Your daughter doesn’t have a Act/Sat score yet correct?
Until she does this is all speculation which is fine. We could not send my daughter to her number 1 school over her local private college that she had a good merit at. Just made no sense but we told her we would pocket the money for opportunities for her for study abroad and travel.
If she does go locally basically free can you put away something like $5,000 /year to be put into an account for her? Most kids would love to have $20,000 in their bank by graduation to start their lives.
Also she needs to learn the school doesn’t make you, you make the school. I went to a local commuter college that is now in demand but my friends all went to known brand schools and the Ivies. We all live in Chicago, in the same neighborhood, drive similar cars etc. All went to different types of colleges.
She should definitely apply to reach schools, matches and safeties. But beware as we told my high stat son, you are a dime a dozen. Don’t get your hopes to high or to low.
Also even though we want the best for our kids we made an excel spreadsheet with like everything on it including financial information about each school. We told our kids you can apply wherever you want but we can only send you to where we can afford to do so.
If your DD’s goal is to eventually end up in DC or NYC, it may help to go to school there, but it isn’t the only way. It will take a little more research, but she should look for schools with faculty members that have connections. My DD goes to college far from DC, but one of her professors used to work there in an area she hopes to be in after graduation. He claims he called his contacts and got her application “flagged” - and lo and behold, after a phone interview, she has an offer for a paid internship next summer (rare for a sophomore in international studies to actually get paid, even if it is about $12/hour). Maybe some of the faculty at one of the Florida universities will have the contacts she needs.
“Average” costs are NOT what it will cost any particular family. Aid formulas don’t just look at income. And averages include the extremes: kids getting fabuloushelp and those getting a pittance.
OP, as said, run the Net Price Calculator/NPC, found on a college’s web site. It’ll give a better idea. And we told ours, “No college is a dream school if the right aid doesn’t come through,” i.e., not affordable.
Btw, all around the country, kids get involved in politics without being in DC or NYC. Does she have any political or advocacy involvement now? Local or state, not some distant country?
Well, for my kid who was dreaming big for OOS schools, the simple facts that study abroad became affordable, DC internships could be paid for, and having savings for graduate school were all selling points to stay instate.
Has she visited the FL universities? Met any students?
There are things they just have to learn for themselves. Require she apply for the Florida schools, set a budget on further applications, research and throw some affordable options at her as she’s looking then wish her luck! As long as there are affordable options at the end, it’ll all be ok.
You are smart to have the $$ discussions now. I wouldn’t mind casting a wide net with OOS possibilities AS LONG AS there was some mature realism in play too. You might pop up with a wonderful opportunity that you didn’t realize was there. But the numbers have to makes sense. Most 17-18 year olds can’t comprehend the potential compounding impact of big undergraduate costs.
@Midwestmomofboys It’s true that internships are unpaid and certainly the bright futures scholarships are one way of handling that.
Several of the LACs also offer pay for students doing internships for the summer. You find that out by looking in the section on careers. Some schools have quite generous offerings while others are less so. If this is a concern, you can include it on your list of what you need in a school.
OP, your daughter is a very bright kid (based on her GPA) and she apparently is on the right track with ECs, etc. It sounds like she will be far ahead of the vast majority of students because she will have great options to choose from.
If she continues on this top track and does well on her ACT/SAT, don’t be surprised that she will be competitive for several of the elite schools that often offer even better need-based financial aid than the full-tuition schools. My son went to Columbia, and daughter is at Stanford, and their need-based aid made their schools cheaper than the full tuition offer at Flagship State.
But of course, a lot depends on your family’s financial situation. Your D is a smart enough student to be able to help you run the numbers, and she probably understands them better than most 17-18 year olds.
Yes, the elite schools are extremely competitive to get into, and I understand you want your D to be realistic in her chances as she prepares her list, and you don’t want her to put options on that aren’t realistic financially for your family situation. But it cost nothing to run the NPC to get an estimate. For a top student, you are probably used to her doing her homework by herself, and she likely knows how to get the information she needs to make the right decision.
The best advice I was given early on, was to tell my pups that hey, the process is different than when DH and I were applying to college, and to honestly give them the financial parameters we had to work with. Then let them know we will happily help where we can, we won’t pester them because we understand stressful high school junior year can be - and we will work together on touring schools, etc. Promise each other you will both try to be realistic with expectations, and it will be easier to let her go when the time comes. Lots of parents aren’t ready to begin to let go, and of course many teens experience jitters and nerves at the thought of leaving the nest. Parent-teen relationships are not easy anyway, but you have a lot to be proud of, and you know your kid best. Reminding her that you love and support her - blah blah blah - and that you are confident in her decision making ability, will help you.
Best of luck to her - and I hope she proves herself right.
@ FlaParent - there is a lot of good advice on this thread. There is nothing wrong with applying to “reach” schools, but you have to be blunt about the financial piece. One of the tough aspects of this, is many reach schools dangle those remarkable merit scholarship, only to have the applicants “fall in love” with the school. Then, the student gets admitted, but the big scholarship doesn’t come in and you are left with a $20K scholarship and you only have to pay $40K per year x 4 to go to your dream school. Always keep the financial safety in the conversation. UF is a really, really good school. Kids from all across the country would love to go there. If she is set on going to D.C., look at George Mason University, not just Georgetown, GW and American. Best of luck!
I’d advise her to cast a wide net. We were on the hunt for merit aid and my daughter applied to 17 or so schools. She was sure to show interest in each one by attending college fairs, visiting when possible and interviewing (can be done locally in most cases). She also applied to our state flagship. She ended up with full tuition at one school which also happened to be a very good fit so that is where she is now. Several of the small LACs she applied too with merit aid came up less than or equal to our state school in terms of cost. She mostly applied to schools that offered substantial merit for top students where she would be at the tippy top of class. Mine never walked on to a campus and said “this is the one”…she was realistic…thought most of the schools she applied too would work fine for her.
Tell her that for now, she doesn’t have to make a choice. She should not rule out anything, nor will you. She is welcome to apply to those east coast schools, as well as some of the Florida schools. Tell her that your budget is $XX,000 per year and if she can get scholarships to cover that then that is awesome. But she needs to apply to FL schools as well. Say that the bright futures was the way you could get her the best college for the money…if she can find another way, then great.
The issue is often kids still don’t understand affordability. Some think they can convince parents to put out more money, when their “dream” schools come through. I’d show her your numbers and the NPCs and be firm this is not about “dreams.” It’s about rational and reality.
Some parents will say, if a flagship costs about 15k, and you can afford that (maybe with a student loan,) that’s it. “Honey, if aid brings our costs down to 15k, fine. If not, you need happy other options.”
In other words, get her to focus also on other places she can like and be happy with. Glass half full. Not just as a disappointing back up.
Be clear about your budget and let her find schools where she could get a competitive scholarship, as long as your Florida schools are in play as well. Things will be more clear when her test scores come in, and when actually encounters the daunting application process for those big competitive scholarships.
We told our kids we could pay room and board pretty much anywhere if they got tuition covered with scholarships. We insisted they apply to our local state school where, with their grades and scores, full tuition was covered with automatic scholarships. We don’t qualify for enough need based aid anywhere to bring a need only school into our budget without loans so those were off the table.
Both our kids ended up at OOS privates with full tuition, meeting our budget, not choosing the very cheapest option, but not big name schools. GPA requirements to keep those scholarships were 3.25 ( in engineering) and 3.5 at an LAC—intimidating at first but we quit worrying after the first semester or two. They’ve both made the most of their opportunities and done some really cool things, within our budget. No debt is huge and they’ve both said so! In the end it’s what they do with the opportunities they have that makes the difference, I think they are both glad they went away from home for college. Some of their smart friends that ended up at state universities near home have also done very well for themselves.
An anecdote as to the competitiveness of big scholarships—one of our kids applied to top (full tuition/full ride) scholarships at LAC’s. She applied to seven or eight schools that offered competitive scholarships for which she qualified on paper. 3.9/4.5 gpa, 1540ish SAT, nice resume of activities and leadership and service. She emailed reps, had interviews, wrote at least a dozen essays. She was a finalist for three of the top scholarships, and was offered one. At one of the finalist schools, we were told they had 500 applicants for the full ride scholarship, 30 finalists, 10 awards. This school was ranked around 40 or 50 amongst LACs. The other finalists were very very impressive kids.
I don’t think any FL school is anywhere near $15k for just room and board. We were looking about 4 years ago so my figures are somewhat off, but most schools were $20k for everything. The big Florida schools don’t even require a meal plan, so if the student is willing to shop wisely, there can be some savings. Florida schools are going to be cheaper. FSU and UCF both give a lot of merit aid.
Being a NMF takes it all to $0. Room, board, tuition, fees, books all paid.
My daughter lived off campus for her final two years, and even with paying rent year round, her rent cost was about $6k. There is no way she spent $4k on food.
The OP never said the family would qualify for full financial aid, so saying that the cost at Barnard would be $6k is not going to be accurate. The room and board at many of the DC/NYC/Boston schools is going to be $15k or more. Travel will be more. If the family is low income, there is going to be extra FA available in Florida too (Pell, SEOG, FL-SEOG)
It is really hard to beat Florida prices. The question is, for this family, are the parents willing to pay more for OOS schools than for a FL school and how much more?
American in DC gives nice merit packages - they do like demonstrated interest, maybe your daughter can register to get on their mailing list or reach out to their local rep. before a visit. Good luck!
@FlaParent – You might be running up against what we did–a bit of peer pressure. Friends with lots of dream schools heading out of state and your kid feels a bit “dissed” for even thinking of staying in-state. Especially if your kid attends a private school.
The name of the game in our house became " in-state or better–much better". The best in-state school or the next OOS school which would make a substantial difference in final career outcome (and that we could still afford). Apply where you want, we’ll visit but definite boundaries.
Not only did the finances win out hugely with perks (study abroad, internships, graduate study funds) but meeting other students (especially for honors for which your D should qualify) made a huge impact.
We were in this exact spot last year. My daughter had great stats, 4.0 UW, 1560 SAT, lots of APs and ECs. She received scholarships everywhere she applied, though not huge ones OOS except for University of South Carolina. Purdue was her top choice, but they only offered $5000/year, which we were grateful for, but it just wasn’t enough. I will say the one thing that seemed to make a big difference in getting the top scholarships, or even being contenders for, was being a NMF. My daughter missed it by a few points. She was commended, but that means nothing. If your D can make NMF, that will open up A LOT of scholarship opportunities at some schools. Funny enough, my D ended up at UF, which is OOS for us, but she got a small scholarship and in state tuition thanks to the post 9/11 GI Bill. You are very lucky to have a top 8 public university in your state!! Let her know also that my husband works for the Defense Intelligence Agency, and he just made a recruiting trip to UF looking for kids for internships. She may be surprised that she can book a lot of these internships in her own state!
@twoinanddone that’s good to know. The upshot of all of these comments seems to be –
Know your budget ahead of time and let your student know
Run NPCs for your top-choice schools (check College Navigator to narrow your list before running NPCs)
Try OOS and in-state Florida schools
Nothing is "dream school" until actual costs are known and actual acceptances come in
See what FA packages are offered
Negotiate with schools if you can and if you're willing (some parents go back several times to negotiate FA -- never hurts to ask for more money)
Make your choice when this all shakes out.
I want to add: be sure to calculate tuition increases as part of your decision. It’s easy to forget 1) tuition and expenses tend to go up each year and 2) some money offers include loans as part of the package and aren’t 100% clear about that unless you read it super carefully and 3) some money offers require minimum GPAs and 4) sometimes it takes more than 4 years for a student to finish – for each school check to see the likelihood of your student to get their core / required classes handled plus major classes in four years – or will it take an extra year or two because of over crowding or impacted major. Four years and done is not guaranteed at many schools. (Centre does guarantee 4 total years and maybe some others have grad rates that are favorable). Check this carefully however if your budget is tight.