Great score! I wouldn’t worry about the math score, particularly if she has reasonable grades in math classes.
@suzy100 @allyphoe thank you so much. She only has two Bs (89s) on her transcript and they’re both in math. 9th-grade pre-ap geometry and junior year pre-ap pre-cal. She’s taking 8 AP classes this year including AP Calc. She has a great teacher and has been acing all her tests. I know her senior year grades aren’t going count towards college admission, but she’s regained a little confidence in math.
Senior year courses and grades do matter at top holistic colleges.
Mid year and final grades can matter to lots of schools. She sounds like a student who won’t have a case of senioritis, but still— have her keep those grades up!
Very nice ACT score…and this will certainly increase admission chances…BUT please go back and read my
post 134…or maybe it’s 135. It’s about costs.
The issue you have is funding college. I think your kiddo will have some nice acceptances…but the question is…can you fund these colleges?
You have said your FAFSA EFC is $40,000 or so…and income in the $170,000 a year range. You need to assume that you will be expected to pay $40,000 or so for your daughter to attend college each year…unless she hits the admissions lottery and gets accepted say at Yale or Harvard. Even then, you will have a family contribution you will need to pay.
And the EFC you quote doesn’t include her non-custodial parent income and assets which these very generous schools will expect.
How does one take 8 classes in a year? Especially 8 AP classes? The max at our high school is 6.
Block schedule schools might have four classes per block. Some schools have a regular seven period day and permit an eighth zero hour. Some schools schedule lunch as a full class period and permit students to overload by not having a lunch period. I think this is more common in states that require PE or other non-academic classes for at least some years of high school.
My kid’s school is also a 6-period school, so eight sounds crazy to me, too. But presumably it works for the schools that use it.
@allyphoe @collegemom9 I just confirmed with her as to not misspeak. She has A&B days and she is taking 8.
Yeah, block schedule schools often let you take a load like that.
I’m sorry if I’m repeating what some people have already said but I would look at Barnard, my friend goes there and loves it! Takes most of her classes at Columbia, feels co-ed and you graduate with a Columbia degree. I go to Pomona College which is part of the Claremont Consortium and you might want to check some of those out if you haven’t already. I wish you both the best of luck!
How is this parent going to pay for Barnard? They have said their EFC is $40,000 and they can’t afford that. Barnard gives NO merit aid.
The family will be expected to pay their family contribution.
I may be beating a dead horse here, and am late to the party, but outside of UT I am not sure how you are going to afford most of her list.
Your EFC alone is 41k. If she is applying to FAFSA only schools, it will stay that way as they only care about your income. But 41k isn’t affordable AND schools do not guarantee to make up the difference even if they are FAFSA only, unless they say they are a 100% meet needs school. The problem is, most schools in that category are not FAFSA only, they want the CSS PROFILE.
Schools that use CSS PROFILE care what dad makes and is most of your list. Doesn’t matter that he will contribute $0, the schools will determine what he can pay and will expect him to regardless of whether he will or not. If he makes anything, your EFC will be greater than 41K. If either of you have real estate, retirement savings, other investments, those will count as well. You could well be looking at full price at any college in the country. And that’s true with 3 kids and a sick mom. Unless the dad has all 3 kids in college at the same time as your D (which would help) it’s not going to matter a whole lot. Trust me on that one, we certainly can’t afford our EFC either but the formulas are what they are. it wasn’t fun to learn but it definitely changed our application strategy for all 4 of our kids.
The ONLY way you will reduce your cost is to find schools where your D is either in state or is a candidate for merit monies. Most of your list does not offer merit scholarships. OR they are very competitive. To be competitive for those scholarships your D needs to be in the top 75th percent. Not just admissible and a good candidate, but a top top candidate. Which, as compelling as she is (and she is), she isn’t going to be at a lot of the schools on your list.
I really implore you to look VERY closely at each of your schools’ websites and their common data sets to understand the chance of merit aid at every single one (if they even offer it). I would also consider the fact that she doesn’t have much of a relationship with dad now (and his 3 other kids?) but you are considering leveraging that for an instate advantage. That means all mail, etc, everything goes there. She will have to be there to some degree. Is that something she is really comfortable with? If you drop down a notch and get over the “prestige” factor that you seem to be chasing there are a ton of really really good schools that will give your D merit, or publics that have honors colleges and will give her merit. Right now it looks like you have 3 likely financial options Bing, UT and Howard.
It’s 11/17. Where has she applied to date? Did she apply ED to Bowdoin? I don’t see how that is going to be an affordable option as there is zero merit aid offered, which will mean heartbreak if she gets in and you can’t afford it. I’ll be honest, your list scares me to death. This seems to be the list pre 11/15, you’ve had a ton of feedback here, I think folks would appreciate it if you updated as you may find yourself needing to look at RD rounds for affordable schools that are a notch down but will compete to have your D, versus your D competing just for a seat at the table.
- Amherst
- Bates
- Bowdoin
- Barnard
- Brown
- Carnegie Mellon
- Dartmouth
- Duke
- Harvard
- Howard
- NYU
- SUNY Binghamton
- Rice
- Tufts
- UT Austin
- Vassar
Good luck!
I would suggest she is a strong candidate at nearly all schools. Thousands of strong candidates are rejected and waitlisted every year. So perspective is key. Fit is so very important. And I wouldn’t sweat test score averages at test optional schools. It would seem that only the strongest scores are self reported. Can’t report something that’s not submitted. But for example it is very northern and very cold for a good part of the year. Would your daughter thrive. Just because the expensive Jimmie Choi shoes are considered elite if they don’t fit well what’s the point. It just becomes a painful and expensive decision.
Fit includes affordability. To be honest, this is a time in their lives when you cement your relationship before they embark on their own lives. Better to be able to enjoy your relationship than pay 41k+ (plus the Dad portion, which he may not cough up,) than cut back on everything else. She has other options.
My daughter was notified of her admission to Amherst today!
@salma45 I have been wondering about your daughter’s story and how it might end…this is wonderful news!!! ?
Congratulations!!!
I am so happy to hear this news, congratulations!!
Congrats!!! Great news!
Congratulations to her, @salma45!