<p>Thanks mathmomvt!</p>
<p>“So… what would your ideal school look like? Maybe someone here can help you find a financial safety school that would be close enough to your “dream” to make it a great place to spend 4 years. What do you like to do for fun? How far from home do you want (or are you willing) to travel?”</p>
<p>Location: really anywhere, preferably California or the South (warm climates).
I want some good sports teams too, actually to give you an idea the schools on my list are like Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, USC, and UMich. There are fraternities/sororities, good sports teams, big schools, inturmurals/club sports are nice at these places too.</p>
<p>I’m not so familiar with schools in the south, but you might want to try this tool where you can enter your criteria and see what comes up:</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/) </p>
<p>USC and GA Tech have decent merit money available, but I don’t think they have any “guaranteed” and they’re not cheap to start with so they may be worth adding if you like them as “likely alternatives” but I don’t think they rise to the status of “financial safety”</p>
<p>Others may have more specific suggestions for you. (If you don’t get them here, you might try posting on the College Search & Selection board.)</p>
<p>GL!</p>
<p>*My nephew with high stats, excellent ECs, strong community and academic leadership and achievements, received ZILCH from Vandy.</p>
<p>Umm…zero?*</p>
<p>Yes, ZERO.</p>
<p>Do you mean Ivy quality applicants will likely get scholarships, or that the best Ivy applicants will get scholarships?</p>
<p>All “ivy quality” students do NOT get scholarships from Vandy, otherwise my nephew would have gotten one. </p>
<p>Vandy would select some students from a highly qualified pool to receive their scholarships.</p>
<p>GA Tech have decent merit money available</p>
<p>GA Tech is not that reliable for merit…however it could be a possible source (but not assured).</p>
<p>*You can “hope for the best,” but protect yourself and include some affordable schools- like Purdue (likely $16k in merit) and a few others that will give you assured merit.</p>
<p>You think so with my stats?.*</p>
<p>You misunderstand. What I meant was that you can apply to a small number of elite schools just to see what they might give you if you’re accepted. BUT…because your family will likely have a very high expected family contribution, you need to protect yourself with some schools that will give you assured merit.</p>
<p>* I’ll have to decide whether I like Purdue or RPI better. but why do you say “a few others” with assured merit, I would think one or two is good enough - RPI + something else*</p>
<p>Because it’s always best to have 2-3 affordable choices - especially since you don’t know if you’ll like RPI, and you don’t know how much Purdue would give you (the $16k is a possibility, not a given)</p>