College List Feedback [3.96, 33, "need full aid" with FAFSA EFC = $0]

[AustenNut]

@ShivomP

I added more schools that meet need, but the core is similar.

@ShivomP

The List

Reach:

Georgetown University

Princeton University

Harvard University

Yale University

Brown University

Target:

George Washington University

Fordham University

University of Rochester

Emerson College

Safe:

Catholic University of America

American University

If the above is the core of your list, where would you categorize the meet-need schools that you added?

[Hippobirdy]

I agree, I am puzzled about this list. I am not seeing a target or safety that meets need.

[MYOS1634]

@ShivomP

I’m also guaranteed a paid job for 25% of my undergraduate experience, which I can tolerate.

Then you could add UCincinnati, as long as you apply in September and to all the Honors programs&scholarships you can. They do not meet need but have full tuition and full ride scholarships as well as the oldest co-op program in the nation.

You should add real safeties - Catholic doesn’t meet need (and is a college where a majority attend mass - as many as half the student body every week, etc.)

[thumper1]

Some of your colleges cost $80,000 a year or more. So you are guaranteed a job with take home pay that will cover $20,000 a year in costs to attend? Do you have some assurance that this absolutely will continue for all four years?

[thumper1]

@ShivomP

I do have safeties though-AU, CUA, etc., unlike that fellow. It’s the financial aspect that’s the problem

If they aren’t affordable, they are not safety schools. Safety schools need to be affordable, places where you have a very high chance of acceptance, and places where you would be happy to attend. AU and CUA are likely to be unaffordable as they don’t meet full need for all…and they don’t.

And as noted above, you will need to pay housing, food, books, personal expenses and possibly health insurance where your tuition is covered.

[doomslayer]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Wellesley College meets 100% of financial aid, and with an EFC of 0 you would get a full ride. It is a women’s college, but perhaps that is something you are open to? It is a high reach school but possibly worth a shot.

[Mwfan1921]

@doomslayer

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Wellesley College meets 100% of financial aid, and with an EFC of 0 you would get a full ride.

Not necessarily true. Wellesley uses CSS Profile to determine need, not FAFSA. There can be some very large differences between FAFSA and CSS Profile calculations, especially for families where the parents are divorced, have significant retirement assets, own a business or real estate beyond a primary home (I am not sure any of those things are the case for OP)

I agree OP needs at least one affordable safety school and build the list from there.

[ShivomP]

I mean at Northeastern, via the co-op program.

[ShivomP]

Reach.

[ShivomP]

I have a chronic case of not being a woman, thus removing Wellesley.

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

@DadOfJerseyGirl

@ShivomP

I’m also guaranteed a paid job for 25% of my undergraduate experience

Who’s guaranteeing you a job? And will it pay enough to cover your loans?

@ShivomP

I mean at Northeastern, via the co-op program.

Time for a reality check…

First of all, Northeastern doesn’t guarantee a job. They have a very good career center and strong industry partnerships but it’s up to you to interview and get those jobs. No one is handing you one.

Second, while NEU asks their partners to pay a fair and competitive wage, there is no guaranteed amount. You might get $15/hour, or $30, or anything else. Let’s say you get a generous offer at $30/hour and you work 16 weeks at 40 hours a week. That’s $19,200 before tax. From that you have to deduct your cost of living (rent, food, transportation, utilities, etc) while you’re at the co-op. You’ll do two such co-ops.

Yes, you should have some money left over after the co-op but it’s not as much as you might think it to be.

[AustenNut]

@thumper1

@ShivomP

I do have safeties though-AU, CUA, etc., unlike that fellow. It’s the financial aspect that’s the problem

If they aren’t affordable, they are not safety schools. Safety schools need to be affordable, places where you have a very high chance of acceptance, and places where you would be happy to attend. AU and CUA are likely to be unaffordable

@AustenNut

where would you categorize the meet-need schools that you added?

@ShivomP

Reach.

What are the schools that are extremely likely to accept you AND be affordable for you? Those are two of the necessary qualities for a safety, and I don’t see one on your list. Getting an ROTC scholarship starting your freshman year for full tuition (and possibly more, depending on the college) is not easy.

@ShivomP

in all honesty, I might rather do active duty military for four years than my in-state public

I used a car analogy the other day that some people liked: we’ll see if it makes a difference for you. Maybe you’d love it if you were gifted with a Ferrari (reach) or Lexus (match). But if someone presented you with a Toyota (safety), you’d be perfectly happy and prefer it over the old clunker that leaks whenever it rains and whose only way of cooling off is opening up the windows (manually) and can’t get over 55mph without sounding as though it’s wheezing (college that you will eventually come to terms with needing to attend…i.e. can hardly wait to get out of there via transfer or graduation). That clunker can get you wherever you need to go, but it won’t be an enjoyable experience. Find the Toyotas of the college world for you. Who knows, maybe it will turn into a Toyota Supra and you’d be happier with it than you would with a Lexus sedan.

You indicated either upthread or in your other thread that you have some in-state schools that will be affordable, but the way you’ve described them, they seem like “clunkers” in your eyes. We need to find some schools that are going to work for you where you prefer to spend four years that are extremely likely to admit you AND to be affordable, that you would be satisfied with.

@ShivomP

Thank you! Syracuse and Gustavus will be looked into.

I’ve actually looked into the University of San Francisco before and loved them, but living in San Francisco-well, I’m just not sure.

Would you prefer U. of San Francisco or your in-state public options? Would you prefer living in San Francisco while attending U. of San Francisco or enlisting in the army? Ditto for Syracuse and Gustavus. Although ROTC scholarships are far from sure things, your chance of getting one from one of these institutions is probably far higher than it is to receive one for the schools on your current list.

Right now it feels like you’re only looking for schools that are an A or A+ for a fit for you. Right now, why don’t we try and find a “B” fit? Maybe it’s not going to have everything on your wishlist, but a “B” is still good, and it’s way better than a “D” or “F” fit which seems like that’s how you feel about some of your “safe” options which you don’t even want to have on your list.

[ShivomP]

@Mwfan1921

I agree OP needs at least one affordable safety school and build the list from there.

Thank you.

I used the advice on this thread to rework my list a bit, and your comments were some of the most helpful. I also will most likely recant on my initial plan not to apply to any publics-I made a friend at the University of Utah’s Honors College, whose experience there makes me feel that I could make it happily there and not lose my life goals, which is reassuring. (Honors College has small class sizes, etc.). The University of New Mexico, where my family first lived in the United States, seems to have strong aid options as well and I would be happy to get back to Alburquerque, and, if I am correct, regardless of SCEA/EA applications, I would be allowed to make non-binding applications to both, them being public. Ditto for the University of Vermont, whose ROTC coordinator reached out to me with interest recently.