<p>Here’s a list of schools that don’t require SAT/ACT or have a flexible test policy: <a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Optional-Schools-in-U.S.News-Top-Tiers.pdf”>http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Optional-Schools-in-U.S.News-Top-Tiers.pdf</a> </p>
<p>What about the LACs in Ohio. Oberlin, Kenyon or Denison send plenty of kids to med school and reward diversity generously</p>
<p>The Vassar View program is great (and notice that they pay for it). Vassar just topped the list for financial diversity amongst academically competitive colleges.</p>
<p>Also, 76% of Vassar students who applied to med school last year got in. </p>
<p>The Ohio public Us have terrible need-based aid.I’d drop all of them from the list if she needs a full ride or even full tuition. Certainly OSU, not sure what Kent has to offer. Capital was very generous to my S’12. </p>
<p>I agree that the “reaches” should be schools that meet 100% need. </p>
<p>The Ohio publics will not likely meet need, especially the directionals, which rely heavily on loans.</p>
<p>If neither parent graduated from a 4 year college, then she’d be considered first-gen. Some schools such as Hamilton, actively recruit them, so she should fill out the “request info” form ASAP so that she may be invited to a fly-in there (who knows?) Hamilton meets full need (perhaps all in scholarship money + work study, no loans).
<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need</a></p>
<p>If she can retake that ACT (with EFC zero, she’s eligible for ACT fee waivers, as well as SAT/SAT subject fee waivers)
it’d be better - but quite a few minority first gen can get into tippy-top schools (yes, top 25 universities/LACs) if their achievements are exceptional otherwise, even with ACT 27-28. </p>
<p>Can she run the NPCs on Hiram, Allegheny, Wooster, Susquehanna? Those would be good safeties and she’d likely get enough merit money to make those better than Ohio directionals (both financially and educationally). </p>
<p>What about Olin (Boston)? They’re actively looking for girls interested in STEM, especially minority girls. </p>
<p>Look into Muhlenberg as a good match, Skidmore and Dickinson perhaps too, Spelman?</p>
<p>Encourage her to sign up for VassarView: if she’s selected, she’ll get a couple days on a GORGEOUS college campus, all for free.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughtful response. MYS1634! </p>
<p>The part of STEM that interests her is medicine. Not engineering. I think that would rule our Olin.</p>
<p>I think the Vassar idea is a good one. My mother-in-law attended Vassar and it is very beautiful. We havemany pictures of my MIL at Vassar. My wife was also accepted and atteded another school due to the demographics at the time.</p>
<p>My wife has spoken to her about the relative scarcity of funds at the Ohio publics. All of the OH and Western PA schools seem like real possibilities.</p>
<p>For some reason, she seems stuck o the states and her brother’s college.
But we will suggest what you have.</p>
<p>OHmom of 12, we could not agree more about the lack of generosity of Ohio state schools. Without a 32 ACT, there is not much out there. With decent scores, Ohio LAC’s are much more generous.
The student I’ve brought to your attention needs a free ride. Nothing less.</p>
<p>She is thinking of Capital. They are pretty generous. </p>
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<p>Unlikely to happen with need-based financial aid, since even the best-financial-aid schools have an expected student contribution, typically ranging from $4,000 to $10,000. At the lower end of the range, the student can take either a federal direct loan (up to $5,500) or contribute work earnings; at the higher end of the range, the student would need both.</p>
<p>With merit scholarships, there may be other options. Some schools allow merit scholarships to replace student contribution (work and/or loan expectations) in need-based financial aid packages. For larger merit scholarships, there are other possibilities. “Full ride” merit scholarships cover tuition, fees, room, and board, although there may be books and miscellaneous expenses up to about $5,000. If the student gets a large Pell grant, that can cover those expenses; otherwise, a federal direct loan or work earnings can. “Full tuition” merit scholarships would likely leave about $15,000 in residual costs for room, board, books, and miscellaneous expenses. But a Pell grant, federal direct loan, and some work earnings may be enough to cover that, although that would be a stretch budget.</p>
<p>^typically, when people say “full ride”, they don’t mean “free everything”: most people know they’ll need the federal loans, money for books, etc. “unlikely to happen” would imply that an EFC0 student wouldn’t get that taken care of by financial aid, when in fact it does. How generous the school is to EFC0 varies, but Top 25 universities and LACs typically cover <em>everything</em> in their financial aid package, with often a little bit of leftover money.
I know you go on explaining a Pell Grant, a federal direct loan, and some work earnings may cover the “student contribution”, but I’m not sure whether you realize how that first sentence sounds to people who are first gen and may not understand how financial aid works.</p>
<p>Need-based financial aid at most “100% need” school covers tuition + room&board at a minimum - and often covers everything that a work-study won’t cover, including health insurance, books, and even transportation. So, a kid could have a work study job and a small loan, or even no loan at all, and have that “full ride”. A top school will be cheaper for most EFC0 students than a state school.</p>
<p>The reason for the explanation is that it appears that the predominant assumption around these forums is that a “meet full need” school will give a net price equal to list price minus EFC, not realizing that there is an expected student contribution. For example, <a href=“Net Price Calculator | Harvard”>https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator</a> will show a minimum net price of $4,600 for a domestic student, no matter how poor the family is. Of course, “meet full need” schools vary in their definition of “need” as well.</p>
<p>Per our college touring (5 years ago), some schools strive to cover “need” without loans. My recollection is that we heard that at Pomona, part of Claremont Consortium in CA. </p>
<p>If she can be convinced to re-consider the women’s colleges, she should investigate Bryn Mawr. BMC is test optional, has good need-based aid, and has an has an excellent track record for women in the sciences.</p>
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<p>Typically, this means a student contribution of $5,000 or less, which the colleges expect a student to be able to earn through work in the school year and summer (so net price for a maximum need student will be this amount of student contribution). Work study may be offered up to this amount.</p>
<p>She does not have $5000. I think she is going to Capitol University. They gave her everything except $150. Seriously.</p>
<p>She can’t be convinced to think about a women’s college. She really has not dated yet. She also does not like the exclusionary past of the seven sisters. She has no interest in colleges in the south. </p>
<p>Mount Holyoke is one of the most diverse colleges in the country. And contrary to what you may think, a women’s college is a GREAT setting for dating, especially those in a consortium (= the colleges may organize outings, parties, etc. accross the consortium and take the social lives of their students seriously, which actually make finding/meeting a date easier than in a typical “hook up college culture”.)
$5,000 is not what students are supposed to have but rather what they’re supposed to earn, typically through summer earnings and work study during the year. At no-loan colleges, it typically means the student has a choice between taking on the federal loans or work study or summer work or a combination thereof (such as $2,500 subsidized federal loans + $2,500 work study, which corresponds to about 8hours a week.)
Check the package from Capital; in particular, does it include PLUS loans or non federal loans? If not, next step is to check the course offerings (ie., are the courses important in the major offered at least once every year or once every other year?) If so, then it’s a great opportunity. Capital has 25% students with strong GPA and ACT 27+ or SAT M or CR 600+ so she will be in good company.
(It’s better to go for free than get in debt, but$5,500 in debt from a university that does offer the major and has the needed upper-level courses can be better - this can be important in math or foreign languages, where some upper-level classes aren’t offered everywhere due to insufficient numbers of students.)
Congratulations on the scholarship :)</p>
<p>Capitol University sounds like a great opportunity. She’s a good student and she’s going to do well there.
Paying $150 sounds hard to beat to me. Not having a large gap in financial aid makes a difference. Her main focus will be getting a college degree, but she also will want to have some social life and will need items that are not covered by scholarships such as clothing, and money for travel back and forth to home. Although she has financial need, not having huge out of pocket expenses for college means she could have something extra sometimes- go out for that cup of coffee or a movie with friends, and less stress about finances. That could mean a more enjoyable college experience. </p>
<p>If this isn’t binding, she can still apply to more colleges if she wants, and see how that turns out, but how nice to know that there is one solid choice now. If it is binding, then she has a great opportunity. Congratulations to her. </p>
<p>Mount Holyoke is not diverse in the way that this student wants. Gender.
She is happy with Capital, and her mother is happy that she will be able to get a ride to and from home on holidays with her older brother. </p>
<p>I have a serious question for all of you CCers - is there an unwritten rule that everyone will get all excited when someone posts about a woman student who is interested in STEM and immediately suggest one of the seven sisters? </p>
<p>My daughter hates anything STEM related and is almost as against a women’s college as is her friend.</p>
<p>People have tried to entice me into forcing her to attend MHC because it’s STEMY (she will be a political science major) and “sporty”. When my daughter is interested in politics, literature and domestic public policy. She isn’t interested in fantasy or sci-fi. She prefers Falkner, O’Connor, and Capote. My daughter has not played an organized sport since 4th grade. </p>
<p>She also has ethical problems with the pasts of some of these formerly elite women’s colleges. Her definition of “feminism” is more inclusive.</p>
<p>The fact is, that these schools are much easier to get into than their co-ed counterparts. </p>
<p>The students there seem to be a certain type. None of it is bad, not all young women are overly “sportsy”, interested in STEM (particularly engineering), enjoy milk and cookie parties and hoop rolling in an entirely female environment. </p>
<p>As to the assertion that 30% of prominent women attended women’s colleges, I doubt that stat will hold true for long. Even in my generation, women’s colleges were shutting down or going co-ed. </p>
<p>The last group to choose women’s colleges en mass would be the first generation baby boomers - 1945 -51.
Case in point - Hillary Clinton. Her daughter Chelsea chose Stanford. I don’t think little Charlotte with be seen at Wellesley. </p>
<p>It would be as helpful as suggesting that Hampshire, Bard, Evergreeen, Marlboro were for everyone. They are a good fit for our son. But many young men might prefer Ohio State.
He did go to Northampton last week for a jazz concert. He and his friends observed that many of the women at Smith did not seem to be terribly interested in men.</p>
<p>Any way, thanks for all who constituted helpful advice. This student is happy with her choice, </p>
<p>I’m glad she is happy with her choice. I’m also glad that her mother is happy. I think CC tends to focus on elite schools and many of the posters are aiming for them. </p>
<p>I may be an outlier but I am all about fit. Sometimes that fit includes being close to home, and always finances. </p>
<p>If I suggest a college, it is really just a suggestion. It would be like asking this girl to try on a dress, but if it doesn’t fit and she doesn’t like it, then for goodness sake don’t buy it. Sometimes you just know but sometimes you can’t really tell by how it looks on the hanger, so you can try it on and see. </p>
<p>I use this analogy because I am a mom and yes, we have those “just try it honey, you never know” moments in the store, usually followed by “no way I hate it”, but sometimes it works. </p>
<p>When I see that a student has considerable financial need, I start to look in every possible place to see what situation might meet that need. The more elite women’s colleges do meet full need, so they become suggestions on that basis. It’s about not overlooking possibilities. Some times you have to choose the best fit college that also has the best price. </p>
<p>However, the choice is up to your daughter’s friend and it looks like she found a very good one. In the end, whatever I suggest must fit the person, reflect her personality, and meet her needs, or it isn’t right for her. </p>
<p>I’ll pass the congratulations on to my daughter’s friend. I won’t be checking her financial aid package. The family made their choice, and that would be intrusive.</p>
<p>Originally, the student asked my wife for some ideas. She is happy with Capitol. </p>