problem is that my parents won’t tell me … for now. they think I have better things to worry about (which may be true as i’m working on a research paper).
and I absolutely understand this. i think i’m casting my net fairly widely already but I know the match is never a guarantee and it’s so incredibly selective. finances are definitely at the forefront of my mind, i’m just not going to choose a less selective school that I dislike simply because I have a better chance at money.
hmmm - W&L is one of the most selective schools in the country.
and you need your parents to fill in the NPC…not you. So they only need to tell you what they will contribute - and what you can afford. In other words, if they can afford $80K a year but will only contribute $20K, that’s your answer.
If an $80K school like Rice says they have to pay $20K and they agree, then you can look at $80K.
Many a kids ends up at a less selective school because it’s what they can afford.
OP is QB eligible*. While income and assets are unknown, we talking EFC 0 to EFC 5,000, roughly, and income under 65-70k + either renting or owning the lowest cost house, and no investments.
OP’s problem would be if parents say they can pay zero and the NPC indicates 7,000, for instance.
(*based on all threads posted. Students rarely assume they’re QB eligible so until proven otherwise let’s assume OP didn’t just randomly decide she is).
W&L’s Johnson is great if you need merit money, but in terms of FA it’s just like other meet-need universities which are a better fit for OP.
@harrypottereatspie
First things first though: have your parents run the NPC on UCD and UCSC, as well as on several CSUs. Even if they don’t want to share details of their finances, they should be able to tell whether those are ok financially, from their income and savings, without any debt.
A post was split to a new thread: Chance Me!
less selective, as in relatively less selective than most schools on the qb app. and as previously mentioned, I am QB eligible (this is confirmed as I received QB CPS). also my parents are not willing to fill in the NPC at this time. I’ve tried my best and I believe it’s through no fault of my own that they haven’t yet run them / given me the numbers to run them. but with my numbers (some confirmed to be accurate, some ballpark guesses) my efc is around 2k with 2020 numbers. with 2019 numbers it’s less accurate but around 700. so my concern is not finding a full need met school that also provides merit. with qb I don’t think that’s what I need to worry about. ofc I am not saying I will not apply for outside scholarships, I mean that full ride scholarships will provide stability in aid for me but a) probably will not cover much more than having my full need met and/or b) if I get matched in qb, it would serve the same purpose at a school I like better.
if I were to choose between full need met w&l or full need met [insert more selective school here that I am actually willing to rank / apply to] I am discarding w&l immediately. with all due respect I am not considering w&l in the slightest for multiple factors, most of which are deal breakers for me.
ive actually asked them to run it themselves, but they say “I should focus on other things first”. I don’t blame them bc I do have other things to worry about so I’ll just wait until the end of August when said things are done and over.
Most, maybe all, of the QB partner schools will not stack outside scholarships. What that means is that when you turn over any check for outside scholarships to your school (typical policy), the school will decrease your FA dollar for dollar for the amount of the scholarship. So, you are in exactly the same place as you were before spending the not insignificant time applying for scholarships. Some schools will apply outside scholarships to student loans and/or work-study first, which is beneficial.
Bottom line, most selective schools don’t stack scholarships. Look on the schools’ websites to make sure you know their policies before spending time applying for outside scholarships.
Lastly, regarding your parents and communication about budget and FA forms, do tell them they should file FAFSA and CSS Profile as soon as they open on Oct 1, so they have time to pull all their records.
Many allow limited stacking up to the student contribution (student loan plus expected student work earnings).
You focusing on other things does not preclude them from focusing on financial planning, college net price calculators, FAFSA, and CSS Profile while you are focusing on other things.
That’s seems like an overly complicated system, and one which will often be outdated as policies can and do change. (not to mention links)
I consider full stacking to mean the school does NOT reduce institutional aid for external scholarships. Not by one dollar. There are schools that do that. But we are off topic.
Bottom line, as I told OP, research is necessary to make sure applying for external scholarships makes sense from time/benefit perspective.
However, the point is that it is not all (full stacking) or nothing (no stacking), as is the common conventional wisdom on these forums. For many colleges, outside scholarships will have value up to typical student contribution (student work + student loan) limits, or about $4k to $10k, but then have no value beyond that (unless the scholarship exceeds student contribution + financial aid grants).
I agree there are different gradations and methodologies of FA stacking policies….which i did note in my post. Important for OP to do research prior to applying for any outside scholarships, which was and continues to be my point.
But still interested in Arizona or ASU? Both of those schools give the French Quarter a run for its money.
i made this thread a very long time ago. i ended up not applying to U of A or ASU.
Where did you apply?
I ended up applying to Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, UPenn, Carnegie Mellon (my dad’s choice. probably my last choice school but I only acquiesced because the polisci major was International Relations and Politics which seemed interesting.), Tufts, BU, UNC-CH, WashU, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCSD, UCSB, U of Washington.
Any decisions? That’s a heavy list of schools…so none underneath?
no decisions yet, I ended up not getting questbridge so the turnaround time to apply early was too short for me to be comfortable.
Looking at your #s - I can see UW and UCD happening but not 100%. It’s not to say others won’t but to me, if I take the info from message one, they’re reaches. So I think you hit reaches, I think you have some targets mixed in (I think - i.e. UW) but definitely no safeties and not really enough targets.
4 GPA, 4.33, 1470 SAT (for non UCs).
Of course, you have a fantastic resume so hopefully it works out - and if not, there are still schools you can get into worst case - one you declined to apply - Arizona.
But hopefully it doesn’t get to that.
It’s too late now - but I would question some of the choices - like UW. and CMU (yes, I read your dad).
You should have only applied to schools that will 100% meet need given your income situation (i.e. QB applicant).
Good luck.
my resume has gotten much better since I made that post honestly. I retook the SAT and I now have a 1520 (760 both sections). I got all 5s on my AP exams for junior year (so AP Scholar but I didn’t put it in awards in favor of something else.)
I also participated in a research program and wrote a research paper about the misrepresentation of Asian-American history in US history textbooks – I talk a lot about it in my applications tbh. I know I put Girls’ State and newspaper in my original post and yes, it went through as planned. For my debate positions, I ended up being event co-captain, JV chair, and publicity chair. This is much lower in my list, but I got into the Stanford Daily winter journalism program and wrote some blog posts for them and an article (didn’t mention this for UC apps since it took place after submission). I didn’t think to put this until my UC apps but I participated in National History Day and competed regionally. So I did not put Link Crew and Key Club on my application.
In terms of awards, I got National Merit Semifinalist, Gates Scholarship Semi-Finalist, and a Silver Medal from the Harvard International Review for my research paper. I kept QB CPS and my Gold Key on the app, and took the other two off.
I know my list is very very very reach heavy but honestly, I feel quite good about myself. I know I won’t get into college simply based on vibes but our school sends a good number of kids to UCSD, and I’ll be happy there. I’m definitely a high achiever within my class and I feel hopeful. UW is definitely not a financial safety and again, I feel like I’m fine with it as a school and I applied for my dad. CMU met almost 100% so I should be good on the financial front, the NPC was satisfactory. I am not too keen on the school is the thing. Overall, thank you so much for your input!