<p>Asian kid applying to following collges in History/economics/Political science. Kid has all the necessary SAT/SAT II/AP/RANk and ECs. he has many Natioal level awrds. he attends a elite prep school in newengland on full financial aid. We are looking for following schools: </p>
<p>Looking for full financial aid or merit based aid at the schools. We have to selct only 2 or 3 out of this group so need other parents help. </p>
<p>DUKE
UNC
UVA
U Chicago
WUSTL
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>I think that since your son is at an exclusive New England prep, you'll get far better guidance from his counselors than you would here from parents who don't know your son or his school, and lack the connections that your son's counselors have.</p>
<p>You can, however, probably glean some helpful info by looking on the boards here at CC related to the colleges that you list, and by checking CC's archives and also reviewing the colleges' web sites.</p>
<p>The info that you listed here about your son also is too vague for anyone to be able to give you advice that would be helpful. Also Google to find out information about students who won top merit aid at the schools that you mention.</p>
<p>Remember, that most students who apply to such colleges have the stats to be accepted. Students have to be outstanding in an already outstanding pool of students in order to get merit aid at the schools that you mention, and they also have to have something that would add to the well roundedness of the class.</p>
<p>Northstarmom:</p>
<p>I am trying to hide his identity as much as possible. Actually, his counselor has told him to select only two or three out of these schools. Counselor thinks he has chances in all his school and these schools may be likely (I am not going to defend it). Therefore, my kid need help to select few of these schools. Student has all necessary SAT I and SAT IIs - 800s. He has the toughest course load and has good achievements grades. He is involved in extracurricular activities inside and outside the school and is recognized in many activities beyond school. He is also a JKC young scholar. This summer he is invited to an exclusive summer program which only top high school juniors are invited. This summer program is the most coveted on the CC forum and is free summer program. </p>
<p>The real question is what are good colleges? In addition, what will be ranking of the program with emphasis in history/economics/political science? Since these school offer merit aid so he is looking closely. We would like to travel to these schools and trying to find the once which will be attractive based on some initial feedback.</p>
<p>Is he applying to other schools not listed here. Why must he limit to only 2 or 3?</p>
<p>also the feedback from colleges will be much more helpful, i think it is kind of hard to give you advice.</p>
<p>Duke, U Chicago, WUSTL ,for example, are all good schools but each would offer a quite different academic-social-campus experience. Your child should explore "campus culture" at each school and try to determine where he would fit best, be happiest, this might help him to write an essay/ respond at an interview in a way that convinces the school that he is right for them and deserves merit aid. Maybe he could contact alums from his prep school who have recently been to these schools for some info. Might also be wise to focus on those schools with relatively fewer Asian students who are trying to become more diverse--not those where Asians are clearly over-represented.</p>
<p>Since you are looking for large FA amounts, check out which schools have that. Our experience, and many of the parents I talked with at admitted students' weekend at UCh was that they don't give great FA. They have some merit awards, but they are few and far between. The adcom that led the parent's tour said that they had lost lots of kids in the past to other schools with larger endowments. They are working on increasing their endowment, but thier target date is 4 years from now. Check the other schools. I have heard good things about Duke and that you can negotiate with them about money, right, berurah? And I don't understand why he has to pick only 2-3 of the schools. I think if he is interested in them he should apply to all, then compare their FA packages.</p>
<p>If he wants history/Econ/Polysci why aren't you looking at good LACs? They might be more generous with aid, especially for an Asian kid. Look at the US News top 20 LACs and then go look at their common data sets and find schools who do not have a large percentage of Asian students. Schools in rural New England (Maine, NH, Vt), schools in the south and in the midwest weren't as "Asian" as schools nearer to population centers and on the coasts. </p>
<p>My D. is Asian and she got in and got $$ at all her midwestern and rural schools and got waitlisted in CA--just one datapoint, but there are a lot of schools out there who are not as sought after by Asian kids yet. Look at Middlebury, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, McAlester, Carleton, Williams, Swarthmore, etc. If those are diverse, go down a notch and look at the next 10 on the US News list. Then look at whether the school is a fit for your son.</p>
<p>when you are talking about the prestigious summer program -- are you referring to TASP?</p>
<p>As far as picking schools -- i think you need to take the financial aid into consideration. When you say that he attends on full financial aid, my assumption is that you will have a low EFC.</p>
<p>is your son a us citizen or will he be applying as an international? That makes all the difference in the world.</p>
<p>also -- with top stats, courses, etc, etc -- is he just not interested in the Ivies?? if your income is low enough, they are generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>I echo what Mombot said; your son needs to consider whether he wants to attend a school with a large Asian population or whether he has other priorities (that are more important to him).</p>
<p>Yes, we have low EFC. In past he has received scholarships (fin aid + essay competitions) worth $175,000 during his high school. In addition, he has received more than $5000 for Colleges. Based on financial need, the school which offer merit or need based aid would automatically be prime place to matriculate. The most important factor is full financial aid or merit aid with a top school. This criterion is probably most important to family. Second factor is excellent program in history/economics/IR (student prime factor). Rests of the issues are not big factors to my kid and we have no issue with those things as it is upto him. We are US citizen. Thus, my kid will be applying as domestic applicant. For us $$$$$$ is the main issue followed by good history/economics/IR program/political science.</p>
<p>He is applying to Ivies. Thus, in order to limit the number of schools, he needs to pick up only few schools, which are matches according to counselor (based on last few years data analysis). Based on his achievements, counselor told that recommendations are going to be excellent. Yes to summer program mentioned here. He will be applying to only one LAC. . Kid does not care about Asian population, as he is very different.</p>
<p>He is very involved in politics and community service with many inside and outside of the school recognitions. He is active in sports, and many extra curricular activities valued by colleges including ivies. His school places 20% student in ivies and 45% in top 30 schools. </p>
<p>Since college admission is a lottery, thus he is applying to many varied schools to protect himself. We have to work on the matches school very carefully as $$$$$ become very big issue.</p>
<p>Evitajr:</p>
<p>Are you saying the U Chiacgo is not generous. We have alreday recived applicantions with full aid from few schools as they have nominated my kid. But big question is will the money be there as this will be very competitive. Anyway we have to wait but looks like U Chicago may be out if they lack resources for fin aid.</p>
<p>DUKE
UNC
UVA
U Chicago
WUSTL
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Which of these school has least asian population. And how about the endowment sizes</p>
<p>I know a couple of students who wanted to go to Chicago, got in, but didn't get the aid that they needed. I also know two people whose sons got into Chicago with merit aid. Both were males f and had stellar ECs, etc., but I know another male from the same city who got into Harvard (and now goes there), but didn't get the aid that he needed (wanted?) from Chicago. I also know a girl who got a top scholarship at U Penn., but got no merit aid from Chicago.</p>
<p>Hmm U chicago looks like may be loosing appeal, but kids decsion will be final as we have to educate ourselves.</p>
<p>Thanks nortstarmom :)</p>
<p>collegein07: go to google and enter "Duke common data set" to pull up the common data set for Duke. Do that for each school you are interested in. There is a table in the data set that gives full stats on the entering classes, by SAT, by GPA, by ethnicity and by any other measure you care to find. </p>
<p>I think you are making a big mistake--a mistake many Asian parents make by the way--by insisting only on Ivies or nationally ranked universities. Your son will have two advantages if he goes to a liberal arts school: being male and being Asian, both of which are actually slight disadvantages at the big national schools. </p>
<p>Liberal arts schools are going to be a better choice for a student seeking a degree in the fields your son is interested in. Another possibility I did not see on your list is Georgetown, which is strong in his fields of interest. </p>
<p>Is he preparing for law school or for some other career?</p>
<p>Mombot:</p>
<p>Without question, he is applying to georgetown. Since Georgetown is nedd based I did not include it on the list. </p>
<p>The list is prepared by the GC and kid at the school. Kid does not want to apply to LACs as he was not happy being there in summer programs. To me Williams and Amhrest are really good places and somehow was able to convince my son to apply one of the schools. My only criterion in this game is applying to fin aid based schools. Son left for prep school even though we were not in this favor. But son has made all the decions in life. I just want to make sure wherever he gets in, he gets fin aid.</p>
<p>When I spoke to GC he told me that kid's profile is very strong and he did mention many ivies as matches. I was concerned about this high profile list, but when GCe showed the last five years data, I could not say anything. Kid has intenships all over the plcaes. So I am trying my son to apply some places where he will be intelectully challeneged and will be offred money with aid. </p>
<p>He will be going to law school as he has done extensive internships in this field.</p>
<p>This is the reason, I am on CC to educate myself and my kid as I am sure that the admission is a lottery. But his tecahers and GCs are telling me not to short change the kid. let us see.</p>
<p>mombot:</p>
<p>is there a way to know if school uses IM method or federal metod to claculate the ned based aid?</p>
<p>Which of these schools use FM or IM for need based aid</p>
<p>Georgetown
DUKE
UNC
UVA
U Chicago
WUSTL
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>hi collegein07,</p>
<p>It sounds like you and your son really have it together. He sounds like a great kid who will definitely make it in to a top school, but you are right -- it is a lottery!</p>
<p>Since he needs financial aid, you are right to focus on school that will provide either generous need based aid or generous merit aid. No sense in applying and getting accepted to a school that you can't pay for.</p>
<p>To get some of the info you are looking for (including whether they take the profile -- which indicates that they use the IM method) go to <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a> and enter the name of the college in the "college quickfind" box. click on financial aid and scroll down. you should see some of the info.</p>
<p>at duke, make sure he is considering the robertson scholarship <a href="http://www.robertsonscholars.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.robertsonscholars.org/</a> and if he is at all considering University of Virginia -- have him check out the Jefferson scholars program <a href="http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/</a></p>