Regarding “CS and business”, consider what your goals with that combination are.
Note that many in computing who eventually go into management do not have business degrees. It is generally easier and more common to do “general business” work without a business degree than it is to do technical computing work without a CS degree.
It’s not true for most applicants. You were very lucky.
This was true at your daughter’s school but that’s not the case in most places.
I know for kids considering ED some schools will provide a financial pre-read. I’ve not heard of that being an option for non-binding applications. Barring that, what are the OP’s options for determining estimated cost?
OP, since you have an older sibling that has recently graduated college your parents may have a general idea based on that experience, if there have been no significant changes to their income. This may be the basis of their statement to not worry about cost.
Edit: cross-posted with @EconPop
That was the FA policy that the school had in place a few years ago, for everybody. It is very possible that the policy changed, I don’t know. Our financial situation was pretty straightforward, and our income was more than this student.
It’s worth investigating, and if it’s too much they do not have to apply.
What college…perhaps this student should consider this school?
Agree!
UNC- I wrote in one of my posts that they should investigate the cost. This school gave us the best FA of any school (we also had 2 kids in school).
This does NOT mean that UNC (or any school) will do the same for this student- we do not know, and it’s none of my business. All that I am suggesting is that they do their research and find out.
Run each college’s NPC twice, once with income as typical, and once with revenue without deducting business expenses in place of income to account for the possibility of colleges adding back business deductions. This will give an optimistic and pessimistic estimates, with the actual likely being somewhere in between.
This will be a VERY VERY rough estimate.
There are partiers and no partiers at every college. You can find the group you want to hang with anywhere.
I can’t comment on their CS program…I don’t know anything about their CS program.
I think you need to research this yourself rather than take it on hearsay!
With a $150,000 income, three kids in university at the same time including one in medical school, plus a small business, the cost of attendance could be a major issue. Need based financial aid is frequently not kind to people who own small businesses. Most of the small business owners and farmers that I know in the US have needed to attend in-state public universities (the one exception was and still is rich enough that full price for their only child was not an issue). It is possible that your parents have $10,000,000 put away somewhere that you (and we) do not know about, but it is also possible that your parents have not fully figured out what three large tuition payments at the same time for four years will add up to.
Also, since your parents own a small business, the NPC’s are likely to be inaccurate and too optimistic.
The other problem is that sometimes “do not worry about finances” means that the parents or grandparents really do have a big chunk of money put away. Sometimes it means that the parents do not want to think about it.
I think that you should make sure that your parents are fine with spending perhaps as much as $400,000 for your education and $400,000 each for your two siblings educations. If so, then tell us all to forget about the issue. If not, then your parents need to do more thinking about finances.
You have worked very hard in high school and have done very well. This will set you up to be prepared to do very well in university at a very wide range of universities. You will be walking into freshman year classes well prepared. Your hard work and good results up to now are also likely to bring in significant merit aid from some very good schools (but not Cornell). This in turn can help your family a great deal.
Both Auburn and Alabama are very good universities.
OP, one thing I’d suggest you do is to look at career outcomes. For example, Bama CS in 2022 shows an average salary of $80,554. It looks like most placed in the SE but has grades in the NE, West, NW, Texas, Colorado, DC, etc. as you’d assume given tech out there. And had a 96% positive outcome rate - so employed or grad school
The report (power bi) isn’t the easiest to use but they placed everywhere from Amazon to Boeing to Lockheed, etc.
For grad schools - and it’s hard to see - they show cities but Berkeley, Washington, DC, NYC, Urbana Illinois.
Auburn shows an 52% employed, 16% continuing education, and 28% still looking for Spring 22, if I have it right. 47 are employed in Alabama, 18 in GA, and then a handful in CA, Texas, Washington, Colorado, NY, etc. Average of $74k and Median of $70k (edited - I’m looking on my phone and see a different result). i see less “tech” companies but it’s just me identifying with JB Hunt the most employed at six. Amazon, Accenture with two seems most “tech-y” to me with two but also Microsoft two.
Perhaps I’m mis-reading the data (I did CS for Alabama Bachelors and the same for Auburn - both Spring 2022 - so I put the links below. You can look similar for each school.
I also don’t put much stock into these. Today companies hire on linkedin/indeed and I’ve seen it first hand with my kid at Bama - 20 interviews in the Fall and had 5 offers. It happened from Bama but I have no doubt it would happen at Auburn or other schools as well including some listed where parents are saying their kids are also finding the jobs via online resources.
The data seems too “different” so I put the links below. And you can filter as I mentioned. Other schools will have similar reports.
Contact the Financial Aid department and say that you’re considering applying ED, but you want to make sure the school would be affordable with aid before submitting a binding application, and your family has a more complicated situation that might make the NPC results unreliable, so you’re wondering whether a more detailed financial aid pre-read would be possible. Not all schools will do this but many will, and there’s no harm in asking.
I think you have a well balanced list. I can’t see any reason not to add University of Alabama to your list.
I will add…as of this next admissions cycle (those starting college in fall 2024), the FAFSA will no longer take multiple siblings attending college at the same time in the FGSA SAI (what is now called EFC equation). So…keep that in mind. You have a number of colleges on your list that use only the FAFSA.
No one really knows what the Profile Schools will do.
It is worth asking about a pre read. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Your parents will need to provide very complete information for the 2022 tax year for this to be accurate.
I agree about the FA pre read due to the complicated financial situation of this family and the fact that the parents have not provided a number.
I also recommend applying to schools where merit would be a strong possibility.
A word about UNC in order to clarify: when my daughter attended they had a FA policy in place that, quite frankly, left me stunned. I found myself having to clarify multiple times because it didn’t make any sense. We were not a family who qualified for much aid at other colleges, even with 2 kids in school. UNC was unusual compared to these other schools (no other school had this same policy in place). I want to point out that this was a few years ago and it is very possible that the policy changed (I don’t know). Also, most importantly, every family has a different situation and it is important to do your own research.
OP - my daughter graduated HS first in her class, so I understand the pressure to attend “prestigious” schools. She lived it. She also heard on a daily basis- why are you attending a state school? You should be attending a small liberal arts school (for $300,000). Small liberal arts schools are great, but not for her (she would have searched for merit). If UNC did not give her the unusual FA package that they did (it did not match any other school) she would have attended one of the wonderful schools that gave her merit, or she would have attended our excellent state school. We were not in a position to spend $70,000 a year (or whatever it was at the time) on college, especially given the strong likelihood of grad school.
So OP, my recommendation is to start creating a list of merit opportunities. This does not mean excluding the schools that meet need, if they work out for your family.
Keep in mind, for a financial preread that is even close to accurate, this family will need to provide LOTS of accurate numbers to the financial aid department about personal as well as business income. And assets. Will they do that?
My daughters had similar stats to the OP (one B, 33/34 act), and there is no way we could afford any reach schools, but their hard worked helped them get merit at colleges that would’ve been off the table without their stats (not valedictorians, 8th and 10th out of 300). They also started college with strong study and time management skills. One graduated college with a 3.9, the other has a 4.0 going into junior year, both in honors colleges. Prestige is something many can’t afford.
Agree with you, and I have always said that there are very smart kids at all schools.
We were not willing to compromise our retirement, sign loans etc to attend a “prestigious” school, when there were so many other excellent choices.
One thing I feel needs to be highlighted to posters who are going on and on about finances, despite the fact that the OPs parents have apparently said not to worry - the OP has a sibling that will be attending medical school in the fall. That means that these parents went through a search just a few years ago and have been paying tuition for years. They know how much college costs and know what they can afford. These are not parents who are completely ignorant of college costs and how financial aid works. If they say not to worry, I think we can believe them.
The OP can trust but verify with one question like “is $91k per year for college ok?” – a confident “yes” will put all concerns to rest (but other answers may be of concern).