<p>The issue of Financial Aid aside, you should see the list of schools where God got waitlisted. Very sobering. (Didn't help that God wasn't a legacy anywhere.)</p>
<p>^^^^ Lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>This analogy makes no sense. Of course, God would have a tough time with financial aid. Few schools give aid for Internationals.</p>
<p>to the OP, you child is 12....give it a rest for a few years, things will change, your kid will change, and your life circumstances will change</p>
<p>lets get him into HS first</p>
<p>^^It does seem from your other posts that your child has just completed 6th grade. By the time he/she begins thinking seriously about college applications, the landscape will have changed significantly. The majority of the echo boomers (children of baby boomers) will have matriculated/graduated and the raw number of college applicants will be down. So, as cur points out, although the Ivies still won't be handing out merit scholarships to anyone (absent some cataclysmic change in policy), the pool of applicants competing for merit scholarships at other top schools will be smaller. (It's also possible that colleges will reduce the amount of merit dollars offered.)</p>
<p>as well, there may be significant changes in other areas of FA in 6 years</p>
<p>There are some top schools that give generous merit aid, though they are hard to obtain. Caltech's Axline comes to mind. Duke and Chicago also give some merit aid, Various flagship universities give merit aid as well (UVA, Michigan, UNC come to mind).
But other posters are right. Things will change quite a bit over the next few years both for the OP's kid and for the colleges generally.</p>
<p>And look on the bright side.... the OP has 6 years in which (God forbid... I'm being tongue in cheek) s/he could get downsized, job could get outsourced to Mumbai or Bangalore, stock market could crash; employer could experience an Enron-like meltdown causing both premature retirement AND a loss of all retirement assets, etc. Family could qualify for LOTS of need based aid-- especially if God doesn't take his rejection from Harvard personally and decide to wreak havoc on the world as a result!</p>
<p>Or six years to save some money to cover any shortfall from the merit aid that the child receives. And why doesn't God go to Univ of Montana, isn't that God's country?? Oh yeah, in Boston there's that family (never can remember if it was the Cabots or the Lodges) that only talks to God.</p>
<p>. . . Where the Cabots talk only to Lowells
And the Lowells talk only to God.</p>
<p>(It's doggerel about Boston. I don't remember the first two lines, except that "God" rhymes with "cod".)</p>
<p>It's dear old Boston
Home of the Bean and the Cod...</p>
<p>
[quote]
And why doesn't God go to Univ of Montana, isn't that God's country??
[/quote]
Like many ambitious high achievers, God is looking to go out of state.</p>
<p>Really, folks, does God truly need to go to college? He is, after all, omniscient. He is also omnipresent, so he can be at any and all colleges, simultaneously (gets over the international student problem); he is also omnipotent, so he does not need financial aid, whether need- or merit-based.</p>
<p>^^
This is why we miss Curmudgeon, he sends us off on these wild, free association binges ;).</p>
<p>I'm with menloparkmom in LOL at TheDad's comment on a student being waitlisted even though the student is an amazing applicant. And there is a serious point there that all of us parents whose children haven't applied yet should take to heart. </p>
<p>Apply thoughtfully and widely, and compare offers.</p>
<p>marite, since when does being omnipotent & omniscient guarantee you'll get into Harvard? Columbia or Cornell OTOH -- maybe.</p>
<p>OMG, I had no idea that the OP's child was 12!!! Forget everything I said and take your kid out for a walk instead!</p>
<p>As always Cur and TheDad have come through with timely and thoughtful advice!</p>
<p>God has a "hook" because he's a first generation college applicant. (Poor Adam and Eve . . . they're just BWRKs/)</p>
<p>^^^ LOL again! this thread just keeps getting better and better! Kind of like the old days of CC, when Cur kept so many of us in stitches!</p>
<p>You mean first genitor? That's definitely a unique EC-- file under community service.</p>