@lostParent, The people here on CC know a lot about getting kids into college. Sometimes we forget that other parents don’t know as much as we do, and also don’t know what they don’t know. You thought you were doing the right thing, and you thought the guidance counselor (who apparently is a bumbling incompetent) knew what they were doing.
You (and your daughter too) didn’t realize that Illinois communicates via email, not snail mail. You didn’t realize that with her stats, Chicago and Columbia were remote chances. Apparently nobody told you about the college Net Price Calculators (NPC) which you should have used before your daughter applied, to figure out whether Denver would be affordable for you. We shouldn’t blame you for not realizing what you didn’t know. You didn’t know.
But here you are now. You and your daughter need to decide whether she wants to try to find a college for next fall-- which she could do, as there are many colleges that would accept her-- or wait a year to have a wider choice.
If she waits a year, you and she need to start doing your research. You need to find a couple of schools she would be willing to attend, that she would definitely be accepted to, and that you can afford. She applied to none of those schools this year, and that, as you now see, was a big mistake. Once those safety schools are chosen, she can move on to looking at schools that she likes that she’d have a maybe 50/50 chance at and that you could afford if she got the kind of aid that she had a good chance of getting, in her case probably merit aid. And of course, she can apply to “reaches” as well, schools that she might get accepted to and might be able to afford, if she wants to.
The posters here have a wealth of information, and would be happy to suggest schools that might work for her.
P.S. When you reply to messages without saying what you’re replying to, it’s difficult to know what you’re talking about. CC does not link replies to the messages they are replies to. Please either quote what you are replying to, or at least give the post number.
You have finally come to the right place for help. Work as a team with your daughter, follow the advice of @much2learn in post 172, and let the wonderful parents of College Confidential help you develop a list. I am confident that your daughter will have much better results in round 2. Have her take a gap year and reapply as a freshman without taking classes at community college.
@lostParent - It sounds like you need time to process this bad news and need an outlet to vent. That’s normal and fine, but it’s been months already. Please forgive the harsh words here, but you’re an adult and I’m sure you can handle it.
The colleges did nothing wrong by your daughter. There are exactly 3 people who failed her:
The Guidance Counselor
Your spouse
You
Of these 3, only 2 of them love her. And just because you’re paying the boarding school doesn’t mean you’ve transferred responsibility for your daughter. A parent owns that until the day they die.
Fortunately, although this is a bad situation, it is one that your daughter can recover from.
Frankly, this is a shocking attitude unless you’re the type of parents who are only going to do the bare minimum that the law requires. Your daughter had a needlessly horrible experience with the college application process. Your plan should be to help her especially now that it’s clear she really needs it, not throw her on her own.
I suggest you buy a punching bag and work out your frustrations. Then re-read your posts, look at the attitude that many of them exhibit, and resolve never to display them in the presence of your daughter until she graduates from college. The best thing you can do at this point is to show your daughter how to constructively and positively tackle and solve a big problem and to show her how she can overcome anything. It’s an opportunity to model good behavior for her and a great life lesson – think of it as something you can do to make up for dropping the ball for her this year.
I’m sure the people here can give you lots of good, constructive advice (unlike my post !). Listen to it.
P.S. You really need to engage with the boarding school and do a post-mortem to figure out what went wrong so you can learn from it. You also need to get informed about the basic facts concerning your daughter’s application process. In particular, the UIUC is a very good option. Your anger towards them may be unjustified - in fact, if I had to bet, it probably is.
Sometimes we all need to vent. There’s actually a thread on CC just for that. No responses allowed, and you can post anything you want as long as it doesn’t violate the CC TOS.
The NACAC report suggests the median number of applications is between 4 and 5 per student. Applying to a huge number of colleges is common on CC, but far less common among the general population. There are several vaild and common reasons to apply to few schools such as having an EA/ED success, wanting to attend the less selective local school instead of the most selective college they can get accepted to, etc. I think the OP’s issue more related to the selection of schools than the number. A safety needs to be financially affordable. You could apply to 10 schools, but if you can’t afford your safeties, then there is still a problem with the list and a decent risk of getting shut out.
You still don’t seem to understand what 9% acceptance means. Your comment about not having a criminal record is just absurd. As you move forward you need to understand that having good grades in high school doesn’t guarantee admittance to these top schools. The other applicants were not deadbeats. Behaving as though the only reason they could possibly have been accepted over your daughter is if she were “red flagged” somehow is completely out of touch with reality, and if this kind of entitled attitude is shared by your daughter and comes through on her applications, that could explain a lot.
i may have missed it, but is your EFC affordable?
If not, she may need to find a school offering so much merit it displaces EFC, or a school where COA is lower than EFC.
Schools meeting 100 % of EFC, can meet need with any combination of grants, work study & loans.
Most schools do not meet EFC.
Public instate schools can be very affordable & great choices.
These schools may give discounts to students in neighboring states, but it also may depend on major. http://www.nasfaa.org/students/state___regional_college_tuition_discounts.aspx
I think that’s because there are a lot of kids who applied only to their auto-admit state school or who, like my kids, applied ED to a single school and got in, but had another 6-8 applications teed up to go had they not been accepted ED. A kid applying to highly competitive schools needs to have a longer list, particularly if they need substantial aid.
@lostParent Thanks for coming back! I’m sure you must be overwhelmed at all of us folks trying to help you. Sometimes people can be overzealous or harsh, but looks like you’re getting used to it, I commend you.
(My 2 cents on UIUC. If she was applying to the Engineering school, since UIUC’s engineering is a Top 10 school, it was definitely a reach even if you were in-state.)
Now to the brass tacks…
Yes, definitely agree with everybody that now you have time. the first step is to raise the SAT or ACT up to a 32 or 2100+ level. While 30 is a very good ACT score, 32 is the cut-off for some colleges top-tier merit aid so no reason not to go for that. For the SAT, it’s also a must to have a combined Comprehensive Reading and Math score of 1400 or more.
Since you say she wants to go into STEM and that your budget is $20K, here are my initial picks (in the previous thread, I recommended Penn State, but since they hardly give any merit aid it’s not a good fit for you):
a) Ohio State - very good engineering program (#32 in US News), plus if you apply early enough you’l most likely get the OOS Buckeye scholarship. With a 3.75 GPA, ranked highly in the class and a 32 ACT she might even get a Maximus scholars or better. Here’s a link to OSU’s scholarship list:
With a $42K tuition+ room & board bill but a $12K + $6K scholarship, you can bring the net bill down to $20K by taking out your normal $5,500 Stafford loan.
b) U of Arizona - good engineering program (#43 in USNews). Just ran the NPC on this. The cost would be $39K, but with her stats they’ll give you an OOS Excellence award of $12.5 K. It also looks like they typically give small $3.5K grants so that should bring down the bill to $23K. And with the $5.5K Stafford loan, your bill is now less than $20K.
c) U of Alabama – up-and-coming engineering program (#104 in US News). But you’ll get a full or almost full ride. I’ll let others provide you more details on this, as CC has a lot of Bama believers.
When you do manage to get her ACT to 32 or SAT to 2100, I’d also throw in a reach:
d) Cornell – the biggest and most comprehensive engineering school in the Ivy league. Worth a try. While their need-based aid isn’t as good as HYPS, you never know what you might be able to negotiate.
Also, a bunch of smaller private tech institutes (WPI, RIT, Stevens, NYU-Poly, and maybe even RPI) may be generous with merit money if she raises her test scores (though on second thought, they may not be generous enough).
I still find the UIUC application story perplexing, though. Did your D not receive any emails from them?
Be sure when looking at big freshman scholarships, like Alabama’s, to look at the fine print. Some stipulate that incoming freshman be enrolled the semester following their graduation (ie, no gap year) and some will only look at ACT scores up to December of their senior year. Just something to keep in mind.
For college admissions, academic success is usually the most importance criteria, and the number of digits in your bank account is usually not a factor in admissions decisions. There are plenty of colleges with excellent FA for students that do not come from wealthy families, such as no parental cost for under $65k income (and typical assets), no tuition for under $110k, etc. However, as one would expect, the colleges with the best FA tend to be selective. Quality students also have numerous merit options. For example, there was a thread earlier about a kid who was accepted to all 8 ivies and chose Alabama’s honors program above them. Alabama offers a 2/3 tuition scholarship for students in your daughter’s stat range and a full scholarship for 32+ ACT. There are many other examples with less restrictive ranges, some of which are at http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ .
Is it at all possible that the GC recommended your kid apply at more schools or other schools and she didn’t take the advice? In the end the school rep is a COUNSELOR- the final responsibility for the college application process is yours/the kid’s
OP, UIUC is a fine school and may be a most realistic option for your D and your family. If possible at all, you should still try to work it out. It really doesn’t matter if they were “unpleasant to work with”. You have to get in through these gatekeepers (ie AOs), but once you are in they are out of the picture. Give it another shot, if not for this fall, maybe for next admission season.
There are countless privates where merit aid will get you to an out-of-pocket of $30k, but $20k will be harder to find. If you can’t afford your EFC - and many, many people cannot - then merit aid at publics could end up being the way to go. @foilist mentions adding Cornell as a reach, but they give only need-based aid, so if your EFC isn’t affordable, that wouldn’t be workable financially. It’s important that your daughter not be set up for frustration and disappointment again, so you want to be careful to avoid applying to schools that you couldn’t afford even if she got in.
h2015mom is right. And the corollary to what she says is, even if the OP’s daughter had been admitted to Chicago or Columbia, the family could not have afforded it. Those schools do not give merit aid.
@“Cardinal Fang”, actually, UChicago does give merit money, but I believe they have been cutting back as they have gotten more selective, so these days, a big merit award from them is very rare.