to see which schools require NCP info…look at the 2nd to the last column in the link. If yes, then required.
If there is a no, the school “may” use its OWN form for NCP info…so a No may not really be a NO.
If you ex hasn’t filed taxes for awhile, then that’s a huge problem. The schools that use NCP info will need to see that he’s filed his taxes.
You won’t get that aid from Mt Holyoke because dad’s info will be required.
Thank you, @intparent - momentary lapse! I forgot that they ended their merit aid!
@ourhouse Similar situation here: Chinese adopted daughter (now a junior) with similar stats (somewhat higher GPA but fewer APs, slightly above average standardized test scores), single parent (though I was divorced long before I adopted her and my other children), lower income (FAFSA EFC of 0). Yes, it’s difficult to find affordable schools other than community college. We too live in a relatively affluent community (we’re one of the poorer families) in which most kids go away to college, so most peers with the same or lower stats will have more options. Thanks for posting.
Try lower tier schools - Stockton and Rowan come to mind.
My daughter (half Chinese, half white) had somewhat similar profile last year - B student with a higher ACT score (31) and, in the end, 9-10 AP classes. We pretty much wrote off the entire mid-Atlantic / northeast region of the US. Too expensive and no to very little merit aid. We could afford up to $30,000 a year and most NE LACs wanted way more than that from us. Is there any possible way for you to stretch the geography a bit? Say, colleges in cities a direct Southwest flight from Newark? D was considered a URM in LACs…in Iowa and the southeast US. But in MD, NJ, PA? Not really.
Work with your daughter to improve her ACT score. If she is able to hit 28-30, her options open up and maybe she has a chance at the schools mentioned in this thread. Connecticut College’s middle 50 percent is 28-31. In our search for merit, D received the best merit aid from schools where the middle 50 percent was more like 24-29, not from schools like Connecticut College where she would have just been at the 75th percentile.
Try the SAT. Although your D’s HS may be pushing the ACT hard due to the changes in the SAT, the reality is that some kid’s brains do better on one than the other. If her test scores really aren’t correlating to her academic performance and ambitions- I’d say try the other test.
The other element I’d open for discussion is the distance. I understand that far away means more costs, but your D’s profile may be more compelling (especially if she can bring up those scores) the further away you get from the Northeast. And if she’s willing to be on a campus without a big Asian presence, her backstory will mean more from an admissions perspective than if she’s looking in the NY Metro area.
Finally- U vs. LAC. Again, open for discussion. Some kids look at the total enrollment of a university and say “nope, too big”. But the presence of a medical school- likely not even sharing a campus- not really relevant to an undergrad. Ditto the law school, graduate business school, divinity school, Ag school, music conservatory. The actual undergrad enrollment of a 10,000 student undergrad U (the entire U might be significantly bigger) may not “feel” so huge. If your D is majoring in French or Classics or Russian History she’s going to be in seminars with 15 kids and a professor regardless of how big the university is.
So you may open up a lot more affordable options if you start to look outside the NY Metro area and drop the size screen.
Juniata for sure and I believe Allegheny also don’t require the CSS Profile; they’re FAFSA-only. If you get the ACT up a couple of points, you might get some decent merit. Also, Juniata is located on the Amtrak line between Pittsburgh and New York, so that may help with ease of travel.
She should try both the ACT and SAT. Higher scores can increase options of colleges and scholarships.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
It looks like your maximum parental contribution is at least $9,000 but less then $30,000 (based on reply #11).
Not sure how, as a NJ resident, you got a net price of $37,000 ($30,000 parent contribution + $7,000 student loan) at Rutgers when the NJ resident list price is $25,710 (living on-campus) of billed costs and about $5,000 of other costs (books and personal expenses – obviously quite variable from one student to another).
I’m not sure how Montclair and Rutgers could be as expensive as you mentioned in post 11 ($7000 plus $30000 would be $37000). Montclair’s instate tuition is less than $12000 and room and board less than $14000. Rutgers would be slightly more expensive. They may still be unaffordable, but would be less than your calculations. I agree with suggestion to look into other state schools, as well as privates that are FAFSA-only. Both Allegheny and Juniata are excellent schools. My adult daughter teaches at Allegheny and has been impressed with the quality of her students.
I will just mention one school that my daughter applied to. It’s not within driving distance of NJ but it’s a liberal arts college that’s FAFSA-only: Earlham. Try their NPC.
Maybe look at Muhlenberg in Allentown, PA, or Rowan or College of New Jersey (TCNJ) if she is looking for a smaller campus. Or Albright College in Reading, PA? I don’t know about Albright’s merit/financial aid, though.
Loren Pope’s Colleges that Change Lives is a great resource for LACs for the hardworking B+ student.
Otterbein or Denison would be worth a look see.
Check out some of these schools. CTCL
http://ctcl.org/
You might need to be flexible in terms of location in order to find an affordable school.
Try some targeted practices for the ACT. In my experience, just saying “practice” was a waste of time. Target practice to her weak areas on the ACT.
I’m heading where thumper1 is heading. If you are willing to find colleges near airports where you can get her from home to college the midwest is a good place to look. Many are closer to $40,000 all in than $60,000 in the northeast. Lake Forest is known for good aid and a train ride from the Chicago airport and there are a slew of colleges that would take a B student. Most people can grab a couple points on the composite on an ACT retake and going in with a 26 as opposed to a 24 would be a benefit. Most of the midwest LACs that get mentioned on this forum would be big reaches, but there are dozens of well respected LACs that would take a B student in the midwest and are always looking to add more geographic diversity in their student body. It would depend on how intent you were on the easy plane flights spectrum…places like St. Olaf and such are a ways away from the airport, but there is transport available.
Rollins in Florida out side Orlando might meet the flight criteria.
Westminster in Salt Lake City is quite generous with aid and in an airport city and some of the southern LACs are generous with merit money.
Closer to your home maybe look at Colby-Sawyer in New Hampshire, McDaniel in Maryland, and for a reach Trinity has been fairly generous with merit money to attract students lately.
Sit down and crunch your numbers very carefully. Re-read the child support agreement so that you know exactly what you and the kids are entitled to, and then take a good long look at Dad’s pattern for payment. You need to know what your worst case scenario is. Could it be that all your daughter will have is a student loan of $5,500 for her freshman year plus whatever she can make with a summer job? If that is the situation, then she needs to know about it so she can make appropriate plans. Maybe she can pull her ACT/SAT score up into the range for merit money. Maybe she can’t and will need to find a commuting distance community college or state U.
The sooner you and your daughter know what the bottom line is, the better.
Yes! to all who pointed out that my estimates for Montclair and Rutgers were high. I was working with too many numbers on one piece of paper.
Rutgers is $31,284. The calculator moves $5500 in assigned and unassigned loans to my D, and the remaining cost is $25,784. $0 in grants.
Montclair is $25,655 and they don’t include books, supplies, expenses, etc in that. Again $5500 comes from loans taken out by my D, leaving $20,155, no grants.
Also, as a newcomer, I wanted to say how pleasant the tone is on this site. Everyone is so straightforward and helpful - I haven’t seen the snark or judgments that color so many list serve discussions. Thank you for your help!.
MHC is test optional, you do not have to submit those ACT scores.
Ramapo College. The cost is only 1K less than Rutgers but average stats are lower and chance of scholarships are higher. Supposedly they practice holistic admissions. Common App and FAFSA only for finaid.
There is still time to improve ACT and even GPA. Tell your daughter that she either put 100% effort into it or community college is in the cards (also not the end of the world).
According to the website in post #26, she does qualify for scholarships at:
University of Arkansas Monticello
Alabama State (HBCU)
Prairie View A & M (HBCU)
@vavoom, MHC is test optional, but likely not affordable due to the non-custodial parent discussed above. Merit is hard to get at most test optional school without providing test scores, too.
Did she take the new PSAT in Fall 2015? Those scores may be somewhat indicative of her performance in the new SAT, if she opts for it. Prep for ACT, as others have advised. If she needs to take a prep class, it may be a worthwhile investment.
Have you crunched numbers for Rowan? They may give more merit aid than Montclair - at least it came out that way for my kid with stats only a bit higher than your D.
You will need enough merit/grants from the private LAC’s so that your net cost is below that of the lowest in-state. And also need the eligibility requirements for their renewal. Have you crunched out the numbers for Drew University? They discount quite a bit, but am not sure whether it will still be low enough.
Last resort: which of the NJ state colleges/unis are within commuting distance for you?