<p>My daughter is a junior with a passionate interest in International Relations. She's an A/A+ student with a very demanding course load, is fluent in French and is studying Arabic and Spanish, did the Tufts Summit program in IA in France last summer. Her first try at the SATs was 2180. Currently, she a semi-finalist for next summer's NSLI-Y program. So far she's looking mostly at schools in NYC and DC (Columbia is her first choice--she'll probably apply early action, also Georgetown, Barnard, American, GW University, and in New England, Tufts and Middlebury). Our family has a net income that varies between about 50-90K a year, depending on annual self-employed income. We live in California. Our daughter will definitely need a good financial aid package to attend any of these private schools. Does anyone have any guidance about comparing financial aid prospects and policies at any of these schools? From the stats I read on College *******, and what I could glean from each school's website, I really couldn't tell much. (Her brother has a very generous package from MIT based on need--so I know our family income is in the ballpark to qualify for need-based aid). Also, if anyone has other suggestions of good safeties or mid-range schools for her that also might give merit money that would be great.</p>
<p>Our D’10 went down the same path. First of all, Columbia is ED so there will be no comparing packages if she gets in there, or maybe you knew that and it was a typo? Georgetown is EA.</p>
<p>D’10 looked for really strong need based aid and merit aid. (Because of this, none of our kids applied ED.) I believe Columbia is one of the few places that still does not package loans but they have a self-help component of $3000, which is on the high side. Did you run the net price calculators at each place of interest? That is the first thing we did with S’13. </p>
<p>D’10 was not interested in Columbia or NYC at all (we are familiar with both due to family/friend ties) but did look at Georgetown and DC schools as well as Princeton and the Boston options. You probably already know this, but Princeton, (Woodrow Wilson) Harvard and Yale would be top financial bets in this area of strength. Tufts and GTown cannot compare, financially.When we researched we found that Middlebury, Barnard, GW and Tufts could not compete with $$$ either. (You have a strong stats, highly qualified D, so don’t be afraid to go for the big bucks. See what happens.) We know those that have received decent merit at American. That would be a good safety.</p>
<p>Will she look outside of the NE corridor? CMC is fantastic for IR with amazing resources and need based aid as well as merit scholarships…Pomona and Stanford are great too. Are they too close to home? </p>
<p>Anyway, definitely get going on the NPCs. It can be an eye opener, for sure! And nice resume-you must be very proud!</p>
<p>One more thing just came to mind…has she visited? D thought she would love GTown, but didn’t even end up applying. GW and Middlebury are total opposites. Will she be ok with either city/no campus or out in the sticks? Would she like Barnard for its own merits? We know those that applied as a backdoor to Columbia that weren’t so happy there.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Dear Critter, thanks for the reply. Sorry to be ignorant of the acronyms, but what’s CMC and NPCs?</p>
<p>Okay, my daughter says Clairemont-McKenna. But I still don’t know what NPCs are!</p>
<p>Also, yes, I know it’s ED at Columbia. From the offer my son got when he was accepted there a few years ago, I have reason to believe the financial aid would be fine were she to be so lucky as to get accepted. That’s the only reason I’ve encouraged her to go ahead and apply ED.</p>
<p>NPC is Net Price Calculator (sorry about the abbreviations). You can run one from every college’s financial aid site now. It is very convenient with a few numbers from the tax forms. I wish that had been available when our older kids were going through this process!</p>
<p>ED is great if you don’t want or need to shop around and you want the admissions boost and early peace of mind! We have found that many places are very good with their packages but some seem to give even more than expected when the final numbers come out. I know I am too $$$ conscious not to want to look at all of the options, financial and otherwise. Plus this is our 4th time through and I know kids can sometimes change their ideas about things by spring. </p>
<p>It sounds like you have a very talented S as well. Is he enjoying MIT?</p>
<p>At that income level you should receive a pretty generous package from any of those schools. Claremont, Columbia, Georgetown, Tufts and Middleberry on your list all meet 100% of demonstrated need. General rule of thumb is if you need financial aid, do not apply ED. That list is a great mix of reaches, matches and safety schools so she should probably apply to all or most of those schools. I personally think that the schools in DC are better for IR but there is nothing wrong with the NY schools :D.</p>
<p>Run the net price calculators once you do your taxes this year and see what the numbers hold. I would calculate to the higher income for the “worst case”. The nice thing about most of those “meets need” schools is that they convert loan aid into grants so she doesn’t have debt when she graduates. Do a search for schools that meet 100% of need to see the full list but I think she has a solid list already and probably doesn’t need to add any more except for maybe Claremont.</p>
<p>Steve, I’ve never heard of that before that loans get changed into grants on graduation–which of the schools on her list actually do that? It’s nothing I’ve ever read about in a financial aid website or in a school presentation! Of course, I know the super elites are doing financial aid packages with no loans, but thought anything below that, she’d be graduating with 20-30K in debt. Not a great scenario for someone who’s thinking of the Peace Corps and working her way into an NGO.</p>
<p>critter, my son is a sophomore at MIT. he is happy as a clam. working hard, playing hard. he’s joined a frat, has a great girlfriend, and is very involved in all kinds of activities I can barely understand–most of them very fun. he’s a comp sci/electrical engineering major. I think 60% of the undergrads are–it’s foundational for whatever they want to do later. he went in as a freshman thinking he wanted to do synthetic biology. now he’s circling back around to one of his first loves–video games. Believe it or not, he had a research job last summer, getting paid to do origami! probably that could only happen at MIT. The school been a good fit for him. I miss him, of course, living so far away, but it seems to be a tradition for our kids to end up on the east coast. #1 son, who is now 35, went to Emerson. Luckily for us, he and his wife and our grandson live right down the street. So sometimes they do come home again. I sort of doubt that will happen with my younger two–especially our youngest daughter who’s applying next year for college. She loves to travel and wants the whole world.</p>
<p>Macalester in MN.</p>
<p>chaieverymorning–<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2012/02/16/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2012/02/16/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need</a></p>
<p>Not all of these schools convert loans to grants but many of them do. I think all of the Ivy’s do that now, Davidson does. It isn’t a conversion done on graduation, it’s done yearly. If part of the need package is a loan-say $4000-they change that loan to a grant.</p>
<p>You don’tsay–what is it about Macalester that you recommend? It’s not a school I am familiar with.</p>
<p>Tufts does meet need, but they put a lot of loans in the package. It was one of the worst aid packages my D received (2007) - but your experience may be better.</p>
<p>thanks for the heads up, kelsmom. of course a package without loans or minimal loans is preferable. my #1 son just got done paying off his student loans and he’s 35 and has been gainfully employed for a long time. #2 son got lucky and will leave his undergrad with no loans. We’ll have to see how it goes for #3.</p>
<p>Can’t speak to the financial aid part of the equation, but one great IR program that your D might want to consider is Johns Hopkins. The International Studies program (in the Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences) offers very strong academics. There’s also a 5-year BA/MA program where students have the option of spending their 5th year at Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (either the DC campus or Bologna). SAIS is a great program for students interested in pursuing a career in international studies.</p>
<p>I will suggest looking into Mt. Holyoke College (MA)</p>
<p>A good financial safety would be Ole Miss. They have an excellent selective international studies program and honors college as well as outstanding merit aid for OOS students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the MIT update chai-</p>
<p>S’13 has looked at MIT on again/off again. I will pass on your son’s experiences. It’s nice to hear that he is having such a good time, not just all work after all!</p>
<p>no loan schools (it just means they don’t put them in the aid pacakages to begin with) on your D’s list-looks like only Columbia. They expect no contribution if income is below 60k and reduced contribution if income is below 100k. To be honest, the rest aren’t known for particularly generous aid, even if they do meet need (but we tend to aim high so I guess it depends on how you look at it and what you are looking for…). Like I said before, American gives out lots of scholarship $$$.</p>
<p>re: meets need schools…there are way more of those that are NOT ‘no loan’ schools. Seems like at last count there were maybe about 18 no loan places. Believe me, if you have strong stats kids and are looking for money, you need to know this stuff. Dartmouth (so all ivy league colleges are not no loan) and Williams used to be but started packaging loans again after D’10 went through. Rice caps loans at 10k max. Most colleges took a hard hit during this economy too. </p>
<p>The fewer of the no loan schools left out there, the tougher the competition to get in…like Vanderbilt, Davidson, CMC, Pomona, HYPS. We also noticed that even without loans, some give better deals on EFC with the same numbers so, for example, CMC and Vandy were more generous with D than Davidson and some feel they still need to take out loans to meet the higher EFC.</p>
<p>You’re getting good suggestions. Forgot about JHU, and Mac, but our D wouldn’t consider either one. Great program at Hopkins…one of the very best. And there is scholarship potential.</p>
<p>A friend’s D got the best aid at American and her family income was much higher. She got an excellent education there with an internship at the state dept and lots of great connections. Advising was good also.</p>
<p>Your daughter should get good merit aid at American. My son had worse grades but better scores and was offered a Presidential Scholarship (half the cost of attendance at the time.) Seems like a decent list. If you can predict Columbia’s probable aid and are willing to forfeit the possibility of better offers because it’s a clear first choice, go ahead and apply. I think it’s a bit easier to get IR internships in DC, but it’s really a matter of focus. My son ended up at Tufts (now doing a junior year abroad in Jordan) and is looking abroad for internships or things to do this summer. (Last summer he worked at Tufts.) If Tufts ends up being a serious consideration, I’ll be happy to share our experiences, both good and bad.</p>