Yep. I know several State alums whose children attend Ole Miss.
#Greenistheonlycolorthatmatters
Here's a look at Real Life Scholarship/Grant Packages
- Thread starter 615dawg
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#Greenistheonlycolorthatmatters
No sir. Children of alumni can receive up to $4000 per year towards OOS. That's it for being child of an alumnus.
You can stack it with other scholarships. But if all you have is the fact your parent is an alumnus, it's $22,500 a year for tuition alone at State for out of staters. More than double what it is for in state.
This is not FMA, but directly from the Mississippi State website. If there's another double top secret OOS alumni waiver, please share.
Alumni OOS Scholarship link click here
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Has State's dorm costs gone as insane as UPig's? One of mine stayed in a dorm for 1 year. Costs $7k just dorm cost for a tiny crap hole room with desks under raised beds and a community bathroom down the hall. The university has to be making a killing off of those rooms. 2 kids => $14k for ~ 350 sq ft.
That’s correct msu gives the least , mine have just graduated. There’s lots of room for improvement there, especially compared to the MC experience one of my kids had. And wait until you get a load of the graduate counselors
that “ help “ with schedules and job placement. One of mine was told to search google for an engineering job.
very sad.
Yeah State isn't the best about helping find jobs and the like despite boasting about very high placement percentages. I graduated with an accounting degree in May and they required us to fill out a survey in our capstone class about what our after graduation plans were (masters degree, workforce, etc.) and they count anyone that had a job lined up as part of the placement percentage despite not putting forth much effort in helping find those jobs
It is widely whispered, that if you beg long enough, you can get it down. But I don't know that I believe that. That's typical MSU or MS stuff there though, have 'hidden' benefits rather than clearly laying out the facts.
I didn't know about the $4,000/year. A few years ago I think they waived half of it, so it appears they are getting tighter with it. I thought the whole program had expired, well, except for the 'hidden' cool alumni club stuff.
My oldest kid went to Arkansas for 1 semester- Fall '22 and lived in Hotz. It was(at the time) the largest incoming class ever, the school didnt have room for everyone, yada yada. Some kids were put up in hotels for the first week + while the housing situation sorted itself out and rooms/beds became available.
It was comical chaos to watch from afar.
As for dorm costs, MSU isnt exactly great compared to Arkansas.
Hotz @ Arkansas- $7400 per student for a double room thats 165sq ft with bathroom down the hall.
Cresswell @ msu- $6600 per student for a double room thats 169sq ft with bathroom down the hall. You get a sink though!
My daughter is 1.5 years away from college, and the costs are scaring the 17 out of me....She is interested in Arkansas.....they do a cool thing there for OOS tuition....graduate with a 3.9 or higher, they waive 90% of OOS tuition....and goes down like 3.8/ 80% and so forth....
They need them to counter the kids of all the doctors and lawyers that stay drunk and stoned because they're going to get big jobs because of who their diddy is so they don't have to worry about grades. Just graduating.
Just a quick question - I'm seeing a lot of people here talk about State, Ole Miss, Arkansas. Seen many in the past talk about Auburn, whatever. A few have said MC, considering scholarship money and what not. And a few have mentioned junior colleges, and @Dawgg even mentioned about scholly money as a transfer, which is good info I didn't know.
But the question is, is there any evidence to support the idea that you should NOT use some of the state schools like Southern Miss, Troy, La-Monroe, Arkansas State, Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, MTSU, Memphis, UT-Martin/Chatt/etc., etc.? These schools are cheaper for in-state, and I'm assuming you get better scholarship money for less there too. I get it, you get what you pay for, but education seems so over-exaggerated to me. I say, get your degree and move on, outside of a select few undergraduate fields, like say engineering and what not. But even with that, if you have a solid plan going in, any reason NOT to go this route?
But the question is, is there any evidence to support the idea that you should NOT use some of the state schools like Southern Miss, Troy, La-Monroe, Arkansas State, Kennesaw State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, MTSU, Memphis, UT-Martin/Chatt/etc., etc.? These schools are cheaper for in-state, and I'm assuming you get better scholarship money for less there too. I get it, you get what you pay for, but education seems so over-exaggerated to me. I say, get your degree and move on, outside of a select few undergraduate fields, like say engineering and what not. But even with that, if you have a solid plan going in, any reason NOT to go this route?
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Also, if your kids are good at math, make sure they’re taking the SAT too. My SAT equivalent score was 3 points higher than my ACT
Yep. My son was in Hotz. (fall '20/spring/'21) I think its 165 sq ft/person. Ridiculously small and overpriced but seems to be cost of dorms these days.
For reference, I paid ~$500/semester to live in Evans Hall back in the day - suites w/4 rooms per bathroom.
So as a GA resident, I'll chime in on this one. I have one who went to MSU (OOS Tuition was waived via Academic Common Market - check that one out OOS folks, it can be big). She graduated in '21 and is about to finish grad school in the spring. MSU had the major she wanted (meteorology) and the money made sense with the Common Market and some scholly money early on. But, I am still paying a $#!+ ton on living expenses. There is no way around those costs. She lived on campus 3 years and has been in an apartment since and being 10 hours away you can't just come home and mooch every once in a while.
The 2nd & 3rd tier schools are great if you are majoring in something that is of need everywhere or the name on the diploma gives you no advantages. That didn't work for kid #1. Kid #2 went to Valdosta State and majored in Music Education and graduated this past May. The HOPE program took care of most of the tuition ($2,500 semester), he had a Music Scholly that covered the rest of tuition ($500 a semester), and got the 2nd best scholarship offered to VSU student ($3,500). Pell Grants covered the rest ($2,500). All that added up to cover all his costs and give about $1000 back to him a semester, and he worked construction in the summer and high school band camps to give him spending $. All told, I think I kicked in about $500 a year for him when he ran out of spending money. One of the big things with some of the other schools is they are innovative about their programs. VSU's Music Ed offers a 5 year BA/MA joint program. So, for an extra 12 months he will have his Music degree, an MA in Music Ed, and his Ed Certs, and the program has a 100% placement record over the past 5 years.
This is exactly what I did. I had a 27 on my ACT which got my tuition paid for at NEMCC and, as much as it pains me to say, I went to OM after NEMCC because I could do my accounting undergrad almost entirely online while keeping my job, all while going to the Tupelo campus for physical in-person classes. I never had to touch the campus in Oxford. Anyway, if it weren't for getting PTK at Northeast, I would have been up Schitt's Creek without a paddle.
Keeping your PTK membership is ridiculously easy too, all I had to do is 2 activities in the semester that my membership ran through, like a blood drive, Christmas shoe box, cheese sale, etc., and keep around a 3.25 GPA (I think, I can't remember the exact GPA) and you're good. I got the PTK2 scholarship with OM for having over a 3.5 and being in PTK which paid for all of my tuition. I want to say if you have a 3.5+ GPA with PTK and enroll at State, it's $2,000 per semester.
Things have certainly changed over the years. In 1995, my son had >4.0 in high school (don't know class rank, but it was a private college prep school so lots of good students), 1520 SAT/35 ACT (only took each test once), got a full ride out of state. We had to pay for an off campus apartment after the first year. He had a double major and got two BS degrees. His high school buddy did even better - National Merit Scholar got a full ride, plus 4 years room paid living in the dorm.
For upcoming students - the PSA is VERY important for scholarships. Not sure what they would get in today's MSU world.
When I was at State, Evans was a total dump and was the athletic dorm. Never understood why they tore Suttle and Hamlin down, but kept some of the much older ones that were in poor condition.
When I was there, the Placement Office had numerous reps from companies come in to interview students. The graduating student went to the Union, signed up for the interviews of interest, had the interview, and may or may not have gotten an offer. Just about every discipline was represented and things went smoothly.
Do they not do this process any longer?
State gives a full ride plus room and board (I think) for National Merit Finalist and a full ride w/o room and board for National Merit Semifinalist.
They host a career/job fair specifically tailored to Accounting students, and it's not hard to secure an interview at one of these job fairs, but I don't remember them doing anything what you mentioned. We had lots of big 4 reps come in and talk to our classes and meet students, but you had to submit an application and give your resume to get an interview and those weren't on campus.
Ha. It's a measurement of prostate health. Should have been PSAT.
It was a really good program that was very successful. Even the military services came in to interview (but it was during Viet Nam so they were recruiting heavily for officers). But the University was less than half the size it is now, so maybe that's a factor. Had about 11,000 when I was there, mostly males.
Yeah, the point of my post was to just educate. A lot of this board have kids that are going to be attending college in the next few years - Ole Miss is actively throwing money at students in Mississippi. While my family is able to come up with the difference if we decide to go to State, there are many others that are going to have a hard time turning down $10k more at Ole Miss.
We are going to try to get one more point on the ACT. As someone pointed out, a 30 is with $3000 additional a year. But its worth $1000 more at Ole Miss, so Ole Miss is still beating State.
Arkansas waives 90% of out of state tuition for 3.8+ GPA students from Mississippi. Louisiana Tech waives OOS for a 24+ ACT. Mississippi College is giving 100% tuition scholarships to Mississippi residents. The competition in our part of the country is getting intense.
They were falling apart, and they needed to go to make way for the new dorms.
How do I know? Same reason I know about the Trash Pandas development.
This topic hits home for me and is a sore subject. When I was in high school, NO ONE recruited me as hard for college as MSU. Roadrunners wrote handwritten letters practically every week. I really felt a strong pull to MSU, like no other school. I expected the same for my kids, but it seems times have changed in that regard.
My oldest son had a 4.0+ GPA, Eagle Scout, 34 ACT. State offered him some money but nowhere near a full ride. We went up to MSU for Scholar's Day and honestly I was underwhelmed. I would have thought that this was the group that they'd pull out all the stops for, but the whole event seemed a little unorganized and last-minute to me. Keenum made a few remarks, but we didn't ever really feel "recruited" like I'd expect MSU to do for top-performing students. Mississippi College, meanwhile, offered him a full ride and that's where he's now going with eventual plans to go to law school.
Younger son has a 4.0+ GPA, Eagle Scout, 35 ACT, and I expect he'll be National Merit Finalist. I've been begging State to roll out the red carpet so at least one of my progeny will follow in my footsteps, but chances are that he'll get much better full-ride offers from MC, Alabama, LSU, USM, etc. We're not going to look at Ole Miss but damn it, MSU.
I also noticed that the Eagle Scout award at MSU has dropped from $6,000 total award across 4 years, to $2,000 total award (freshman year only). Extremely disappointed in that too, as another person has mentioned. Ole Miss and USM reward the Eagle Scout achievement much better than MSU does.
My oldest son had a 4.0+ GPA, Eagle Scout, 34 ACT. State offered him some money but nowhere near a full ride. We went up to MSU for Scholar's Day and honestly I was underwhelmed. I would have thought that this was the group that they'd pull out all the stops for, but the whole event seemed a little unorganized and last-minute to me. Keenum made a few remarks, but we didn't ever really feel "recruited" like I'd expect MSU to do for top-performing students. Mississippi College, meanwhile, offered him a full ride and that's where he's now going with eventual plans to go to law school.
Younger son has a 4.0+ GPA, Eagle Scout, 35 ACT, and I expect he'll be National Merit Finalist. I've been begging State to roll out the red carpet so at least one of my progeny will follow in my footsteps, but chances are that he'll get much better full-ride offers from MC, Alabama, LSU, USM, etc. We're not going to look at Ole Miss but damn it, MSU.
I also noticed that the Eagle Scout award at MSU has dropped from $6,000 total award across 4 years, to $2,000 total award (freshman year only). Extremely disappointed in that too, as another person has mentioned. Ole Miss and USM reward the Eagle Scout achievement much better than MSU does.
34 and 35 on ACT should be a full ride anywhere, right? Am I wrong? My kids aren't quite old enough, and it's been a minute since I researched it, and I realize they are teaching you how to take tests these days, but 36 is perfect, right?
Something is off here. You need to reach out to John Dickerson at MSU. As nice of a person there is and he will look into this for you.
36 is perfect, yes. 34 or 35 isnt a full ride anywhere, no.
School by school, state by state, its totally different.
School demand/prestige seems to play a big part in how much one is covered by the school's direct offer. University of Chicago doesnt give a 17 that Sally scored a 34. 10,000 other applicants also scored a 34 or higher, and they are only going to accept 2300 of the 46,000 applicants. Of the 5% that are accepted, 80+% will commit, which is crazy high. They have 0 reason to offer a full ride. Instead, they are doing what many other elites are doing and offering free tuition and/or free full experience if the student comes from a family with less than $X in household income.
My oldest is 10, so I have not even started to look at any of this, and it will probably change before she’s college aged anyway. But what is state doing? Are we just not offering less scholarship money than competing schools overall? Or are we giving more money to students with lower scores? I’m talking from an overall perspective. Do we give the same dollar amount of annual scholarships as ole miss? I’m just hoping we have some sort of strategy and not being stingy with scholarships.
Ok, so I have a 15 and 12 year old. Both girls are homeschooled and I’m guessing when they take the ACT they will score between 25-34. Both are really smart, but my youngest one is a great test taker and is very studious. We live in North Mississippi. What advice would you give for kids these days? I have a microbiology degree and an MBA. I think college these days is a poor use of time and money unless you plan on being the medical field or something akin to that. What does the pack say?
Heck, 36 isn’t full ride everywhere. Family friend’s kid made one and has been really frustrated with the college scholarship process.
Same, there's got to me more to this. Seems to me, there are a ton of parents of high-achieving kids on this board, or at least ones who like to tell about it. They seemingly don't get schollies at MSU, but then the same folks complain about the academic reputation of MSU. Sort of a cart and horse situation in my mind. If high-achieving kids aren't being rewarded by MSU schollies, to me that says that we either have a lot of high-achievers or we don't care about high-achievers. Could be that MSU is simply embracing what they've been made to become, due to admission standards, and the likelihood that the high-achievers (at least grade wise) are going to head out of state anyway to chase that 'elite-university' carrot.
And another question in my mind is, are ACT/SAT scores simply up across the board? Many many curriculums seem to train toward taking those tests. And people have said for years that we are lowering test scores. And before anyone gets pissed at me, I have no idea, I'm simply asking questions.
I tell my 11yo son trade school is not a bad option. A college degree opens a lot of doors due to that requirement on a lot of HR forms at some companies, but two of the highest earning people I know my age are plumbers and hvac technicians. I’ve told my son if he can do that plus electrical, the sky is the limit for earning potential. Of course if you can do that and have an engineering degree, you can earn even more.
Agree, or even a business degree. That's what I have my eye on. Learn the trade, and learn how to make money with it.
State groups 35 and 36 and pays the same amount for both, which is not a full ride. However, there are lots of other scholarships that are offered that most people that achieve a perfect score would qualify for. Chances are good if you have a 36, you'll have a similarly high SAT score and be a National Merit Semifinalist, valedictorian/salutatorian, etc.. These kinds of things will add up and should be more than enough to cover tuition and possibly room/board.
Obviously there's a wide range of thoughts on this, but I'd argue college is even more necessary than ever: who knows what jobs will be important in 10-20 years, with the rise of AI and other automation? Knowing how to reason, think, and learn is very likely to become even more in demand.
Trade schools absolutely serve a vital need; however (just like 4 year colleges) people should go into it with their eyes open. The trades can be physically demanding, and a person isn't a bullet-proof 18 year old forever. Also, those highest salaries are usually for folks owning their own small business, which requires a completely different set of skills, not to mention risk levels.
Good point on most of the very high academic achievers likely going out of state anyway…. But state does need to come up with to at least match other in state schools and accommodate the high achieving that do want to come here.
Probably not a terrible strategy to focus on giving some level of scholarship to good to great students. But it can’t be good to leave the high achieving out.
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