Got a letter from my son's high school inside was another letter from the Commonwealth of Mass. signed by the Gov.

Apparantly since my son did so well on his MCAS and is a A++ national honor society sudent and 11th in his class. He was awarded a FULL SCHOLARSHIP to any State school !!:jump: Thats a FULL RIDE ALL FOUR YEARS !!!:jump:

So now I just have to convince/show him that Umass Amherst is the best choice for him and it will offer all the ciriculum that he wants. Looking into Architecture/design or some branch of engineering. Amherst offers it all. Although he did not want to move from home during college, I told him that I would get him a car to come home weekends. That raised his brow a bit. Also found out a couple of kids in his AP classes also got the scholarship so that is a BIG plus. Now I just keep my fingers crossed. Gonna take him on a tour of the school soon too. If all goes well, I will not have to pay any more college tuition. (now on my last year of my daughters college payments), and not having another 4 years ahead of that is really really really really good.....

Wish me luck.....:bounce:

sweet! and as they say.... the apple does not fall far from the tree :btu:

Congrats to you and your son for all the hard work :btu:

good for you ! Now dont tell the wife and funnell all of that $$ you were going to spend into a new boat :hihi:

Wow Van - your wife sure must be smart :rotf2:

Seriously, good news for your son :btu: and for you.

Any chance he can get a full ride at one of the other places? WPI, Rens, Wentworth, Norteastern, BAC?

congrats. that is truly some fantastic, albeit well-deserved news.

my sister did a four year tour of UMass-Amherst, and she loved it. that school has a lot going on all of the time. besides a fantastic education, you have pretty good teams to watch (my sister was there when calipari, dana dingle, lou roe, and marcus camby were THE basketball team), a lot of good concerts, and a pretty cool area in general for college.

i'm sure that after a tour of the college grounds, he'll want to go there. just make sure to take him mid-day during a weekday, which will give him the best opportunity to see the many, many hotties that attend school there. any red-blooded american male would have a hard time not wanting to go there.

Great news for sure Van
congrats to you and your boy

Thats awesome..


Big gratz to him.

i bet he'll want to go to a private school. wouldn't that be a kicker.

Congrats, tell him to keep up the good work.

Foooooooooooookin A !!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats Van!!! That news blows any fish away. :kewl: :kewl:

Doesn't get better than that. :D Congratulations to your son, there had to be alot of hard work to get there. :btu:

Thats freaking awesome!!! way to go!!

Great news Van !!
Dude - buy him the car to seal the deal - be worth the expense..
I know of a Parker that just went up for sale that is close to us.... has some great fish MOJO except for the Raider name and emblem on it !!

To bad you couldn't take him for a tour in the late spring just before the schools get out. Let him walk around Amherst and see all the hotties and he will want to come. Me Im a little jaded since I work a one of the other colleges in town. I know a bunch of people that went there. ThomT

a parents dream ! congrats to your son for working hard enough and being smart enough .

must get that from the wifes side

Congrats Van....it won't fly though when he finds out that they don't allow underclassmen to bring a car the first year....thats the way it used to be unless they changed the rules? Be too tough on him to have the nice wheels and all he can do is let them sit at home!:huh:

There is the bad news Van....congrats to you and to Jimmy....he is a damn good kid! You done good!:kewl:

that is good news....congrats to your family....

Don't start shopping just yet. Hate to be the bearer of bad news...but I'm pretty sure the MCAS scholarship program is a tuition program...no room and board, no fees, no books, etc. The state school costs are very misleading. Umass tuition was about 2K a year, fees & room and board are around 14K when we were looking for schools for my son. I would recommend that you start looking more towards private schools; with your son's academic standing he would probably get a better deal from a private school. My son was also NHS, honors, and was one of 3 in his class to ace the MCAS but unfortunately they didn't fund the program when he graduated a few yrs. back. Even 2K would have been better than the UMass offer of$1,500 in federal loans that he received; the lowest amount of assistance offers he received from 7 schools. Private univ. offers were from 15-30+K per yr. My neighbors daughter also got the MCAS scholarship and is attending Bridgewater State . Her "full scholarship" is about $400 per term! They just signed a $20 k note! Congrats to your son. I'm sure you and your wife are quite proud of him and rightly so!
P.S. I still run a 71 Seacraft !:wall: :buds:

Van that is great news, Congrats to you and your son

Way to go Jimmy !
Must be the Italian blood from your mothers side !!!

Don't start shopping just yet. Hate to be the bearer of bad news...but I'm pretty sure the MCAS scholarship program is a tuition program...no room and board, no fees, no books, etc. The state school costs are very misleading. Umass tuition was about 2K a year, fees & room and board are around 14K when we were looking for schools for my son. I would recommend that you start looking more towards private schools; with your son's academic standing he would probably get a better deal from a private school. My son was also NHS, honors, and was one of 3 in his class to ace the MCAS but unfortunately they didn't fund the program when he graduated a few yrs. back. Even 2K would have been better than the UMass offer of$1,500 in federal loans that he received; the lowest amount of assistance offers he received from 7 schools. Private univ. offers were from 15-30+K per yr. My neighbors daughter also got the MCAS scholarship and is attending Bridgewater State . Her "full scholarship" is about $400 per term! They just signed a $20 k note! Congrats to your son. I'm sure you and your wife are quite proud of him and rightly so!
P.S. I still run a 71 Seacraft !:wall: :buds:


Good point, we/he has plenty of time, and will be applying to a few more schools. It seems we do have to pay for fees and board, but compared to having to pay for MIT its quite a deal !!!! Still some decisions to make and see what other schools offer....

Great news Van. Don't forget Umass-Lowell's engineering school. State school, free four year ride, closer to home and a fantastic engineering program from what I have been told.

Congrats Van,
My friends daughter received the same and is going to Umass.
Cost is 8grand for room board etc
VB

VYB- Heads Up!!! That's per semester!! Per semester tuition $857, r&b and fees $7435!! This program is a step in the right direction because MA is on the bottom end of the scale for state financial aid assistance but the MCAS scholarship program is VERY misleading.

I went to UMass Amherst on a similar program in the '80s, it used to be called the Board of Regents scholarship. It was given to the 2 students who went to a state college or university with the top SAT scores in each state senate district.

As mentioned above, it only covers tuition, which is far from a full ride. Fees, room and board make up the bulk of the costs, but at least it's something.

Van, UMASS-Dartmouth offers BS, MS and PhD program engineering.

Had to search for this old thread.

Found out long ago that the UMass scholarship I was so happy about was for "tuition only" thats about 900 bucks per semester. The fees come to 10s of thousands. :af:

Anyway we visited Umass Amherst, Northeastern (my alma mater), and Wentworth. He really liked Wentworth, smaller, private and close to home so he can commute.

He applied to all three and about a month ago got accepted to Wentworth, (we have not heard form the other two yet). So he is pretty much decided on Wentworth.

But the big news came Friday when he received a rather large envelope from the school.

It was a merit scholarship for $6,500 per year !!!!!!
He is enrolled into architecture program and that's a 5 year program. So do the math !! :jump:

Lots of cheers in da house that day. Plus he still has applications for 2more merit scholarships, so we are hoping he will get even more. But even if not, I am so happy to save that $$$.

Maybe that bigger boat is not so far in the future as I thought !!!!:bounce: :bounce:

SO I TOLD HIM>>> SEE IT PAYS TO BE SMART !!!!!

congrats

cool :gu:

Good for you guys Van. It's nice to hear some good news for once.

Congrats to your son Van. Sounds like he's excited to go to Wentworth. It's a good school and because he's excited about it, he'll probably apply himself to his studies better.

Ya done good Van:kewl:

Congrats on the scholarship! My son, Noah, received the same MCAS tuition deal a few years back. Went to Amherst and was discusted by the immaturity of his fellow students. Now a manager in Providence. Tell your son to build something great.:btu:

Congrats.

UMass Amherst can be a great place if you want it to be. I finished in 2002 with a BS in chemical engineering and a double major in economics. The engineering school and polymer science are pretty good; check the Gourman Report. I don't know about the rest. Polymer science is the best in the world, by the way.

I actually liked that most of the students went through school in a half drunk, half hungover haze.

Also, there's plenty of money at universities for things like books and board if you know how to get it. If you son was smart enough for the award, he'll be smart enough to get the rest of the cash. No worries. My first year I had almost no scholarships, and by my last year, I think I paid $75 a semester - out of state.

Van,

My Uncle went to Wentworth in the 60's he has a heck of a career with Bectel building nuke power plants, the big dig, the ted williams tunnel and the new garden. It is a great school that offers students a wonderful opportunity to design a build really cool stuff. Best of Luck to your son!!!