Thank you so much! I will definitely look into these, especially if National Merit works out for me. I’m having trouble finding consistent info on the internet, are students notified in August?
(I’m also replying to your previous post here) I’m from a middle-class family in Washington state, so the safety I’m definitely applying to, both in terms of admittance and affordability, is University of Washington. I don’t qualify for Questbridge. My previous understanding was that the FAFSA determines my EFC, which need met schools will cover in whatever form they determine—to clarify, this is not the case? My understanding of your post is that colleges will look at my CSS and determine on their own what my need is, which is what would result in differing prices. Is that correct?
I agree that I definitely do need to discuss budget and run some NPCs with my folks, and that I need to consider affordability before curriculum. As it currently stands, my parents’ position (and I know this is common sense haha) is that they want to pay as little as possible, so I’ve been trying to narrow down my list to the schools that are most affordable (in other words: lowest cost since I don’t know the exact budget yet) but still have the programs I’d like to pursue and prestige if possible. The numbers I’m looking at right now to do this (the ones my financial aid counselor told me to add to my spreadsheet) are % of people with debt at graduation, average debt at graduation, and % need met.
Thank you for your time and helping me be realistic! 
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I hadn’t considered some of this before. Super helpful, thank you so much!
That makes sense and I will talk to my parents. For now, before I do, I’m just trying to eliminate schools that are exorbitantly way too expensive, and highlight ones that are the most affordable.
I believe the poster meant if the arts supplement is accepted by the schools - some schools will not accept any supplemental material. You’re correct that if the school does accept the supplement, it is submitted with the rest of the application.
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Ah that makes sense, I misinterpreted the phrase. Thanks! @compmom, disregard my question haha
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Usually notified for NMSF in early Sept. Good luck!
Got it, thank you!
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This is not the case, unfortunately. The FAFSA is a government form that determines whether you qualify for government aid (such as Pell grants.) Some schools do use your FAFSA-calculated EFC to determine how much money they expect your parents to contribute, but they are not required to use this number. Some use a more complicated form called the CSS, which can give a very different number. And some schools make up their own formulas. They can claim they “meet 100% need” as long as they do so…according to their own opinion of how much you need! It’s pretty frustrating.
In terms of each school’s NPC (net price calculator tool) those can be variable too. Some schools are very accurate with their NPCs, some are wildly inaccurate. So you may be given a number, but in the end be asked to pay more (or less) than that. But at least there is an estimate.
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Here’s some examples from your list.
CSS is far more detailed - that’s why school’s use it. If you have money, accessible or otherwise, they will want you to spend.
Every school is different but the high prestige schools mainly all use it.
Hence the NPCs. Whatever your EFC, your actual will likely be higher. If you have income or assets, you will be expected to be ‘invested’ in.
There are what is called doughnut hole families - they can’t afford a lot but don’t qualify for aid.
That’s where merit comes in but based on a budget you find schools. You don’t negotiate like schools mentioned up front. Once you have an offer, some have negotiated a bit. Or some will match or come closer of a higher ranked school gives more. Some even give more of its close to May 1 and you haven’t committed. There’s a thread I created that lists some including U of Portland I believe. But you shouldn’t count on or expect to negotiate.
So once you come back with a $ you want to pay and see if your schools will meet via the NPC, nothing can realistically happen.
While you are a top student, you’d be amazed at how many top students are on most campuses, including Arizona as mentioned below as a sub for Michigan because in your case it’s likely 40% if the price.
Hope this and @fiftyfifty1 explanation helps.
Ps @fiftyfifty1 is a merit chasing pro I’d like to say I am but I’m not. My kids simply chose their safeties over reaches they got into.
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One other note - if you end up applying to CS and depending on the school it might be easier to transfer out of the major than in so it may be smart - I’d find another safety.
UW has a 27% acceptance rate for in state CS, much lower than the overall university.
Also, don’t forget you have access to WUE for out of state discounts and there are some nice names.
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University of Washington is not a safety for direct admission to the CS major. While it may admit to the campus without admitting to the CS major, enrolling will mean that you are unlikely to have the option of doing the CS major if you want to do so.
Your other majors of interest (linguistics, art, drama, English (creative writing)) do not appear to be competitive admission, although library science does not appear to be offered, according to http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/degree-overview/majors/list-of-undergraduate-majors/ .
Also, “middle class” around these forums can mean anything from a huge range of financial situations, so it is not a useful descriptor for your college affordability situation.
None of this really matters to you specifically. The numbers that you need are the net price calculator result for each college, and the maximum parental contribution. Both of these require your parents to do the financial planning and put their financial numbers into the net price calculators.
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Agree with @ucbalumnus’ post just above. % of people with debt at graduation isn’t a great number to look at…there are astonishing numbers of families who are full pay at schools that cost $80k or more/year. If a school doesn’t have as wealthy of a student body, it will necessarily have a higher percentage of students with debt. Additionally, many schools that “meet 100% of need” are need-aware, meaning that they will look at how much money an applicant needs in order to attend. If one student needs $20k and another needs $50k, all else being equal (or even if the stronger candidate is the one who needs more), the student who needs less money gets in.
Also, the percentage of need met is also pretty wonky. Colleges determine a family’s need, and some schools are more generous in defining need than others. So a school might be more generous in defining need, but won’t meet as high of a percentage. That could still be a better bet than a school that meets a higher percentage of need. For more information along with concrete examples, this post might be helpful.
Also, while your family is reflecting upon their finances and retirement savings, etc., they should also consider how they will equitably treat each of their children in their post-secondary plans. It can cause tremendous familial strife is one student gets a significantly different budget than another one, and the family has not had a significant change in circumstances in the meantime.
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With respect to two of your interests, you can combine computer science and linguistics through a data science/analytics major with linguistics as your chosen “applied domain.”
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Indeed:
https://dance.barnard.edu/ballet-modern
However…
Decidedly not suburban - but in Manhattan.
And the Ivy’s don’t offer merit, as essentially everyone likely would qualify based on meritorious stats – instead they focus on meeting full need.
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With respect to setting, Newsweek wrote an article with suggestions of suburban colleges:
Note that some of the statistics included are well out-of-date, however.
@DigitalDad I wasn’t sure if the OP would be eligible for financial aid at Barnard, where it is generous. Yes not suburban! The schools for non-majors that offer ballet seem to be limited though. And there is no place like NYC for dance, whether pursuing as a career or not. Barnard Dance
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Regarding dance, a school does not need to be specifically known for dance in order to offer strong general programs in this area. From your tentative list, for example, colleges such as Amherst, Middlebury and Kenyon all offer excellent opportunities for dance. Nonetheless, it seems that the emphases of programs do vary. For a dance program with especially notable breadth, look into Connecticut College. The program at Smith College might be worth looking into as well. As a general rule (with exceptions), colleges with a separate dance department tend to be stronger in dance than colleges at which dance and theatre are combined in the same department. And colleges that offer a major in dance generally offer more opportunities than those at which only a minor is offered.
As a comment on creative writing programs, when USA Today had such a ranking, it placed Hamilton as the top LAC in the nation for creative writers.
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One general thought: some very good colleges I assume you will strongly consider technically only offer needs-based aid, but that is referring to grants.
It is becoming clear to me that many of these schools are now using college-level funds to try to make paid research opportunities (both during the summer and the school year) more widely available to their undergraduates, and not just in STEM departments (which can often also draw on external research funding), but also pretty much every department including in the humanities, arts, and social sciences independent of the external research funding. They also seem to be offering them for study abroad, meaning if you do study abroad in the summer or during a term you might not only be paying no more than your normal amount for academic fees and room and board (down to zero in the summer), but also getting a stipend on top of that.
Obviously the stipend for any one of these paid positions/programs is not going to be as generous as a significant grant award, but it looks like now many students are able to stack together multiple paid summers and/or school-year positions/programs. So taken together, that may help if there is a gap between your budget and cost net of grants. And off hand it seems to me like a student with diverse interests is well-positioned to make maximal use of such programs, should they so choose.
As for specific schools, I can’t address Dance, but some schools that have stood out to us with an S24 who has broad academic interests and which at least potentially offer merit aid include WUSTL (which actually has a specific scholarship program for people with diverse interests, the Ampersand Scholarships), Rochester (and again you might check out the Rush Rhees Scholarships in particular), and Macalester (they seem to offer an unusual number of partial merit scholarships which I strongly suspect is about wooing students away from competitors like Carleton and Grinnell).
Of those three we have only visited Rochester so far, but they were very much promoting the availability of paid research positions outside of just STEM. At this point I am going to bet schools like WUSTL and Macalester are doing that too, but we are planning visits to both and I will be interested to see what they say about that.
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Good ballet at a high level is tough to find - I don’t agree that if it’s not known for dance, a strong ballet program will be offered - although the OP is open to other forms, for future readers - evaluate ballet programs carefully. My daughter took some ballet classes at schools and was pretty disappointed at the level offered. It is often no more than a intermediate foundational class to support other dance forms with no pointe work whatsoever.
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