College Strategy - Not looking at Reach, Stretch or Safety

Parent Cafe
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My son is a junior. He’s a good student in a G&T program in a magnet high school. He is not tippy top, but has a 3.7 UW GPA and a 4.2 GPA. His junior course load is AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Lang/Comp, AP European History, Honors Health Sciences, Honors Computer programming. Next year all of his core classes are AP. He’s already completed AP Bio, AP US History, and AP World History during his Sophomore years. He has a 34 ACT. He is interested in biomedical engineering, and his long term goal is to run a research lab in that field one day. He knows that he’s looking at minimum of a masters, and likely needing a PhD one day.

We started talking to him about college and finances very early in the process, and we let him know what the budget was for his education. We also showed him our EFC, and how the net price calculators work. There is money for his education, but it’s only about a third of what the EFC thinks it should be.

Things that became very clear to him early on:

Reach schools are NOT within our financial means whatsoever. If he were to be accepted, he could not go. Period. These schools were taken off the plate during his freshman year of high school - no sense even thinking about them. “Yes, kids from your school got full scholarships.” “Yes, other kids’ parents sent them there.” “Here’s why it can’t work for you.” Tough message - but I’m glad we got it out there early.

Stretch schools are possible ONLY if he were to get one of the highly competitive scholarships. This is highly unlikely for him, as he is not one of the tippy top kids, is not heavily involved in clubs and ECs. He is on the wrestling team, and is part of a club. He is a laid back kid, but he also has ADHD. He needs to focus his time appropriately to stay on top of what is important. He’s doing that and doing it well. He knows what he’s good at and he narrows his attentions to the critical things. Worrying about trying to stay on top of the heap isn’t right for him, so he understands that these competitive scholarships are likely not in the cards. He’s good with that.

His only options are safeties - and this is just fine. His grades and test scores and hard work through high school DO matter. He will qualify for good merit scholarships. He’s got several good options for schools that we can afford for his undergraduate degree. He will almost certainly be invited to the honors programs in those colleges. Anything else he does is all up to him at that point.

He’ll come out with either very little or no debt for his undergraduate education. If he works hard and does well at his safety schools (which are good schools btw), he can seek prestige for graduate school if he feels that is necessary.

The moral of this long tail is that being very honest with our son about finances very early on has been very beneficial to him. He is not the least bit disappointed with his college options. He’s really excited about the college visits we have lined up in April. When people ask him about where he wants to go to school, I’m so proud when he says, “Honestly, I’m just excited that I’ll be going to college! I haven’t decided yet.” It’s not about the prestige - it’s about the learning and education for him.

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Forgive my grammar and spelling mistakes - tail is tale.

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What is the net price you can afford?

Have you run the Net Price Calculators on colleges of interest?

Have you checked on automatic scholarships on http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ or the more updated http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2006094-2017-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest

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Bopper - yes, we are all set with what we can afford and have several good options lined up for him. College Confidential was a big help for us in finding the schools that fit our budget. (We have about $20K per year available for him, plus his $5,500 student loan). He’s got some great options in that range with his grades and test scores.

What the budget doesn’t allow is our state flagship (UIUC), most private colleges, or any schools that offer only need based aid.

I tried to do for my son what my parents DIDN’T do for me. I found out that I couldn’t go to any of the schools I worked toward until April of my senior year. I hurriedly applied for our state college and had to commute there. I was miserable, depressed and isolated, as all my friends went away to school, and my college campus had few freshman commuters. I vowed that my kids would never be in that boat!

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Parenting A+. :slight_smile: It makes me sad to read about last minute discoveries of reach schools not being a financial option and people doing mental gymnastics trying to make it work. Elite schools are also elite because of their price tags. Way to be on top of it. I have a junior and I feel like we are behind

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Glad you acknowledged the elephant in the room (budgetary limits) early. It makes things much easier.

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Wouldn’t reach/match/safety be based on FA/scholarships, not just admission?

For those whom need-based FA will not be enough:

safety = assured admission and assured affordability (list price low enough, or automatic scholarships make the net price low enough)
match = earning the necessary scholarship is match level
reach = earning the necessary scholarship is reach level (most competitive scholarships should be treated as reaches)

It is possible that all of the above could be safety for admission only, but some may not be safety for the necessary scholarships.

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ucbalumnus - From what I’ve seen in our local schools, teachers and guidance counselors are using “reach/stretch/safety” more about the odds of admission based on the student’s stats rather than whether or not the family can afford the college. In my view, the most important factor is the affordability one. Many, many parents and students are not realistic about their prospects. Schools are sending loads of brochures touting their affordability and the fact that they meet 100% of demonstrated need and how they have 0 loan policies. This is a rabbit hole for so many people. I can’t tell you how many parents of juniors who still have no idea how any of this works and absolutely believe the hyperbole of the material they see in the mail. Many look at the big scholarships offered by the private schools and think they are all set, only to find out that even with 50% off of tuition, the remainder is still $40K per year. Our state schools offer merit scholarships - many parents assume their top students will get one. They don’t read the fine print that says the merit scholarships are both need based AND diversity based. So even if you have financial need, if you are not a member of an under represented group, you STILL likely will not receive aid. Our state flagship is a great school - one of the top in the country for engineering - but it’s $37K per year in-state.

My son has received very impressive mail from places like Yale, University of Chicago, Stanford - beautifully printed letters personally addressed to him telling him how great their schools are, how he’d be a good fit. They go on to say how much aid they give, no loans, etc. It’s all a big bunch of hooey. You are either very poor and you get that aid, or your parents are rich and they can afford to pay 100%. One or the other. Every year there are kids posting on here how they got into one of these schools, but now they can’t go. To me, that is the most heartbreakingly sad thing to read of all, even sadder than the kids who dreamed to go there and didn’t get in.

So reach / stretch / match / safety - for us, it’s about what can we afford. Once we narrow down the choices, it’s where he feels he fits the best.

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High-five to you for having those conversations from the beginning. Parenting win. We, too, have a relatively limited list of schools we can afford, and the kids had this explained to them from the beginning, along with showing them how much we’d saved in their college accounts and how much loan payments would be at various borrowing levels.

My oldest went to a college where she was one of the higher stat students, got great merit, scholarships, and lots of attention from her professors, and graduated with much lower debt that most of her peers. She was always happy with her choice during school itself, but now that she’s out in the working world and seeing how her coworkers are suffering under their loan payments, she’s even more grateful that we had these conversations with her early.

With my youngest (also a junior, with several similarities to your son), we’re having the same conversations. He seems to be very happy with his list of affordable options, and I hope that, five years from now, he’ll have the same positive outcomes as his sister.

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Looks like your school’s counselors need to practice saying “Net Price Calculator”.

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We took this strategy as well with our D’s search. She will be attending an affordable (and great) state school with combined merit scholarships that total around $2,500. They are renewable annually and contingent upon a GPA. While we don’t anticipate that she will struggle, one less piece of pressure for her is the need to perform at a level that would make or break a merit scholarship in the tens of thousands of dollars at a private school. If she doesn’t continue to earn the $2,500 merit, fortunately we will be able to cover that amount. I feel a lot more secure being able to afford the full in-state sticker price if necessary – not the case for the full cost of private or most OOS public.

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ucbalumnus - I think they do need to be more mindful of budget, that is for sure. One item to note is that my son is attends a magnet high school that is 76% low income - so most likely the majority of the kids the counselors see will get quite a lot of need based aid. His school does send a fairly large number of students to HPYSM. Many kids are Questbridge scholars. I wasn’t happy that the counselor was encouraging my son to apply at more selective schools because of his stats. The reality is that we can’t afford any of them. I suppose the counselor is thinking that he should take a chance and apply at these selective schools and hope for a scholarship, but in looking at past winners of most of these, he doesn’t stand a chance.

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The kids from low income families still need to check costs carefully, rather than assuming sufficient FA. The best FA schools are often the most selective reach for everyone schools.

Do the counselors know better than to suggest schools like BU, NYU, and most out of state publics?

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@madgemini4 You are so lucky to have affordable in-state options. Our in-state flagship is 4 hours away from us, and is $37K once you factor in room and board, and the other state schools that offer his degree are in danger of either closing or losing accreditation.

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@ucbalumnus I don’t see many kids going to BU or NYU. I do see many going to Stanford, Penn, USC, among others. The Questbridge kids have done really well.

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That’s exactly what we told our daughter, and she’s in the 6th grade. We told her that we’re going to save as much money as we can, but being a mostly one-income family, it’s not going to amount to a big sum of money, possibly enough to cover her tuition and books in-state. Right now her dream is to be a Vet and Texas A&M is the only Vet school in the state, so that’s where she wants to go. She’s already expecting that she will need to work and go to school if she wants to pay for a dorm or apartment, since College Station is 3 hours from our house. If it costs too much, there’s always the option to live at home and go to UTSA.

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@elodyCOH – yes I realize how fortunate we are to live in a state with high-quality, affordable public higher ed. It’s really too bad there’s such a discrepancy between so many of the states. IL’s flagship is not only expensive, isn’t it also pretty selective?

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The more I read, the more grateful I am for the NY State system. Of course, taxes are punishing here in NY so maybe it all evens out.

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@madgemini4:

UIUC is extremely selective for CS, very selective for engineering, selective for business and maybe some other majors, not selective for anything else.

But it is also among the best in the country in CS, engineering, accounting, and a few other majors.

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Sounds like you have done a great service for you son. Do you know based on his PSAT if he will be close for NMSF/NMF? This could open doors for him, everything from a few thousand to full tuition. Most require finalist, but typically over 90% become finalists. A handful of my son’s final list were National Merit College sponsor’s and would give $1,000-$2,000 per year. This along with merit can bring a school’s costs around $25-$30k. And good for your son on his responses! We have found that can be as stressful as the process. Your family will have wonderful options this time next year. Good luck and enjoy and as the year will fly!