<p>I know our EFC. (S1 is a sophomore in college now.) Like I said it is low.</p>
<p>have you looked at Rhodes in Memphis? beautiful campus…son got about 50% of coa there through merit. excellent school. they automatically assess for merit. Total coa last year was 42K imagine it is higher now. it would be about the size he wants. Others i know about would all be over 10K students. He has visited different size schools to make that determination for size? Once they establish their group of friends all the other thousands of students are kind of a blur 
and dont really affect you…</p>
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<p>Oh please…his ECs sound just fine. So do his GPA and class rank. Hope that ACT is up there too. If so, he could be in line for some merit money at the schools that give that. </p>
<p>You have luckily been through this process before so you know what the EFC will mean for you. What you don’t know is how any of the schools using the Profile will compute your family contribution.</p>
<p>I think acceptance odds are good (except for Georgetown which I agree is a reach…for almost everyone applying). Be careful looking at “averages”…you want to be the TOP of that range…not the bottom. Look at the %age of need that is met…and hope that yours approaches 100%.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned…perhaps one additional financial safety would be a good thing to have in the mix…nice to have choices.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you include a couple of schools that guarantee to meet need without loans. If you know your EFC is low these could be more valuable to you than schools that have good merit aid but still leave a large balance. All of these schools are reachy but not necessarily any greater reach than Georgetown. I’ll bet if you do a search on CC you will find a list. It sounds like with the information you have so far your son would have a reasonable shot at several of these. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I thought it a very odd list (though nothing wrong with that). Some large schools, some (Colorado College) very small. Some religious, some secular, some public, some private, some on the coasts, some in the middle of the country, some urban, some rural. Your son might be an easygoing guy and do just fine at any of them, but the list couldn’t possibly reflect what he really WANTS (unless his desires are so really poorly defined). What does he want to study? Does he want big city life? Does he care about in-term internships? Is he religious? What he want to be part of a big fraternity scene? How does he feel about college drinking? (not what YOU feel - how does he feel?). What about calendar? Does he like the idea of the Colorado College plan?</p>
<p>cbug – I would not assume that any two colleges that use Profile will come up with the same EFC for you – ours varied by nearly 8K and we aren’t business owners. The vast majority of the schools you listed are Profile schools. </p>
<p>I think he might find that the honors colleges at Alabama and ASU give a smaller campus feel even though they’re in the midst of very large campuses. I’d simply be worried about having just Iowa as a financial safety – and it certainly is not a small campus. </p>
<p>Might Rhodes be a possibility? How about the any of the Claremont Colleges? (Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd)? Geographic diversity ought to help on that front. </p>
<p>In a more out-of-the-way environment, Whitman gives some very nice merit scholarships. Davidson has excellent financial aid.</p>
<p>In his circumstances, I think it makes good sense to apply to a larger group of schools rather than a smaller group. He needs workable options from both an academic and financial perspective come April 1,
and casting the net widely is his best shot. No question that he’ll get in to a lot of these schools – the issue is really whether he’ll get in with enough financial aid/merit aid to make it viable.</p>
<p>Mini – Regarding your statement about S having an “odd” list of schools. All of the schools believe it or not have some common threads. </p>
<p>1) They are all known for friendly, welcoming, accepting students (UofI might be an exception to this because of its size). </p>
<p>2) Most have really good business programs. </p>
<p>3) Most have a either a reputation for rewarding good students with merit and/or coming through with good need-based aid. </p>
<p>4) Most either have no greek life or greek life that is very low key. </p>
<p>5) Of the religious schools selected, we’ve made sure this is not a dominant factor.</p>
<p>I’d say only one of the schools (St. Olaf) is not much of a party school. But if a person ruled out all of the party schools you’d only be left with a small handfull.</p>
<p>Also, some are close to home some aren’t. Some are in small town and some are urban. He says that this point he wants to consider all options.</p>
<p>Several of your suggested Rhodes College in Memphis. It sounds like a great school but I notice they use a lot of loan debt in their sample formulas. The one below is directly from their web site:</p>
<p>Jackie is from Tennessee.</p>
<p>Her parents are married, her mother is disabled and cannot work, her father earned $36,300 in 2008. The adjusted gross income in 2009 was $38,750, and the family reports untaxed income of $2,100. Jackie is an only child. The expected family contribution for this family is calculated to be $3,960.</p>
<p>Rhodes Cost: $46,621
Less Expected Family Contribution: $3,960
Financial Need: $42,661</p>
<p>Rhodes awarded Jackie a University Scholarship of $17,000 and a Rhodes Grant of $4,765. In addition, she was eligible for a Pell Grant of $1,400, a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant of $1,500, an Academic Competitiveness Grant of $750, the Tennessee Hope Scholarship of $4,000, the Tennessee General Assembly Merit Scholarship of $1,000, the subsidized Stafford Loan of $3,500, the unsubsidized Stafford Loan of $2,000 and Federal College Work-Study of $1,600. Total aid awarded was $37,515. Jackie’s parents intend to use a Parent (PLUS) Loan to meet the remaining need amount of $5,146.</p>
<p>In this scenario, several of these grants are for one year only AND the student’s (and parents’) total 4-year loan debt would be somewhere in the ballpark of $42,000 to $50,000. This is not the kind of debt we had in mind. Granted we make a bit more money than this, but that just means our loan debt could be more.</p>
<p>^^^well, that may rule out that one then! sorry </p>
<p>seems like the only safeties i know about that would give guaranteed merit and financial need are bigger than he wants… again, i’m not sure size would be a factor once he settles in somewhere.</p>
<p>We got a fantastic fin. aid package from Bates. Way more than our EFC suggested we should have gotten. No loans at all and they don’t give anything for merit (everyone they accept is meritorious, in their opinion.) Our portion is around $16K/yr, several thousand dollars less than any SUNY. He is a URM but only at small LACs (he’s korean.) Bates has been working very hard on diversifying the student population and, imo, he received the aid in large part to get him to attend. </p>
<p>He also received a $30K/yr Diversity Scholarship from St. Lawrence. All he had to do was write a brief essay. Their package did include a Stafford loan. </p>
<p>Bates and all the other schools he applied to also gave him work study of around $1,600/yr. Perfect for his personal spending needs.</p>
<p>The example you site is for a high need student from the State of TN…this package would be different for an out of state student with need. The awards that you mention as being one-year are only one year if the financial situation changes from one year to the next or if the student does not maintain satisfactory academic progress to successfully retain the awards. </p>
<p>Our average student loan debt is for the class of 2010 for students that demonstrated need was $20,400. The average total debt of students with need goes to $31,400 when adding in Parent PLUS and private loans. </p>
<p>Parents have a variety of ways to finance their portion of the contribution including the Parent PLUS program mentioned. Another very common way to finance is through our monthly payment plan (<a href=“http://www.afford.com/rhodes[/url]”>www.afford.com/rhodes</a>). Families often use a combination of the payment plan, loan options, and work to finance Rhodes.</p>