I don’t envy you navigating this with twins!
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It’s not bad, my daughter applied to 18 colleges, my son 7, with his 3.6 ugpa and 30 act he only applied to one OOS school and didn’t get enough to attend (which we knew), He’s planning on going yo our flagship. My daughter will most likely end up there as well since it’s one of the cheapest options, even with no merit.
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Nobody is talking about Dartmouth. I’m talking about Mizzou. Is that a “NAME” school?
@joshsmother One of the hardest parts of the college search with our daughter was watching the merit landscape literally change from when I first started investigating (when she was going into 9th grade). At that point, there were several large non-need based merit scholarships that knowledgable posters would point out to incoming CC families as possibilities to look into.
By the time my daughter was ready to apply to colleges, most if not all of those scholarships had changed from automatic to competitive, had downgraded the amount of money offered, or had raised the stats needed to qualify for the highest amounts available (which still were less than what had been offered only 4 years previously).
The college list I had preliminarily imagined had radically altered in a very short amount of time. And I noticed that while those large awards had drastically changed, lots of other schools had quietly also been reducing non-need grant awards.
At the same time, the costs of all the schools had been steadily increasing. Those costs increases continue.
As I said before, I am a big time bargain shopper. And I think sometimes people underestimate the time and energy it takes to be a bargain value shopper. As you said, you don’t want your great shopping ‘find’ to unravel in the first wash. It takes the ability to discern gold from dross to effectively bargain shop. It is one of the reasons so many struggle with college shopping because those brand names (even, and sometimes especially with those public institutions) can be seductive and figuring out if the ‘value’ brand of public school is best value isn’t always straightforward. It seems like public school is going to be affordable and has a clear value. But that doesn’t take into account how many states have slashed their educational funding over the last several decades. Public colleges have to get the money from tuition/fees now, not the state. They don’t have the budgets to heavily subsidize out of state applicants, or even in-state ones. The probably large class sizes also reduced the value, in our eyes at least.
Getting into college was not going to be your son’s (or many other high achieving students’) problem. Affording college was. And there are literally tens of thousands of applicants who have worked really hard, have great stats, and want/need money to reduce the costs of attending school. Heck, there are at least 26k Vals, 26k Presidents of SC, 26K captains of the (insert sport team), 26k 1st violins, etc, etc, and all of that is without even counting the even more prestigious city wide youth orchestras, the highly competitive club sports, the go getters who creates a viable business or charity.
There really isn’t ‘free’ money waiting in the wings to be showered on any of our children. We worked hard to find the schools that would value our daughter’s specific achievements, would find her skills and stats unusually high and attractive, and had the programs she was interested in pursuing. And then we narrowed those schools down by how much money they offered and where the COA came in with the money offered. There were lots of schools that were great but we didn’t even considered having her apply to because the highest merit available was either was too competitive to be a likely offer, or the highest merit didn’t reduce the COA down below our top budget number.
She didn’t have the same college search experience most of her friends had. Most of the colleges she applied to were met with a “huh?” look/response because her 17/18 year old friends hadn’t heard of those colleges. They were never going to engender a “Wow!” response. We didn’t value the idea of having a well known sports program at all (nice to have but not at the expense of the budget) so many of the schools weren’t on other kids’ radar at all.
But her teachers had heard of the schools she was looking at. Good ones, one and all, with really good merit and need based aid available (if one qualifies) if you matched what they were looking for.
If you have a firm budget, and an ‘average excellent’ student (ht @Lindagaf) student, you are going to have to spend a lot of time researching schools to find ones that you and your child like and you can easily afford. But at least you aren’t worried about your child’s ability to get into college or to do well there. The hard work he put in means he is in better shape to start college than many others. Counting the blessings you have can be a better use of time/energy than bemoaning the reality you weren’t aware of when you started this process. Paying for college is one of the most expensive things most of us will ever spend our money on…unfortunately many of us start with unrealistic ideas of what the process is or should be while we pursue this luxury item. And make no mistake, college is a luxury item. Fewer than 35% of all Americans have a college degree.
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Asking what?
Oh, and just FYI…they’ve made the Hudson and Holland now need 2 essays, an activities resume and 2 letter of recommendation to apply to. The landscape changes quickly!
I think it’s a common misconception that high stats translates into dollars. It’s a myth that’s perpetuated by families and GC’s who haven’t kept up with the changes in the college landscape. The changes in costs alone from when we were in school are enough to take your breath away. It’s a steep learning curve for sure.
I think people are reacting to your comments that suggest that high stats students deserve money just for doing their job and that switching to need based aid means the quality of students will decline. Neither is true. It’s not unreasonable to think that both merit and need based aid should be possible. They are, just not necessarily at the same schools. So families on a budget need to cast a wide net. I understand that it’s disappointing, but you’re not alone. In a few weeks a list of colleges with open seats will be released. (I think it comes from NACAC). Someone will post it on CC. There will be a range of colleges on it, so middle income families can generally find some affordable options.
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And once again, I delete my message to @joshsmother fter reading yours. Nothing for me to say after that.
Except … I don’t think most families realize just how much effort it is going to take to end up with a list of acceptances that are appropriate and affordable options. And some of the families who realize it will not be able to create enough time to do everything required. For me, it was a labor intense year-long project.
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How is Mizzou not a name school? The flagship university of a multi-university system?
When people talk about “never heard of” colleges- we’re talking Eastern CT State, Milligan College, Blufton University-- not Mizzou. And for the record- I’ve hired fantastic people from these three schools (some were decades out, but their professional track record suggests they weren’t doing arts and crafts instead of college level work).
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Lol, @EconPop I almost wrote she should talk to you because of all the great info and advice you have to offer, but I thought that would be presumptuous. You have serious school finding skills/experience.
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I think that’s another adjustment many first-timers have to make. We (I was one, too) think any school not in the top 50 or top 75 is not a name school. Is not prestigious enough. We’re all conditioned by the same schools showing up in every TopColleges list and we don’t know what we don’t know … until it’s too late sometimes.
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Kudos to you for your ongoing education into the process of financing college. I’m sure it’s paying off exponentially. That’s great for you and for your daughter. And for those kids that don’t have a parent to shepherd them through this? And come from a school with few resources to help them along the way?
I think of the valedictorian on my son’s class -again, a first generation immigrant - who will accrue $86,000 (after discounts, parents can’t help) in debt simply by going to our state’s flagship institution. Not Dartmouth. I am in a position to be able to help my son so he doesn’t graduate with debt - he is also going to that same institution we will be paying for the $86,000 ourselves.
I don’t view college as a luxury. I believe it’s priced as though it is.
It shouldn’t take years of study or a degree in economics to make sure you’re getting the best college bargain. It just shouldn’t. Because if anything is unfair, it’s that. Not everyone has equal access to this information or the parents who will invest this much time on the hunt for the best deal. Those that don’t will pay for it for years and years to come.
So I will take this experience as a lesson, many lessons, learned and do better next time. But…it doesn’t mean that I won’t bemoan a system that is far too complex to be understood by all.
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There’s no “prestigious enough” in this. Mizzou is a great institution. I was merely clarifying for those making assumptions above, that I’m not talking about Dartmouth.
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The landscape does indeed change quickly.
When my D applied for college as the Class of 2020, she was offered several excellent merit based awards at very good schools. Literally within a couple of years, those schools had raised the bar on who they would offer merit scholarships to, and how much they were worth.
When my S applied for the Class of 2023, two of those colleges were well known for offering merit scholarships just a couple of years before to kids with stats similar to my son. My son got into both but was offered nothing. He wasn’t a super high stats kid, but it was still a surprise. One of those schools was Penn State, which had certainly been enticing students from our area with merit awards just a couple of years before. But PSU clearly felt they no longer needed to do that, which is totally fair.
Colleges provide information about scholarships on their websites. Many do not state exactly how many scholarships they provide. It can totally depend on the size of the school and a lot of other factors. At one school where my son applied for additional scholarships, they explicitly asked him to notify if he wouldn’t be attending so that they could offer the scholarship to the next person. Do plenty of research and, as others have said, cast a wide net if scholarships are needed to make the school affordable.
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The SSA. Yes, I know it well.
@joshsmother There is more to that story about the Val in your son’s class. He literally cannot take out $86k in student loans without someone at least co-signing for him, more likely his parents may be taking out Parent Plus loans that they think they will be able to shift to him after graduation? Most likely they won’t be able to shift the debt to him…but as I said, you don’t have the full or accurate story if you think an 18 year old can get $86K in loans.
If you are at all close to that family, I truly hope you will suggest to them that this is not a good financial decision and to tell them about the NACAC May list. He may well be able to find a much better bargain going to that list, even finding a better bargain with a bigger “name”. Your son may very well be able to do the same thing. If you don’t fall prey to sunk cost fallacies, you still have options. It is only March.
Yes, it takes time and energy to find the bargain schools. But if you don’t have the money, you need to find the time. As I said before, college is a luxury item, not wanting that to be true doesn’t make it untrue.
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I asked you if Mizzou was a “name” school since Dartmouth was the university you were referencing. Just a yes or no question.
Mizzou definitely is a name school, as @blossom already stated. It is literally the flagship university of your state and a DIV 1 sports franchise.
I am very close to him. His parents speak little English. I didn’t take out all of the loans when I was a college student either - I couldn’t. I also didn’t leave the loans with my parents (low income) so I took on the loans upon graduation when I consolidated my debt. He will do the same. Pretty sure he’s not going to cut and run with his parents holding the bag. I think that’s a reasonable assumption.
I will absolutely share this information with him and offer to help him in any way I can. He’s not even 18. This is really adult stuff for a kid.
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But they won’t let him enroll without paying, and he will only get $5500 the first year. He needs the money first.
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