We’re starting a college list for my S. He’s (somewhat frustratingly) un-picky when it comes to colleges and generally likes everywhere we’ve visited (from LACs to large universities). Here’s the rundown:
His profile: Junior at an unremarkable California public school. 3.9/4.3 weighted GPA, 2230 SAT. He’s taken a balanced class load, about half honors and a handful of APs. His main EC is soccer-- he plays on his school’s varsity team and works as a referee during the school year. He’s in a couple clubs but is generally a relaxed, normal kid who enjoys playing video games and hanging out with his friends.
What we’re looking for: Any size, any location seems to be “fine”… but the ideal is a mid-size (5-10,000 students) university in a suburban location with a strong business program. He’s interested in a marketing major but that could change-- a great alumni network and career/internship placements are important. Other miscellaneous things he likes: general name recognition, popular intramural sports, men’s basketball (he loves basketball and wants a team to root for), not overly liberal.
Finances: We don’t qualify for financial aid and have given him a budget of $25,000 per year (though we would prefer $20,000 or less if possible.) He probably will not be a National Merit Finalist.
His guidance counselor has suggested Baylor, Gonzaga, Cal Poly-SLO, and Wake Forest as possibilities. He will probably apply to several UCs.
A $25,000 budget with no financial would come pretty close to covering the in-state list price of most CSUs (including the Cal Polys), but most UCs would likely require some student contribution (federal direct loan and/or student work earnings) added to that, if no merit scholarships were earned.
Note that the UCs have been getting more selective over the years; several recent threads indicate that students who thought that UCD was a “safety” for them have found out otherwise (and not because of what they claim is “yield protection” – their GPAs and intended popular majors in comparison to last year’s admit rates by GPA make it clear that UCD was nowhere near a sure thing for them). So he should apply widely among the UCs, including to some of the less selective ones (note, however, that only UCB, UCI, and UCR have actual business majors, and UCB does not admit frosh to the business major – they must apply to the business major later).
The three private schools you mention and many others have costs much higher than $25,000. If he applies to such costly private schools, he needs to aim for large merit scholarships (and they would not be worth the bother if there are no such large merit scholarships or they are out-of-reach) – admission without enough merit scholarship money would be equivalent to rejection.
If his budget is $25K/year and the school costs are over that amount, will he be expected to fund the rest? Gonzaga’s cost of attendance is $52K/year while Baylor is around $51K/year and Wake Forest around $60K/year.
As @ucbalumnus stated above the California CSU’s are within his budget and the UC’s will be around $30K/year but his stats could possibly earn him a Regents scholarship at several of the UC’s which would help defer costs. Definitely check out the links in the above post and good luck on his search.
Southwestern University in Texas offers large merit scholarships and has a lower tuition. My D received one that brought it down to about 25K. Baylor’s website has a merit estimator. They are completely by the numbers. You can put in his GPA and scores and it will tell you what they will offer him. If you don’t qualify for financial aid, you will want to look at the Colleges that Change Lives list and apply early action to colleges known for merit aid.
@ucbalumnus
UCR also doesn’t admit freshman to business. At both UCR and UCB students must apply to the business school (SOBA and Haas respectively) two years in. From what I’ve heard, Haas admissions are VERY competitive whereas SOBA is fairly easy to get into if you meet the requirements.
@ucbalumnus we’re aware of the business school situation at UCB and UCR. He’s not set on a business major (though I think he will end up working in sales or marketing after college) so will probably apply to several UCs and CSUs with different majors-- economics is a possibility.
@Gumbymom we are researching large merit opportunities like those mentioned by some of the other posters. He will be expected to pay for his own books and spending money from campus jobs and summer savings. We’ve also made very clear that we will not co-sign any private loans or take out any Parent Plus loans-- he can take out the minimum federal loans each year. So we’re looking at a total annual budget of 25,000+ ~6,000 loan, with the remainder covered by merit scholarships.
It will be very hard to bring a private school into the $25,000 range.
We are looking for merit awards for my DS and only one school will have a COA under $25,000.
Alabama is a good option. Also, look at Trinity in San Antonio as well as Southwestern as mentioned above. But these schools won’t provide the basketball vibe your DS wants. I suggest running the NPCs for both Baylor and TCU in Fort Worth. Another thought is Miami University at Ohio http://www.miamioh.edu/admission/index.html
Look at the merit scholarship (competitive) requirements.
Your DS has good stats but be warned that going after merit awards is very unpredictable unless the scholarship is automatic.
Look at all the schools in the BIg East Conference. Most are the size he wants, basketball is their focus and most have respected business programs with strong alumni networks. Some may be in too urban of a location at first glance but many have distinct campuses with a suburban feel. I disagree with @txstella on the ability to bring a private school within your budget. These schools give decent merit to the right students and while they have religious affiliations, students of all faiths, or none, attend. Don’t worry to much about his lack of pickiness. That will come over time as he visits a variety of schools and realizes how different they can be. It is early yet.
You need to worry about the costs. $25,000 is not going to pay for most private schools unless he gets very significant merit aid. $25,000 won’t cover the costs of most OOS public universities either.The listed schools above do not have guaranteed merit aid. He might get the money…and he might not.
University of Alabama is larger but I believe he would get very good merit aid there…guaranteed. Your out of pocket costs would be less than the $25,000 budget you have given him.
You might want to look at the SUNY schools. Their OOS costs are over $25,000 a year…but with your $25,000 plus a Direct Loan, plus earnings from a job could make them affordable.
There are net price calculators on all of the school websites. Some include merit aid. Those will ask bout your GPA, or SAT scores. Try some of those.
What you need is a net cost of $25,000. At a college that costs $50,000 a year or more…that is going to be difficult to get via merit aid.
Wow, I didn’t realize Wake Forest had joined the $60/yr club. That is sad. I love WF. I love all the ACC schools. I’m not sure if your son can afford most of them on your budget but with his stats merit aid is a real possibility and that might bring WF into the picture. I’d drop most everything to go to a school like WF, if I was that age all over again, and pushed my son to consider WF, only to be reminded I wasn’t going back to school he was the one going to school.
And even though WF is respectable in hoops, they really suck in football, and have ugly uniforms to top it off. But seriously, other than that, perfect size, great location, great school spirit, you wouldn’t be a number at WF, you’d be fully engaged in the social and academic aspects of being young and getting an education. WF has really great academics but it has a balance of academics and other stuff that totally appealed to me.
However, like I said, we, the parents, are not the ones going back to school. I have to count to ten and keep reminding myself of that fact.
Anyway, another school I love and would defend to the end is Davidson also in NC and also private. It is a tad small and costs a fortune but they are generous with merit aid so the real cost comes down to close to what you’d pay at a public, therefore, it is a great value. I live in FL and both UF and FSU are excellent schools that are maybe a little football focused, but don’t let that fool you, if you go there to get an education you can find what you are looking for. I wouldn’t pay OOS to get there to be honest.
Based on what you said he wants, I might look at the U. of Denver (probably costs a million a year) and TCU and SMU in Texas. Good luck.
Also, if you are in Cali the Claremont Colleges always seem to come up if one is looking for a smaller school environment that is heavy on academic emphasis. They sound perfect in terms os size, location, rep, alumni network and internship ops, but here again … they probably cost double or triple your budget.
His guidance counselor is correct to consider Baylor and don’t let comments about cost dissuade you until you’ve looked at their merit aid. You don’t give the SAT breakdown so I can’t compare his stats to their scholarships but here is the link. You may be able to get close to full tuition and fees which would put you below $20,000. Baylor hits your requirements on size, alumni base, and business. I will say Baylor’s reputation and alumni are probably more in TX and the South than CA so where your son wants to work post college is worth considering.
No. This is not true. Davidson meets full need for students with financial need. They have a very small number of very competitive merit awards…a very small number of them. Davidson should not be viewed as a financial safety for a family who is full pay but has budgeted $25,000.
Whatever schools you put on the list, run the Net Price Calculator. D and I came up with 40 schools for a preliminary list. When I ran the NPC, 20 schools came off the list immediately. Also, if you are seeking merit, you and your son may need to recalibrate the list somewhat (maybe not much in his case). The higher merit aid amounts go to students with stats far above the 75th percentile.
I like the Dayton suggestion. Good school. Good sports.
Honestly, if I lived in CA and my kid was not picky, I’d not look further than the UC/Cal State system.
Assuming your 25K budget is firm, I would do some careful research about merit awards at private and/or OOS options to make sure that the amount involved is enough to bring the cost down to that level.
In addition to the excellent resources that @ucbalumnus mentioned, take a look at the WUE (Western Undergradate Exchange), a large consortium of western state public schools that offer 1.5 instate tuition rates to OOS students. With you sons stats, he should qualify. But if he is interested, apply early because WUE funds are finite. There are many options where COA would come in less than 25K, although you’d have to add a travel budget to get him home for summer and the holidays.
Play around with that Baylor NPC. I put in a perfect ACT plus a top 10% rank and it gave me a $20,000 per year scholarship. Baylor is very generous to NMF.
Also Baylor requires a 3.5 to keep the larger scholarships. Keep required GPAs in mind. We didn’t focus on this when making the list of schools and I wish we had.
Looking on Naviance, at my son"s school (public, outside of Boston), there are kids with your son’s stats who get wait listed at Wake Forest, so merit aspirations aside, you might need to be realistic with respect to admission - it’s not a safety but a match. Accepted average GPA is 3.9.