This is a topic I haven’t seen on CC before. My D is a senior, my first to go to college, and wants to study geology. We have a list of schools she is interested in, many of which I have learned a lot about on this forum. My concern is that she wants a specific school - University of Texas Austin (likes hydrology program) but we are OOS NY residents. I know she will probably not get any merit money if she does get in, and that would be a deal breaker. Also on her list is SUNY Geneseo, Oneonta (she likes the water resources program) Juniata (we visited I loved it. Town was kinda dull and near a jail), Tulane, St Lawrence, Furman, UVM. Guilford College came up with very good merit aid, but it seems like it’s on a downswing. She is not leaning towards anything right now except Texas. I’ve run the NPC calculators on some of these schools and they came up with some very generous merit aid. My thing is, it seems like many of these schools will be absolute negatives because they will be too expensive. So, my question is, how many schools should she apply to if I am pretty certain they will be too expensive. I also like Denison University. It seems like a great school for geology, but she doesn’t care to go to Ohio. And, merit aid is good. I don’t think she is sure what type of school is right for her right now, so the schools listed are small, midsize and large (Texas) She likes Texas because it seems like a small school even though it’s really big. I helped her choose the schools because they all have high retention rates (except Guilford) and have good geology programs.
If anybody could help clear up some of my confusion, I’d appreciate it.
Her stats are 93.5 weighted GPA, SAT 590CR 680M 630CR 29 ACT. She will be retaking both soon. She has taken a few honors, SUPA and AP classes.