<p>We are having a hard time making a list for our rising senior because of unaffordable EFC. It came up in the mid-40K on a few NPC. We can pay up to 25K/per year. Academic matches are out of financial reach. It looks like we will be full pay at a state school which is OK, but it would be nice to have a few different schools to choose from. </p>
<p>The student:</p>
<p>White male from a large public HS, New York state
GPA about 98 unw, school does not rank, but GC told me he will be in top 2-5%
SAT: 2140 superscore (1390 M+CR)
SAT subject tests: Bio 730, math 730
AP: US World 5, US History 4, English 5, Bio 4, 4 more APs scheduled in the senior year
National Spanish exam gold medal x 3
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gold medal = 15K x 4 = 60K for 4 years
2 summers of full-time lab research
State University credits
Good EC, sports, music
Not a party person</p>
<p>The school preference:</p>
<p>Major in Biochemistry/molecular biology etc, continue to med. school
Middle to large school in urban or suburban setting, not a commuter school, no LAC, strong in science
Location: within 300-400 miles from home (Long Island)
Research opportunities/internships for undergrads, clubs, student involvement and unity </p>
<p>The list:</p>
<p>HY (the dream I will let him apply)
Macaulay Honors (the high reach)
Northeastern (target)
Boston University (target)
UPitt (target)
Tufts (target)
Stony Brook University (safety) commuter school</p>
<p>The schools with a lot of merit aid are not in our region. Unless he gets close to a full ride, we cant afford these targets; also need more safety ideas. We would like to apply to at least 10 schools.</p>
<p>However, you may have to relax the distance restriction for many of the schools listed in the above threads.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The “target” schools need to be reclassified as “reaches” if the large enough scholarships are reach-level (admission without enough scholarships or financial aid would be the same as a rejection). If they do not have sufficient financial aid and do not have any large enough scholarships, they are out of reach and should be removed from the list.</p>
<p>He took SAT twice, not retesting. I have to check on the single sitting, don’t remember.
The region is a must, but it is a pretty large region, within 6-8 hour drive: NY, NJ, CT, MA, RI, NH, Maryland, DE, DC, PA. What do you think his chances are with his list and what other schools he should be looking at? Any safeties?</p>
<p>Tufts will be unaffordable due to no merit aid and it is more of a reach given the 18.7% acceptance rate this year.
How about adding Case Western, Brandeis, U.Rochester, WPI? Why isn’t RPI on your list? It is conceivable they may offer merit aid above award he was already offered.</p>
<p>Howard is in DC and has an automatic full tuition plus room (but not food or books) scholarship for his stats. So that counts as a safety if you can afford the food, books, travel, and miscellaneous costs (but apply early, since the scholarships are first come first served).</p>
<p>the NE geography that you describe may be large, but the NE is poor merit grounds…at least for the amounts that you want for the given stats. </p>
<p>I suspect that because the NE also has high NMSF cutoffs, the issue is that the area just has too many very high stats kids, so too many would qualify for merit at the 1390 M+CR range.</p>
<p>If your son is interested in Historically Black schools or unranked schools, there may be more options in the NE. However, be aware that the lower the rank, the more likely the school is a commuter/suitcase, so your child could be alone at night or weekends.</p>
<p>If a 6-8 hour drive is ok, why not a few hour plane ride? If the resulting cost is low enough, it would more than pay for a few extra plane fares.</p>
<p>BeanTownGirl,
Case Western is too far. I did not know that Brandeis would give significant aid, it would be perfect otherwise. Do you think it is worth a try? Rensselaer is not on the list, because son said it is a 72% male school and he is not interested:) I did not push it because of the 62K cost of attendance, 15K won’t make a dent. I will have to check into WPI.</p>
<p>OK, I came home and checked. SAT 1390 is one sitting M+CR. Geographical limits are due to health issues. He had Washington university MO, Vanderbilt, Rice, CWR previously, but decided to take them off the list.
Any other ideas, we can’t come up with 10 schools, pretty demoralizing.</p>
<p>These are fine schools if we can afford them. There are some scholarships listed on their website, but not enough even if he got them. My question is where can we afford to go with this EFC and his stats. Our son knows that he is free to apply wherever, but the buck stops at 25k. He is actually asking us to retire so he can go to a school of his choice.</p>
<p>UConn gave me a 15k scholarship with an 1880 (1280 CR+M) SAT and 93 gpa, so you will probably get much more. Traveling back to long island is also super easy with the ferry.</p>
<p>oh and to respond to Creekland Syracuse still gives merit aid. They gave me a 9k scholarship and admission to the honors college. Even after the scholarship though the school was still pretty expensive.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if merit is based only on Math+CR. Writing matters too. Have you tried the ACT? If you do better on it, you could have more options.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I know a student who went there for pre-med fairly recently, but she had a bit of need based aid too, so I wasn’t sure what their merit aid was like. Sometimes schools can/will get their cost down to instate prices with merit aid. Apparently, Syracuse isn’t one of those.</p>
<p>Would be worth it to take the SATs a third time in case you get those few extra points. Might expand your merit options. In the long terms scheme of things and if he is as motivated as he sounds, it is a small price to pay for a chance at a merit award at Temple or a similar school.</p>