hi everybody ! got rejected from my ed1 school (huge reach, not surprised) so i’m looking for my ed2 school.
i’m interested in computer science and likely minoring in something like graphic design or media. here’s some info about me:
demographic:
black female
daughter of two immigrant parents from ethiopia
middle class for my area (100k annually), from a white and asian suburban area in new jersey
1000k students in my high school, 300+ in my class, mostly white and asian, competitive
stats and classes:
unweighted gpa: 3.7120/4.33
weighted gpa: 5.1565/6.0
SAT: 1490 (770 math 730 erw)
all honors classes and some APs:
took 3 years of french
APUSH: A-, 5
WHAP: B+, 5
AP CALC AB: B+, 4
AP LANG: A, TBA
AP STATS: A, TBA
AP CSA: A, TBA
extracurriculars:
9 years of clarinet
3 years of percussion (wind ensemble, highest ensemble)
3 years of marching band (national champions twice) and indoor percussion, pit section leader
president of debate club, board member in esports
1 year of theater
french honors society, tri-m honors society
essays and lors:
not the strongest writer, wrote my college essay about leaving a stem program despite the backlash and actually being able to pursue programming because of it
lors are from my cs and calc teachers
i can get a 3rd optional letter from my band director, but i’m not sure if schools would care about that since i’m not studying music
financial situation:
did the fafsa, efc is 30k and we can pay that comfortably
potential schools:
looking for a school to ed2 that will give me good money and that i can actually get accepted to
options are Boston University, NYU, WashU, Northeastern, and Johns Hopkins
which should i choose for ed2? who will meet need without crazy loans and might actually accept me? i will apply to all the others regular.
my list is super top heavy but honestly i’m not really interested in paying more for a mid-tier school when i have near guaranteed admission to rutgers new brunswick and admitted to rutgers newark.
yes, we did.
all showed around 60k, which doesn’t make sense because all of these schools say that they meet 100% of need (cost of attendance - efc (30k according to fafsa) = financial aid), either through loans or grants. i’m confused as to why this discrepancy exists. here are my sources!
please see my response to ucbalaumnus for the financial situation!
i’m not sure which school i like best. i’m a very versatile person, super extroverted and confident i can make connections wherever i go. if i had to be super nitpicky, washu is a little far and i’m not sure johns hopkins is worth it for cs ( we explored it back in middle school when i wanted to do biomedical engineering lol).
i’m less interested in small preferences and more on picking the school that will 1. accept me and 2. give me a good aid package.
i will hear from rutgers nb in february since i applied early action, pretty confident in getting an acceptance and newark is always there!
These schools calculate what they think your family can pay using CSS Profile, not FAFSA. Your family must have some assets that are increasing their contribution to this degree, do they own a business? real estate? large non-retirement savings?
If you are consistently getting NPC results around $60K that is likely an accurate reflection of what your fin aid package will look like, and then these schools will not be affordable for you…meaning you need to rework your list.
If your family has an income of about $100k per year, and if the NPC shows an expected contribution of $60k per year, then I do not think that I would apply ED2 at all. This would suggest that your family has some assets that the NFCs are considering (we were in a similar situation).
CS is a very employable major. However, I still would try to minimize loans as much as reasonably possible.
I have worked in high tech for my entire career, and have worked with several graduates from Rutgers. There also were several Rutgers graduates in my master’s degree program (at a highly ranked school well known for high tech). All of these Rutgers graduates that I have known have made Rutgers look very good. I will admit that I never knew which campus they had graduated from.
I would be tempted to just go with EA or RD and see what sort of offers you get from various universities. Then you can compare offers and choose the one that is affordable. I think that with your stats you should be able to get into some very good universities.
not at all. i might have to rerun it but all we put is an income around 110k and savings of around 10k. we don’t have a business, real estate, or anything like that so we either made a mistake or the colleges seriously think we can live off 50k a year income? i’ll have to do it again and get back to you. we did it in the summer without the official docs and its possible my dad could’ve inflated some stuff. we will do the css profile soon.
Had you not completed your CSS Profile for your ED1 school? Or did they not require it?
Definitely talk with your parents and re-run the NPCs ( there may also be some possibility you don’t know all the details of your parents’ income). But if you get $60k again in NPCs, I would not apply ED2 to any of those schools.
Living in NJ, $100,000 doesn’t seem like a lot, but FA doesn’t account for COL. My kids with a bit higher stats went OOS by targeting schools where their stats were near the top to get merit, since even with 3 in college we were not eligible for FA. Two went in state (Rutgers NB and TCNJ), no merit, no FA. I don’t know how much a hook URM is at your targeted schools. Both of my NJ graduates got great job offers before graduation (business).
i know i’ll be okay if i go to rutgers nb, but ofc i want to aim a little higher just for the opportunity and experience! if ed2 isn’t plausible then i would just apply to the rest of my schools regular, which is fine by me, but i think would significantly reduce my chances for all of them.
Did you apply to other schools? What’s that list? Have you visited any of the ED2 schools on your list? I’d be reluctant to apply ED2 to a school you haven’t visited? NYU and BU don’t have much of a campus. Is that OK? Northeastern seems to be one of those schools you either love or hate. No in-between. We liked it and Boston is a great college city.
Run the NPC for all the schools that interest you. You need to determine why there’s a discrepancy in EFC’s. CSS and FAFSA use different calculations. Don’t apply ED to any school you can’t afford.
It’s going to be difficult to beat Rutgers for the cost. It’s an excellent CS school.
You could apply to a school like Pitt or similar. Good CS and they do offer some diversity scholarships. They might get the OOS cost down to what Rutgers would cost but it wouldn’t necessarily be an upgrade over Rutgers. I would apply ASAP.
I would think a female URM might move the needle for some schools. It’s RD but I would put Columbia or Cornell ahead of the schools you listed. Might be worth a try? Good luck.
Different approach; from the list above, Northeastern would be the one i would consider the most only because of their Co-op program, which is very helpful in a CS degree. My S went to RIT (which is not a top tier school) because of the opportunity having a co-op gave, and is a currently nicely employed. Also a co-op semester allows you to earn some income along the way.
The FAFSA EFC really isn’t relevant to these schools. The FAFSA doesn’t consider primary home equity. If your parents are divorced, that could explain part of the discrepancy. Do your parents own real estate in addition to your primary residence? Are they self employed or do they own a business?
ETA…I see the above don’t apply to you. Do your parents own your home? Primary home equity might be part of the factor.
Also, make sure the NPCs are completed accurately. Don’t list parent income under student income, for example. I would suggest running them again. If you really have no assets, and an income of $110,000, your family contribution would not likely be $60,000.
So everyone explained why you get a higher NPC than FAFSA.
So if you want to hit $30k, you need to go to a merit school.
So the answer to your question is you shouldn’t apply to any of those ED2 and while you can apply RD in hopes of getting aid to get to $30k, the reality is slim to none that you will be able to afford any on your list.
So you need to, if that’s the goal, change gears and apply to a Hofstra or Bradley (check their NPCs) which will give you a merit estimate or other midsize.
Or a large public like an Alabama which would be under $20k with auto merit, Ms State, WVU or other publics. Check SUNY even though you are out of state as well as PA regionals like West Chester. Perhaps a u of Cincy. And your Rutgers, TCNJ, or Rowan as well as public NJIT for any that you are not late.
When you have a budget but not the need to get you there, you then have to find those that can get you there via merit. If you like LACs, Kalamazoo would likely get you close.
