THIS:
and this:
I’m so sorry that this happened to your daughter. As others have said, she was very badly served by the guidance office of her school, and did not end up with an appropriate list.
The Colleges That Change Lives site (http://www.ctcl.org/) would be one good place to start a new search. At many of those schools her 30 ACT would be the 75th percentile and she would be eligible for merit aid, though, again as other have mentioned, another couple of points on the ACT would open yet more doors. You and she need to look at the data for specific schools, to see where she fits in. The most comprehensive data I’ve found is at http://www.collegedata.com/. I looked up the College of Wooster, one of the CTCL schools, and in the Admissions tab we see that her 30 ACT is the 75th percentile there, and 46.5% of enrolled freshman have a high school GPA of 3.75 or above. So her GPA is a weakness relative to her ACT, but her study of Arabic and any interesting ECs could go a ways to compensate, especially at holistic-admissions LACs.
If your daughter is interested in larger schools, there are a number of state universities outside Illinois that are barely more expensive for OOS that UIUC is for in-state, and where she’d be eligible for substantial automatic merit scholarships. At the University of Alabama, her 30 ACT would get a 2/3 tuition scholarship, so $16,000-ish off on approximate $38,000 cost of attendance brings you to $22,000 a year, which wouldn’t happen at UIUC. There are tons of Illinois families at Alabama, because UIUC is so expensive even for instate, with little merit money. We live in Illinois and my daughter, who is ending up attending a ‘lower Ivy’, had Alabama as her state school safety. She didn’t apply to UIUC because we were fairly certain it wouldn’t turn out to be affordable. At the University of Kansas, where the OOS cost of attendance is about $35,000, OOS freshman with 28 ACT and 3.5 GPA get an automatic $10,500 scholarship.
Midwest Tuition Exchange (http://msep.mhec.org/) would also help to make OOS public schools more affordable.
Again, as others have pointed out, it all begins with how much you’re able to pay. I ran more Net Price Calculators than I care to count at the end of my daughter’s sophomore year in high school, and that shaped the search. And it worked; all but one of the schools she was accepted to - and it was quite a mixed bag - would have been affordable with no more than the federally subsidized loan.
It’s not really as all-or-nothing as your experience this year would indicate; with a different approach, she should have a lot of choices.
@hs2015mom ???
How much did you think UIUC would cost?
The OOS schools you listed seem to be $22-25K, which is about what UIUC would cost (maybe a few thousand more, depending on the major).
@PurpleTitan http://www.osfa.illinois.edu/cost/undergrad/res_1516.html
And the costs I listed for Alabama and Kansas are what this family would pay, not what our family would have paid. And ‘a few thousand more’ can make a difference 
“Midwest Tuition Exchange (http://msep.mhec.org/) would also help to make OOS public schools more affordable.”
This is a great suggestion. She’d pay less at Truman State, U of Kansas, etc. than she would at Illinois. In fact, at some of those schools, like Missouri State, she’d pay less than sticker price at an Illinois directional.
I just want to add something else to this conversation related to the title of this thread (more so than the OP’s problem itself). The title of this thread has been repeated in conversations across my State and variously on CC. And those repeaters have often been students who applied to far more than 4 colleges. Those same repeaters have often had good, if not great, lists. Further, they have often been accepted to one or two of those perfectly fine colleges, which their parents can afford. However, the mantra is,
Completely frustrated with 4 years of hard work and no results
That’s because there’s an unspoken thread woven into many of these efforts: that real “results” are something spectacular; “other” results = “no” results.
The other unspoken but believed theme is that there should be a specific payout for “hard work.” U.S. colleges do not reward specifically for “hard work,” but for outcomes, and more importantly, for comparative outcomes. A student may be acknowledged on a personal level as having “worked hard,” but the college wants the student who succeeded, no matter how much work was or was not put into that.
College admissions offers are not moral rewards; in fact, they’re not even moral commentaries at all, and that includes the group who does get admitted. The college isn’t saying the admitted students are more morally deserving; rather, those students have more commodities which that college wants. One of those commodities might be the virtue of diligence, but not diligence without outcomes. It’s we parents who reward for hard work.
@hs2015mom, is your D looking at STEM or business majors? Those are the most expensive ones at UIUC.
I only count tuition, fees, and R&B (since the other stuff will be roughly the same amount no matter where you go.)
At UIUC, they would range from a little under $27K to a little under $32K (for STEM and business).
At KU with that $10.5K scholarship, they would range from roughly $21-27K (depending on the major but more the dorm; and the $5.8K R&B likely isn’t the available/suitable).
At 'Bama, with 2/3rds off tuition, it would be $30K.
I don’t see a big difference.
Also, you can move off-campus after freshman year (and central Illinois & all those other places are pretty cheap to live in, which makes UIUC dorms rates seem exorbitant).
Finally, unlike at most other schools, tuition at UIUC won’t increase for you while you are there.
Edited: OK, change that to “his D”.
BTW, I suggested McGill (which offers many majors at in-state prices, at least still) before.
@PurpleTitan - I didn’t mean to bash UIUC, and this isn’t about my situation; we’re all set. And I don’t know if this is any help to the OP. So I’m going to respectfully decline to continue this part of the discussion.
OP, I’m sorry it did not work out for your daughter. IMO the best thing you can do for your daughter is to help her visit numerous schools this summer and this fall. For example, on August 6 and 7 you can see 5 great colleges on the Ohio Five Colleges tour (Oberlin, OWU, Wooster, Wittenberg and Denison).
Just for a point of comparison, my D with stats close to your daughter’s applied to Wooster regular decision in early fall this past year (app was in by the end of September). She had an acceptance in hand by Thanksgiving, along with an outstanding merit scholarship. But you’ve got to work for these kinds of results at LACs. It may mean several visits, maybe an overnight, and an outstanding essay that resonates with the reader.
OP, did your daughter’s college counselor give her/you any advice regarding the college list at all? Did you tell them about your ability/inability to pay for college cost? If you have a case, do complain to the school authority. It’s their responsibility to provide appropriate advising. To fail to find a college for a student, especially one with your daughter’s stats, is scandalous. While its late in the process, they could still help your daughter find a reasonable college for this fall.
As others have said:
What are her academic interests (possible majors, etc.)?
What is the price limit?
Her options after being shut out (due to an application list with no actual safeties) are the following:
a. Gap year (working at the job she got) and applying for fall 2016 to a merit-seeking and affordable list of colleges.
b. Gap semester (working at the job she got) and apply for spring 2016. However, there are fewer affordable options than applying for fall 2016.
c. Look for colleges still accepting applications. But there may be even fewer affordable options.
d. Start at a community college and aim to transfer to an affordable school, usually an in-state public university.
I’m always shocked when I discover that an expensive private school seems to have done an inadequate job of counseling. I’m not shocked when I see it in publics – in fact, I’m surprised when I don’t see it there, but there’s very little excuse for poor counseling of any kind at a private school. That is, unless a family – and I’m not suggesting the OP did this – refused the counseling services or under-used them, and/or did not avail themselves of school-published information & student and parent sessions provided by that department. (That’s another thing that is just par for the course at private schools.)
DU is a fine school, and there are plenty of students there with stats higher than your DD; she’s in the middle 50% of acceptees. I’m sorry you can’t afford it, but that’s no reason to diss the school. I’m sure they gave her a decent merit award (my S only had a 31 ACT and a 3.93 (also on a 4.0 scale) and he got the second-highest scholarship; they are pretty automatic, based on scores and GPA). Our AGI was 65k last year and they calculated our efc at about 7k for next year, so you must have made quite a lot for it to be unaffordable (if she’s a CS or engineering major; I guess they don’t meet full need for other majors, but they do give some university grants to anyone with need, I think). Did you do the NPC ahead of time? Did you include your special circumstances (having just recently gotten a higher-paying job) on the Profile, and appeal for more aid? Or do you just think it is beneath your D?
You gotta realize no one is getting into Columbia or UChicago with a 30 ACT! DS had a 31 and he didn’t even get into USC. He is thriving at DU and we’re all very happy with what was his “safety”. The honors classes are quite challenging and there are plenty of smart kids (as well as talented artists and musicians, athletes, Greeks, nerds, and pretty much everything else you’d expect at a diverse research university). He loves the small class sizes (no huge lectures at all), except when he’d rather hide in a tough math or language class!
Also, OP, you apparently did live on much lower income for a long time, so it’s not incomprehensible that you could do so again for 4 years and put the extra into her schooling, without “living under a bridge.”
OP, I think many of us have questions about how the application process was handled the first time around, but since that’s all water under the bridge here’s what I’d do. Make an appointment to talk to the Head of School. If the school’s within driving distance of your home make it for a face-to-face meeting. At the meeting, without recrimination, explain the situation and ask what the school can do to help your daughter. This is the advantage of a private school-it’s expected that parents will request, even demand, personalized service. The Head will likely send you off to the college counseling office but you will have put him or her on notice that you expect results this time around, and simply because she’s graduated the school has not discharged its duty to your D.
The key will be to not blame the school for the predicament D is in, but rather to focus on solutions. Concentrate on moving forward. The school may have some great ideas to offer and may be able to connect her with other kids who have taken gap years then gone on to success in a second round of applications.
Did your D’s school use Naviance? If so there should have been an initial list of recommended schools. Take a fresh look at the list and focus on the bottom until you find 3-4 schools that fit the parameters for a likely (I hate the word safety) school-affordable, achievable, and attractive to your D. Reach schools are easy to find but likelies take a bit of work. You may have to be a cheerleader for these schools. Despite your own disappointment this is an important role you can play to support your D.
Sometimes boarding school environments can set up unrealistic expectations. I know it happened at my D’s school. When many of your classmates are legacies or athletes being recruited at Ivy League schools it’s easy to think those are the schools to which everyone’s applying. They’re not. Add in the fact that you’re surrounded by kids talking nonstop about the application process and things can get pretty intense and anything short of a top school can feel like a failure. Again, it’s not, and your D needs you to tell her that. Ask your D where smart kids who didn’t get into top schools are going this fall. BS communities often have likely darlings. At my D’s school some of the most popular were Hobart-William Smith, College of Charleston and (ironically) Denver.
I agree with the advice to talk to the school and see what they can do for your daughter. From what you tell us, it sounds like the problem is with the school, not the colleges. I know at my boarding school there was an occasional girl who didn’t get accepted anywhere and they were always able to call around to find a place for her. Mind you, if finances are an issue, that could be a problem.
The very least they should do is be very helpful next year while your daughter takes a gap year and puts together a more sensible list. As others have said, her list was far too reach heavy and the school should have made sure she understood that.
I think you got some bad advice somewhere along the line.
- Only applying to four schools is pretty unusual.
- At least 2 of the 4 schools were totally out of reach for her. Unhooked applicants with a 30 ACT do not get into Chicago or Columbia.
- There were no real mix of matches / safety schools.
There are lots of schools “in between” and lots of better options. The problem is she didn’t apply to any of them.
Sort of reminds me of an old joke:
A deeply religious man, whom I will call Dave, finds himself in dire financial trouble. He prays earnestly to his God to help him out of his predicament. "God, I'm about to lose my car. Please help me. Let me win the lottery." Lottery night comes, but sadly, Dave is not the winner.
Things go from bad to worse. Without a car to get to work, Dave loses his job. Without a job, his mortgage is foreclosed on, and he loses his home. Without a home, his wife leaves him, taking the kids. After each horrible step in the mounting crisis, he pleads with God to let him win the lottery, but he never does.
Finally, broke, hungry, living on the street, he tries again. "God, please, my life is a wreck. I have no car, no home, no family. Please let me win the lottery just this once so that I can turn my life around. I beseech you."
Suddenly, a flash of light rends the sky, and the voice of God echoes down from the heavens. "Dave, meet me halfway. Buy a ticket."
The problem is… you want her to win, but she didn’t “buy a ticket”
“I don’t see a big difference.”
The big difference with many of those Midwest Student Exchange schools, beyond price, is that they are way easier to get into than UIUC, so they make much better safeties for most Illinois residents. Maybe the OP’s daughter wouldn’t consider Indiana State or Missouri State, but there’s no question that she’d have gotten in with a net price under UIUC’s. At least then she would have a choice of heading off to college this fall instead of the gap year and community college being the only options on the table.
One additional thought.
Although you can do this yourself, given the timing, and numerous options, I would hire a knowledgeable consultant to guide you through this process (no I am not a consultant). This would save time, help you sort through the possibilities quickly, and make good decisions for your daughter and your family.
I cannot believe that a HS student with 30/3.75 did nt get into ANY college.
For it to happen, it must be a complete mismatch between stats and the list of colleges applied. I cannot imagine though that this is the case with such a smart kid. There is something else there that potentially prevented this student from being accepted? There are programs that have specific requirements in addition to ACT score/certain level of GPA. Is this the case? But again, smart kid would take care of them. I am at loss.
On the other hand, if she is so 'burned out" at HS, college academics usually require upward adjustment in efforts. Is she ready for it?