Am I interpreting the Estimated Net Price correctly?

Paying for College
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@CGHTeach - Case Western looks to be out of our price range. We get an estimated net price around $35K, can afford 20-25K.

@ucbalumnus - Thanks! Very helpful information. I think she would probably major in Math, and minor in Econ, if that makes a difference. She was also looking at the Financial Mathematics major, but thought it didn’t look very challenging, math-wise.

@midwest67 - Some very good advice, thanks! It’s a really good idea to look at the 4-year price, to help magnify the differences between different school prices.
I think she’s fairly open at this point. She has an idea of what would be “perfect”, but we don’t realistically expect to find “perfect” in an affordable package. Still, you gotta start somewhere to whittle down the list!

@blossom - Yeah, I know, it doesn’t make sense to make a decision based on study abroad possibilities. But it was the latest reason mentioned by the kid, and it got me looking at some other places. Your comments are very helpful though… once we get closer to decision time, I will remind Kid that there’s no guarantee that studying abroad would actually work out.

@“Erin’s Dad” - Yes, we are just outside Portland. Lewis and Clark is a beautiful school! I would encourage my daughter to apply there if we could afford it. But she would prefer to get a little farther away from home, anyway.

@OHMomof2 - So disheartening… not so much about Northeastern, but because I think we’ll run into this at almost every school. No matter what, the price comes out right about our EFC. Which I cannot afford.

My daughter said tonight that she is not excited about being in a Honors College in a very large school. She wants to be where it is normal/expected to be smart. She’s afraid that at a very large college, she would be dismissed as part of the “nerd herd”, except within the “nerd herd”. (I actually think she would be very happy in the nerd herd, but I’m just the mama. What do I know?)

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@kittencrash The more you explore college costs, I suspect you are going to find that your budget is going to limit your dd’s options. R&B at full-tuition schools or schools with low in-state tuitions which waive OOS fees for competitive students will both stay within your budget. But, if your EFC is $35K, w/o large merit awards, you are going to find few schools that drop below your EFC as an OOS student. (Some of the smaller privates like Wooster offer high merit awards, but the course offerings are also smaller.)

Fwiw, at large schools, that “nerd herd” can be a larger population of students than the entire freshman class at small elite schools bc their freshman class is so large. Often within an HC there are narrower-focused opportunities. My current college student is attending Bama and is part of their CBH program, an elite honors research program. Only 40 students are accepted into the program each yr. He is surrounded by strong academic-oriented students. Other than great football games and the resources of a large campus, I don’t think his college experience feels like he is on a large campus. His experience has been small classes, lots of professor interaction, great UG research opportunities, and wonderful friends with similar ambitions. No lack of peers. No problem with fit. (And Bama offers a university scholars program where top students can take grad level classes as an UG. He will be graduating with his masters in physics along with his BS in physics and math.) http://courseleaf.ua.edu/specialacademicprograms/#universityscholarsprogramtext

Good luck to your dd. I also have an 11th grader who is also looking for schools. Finding schools that fit what we can afford to pay vs our EFC severely limits her list, but she is finding some that she is excited about visiting.

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Apologies, I was thinking of Case’s sometimes hefty merit but, you are correct, it does not seem to get you down to your figure. I believe they may do as much as $27500 for high test scores, but that would still leave too much on the table.

Good luck to you in the search process.

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You certainly should consider Tulane. Considering your list of her likes/dislikes, it sounds like it might be a good fit. We took a college tour of mid-Atlantic schools last year, and then we visited Tulane in fall. It was super impressive in comparison. It might be in the deep south, but it has a northeastern feel. Plus, I was told by a sweet boy from Georgia, all his northern friends leave New Orleans with gracious Southern manners! That’s an education for you!

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@kittencrash It has not been easy on our kid to be surrounded by peers and adults at her prep school who are hyperfocused on where the kids want to go, and if the kids get accepted, without any lessons in financial literacy or apparent attention paid to the COA for a family.

Some parents here at CC will advise others to not let their kid apply to any schools you cannot afford or are not willing to pay for. In our case, we did not prevent our kid from including some selective schools on her list. We were clear we did not think the numbers were going to come in. It was hard for us to see her feeling ashamed of our original, practical, financially prudent list of schools to apply to.

When acceptances came in EA, there were definitely moments when my husband and I caught the fever and found ourselves thinking & thinking of ways (sacrificing our future financial security) to make it work.

Revisiting our spreadsheet, making an adjustment for when my older kid was out of school, looking to see what happens if next year’s income is better than this year, thinking about making our money stretch for everyone in the family…the fever broke and we felt sane again.

I’m not sure if it would have been better to have taken a hard line and said here is a list of schools, pick one. I don’t have a good grasp on what the acceptances mean to her, even if we cannot pay that kind of money for an UG degree.

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Re: Tulane. The OP will need a full tuition (competitive) scholarship to get the COA below her EFC. Deans Honor Scholarship, Paul Tulane Award, (and stacking merit & community service scholarships?). It’s possible.

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Another OOS with a great honors college and defined merit for specific grades/tests is ASU. It’s not Seattle but we did have rain last month! LOL. Running the numbers on their NPC is super easy and fast.

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@Mom2aphysicsgeek - You are so right that our budget is limiting our search. In fact, it is driving it. We knew that would be true, though. We run the NPC on every college we look at. The vast majority get highlighted red (meaning no go). Thank you for your comments on Alabama… they are helpful.

@luckymama64 - Thank you for the pointer to look at Tulane. It has been off our radar because… South. But we will take a closer look.

@Midwest67 - That does sound really difficult, to be surrounded by other kids applying to prestigious schools, and getting accepted. We don’t have that problem, thankfully. The vast majority of the kids at our high school go to state schools. I hope your kid has found a great school that fits your budget.
RE the competitive scholarship at Tulane (and others): I kind of doubt that Kid would win a competitive scholarship. Don’t those usually go to the kids who are amazing – have built a new energy source in their backgrounds, or have dedicated their lives to service, or are playing at Carnegie Hall? My Kid doesn’t have a big “wow” factor. How much sweat and tears should she put into competitive scholarships? Is there any way to determine the profile of a typical winner?

@TempeMom - Thanks for mentioning ASU. It is on our list, though my daughter is concerned about its size and thinks it may be a “party school”. Thoughts?

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@kittencrash The Deans’ Honor Scholarship (full tuition) at Tulane “requires the submission of a creative project”. The Paul Tulane Award (full tuition) “requires additional writing components”. Tulane U is awarding 75 DHS and 50 PTA this year. I’ve read these awards do go to high stats kids, but neither one seems to require the kind of amazing high school resume you’re referring to.

So, I wouldn’t rule all competitive scholarships out. Always good to check out the threads here for a particular school and ask if you have questions. This year, both the DHS and PTA required applying EA or SCEA, and the scholarship deadline was December 5 (see my previous post about watching deadlines).

We had Barrett Honors College at ASU on our long list, but in the end, it did not make the cut. Worth a closer look. Barrett is a gated campus within the greater campus in Tempe. At their web site, you’ll find stats on the number of incoming National Merit Finalists, National Hispanic & National Achievement Scholars. ASU likes to tout the number of Fulbright Scholars it produces. Barrett might send your kid a fly-out invitation.

University of Kentucky in Lexington is going to make my kid an offer (automatic scholarship) that will be hard to refuse. Full tuition and a stipend for R&B. There is a parent on the UKy forum whose kid was NMF and is majoring in math at UKy. Sophomore now? I can’t remember. Very happy there. She can probably help you with questions about the department.

University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa also made our short list, even though initially, my kid said, “Anywhere but the Deep South.” She ended up applying to both UA and TU. Go figure.

I like to say to my kid, “Stay open. Ask yourself, do you see opportunity here?”

In hindsight, I’m very glad she applied EA (officially EA or just submitted her applications by Nov. 1) to all the schools on her short list. We had admission answers for all by December 20?, including confirmation of some big merit packages. We are still waiting to hear about one competitive scholarship, then we can make firm plans for admitted student events in the spring. (We did not visit all the schools on her short list before applying to them).

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Unless you live in an extremely affluent area, or you child attends a very expensive private school on scholarship, the likelihood is that a lot of your children’s classmates accepted into their “dream schools” will discover, come spring, that they won’t be able to attend because of the COA. I see it happen every year.

We were in that “doughnut hole” range (where the EFC ranged from ~$30,000-$45,000), so we let our son apply to a number of pricey, elite schools where admission is need-blind and it looked like he qualified for a decent FA package. Otherwise, there had to be merit money available that placed it in range.

I’m sure it varies from student to student and from family to family, but to me nothing is more heartbreaking than being accepted to a school your parents can’t afford to send you to. Better to never apply. But that’s just me!

Also, a LOT of students will reconsider regions of the country they refused to look at a year earlier when they see how much money is being offered to them. The big, automatic merit money tends to be in regions that aren’t in as high demand. That’s just basic economics, which the OP’s DD, given her interests, no doubt can appreciate! :slight_smile:

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@Midwest67 - Thank you again for all the help. I will encourage D to keep an open mind about Tulane, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, etc. And we will take a closer at some of the competitive scholarships. If they award quite a few of them, there has a to be some not-quite-amazing kids in the mix! I think I am figuring out that we can only look at our own state schools, or schools that offer full tuition merit scholarships. There is also a (slim) chance for some (small) merit money at our state schools, which would make U of Oregon an excellent option for her. I’ll be watching your posts to see where your kid decides to go. :slight_smile:

@LucieTheLakie - I think you’ll be right about my daughter reconsidering regions she’d crossed off earlier! You’re right that she can appreciate the reasons for the pricing, even as she dreams of getting a full ride elsewhere. She will see the data, and deal with it.

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Good luck, @kittencrash. And do keep us posted on her journey!