I suggest talking to your guidance counselor- they will know the stats of other students in your school and how your child compares - they may also have an idea of what students are looking at the schools you’re interested in and how yours compares to them - and can give you realistic choices of where you might gain admission
If you have Naviance at your school, you could check that BUT while Naviance tells you the GPA of other students (and the schools they were admitted to) it doesn’t tell you how many honors or APs the student took - that can be misleading if you compare your 3.7 to someone whose 3.7 is all honors and APs
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@MAmomto4 , Remaining Cost After Financial Aid for Rutgers
$48,983
Do you if they consider in state if we move there?
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I would love to get more information about your son’s gap year. My D is struggling with choices within her financial range, and I am thinking it may be a good opportunity for her to take a year and figure some things out. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
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Our counselors are waste. They don’t provide much other than the local schools.
I’m certainly familiar with that scenario - but if you have Naviance that could help you get a sense of what the other kids from your school are doing and if your child’s stats are comparable to the one’s getting into the schools you’re interested in. What about applying to the siblings school - sometimes there’s a discount for siblings
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I am unsure. I would look at the Rutgers results threads to see what light the data sheds on the situation. Even if your daughter’s GPA is higher due to the high school credits she took in middle school, if her grades show a downward trend and she’s closer to a 3.0 GPA in her most recent terms, I am less optimistic about her chances at state flagships.
Perhaps @DadOfJerseyGirl might have some insight? OP’s D is a junior who doesn’t have any test results yet but has around a 3.74UW GPA, but the GPA is that high because of numerous high school credits earned in middle school. This past term the D had around a 2.86UW GPA. OP is trying to determine what the odds might be like for her D to be accepted to Rutgers, either from OOS or if the family moves to New Jersey.
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Happy to provide details about what he did during his year, if that would be helpful. It sounds like from your post that your daughter isn’t super happy with her financially feasible options this round, and would use the gap year to reapply to different schools? If that’s the case, I can’t shed light on that, or attest to how effective that strategy is. My son applied to colleges during his senior year, and made the commitment to attend one of those schools, and then asked for the school to simply defer hid admission for a year. So, his gap year was just about personal growth, learning to be more independent, etc. and not about using the time to reapply. Not saying that couldn’t be a good strategy! It’s just not what we did. But, it was a great decision!
Hi @AustenNut
Going by the UW/W GPAs mentioned, I think Rutgers New Brunswick will be a target to high target for OP’s daughter for political science depending on what the GPA actually is. Maybe also for economics. Business will be a reach.
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I also think test scores can make a difference, just based on some anecdotal evidence (most students from our high school apply, a lot of my kids’ friends did, it seemed that without a high gpa, those who went TO were rejected, my 3.7 30 act/ 1390 sat son got into the business school, I was actually surprised, but I think submitting scores helped).
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Rutgers Common Dataset says rigor, gpa & test scores are very important.
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Can someone finally tell me what are the safety public/private medium-large size colleges for her then? I am not looking for LAC and also looking for more diverse population.
I am not an admission officer and cannot say with any impression of definiteness that she will be accepted to certain schools. There are a number of schools where I think your daughter would be extremely likely for admittance to, however.
From the schools I mentioned earlier:
I would add:
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Drexel (PA ): About 14k undergrads, 22% Asian. Sticker of around $77k. Doubt this will fall into budget, but Drexel does focus on a co-op model which could mean that your daughter would have more income from working part of the time.
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Georgia State: About 29k undergrads, 15% Asian, and a sticker price of about $38k. Classified as a commuter school, but I’ve heard that’s changing.
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Long Island (NY): About 11k undergrads, 11% Asian. Sticker of around $46k, but I suspect your D would get aid here.
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Montclair State (NJ): About 16k undergrads, 7% Asian. Sticker of around $39k.
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SUNY - Albany: About 13k undergrads, 9% Asian. Sticker around $44k.
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U. of Texas - Dallas: About 21k undergrads, 40% Asian. Sticker around $52k. If she receives even a small merit scholarship, she will probably be granted in-state status for tuition purposes, dropping the price to somewhere around $26-27k.
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Towson (MD): About 18k undergrads, 7% Asian. Sticker around $43k.
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U. at Buffalo (NY): About 21k undergrads, 16% Asian. Sticker around $45k.
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U. of Houston (TX)…this is more of a likely than an extremely likely. 39k undergrads, 24% undergrads. Sticker of around $34k. Again, if she receives a small merit scholarship then most Texas publics (outside of Austin & A&M) will then grant in-state residency for tuition purposes. If that happens, sticker would be about $21k.
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U. of Maryland - Baltimore County: About 11k undergrads, 23% Asian. It appears as though most students in business probably end up switching to the College Park campus, but poli sci and econ are well represented here. Sticker is around $44k.
Among the newest schools I mentioned, I would probably focus more on the public schools than the private ones. Make sure that any “safeties” you have on her list are schools that she is extremely likely to be accepted to, that your family is willing and able to afford, and that she would be happy to attend. People vary from the number of “safeties” they will put on their list…some students’ college lists only have safeties on them! I would select a minimum of two, and then if your daughter wants to try for other schools where her chances are less likely, then she can do so.
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I would add Maryland to the reach category. I know in state kids who were not admitted with similar statistics this cycle.
For pol. science too?
Not sure of exact major, but not STEM. Kids who were admitted to schools like Clemson, UMass oos. Tough year for in state kids at Maryland.
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Thanks. Agreed - UMD is tough for stem majors. But I think it’ll be a target for OP’s daughter given her major. Cost might be an issue though.
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Any sense of what her grades for this final semester of junior year will be - could certainly make a difference between a target and a safety
How many total APs will she have taken by the end of junior year and what’s planned for senior year?
Hello, I did. If you want to move to the Northeast, and you want to have her go in-state, your best bet is to move right after she finishes school this June, to NYS or MA. She will be in-state for tuition one year after you establish residency, so just in time for college. And she’s likely to get into UMass Amherst, or into one of the 4 SUNY flagships, not to mention any of their many other schools. 25K/yr SUNY, 35K/yr UMass Amherst. But I recommend that you don’t. It is extremely hard for a student to adjust, socially, to a new high school entering in 12th grade. You could wind up with a child who is just miserable. Have her go to your in-state flagship, if she can get in, or to one of your other 4 yr public in-state options, if she can’t get into the flagship. You will probably have to pay full tuition at private schools, or full out of state tuition at other publics, and the private schools that she’ll get into with the downward trend just aren’t worth an extra 200K over your in-state public’s cost.
SHE is not obsessing over this. You shouldn’t be, either.
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I would agree with the poster who suggested Temple in PA; Towson in MD and George Mason in VA, also SUNY Albany
You may want to consider undergraduate schools with a law school if your daughter ultimately wants law school (going to the undergrad might help with later admission)
I would also suggest these schools since you seem to be interested in Northeast - these are in NY
St Johns in Queens NY - 17% Asian; tuition ~ $45k; 85% acceptance rate - St Johns also has a law school and offers a combined under grad law degree with Manhattan College
Pace University - NYC campus - 7% asian; ~$48k tuition; 82% acceptance rate - Pace also has a law school and offers a combined undergraduate business degree with JD
Hofstra University- Long Island NY - 13% Asian; ~$53k tuition; 68% acceptance rate - Hofstra also has a law school and offers combined degree program
City University of NY (CUNY) Hunter College - NYC - 21% Asian; ~ $19k tuition; 46% acceptance rate
Rutgers also seemed like it could be a good match and they have a law school as well
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