of-state...did you really want to leave your home state and live on campus?? Was it the scholarship itself that drew you??
Just curious.....my son is anxious to be "on his own" but I nervous to have him too far where he can't get home by car if he really feels the need to come home at anytime for a visit. Also, I guess I want him close enough where we can go visit for a night or two without incurring a huge cost.
Good points on the scholarships and I will look out for the caveats on the summer/study abroad programs. He has actually looked at OU because of the full tuition. One other university he is really interested in has a satellite campus abroad so we are hoping a scholarship would just stay with him while he was there. Then another offers all kinds of perks to a NMS....full tuition, books, room and board, etc. There is so much to learn and it is such a big decision, we want to be as informed as possible.
Thanks again.
I'm from Colorado. Senior year of high school, I applied to five schools-- CU Boulder (Univ. of Colorado), DU (Univ. of Denver), U. of Maryland, Brandeis, and NYU. I got in everywhere I applied. Ideally, I would have liked to have gone to Brandeis or NYU, but there was no way on earth I'd be able to afford it-- even with the scholarships I got there. One of my (and my parents') big goals was to stay out of debt. UMD-- not even sure why I applied there-- I have family in Maryland who convinced me to apply, I guess. I crossed that one off the list. DU is a good school, but since it's a private school, it's really expensive-- even with the scholarship I got there. Again, crossed off the list. I pretty much assumed I would be going to CU Boulder. Nothing wrong with that, CU is a pretty good school, and Boulder is an awesome college town.
Early 2004 it became apparent that I would receive the nat'l merit scholarship. Then in late February my mom noticed some mail from ASU advertising a full ride scholarship (which as it turns out, wasn't 100% true-- but close enough) if you name ASU as your first choice. Ordinarily I would have thrown this in the garbage, since I was getting loads of crap in the mail every single day from every podunk college you could possibly imagine. The instant my mom told me about this I knew ASU was the answer. I could go to college and graduate with no debt. I wanted to get away from my family and truly be on my own. The idea of going to college in Arizona seemed like a neat idea. I've always loved the desert southwest, having gone on family road trips out here as long as I can remember. I calculated that even though it is hotter than hell here in the summer, the majority of the school year would be during the nice months-- and then I'd come back home for the summer. I came down here in March 2004 to check ASU out for the first time. I was a little disillusioned with the campus, but I still felt it was the best option given my circumstances. And here I am 3.5 years later!
Even before I heard about the ASU scholarship, I was aware of several other schools that also offered full rides. University of Nebraska, U.of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, as well as U. of Tulsa. Why didn't I jump at these offers, even though I knew they had full rides well before the letter from ASU arrived in my mailbox? Geographical prejudice, I guess. People from Colorado and other Mountain West states love to make fun of the Great Plains states to the east. No way would I ever want to live in Nebraska, or god forbid, Oklahoma. Making fun of NE, KS, OK, and TX is practically a sport in Colorado. Flat land going on forever, nothing but farms and tumbleweeds. That's how the thinking went, at least. I think a lot of it has to due with the Big 12 football rivalry thing.
In retrospect, I don't regret choosing ASU, but I DO regret choosing English literature as a major. This has been a big mistake. I should have chosen business-- and specifically, finance. But's that a whole 'nother story. I'm now sick of Tempe and the Phoenix metropolitan area, and can't wait to move out once I graduate, but it took me several years to learn that. I would suggest for future nat'l merit scholars to take a good look at OU-- at least go there and check the campus out. The OU scholarship is extremely generous, giving you signficant wiggle room if you decide to change your mind what you want to study. There are also probably other schools that have a similar deal that I'm not aware about.
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My son has researched so much because he really wants to make sure that he takes advantage of all the hard work he has put in over the last 12 years!!!! It sure makes it a little easier when he is so motivated.
