Can you please help with a list of match colleges?

College Search & Selection
21

If you’re eligible for need-based aid, then that will change the picture. Have you run Net Price Calculators for some of your full-need-met private U’s? Start with Cornell: https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/cornell Also see what you get with Rice and Mudd. All three meet full need but the formulas may differ. And even two schools that meet need and show a similar EFC may differ in the extent to which loans are a part of the aid package.

(Note that unless it is one of the most generous “no loan” schools, your daughter’s financial aid package will likely include loans already. So when you propose taking out additional loans to bridge the gap between your EFC and what you can actually afford… that will be additional debt beyond what’s built into her aid. The amount your daughter can borrow in her own name will be limited. Think very, very seriously about your own financial future before taking on parent loans.)

If the NPC produces a number you can afford, then apply away! It’s not a slam-dunk for any of the reach schools but certainly she has a shot.

Likewise, run the NPC for every school you’re considering and see if the need-based aid gets you to your price point. Those OOS publics are not going to give financial aid, though, so you have to figure on the “sticker price” minus any merit… which means my previous statement that they’re not affordable likely stands.

If full-need-met schools work for you, then there are more good possibilities to add, that I didn’t suggest previously. Tufts, USC (as you mentioned), Vanderbilt, Duke, UPenn (but so ED-heavy that it’s almost not worth it to apply RD), Northwestern, WashU, etc.

Some of the merit aid schools I suggested before, like Rochester, CWRU, Northeastern and Tulane, also meet or nearly-meet full documented need. The two types of aid will not “stack,” however - the only way you’ll pay less than the EFC produced by the net price calculator is if the merit scholarship by itself is bigger than your documented need. If you were to get, say, 20K in need-based aid and 20K in merit aid, the merit aid would simply replace the need-based aid and your out-of-pocket would stay the same.

Carnegie Mellon is stingy on aid. You can see what your EFC is there, but they generally do not meet full documented need.

The Wikipedia page on Need-Blind Admissions actually has pretty good information on this topic. Need-blind really does mean that whether you apply for aid is not part of the admissions decision. Even among schools that are need-aware, many do not consider financial need on the first pass - they use a need-blind process to identify the first batch of acceptances, and then favor full-pay applicants in filling the rest of the spots, so as not to exceed their financial aid budget. Look at both the NPC and whatever info is available on the admissions practices of a particular need-aware school. If you were only eligible for a small amount of aid anyway, or if it’s a generous-merit school and you’re willing to bank on merit aid, then you might think about the strategy you suggested of not applying for aid; but if there’s significant financial aid at stake, it’s really better to apply.

Hope that helps! See what the NPC’s say and then you’ll have a lot more clarity on what your strategy should be.

P.S. Michigan State is another terrific STEM school with merit potential, that I should have mentioned earlier.

22

I second the recommendation of Minnesota-Twin Cities for CS. My niece got her degree there and has a great job.

23

aquapt, your explanation was very helpful. Based on what you said, I think it is best to apply early action with financial aid for colleges that have the EA option. During regular decision, it might be best to opt out of financial aid for colleges that we might really like a lot, that is within our 50K budget, and we don’t mind paying in full to increase out chances of getting in during their second pass

24

Hop, Thanks for pointing out to the SMITH STRIDE program…I will take a look at it

25

Just to clarify - by “first pass” I didn’t mean the entire EA/ED cycle - that could possibly be true at some schools but I’ve never heard of a school specifically stating that it is. I mean more that Admissions reviews applications once (in whatever cycle they’re in) and chooses the top group of definite YES’s without regard to financial aid status… but for more borderline applicants, the ones who can pay may be chosen over those who can’t.

I think applying EA wherever you can generally makes sense unless there’s a reason to delay (like needing to put more time into a portfolio or knowing that having fall grades on record first will be important). I think that’s generally independent of whether to apply for aid or not.

At need-blind schools, I would say just apply for aid - you never know what you might get, and there’s no reason not to. At need-aware schools, I can see the argument for running the NPC, and if your out-of-pocket is close to the full pay price, then maybe skip applying for aid and remove that reason for them to put your application aside. (I don’t know whether need-aware sorting is generally analog, by amount of aid needed, or binary, by applying or not… or if this varies from college to college.) On the whole I would say that if you need aid and qualify for it, then apply - it’s not worth sacrificing your financial health for an undetermined amount of possible admissions advantage. But if it’s a small margin, then do what makes you feel best about the process!

26

Public universities OOS are need blind in that they don’t care if you can pay or not since they don’t provide financial aid. They have merit aid (mostly if you have scores in their top 10%) but it’s entirely disconnected from what you need.

27

just wanted to update this thread that my daughter got into one of her reach schools- an out of state public university as a direct CS admit, also an in-state reach school (Cal Poly SLO for CS), and was priority waitlisted at a couple of out of state reach schools… but, it is quite sad that she did not ANY UC schools beyond UCSC and UCR. Was waitlisted at UCSD and UCD (did not opt for UCD waitlist). UCR gave her a big scholarship. She also got into many safeties with generous scholarships. Finally, we decided to pick an OOS school because it has a top CS program… , but it still costs more than UC’s unfortunately.

28

Thank you for updating. I am glad your DD got a direct admit to the program she wants. Those impacted majors have become increasingly difficult to gain admissions. Even knowing that, and the selectivity of the UCs, I’m surprised that she did not get into more UCs. Still, she did gain admissions to the 2, and SLO which appears to be becoming increasingly selective.

I would love it, and it would benefit ever so many on this forum if you share merit awards that she got at various schools. That’s where it’s going these days with college costs so high.

Congratulations to your DD. The school that got her is very lucky. She looks like a good catch to me!

29

Thanks cptofthefthouse. She was offered direct admission to CS in Engg at UIUC (which she accepted…I think her high SAT score and essays helped here because it was very competitive, and unweighted GPA was 3.9 after summer school with 11 AP’s by the end of senior year and maxing out on math and physics courses offered at school), but no scholarships were offered and it will cost about 50K per year compared to 35K at the UC’s. SLO admitted directly to CS, but no scholarships again but costs only 30K per year as in-state for us.

She also was accepted to UDUB (undeclared), UNC, and CMU priority waitlisted for CS and asked for an additional essay last week(but we did not submit because of very little aid like 6K or so). We accepted waitlist at UCSD, but will not go if she does not get direct admit to CS.

She was denied at Cornell, RICE, USC and most UC’s.

UCR offered 10K per year, UCSC regents, Colorado school of mines offered a lot (like approximately 20K merit money) and its net price would be same as UC, 26K at WPI, full ride at Arizona Barett ( because National merit finalist) and Texas Dallas, NC state also offered some …and these were all direct to CS admits.

30

Have you looked at Olin in Massachusetts? It currently offers all accepted students a half tuition scholarship so it runs about $45k. It’s a very small school with a project based learning curriculum. Roughly 380 in campus students at any time. Quite a few students are taking leave of absences to do extended internships or just additional internships. Lots of research opportunities. Worth checking out

31

Congratulations to your family! There are so many surprises in this process, and the entire landscape of college admission + costs is changing very quickly. It seems quite unstable, but this is the moment we live in. Happy to know that your daughter got positive results!