After the Dust Settled: Results for high-stats, merit-seeking kid

Parents Forum
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<p>Over the past couple weeks, several parent posters have PMed me asking how my college application journey ended, so I thought I would make a “Six Months Later” thread. I’m posting in the Parents Forum because most of my previous threads were here, and I would love for the many people who helped me out then to see how everything turned out. I hope this thread will be helpful for kids or parents who in the same position I was—that is, a high-stats applicant with high EFC looking for big merit aid at a small liberal arts college.</p>

<p>(Note: If you were one of the wonderful parents who helped me out from my earlier threads, feel free to skip to the next post, where I’ll put the actual results.)</p>

<p>For some background info: I had a 4.0 unweighted GPA with a fairly rigorous schedule and several APs, 2390 SAT, National Merit Finalist. Heavily involved in competitive speech (state + regional awards), a hefty amount of volunteer work with a local nonprofit, work as a history and English tutor, participation in drama. </p>

<p>I started out sophomore year where it seems most Los Angeles teenagers start out: looking into UCs. I thought I would apply to all or most of the UCs and end up at UCSD or perhaps UCLA. Then I toured Berkeley and UCLA the summer between sophomore and junior years and hated them. Don’t get me wrong, they are both excellent schools, but the sheer size and anonymity of the schools was extremely off-putting. I began to gravitate towards smaller liberal arts colleges like Williams, Pomona, and Haverford.</p>

<p>At this point, I had not looked into costs at all. Bombarded with the message that “you don’t have to worry about cost because we have financial aid!”, I naively assumed that finances would not be a problem. This is where College Confidential saved my behind. I stumbled across this website one day and after reading all the financial-shut-out horror stories, marched over to my parents and (politely) demanded they run the net price calculators and decide exactly how much they would be willing to pay for my college.</p>

<p>Well. Our EFC came out to around $50k/year at the most generous schools and full-pay at others, and my parents decided they could afford about $25k/year. Of course, this was generous of them, but it was still something of a shock to realize that many of the schools I had been looking at were not even remotely affordable. I was, and still am, very debt-averse and really hated the idea of student loans. So I started looking at colleges where I would be awarded significant merit aid.</p>

<p>There were a few other factors that were important to me: small (<5,000 undergraduates); co-ed; wide variety of majors; more conservative politically; West and Midwest locations preferred over South and Northeast. You can read more of the advice posters gave me here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552379-midwestern-colleges-for-a-california-girl-p1.html"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552379-midwestern-colleges-for-a-california-girl-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My research strategy was basically to read through the Fiske and Princeton Review guides several times, putting sticky notes on liberal arts colleges that offered sufficient merit to bring the COA down to about $25k or less (based on scholarship listings on their websites). I ranked the schools based on how large the scholarships were, how likely I was to receive one, and of course on the desirability of the schools themselves.</p>

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<p>My final acceptances were:</p>

<p>Centre ($21k merit, invited to compete for Brown full ride)
Denison (full tuition National Merit scholarship)
Hillsdale (half tuition merit + additional named scholarship = full tuition)
Rhodes ($22k merit, invited to compete for more)
Santa Clara (half tuition, invited to compete for full ride)
St. Olaf ($25k merit)
Wheaton IL ($10k merit, maximum award)</p>

<p>I will be attending Hillsdale College this fall. I had a wonderful visit there and loved all the students and professors I interacted with. (“Found my people” to use CC lingo.) The school is conservative, but not draconian or narrow-minded. Thriving Christian presence, but not an officially Christian school. Very, very challenging academic environment with a fabulous liberal arts curriculum. And all for a price tag of only $12,000 each year for room, board, and books! I couldn’t be happier :)</p>

<p>I wanted to thank all the parents who contributed their valuable wisdom and advice. I truly could not have done it without you all. Thank you so very much :)</p>

<p>If you have any questions about my merit strategy, the particular schools on my list, or why I chose Hillsdale, please don’t hesitate to ask!</p>

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<p>Congratulations! You had a great, and varied list of schools. It sounds like you found a true winner in that you loved it, and it is more than affordable for your family. Have fun finishing your senior year, and preparing for college! </p>

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<p>Fantastic choice. My D also gravitated to the LACs and selected a local LAC, Maryville College. She also applied and was accepted to Rhodes, Wofford, Berry, UT-Knoxville Honors, Birmingham Southern, UA Honors, and UNCW Honors. We are so thankful for the advice and information found through College Confidential.</p>

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<p>Oh so happy you posted. I have quite a few Hillsdale alum among my friends and was hoping it would work out for you as you clearly were seriously considering the college. I think the whole concept of “no federal aid” is so far-out and in my mind quite liberal - but that is Hillsdale…it is nothing if not unique.</p>

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<p>^It is definitely unique :slight_smile: Hillsdale’s reputation revolves largely around its rejection of federal aid, but I found that the refreshingly genuine, intelligent, and mature student body was what set the school apart.</p>

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<p>Congrats, warriordaughter! You sound like a really mature and sensible young lady, and it is clear you are intelligent and articulate, so I am sure you will thrive wherever you go. I would say Hillsdale is lucky to have you!</p>

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<p>Nice! Thanks for returning and letting us know how it turned out. </p>

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<p>Congratulations to you. One of the messages on your thread that stood out to me was that you approached your parents about the finances with maturity and respect. Many of us parents also assume that the financial aid picture is different than what we think it is, and have “sticker shock” when the numbers are in front of us. It’s very sad to feel that your child has worked so hard to get admitted to a great school, but the finances are prohibitive or very tough to manage. Also, many parents in my generation were raised with the taboo of financial discussions with our parents, so we may not think to bring it up with our children While I don’t think it is appropriate or necessary for parents to reveal every detail about their personal finances, the student must know what parents can pay before applying.
Good for you for a thoughtful job well done, and best wishes for more success in your future.</p>

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<p>Thanks for taking the time to let us all know of your final decision. Too few folks (of all ages) take the time to express their appreciation for help and advice offered. Sounds like you found a wonderful school at a price you can be very happy with. Best wishes!</p>

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<p>" marched over to my parents and (politely) demanded they run the net price calculators and decide exactly how much they would be willing to pay for my college.</p>

<p>Well. Our EFC came out to around $50k/year at the most generous schools and full-pay at others, and my parents decided they could afford about $25k/year. Of course, this was generous of them, but it was still something of a shock to realize that many of the schools I had been looking at were not even remotely affordable"</p>

<p>I wish a lot of students could read this and get this right up front. That they do not do as the OP did, have many kids applying to schools where there simply are NOT ANY merit awards or none the size to make it possible to go to those schools. Just this year, some of my son’s peers were agonizing with their parents upon learning that Cornell or BC or HC (those names specifically came up) were unaffordable to them. Getting sizeable merit from those schools ranges from " it just don’t do that" to very difficult. Yes, Duke has some full awards but look at who gets them and how many. Fine to try, but understand up front the odds. </p>

<p>Congratulations on your decision. Thank you for sharing all of this with us.</p>

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<p>Great feedback! It will certainly help others. </p>

<p>I cringe every time I read a students post, “my parents say finances are not a concern”. Sometimes I post in reply that’s ok… IF they actually realize that colleges can cost over $60K per year. Many do not know that early enough in the game. </p>

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<p>This is what I don’t really understand. Several of my peers reached high-- Duke, Stanford, Yale, etc.-- and threw in a few “lower-level” privates that they figured would offer merit scholarships. When the results came out, some of them did not get any merit scholarships, or the ones they did get were small and barely made a dent in tuition. If they had done more due diligence on researching merit scholarships (tracking down numbers on websites, looking at the CDS, emailing admissions, etc.) there wouldn’t have been so many surprises. All the numbers are out there! No one can count on a big merit scholarship at Davidson, for example, but chances at Denison or Case Western or Rhodes are much better.</p>

<p>I calculated which schools were merit reaches, matches, and safeties, so there really weren’t any surprises when merit aid was awarded. This was probably the single best thing I did in the application process.</p>

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<p>Congratulations! Congratulations to your parents too. They should be very proud of you. You are very mature and well planned. It is just a big contrast to another thread I read this morning that a kid from low income family hoping his family to borrow $40k per year for him to go oos. Just with your mentality, I can see you will have a successful career.</p>

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<p>Congrats! And thanks for posting. I am bookmarking this.
Was the Fiske or the Princeton Review guide more helpful?
Which Princeton review guide did you use? </p>

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<p>Do not listen to your friends. Do not listen to your neighbors. Do not listen to your guidance counselor. Go the the college website and verify.</p>

<p>If I had a dollar for every kid I know planning to get an athletic scholarship to Princeton, or a merit award at Yale, or a free ride at Dartmouth, I could quit my job. I know kids who have gotten a 5K merit award whose parents act like the school has just renamed the library after them. “They’re actually PAYING her to attend!” Well, call the BS police. 5K per year is great but barely puts a dent into the overall costs.</p>

<p>You need to figure out your own cost and borrowing limitations, based on YOUR family, not a hypothetical one. Then you need to ascertain the type of aid that’s available at each school you’re interested in. Do your own math.</p>

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<p>I used the Princeton 377. The Fiske Guide’s reviews are longer, more detailed, more subjective, better for getting an idea of the “feel” of the college. Princeton 377 has a lot of student interviews-- I liked their various “top 20” lists for best and worst food, most liberal and conservative campuses, most and least partying, etc. etc. Interestingly Hillsdale is not profiled in Fiske (though it should be!) but received the top scores of 99 in professor availability and quality from Princeton 377.</p>

<p>I also enjoyed Colleges that Change Lives; nearly all my schools came from that list, though I didn’t plan it that way.</p>

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<p>Well Hillsdale is one of those colleges that is a “hidden gem”…it’s well known nationally because of what it is and it’s supporters, but among this crowd, not well known. Plus the media just loves to pick out the rebel nature of Hillsdale for not cow-towing to federal pressures and that “liberalism” scares people so it’s much easier to simply “group” it as a “conservative college” all of which makes me chuckle - since when does the fear that government will erode liberty make you a ‘conservative.’ But anyway - you’ll have great discourse in your four years. And yes, the kids that chose Hillsdale are a diverse bunch. I know a former athlete, a film critic, a writer/journalist, a linguist and I could go on and on. All successful people because they were successful kids going in…literate and thinkers. Have fun, do well, enjoy.The midwest, like the NE, is blessed with a preponderance of really good LACS…all over shadowed by the Big 10 schools. I tried to get my first interested because he is kind of a cerebral jock who is strongly liberal but federally conservative… but he wanted mountains…which Hillsdale does not have. The first offer you get to “head up north…go and don’t think twice.” There’s alot of beauty in this state.</p>

<p>I don’t know if fencersmom still posts, but I think she graduated hers from Hillsdale. </p>

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<p>Thanks so much for posting your results and decision! Great way to “pay it forward.”</p>

<p>Congratulations!</p>

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<p>Congratulations to you! You are one of the most articulate and thoughtful hs posters I’ve seen on here. </p>