That is interesting about Illinois. I know of a fairly low stats (by CC standards) OOS kid with a pretty significant arts scholarship there so I was not under the impression that they were that stingy. Since he got a nice award, I assumed Ivy caliber students would as well.
Hanna knows my kids’ high school. If her experiences there are appreciably different from what I’m relaying, I’d love to know.
At many public high schools with 2000+ students, there is a squad of 8-12 counselors each in charge of a couple hundred kids. Your counselor changes every year, so they have no idea who you are. Class rank calculations, which are the only way I can conceive that GCs would “discover” a talented student, are done by a computer. I couldn’t imagine my GC clicking through transcripts of the top 5 kids in each class and inviting them in for a one-on-one college advice session. The top students are not on the GC’s radar at all. They couldn’t tell you who the valedictorian was if you put a gun to their head.
Harvard may eat those stories up, but only when the kid is otherwise qualified and shows that in the whole app. (And the writing is done well.) This year’s prompts are taking essays further away from relevant insight into the kids, themselves. What will still catch attention is the rural or inner city kid who has done more than endure. There shouldn’t be this CC idea you need a hard luck tale, only a hard luck tale, and that everything else goes out the window if the story is poignant enough. (I don’t think you meant that, Hanna. But a lot of CC sees it that way.)
The other thing to keep in mind is that these counselors are advising for post-high school plans - which can also include technical / career-oriented training (where do you go if you want to study HVAC or become a pastry chef or a cosmetologist or a dental hygienist), going straight into the work force, and / or going into the service (as enlisted, versus going to one of the service academies). They need to be prepared to support those ambitions as well.
There are a lot of upper-income families whose kids got “deferred.” It takes more than high income to get into Harvard.
That seems like a non-sequitur. No one was claiming that it only took high income to get into Harvard. Did I miss something?
IL and PA are two states known for high prices and poor financial aid for in-state students.
If you try the net price calculator for a low income (high need) in-state student at various state flagships, you will get widely varying net prices, from a few thousand dollars (doable with student work and/or loan) to over $20,000 (not really in reach of a student whose low income family can afford to contribute nothing).
Of course, some students (in-state or out-of-state) may get large merit scholarships, but they would not be representative examples of financial aid and net price at those schools.
It took a minute but then I realized…the lists are alphabetical and break at the letter “N”, presumably “UNC-Chapel Hill” is “North Carolina” in some way that makes it appear after “Northwestern” alphabetically.
Oh. Well duh to me :-).
Ohio’s flagship is pretty lousy too, and so are the directionals though some at least offer decent merit aid.
tOSU’s NPC gives a net cost of $12.5K for a 0 EFC student with a 34 ACT.
@Pizzagirl IN RE: post #118 They probably left off Berkeley because they didn’t have a pretty Naviance scattergram for that school. That’s likely more influenced by geography than academics.
For comparison, Penn State’s net price for an EFC = $0 in-state student is $24,123. UIUC is a bargain in comparison at $13,045 to $15,197 (depending on major), but (like tOSU) is a rather big stretch for a student from a poor family.
https://cce.ais.psu.edu/college-cost-web/netPricePageOne.xhtml
https://secure.osfa.illinois.edu/NPC/StatusInfo.asp
Can you tell me how to reconcile EFC=0, and then a net cost of … anything? What comprises the net cost for a family which is determined to have a zero EFC?
I don’t understand.
EDIT: Scratch that. Guess I misunderstood that there was a gap after the EFC was determined by the NPC at a college’s website for those with almost (or indeed, no) EFC determination.
The school just started Naviance. I doubt they have any data points for most of those schools, with the exception of Northwestern and U of I.
Just about every college (even HYPS) expects a student contribution, which can be student work earnings or federal direct loans.
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator shows that Harvard’s lowest net price for a domestic student is $4,600. Harvard expects the student to earn $3,000 from part time work during school, and $1,600 in the summer.
However, schools like Penn State have lowest possible net prices that are far larger than what a student can reasonably be expected to self-fund through work earnings and federal direct loans ($5,500 the first year).
I get that the average student isn’t going to get fully funded at the state school but earlier posters seem to be saying that Ivy caliber students can’t get a full ride through need and merit based scholarships at Illinois. That’s different and what was interesting to me. My flagship has done away with most merit aid in favor of need based aid but there are still some large merit scholarships for the Ivy caliber student. There are also some that are a combination of need and merit that an Ivy bound student would be able to get.
Okay, ucbalumnus, that gets me even closer to what I hope is true clarity.
I was still reeling a little at seeing that for families who I assume are on public assistance and perhaps in impermanent housing situations there could be a substantial fee still assessed to them. Knowing that there is the student contribution makes sense until I consider that the student contribution is separate and outside of that family contribution.
Where there are students who have already been contributing to their own upkeep, or to the family’s well-being, that is like a double hardship. Further, in such a scenario, a student leaving for college who then takes those “extra” monies from after-school and evening work already places additional worries on the family, and probably some substantial guilt, on the student.
This is probably at least somewhat counterbalanced by the student no longer consuming food and utilities at home, or any high school related costs (e.g. bus fare or other transportation). Which amount is larger likely depends a lot on each family’s situation.
Also, the “personal” or “miscellaneous” expenses line item in the college’s cost of attendance estimate used to calculate net price may be a factor. If it is large, it may offer ample opportunity for a frugal student to cut costs (which is even better than earned income since there are no payroll or income taxes associated with cutting costs). If it is small, cost cutting opportunities become harder to find.
Of course, these amounts are ones that a student looking at a Harvard financial aid offer could be concerned about. A student looking at a Penn State financial aid offer probably finds these amounts to be in the noise.
Well some schools still call refer to Naviance as Family Connection. Family Connection had much more useful information. Regardless, they just combined the data.