Parents College Scholarships

[32wick]

Hi all

My daughter is Canadian, is currently 16 yrs old, and would like to compete in gymnastics at the US College Level. She is currently competing at level 9, but has a level 10 vault. She has not contacted any colleges thus far.

She struggles on beam, her bars are coming along, her floor is good, and she regularly receives high scores on vault. She is a very powerful vaulter, and I'm wondering if schools may look at her as a vault specialist, which she would love...

But as a Canadian, US College's are very expensive. My guess is that there would not be too many scholarships for event specialists, although I don't know that to be the case.

She does have a 4.0 GPA, and she is currently about a third of the through grade 11. 95% average in grade 9 and 10. Wondering if anyone knows if she would be a considered for a significant academic scholarship that would help enable her to be on a gymnastics team as well.

Does any one have any advice or insights on the subject?

 

[profmom]

What you want to be looking for are NON needs blind admissions schools. Most are. If you have a few in mind at this point, it's worth a friendly email to the admissions office to see if they offer merit aid to international students. Some do. I wish we had a gymnastics team! She sounds like the kind of student I'd love to have.

I assume she'd be able to take SAT or ACT (or ideally both) somewhere in Canada? If she scores in the 90th percentile or better, you might be in for some happy surprises. I recommend both, because some kids will tend to do better on one than the other. Both of mine who've taken both at this point have been in higher percentiles on the ACT.

 

[32wick]

What you want to be looking for are NON needs blind admissions schools. Most are. If you have a few in mind at this point, it's worth a friendly email to the admissions office to see if they offer merit aid to international students. Some do. I wish we had a gymnastics team! She sounds like the kind of student I'd love to have.

I assume she'd be able to take SAT or ACT (or ideally both) somewhere in Canada? If she scores in the 90th percentile or better, you might be in for some happy surprises. I recommend both, because some kids will tend to do better on one than the other. Both of mine who've taken both at this point have been in higher percentiles on the ACT.

Thanks so much, that's very helpful!
Yes, she can definitely write the SAT here in Canada, I will look into the ACT as well. When you say "merit aid", is that different than an academic scholarship? I was able to find a list of schools that offer significant merit scholarships for academic/extra-curricular achievement, so I guess we will start cross-referencing that list with schools that have gymnastics programs, and start sending some emails! Just trying to educate ourselves, some of these terms are new to us...Also, I tried searching for a list of Non-needs blind schools, but all my results were showing the needs blind schools...can I assume that most schools not on the needs blind lists would then be Non-needs blind?

Thanks so much for your insights!

 

[profmom]

Thanks so much, that's very helpful!
Yes, she can definitely write the SAT here in Canada, I will look into the ACT as well. When you say "merit aid", is that different than an academic scholarship? I was able to find a list of schools that offer significant merit scholarships for academic/extra-curricular achievement, so I guess we will start cross-referencing that list with schools that have gymnastics programs, and start sending some emails! Just trying to educate ourselves, some of these terms are new to us...Also, I tried searching for a list of Non-needs blind schools, but all my results were showing the needs blind schools...can I assume that most schools not on the needs blind lists would then be Non-needs blind?

Thanks so much for your insights!

Merit aid usually means academic scholarship, though it's a bit broader (can, for instance, include musical talent). And most schools are non-needs blind, but the amount of scholarship money they have available to recruit high-end students will vary significantly. If you have a few schools in mind, you can poke around on the financial aid page to see the highest level of scholarship they award. (A non-insignificant number of schools call these things Presidential Scholarships or something like that.) Private schools tend to offer larger dollar awards but also tend to have higher tuition. Another thing to consider is whether a scholarship will cover both tuition and fees. Some institutions are generous with tuition remissions but make it up by raising things aggressively on the fee side.

 

[wandrewsjr]

In my recent experience with my kids, private colleges that give merit aid are strict with or don't offer scholarships that include all tuition/fees/room and board(have to be a spectacular student that even the ivies would fight for) but very generous with partial scholarships that cover a good chunk or all of tuition. They usually call these merit scholarships, like profmom said, Presidential Scholarships or Dean's Scholarships. One of my kids got one that covered half tuition to a good west coast private with a 30 on the ACT and a 3.9 GPA. This put the cost around the same as public Universities. This private school had less additional student fees than the public my other kid attened, much lower room and board mostly due to location, smaller class sizes, easier access to all classes needed, easier to graduate on time. And I second the suggestion to take ACT, my kid scored a few percentile points higher than she did on the SAT and wouldn't have received the scholarship(and we coudln't have afforded that school) without it.

 

[profmom]

My DD is going through this process this year. She's in a somewhat different spot -- what she wants is club, not NCAA -- but her preference to continue doing gym at the club level is strong enough that it is a filter for the schools to which she will apply. It's been really hard for me to keep my mouth shut about all of this, as I'd rather she apply to a wide range of schools, including schools that don't offer club gym, but as with her older brother, she's the one who has to go to wherever she chooses. Happily for her, she's in a good spot for scholarship dollars, though I do hope if she goes private, whatever she gets brings the cost down to close to what we'd pay for in-state tuition and fees. I kind of admire her commitment to gym and kind of want to throttle her. (And for those of you with little L4s who are bringing up the bottom of the meet standings, you'd never have guessed when she was 7 or 8 that she'd be one of the ones to continue gym on into college.)

 

[bookworm]

Hi all

But as a Canadian, US College's are very expensive. My guess is that there would not be too many scholarships for event specialists, although I don't know that to be the case.

As an American, US colleges are very expensive to us as well...

With her age and the skill set you note, might she be better off to consider college in Canada at a more reasonable price and maybe a club gymnastics option to continue with the sport. Unless she was an event specialist like Kayla Williams was when she won vault at Worlds back in the day, I don't realistically see a college giving her athletic money.

 

[profmom]

No, but a strong academic record and good standardized test scores would put her in the running for an academic scholarship.

 

[gymgal]

I would look toward some of the D3 schools. She won't get athletic money but she could get significant amount of academic merit based money. Possible Ivies as well if she is strong enough academically. Possibly a couple of the D2 private schools as well (Lindenwood, Springfield come to mind) and she could get a bit of athletic money at the D2s

 

[QueenBee]

You will need to do specific research on which colleges give aid (merit and/or financial) to international students. Not all schools do, so be sure to check each individual college your daughter may be interested in to see whether or not international students are eligible for aid as many US schools look at international students as a way to increase revenue as full-pay admits, not to subsidize with scholarships (academic or financially based).