OP also about Questbridge, you are right that Match opens in the late summer as you begin senior year, but pre-college program for juniors and is probably already open. Due date is mid-spring. It would be very helpful for you to do pre-college because it would walk you thru a lot of the admissions and financial aid info so that you can form strategies which would suit your particular situation.
Also myos1634’s post is right on about the support you would get as an HEOP student.
Vassar no longer participates in HEOP
I will most likely not qualify for HEOP. As Sybbie herself said in one post made on a different thread, SAT scores for people in HEOP are usually around 1000-1100 or the sort.
Actually, what I said was that your scores may be too high for some HEOP programs, and too low for others (especially some of the more competitive programs). For some schools 1000-1100 will not get you admitted because that score would be too low (Marist, Fordham, Skidmore, RIT, some of the more competitive programs at NYU, Columbia, Hamilton, Cornell, etc).
There are different criteria for different schools(each school sets their own threshold.
Absolutely true, all schools including the SUNYs (EOP) will ask for more information including an interview, once they select you as a EOP/HEOP candidate. Even then, it does not guarantee that you will be admitted because there are a limited number of seats in each program (the more money being paid by the school, the less number of seats). Remember that they choose students across the state.
For example, Columbia University is one of the major employers in Harlem as many people are employed at the university and/or hospitals. They are committed to recruiting students from uptown since it is in their own back yard.
They also have plenty of low income students with potential coming in through their Double Discovery, STEP and Liberty Partnership programs. The same can be said for NYU.
Keep in mind you are 3 semesters in; you have 4 more to go. Your best bet would be to talk to your counselor at your school to see if anyone has been admitted via HEOP, where they were admitted and what the profile looks like.
Just this week, my son had to walk away from his ‘ideal college’ because it was too expensive.
We put the numbers on a spread sheet, debits and credits, for 1st and 2nd choice … in detail. It came down to ‘how much debt do you want to pay off after graduation?’ … almost half a Lamborghini or an amount significantly below the national average. It was a no brainer. He just walked away from 1st choice into the arms of 2nd and … didn’t even look back. That was a smart decision. I don’t worry about him so much any more.
Think about it. Once you’ve narrowed your list to those that meet all your basic requirements, cost is the basis of your decision.
It’s not where you go to college … it’s what you make of it. Most, yes most, very successful professionals graduated from 2nd and 3rd tier colleges.
Only 2 people from my school have been accepted into NYU in the past 5 years and both walked away from it, and no one from my school has been accepted into Columbia in the past 5 years
Also this is sorta unrelated but how accurate would you call the NYU NPC calculator that they have on their website? When I put in my information it basically says that I would only have to pay 1k in tuition and then pay about 20k in room and board type of charges. Is this close to actual financial aid packages?
NYU’s NPC is among the worst, and I don’t think you should treat it as accurate at all. Compare it to others that ask much more detailed info about parent/student finances. This is the bare minimum NPC required by the govt, and schools that use it are simply giving you averages for all the students with those numbers in that given year (2013-14). Don’t think in terms of tuition being separate from room and board. Lump them together and refer to it as ‘cost of attendance’ or COA.
Yeah, don’t trust NYU’s NPC. I believe NYU was also the college that showed Parent PLUS Loans on a friend’s financial aid package letter – even though her parents had not yet applied and were potentially at risk of not being approved (low income/credit). Very misleading to students who aren’t fully literate when it comes to reading financial aid letters.
If I applied for Early Action for NYU do you think that would have any effect on the financial aid offered or even my potential acceptance? It’s somewhat far away but it’s good to know, I guess.
Also @sybbie719 I would be applying to CAS since I want a bio degree, and I project my ACT to be 31+ since I’m getting composite 31-33s on the practice ACTs I’ve taken. I doubt they would consider me for HEOP at NYU with a score like that.
This is also unrelated but pertaining to the ACT/SAT: is it better to take both tests or devote all my time/energy to one specific test?
NYU doesn’t have early ACTION. NYU only has early DECISION.
Given your significant need for financial aid, it would not be wise to apply early decision anywhere and especially to a school like NYU that does not meet full need AND is notoriously well known for giving poor financial,aid packages.
In your situation, you would be smarter to apply regular decision and early ACTION to colleges so that you will have the ability to compare bottom line net costs where you get accepted.
You could apply ea/rea/scea to Columbia but applying through questbridge allows you to have the equivalent of 8ED choices. (it’s a bit more complicated than that but you can read about it on their website.)
You may focus on just one of them. However, you should at least do some timed practice tests on both of them to see if you may perform better in one or the other.
OP it is totally your decision and we all respect that but know that for our family, which is also low income, NYU was off the table from the moment I ran the net price calc. I am glad that you are doing research and asking questions, and you are lucky that some very experienced posters are giving you ideas.
Some random thoughts:
-thanks, I didn’t know that NYU only had ED, I thought they also had EA
-I’m still a sophomore, and I only recently learned of QB, so I haven’t done anything yet
-Since she got into HEOP, do you know what the academic requirements were? I hear conflicting opinions but I doubt I’ll qualify if I have somewhat high (30s ACT) test scores
The net price calculators on the college websites are for students enrolling in fall 2016. They are NOT for students enrolling fall 2018. Financial aid policies change form year to year. You need to do the net price calculators the early fall of your senior year in high school…not now. Right now they are a very gross estimate.
In addition, your financial situation could be very different in two years.
Also, your choices could be affected by your actual ACT or SAT scores and your GPA at the end of your junior year.
Yes…good to do some preliminary looking now…and gaining info (like NYU being ED only). But your focus right now shoild,be on getting tippy top grades, and then the best ACT and/or SAT possible.
OP, there are conflicting opinions because each participating school has different academic criteria.
The income criteria is straightforward. You have to have tax returns handy. The guidelines are here
https://www.pratt.edu/uploads/heop_income_table_guideline_for_2015-2016.pdf
The academic eligibility is much more complicated. This is an opportunity program which means that it has to justify student selection. For the college, it is in their best interest to recruit kids who would do well (if given the support they need). It is not wise for them to take a kid who is so far behind they might flail and drop out/flunk out. At the same time they have to show that the grant money (it is state funded) is warranted instead of regular financial aid bc the student is “inadmissible” by regular standards. So they have to hit it just right.
For D’s school they use benchmarks: SATs; GPA; having sought tutoring, esp for regents classes/exams; first generation college student; prior lack of access to advanced curriculum/underperforming HS. She had the first three, with SATs and GPA just under the average for accepted students.
Think about it. A median SAT for Columbia will look very very different from the one at a less selective school. I have heard that many schools use the bottom quartile (lowest 25%) figures for test scores.
Good that you are a sophomore and thinking about this!
@momcinco thank you! My scores/GPA are likely to be high, but they might give me an advantage at a school like Columbia with such high standards.