<p>We finally have a complete list of all the schools my son is applying to. We had to figure it out and get all the apps completed early because the guidance counselor had a deadline last week. That has actually worked out well because now we are done with the applications and we can focus on the financial aid paperwork. </p>
<p>We probably should have left a few of the reaches off the list, but that's ok. (I'm thinking specifically of Dartmouth since he probably won't get in, we can't afford it anyway and they aren't likely to give him merit aid, and we goofed up the application! Oh well!) In any case, I think we have a pretty good mix of safeties, matches and reaches, and I'm hoping my son will get at least a few decent offers we can afford! </p>
<p>His basic stats again:
pa: 3.94 unweigted, 4.6 weighted
SAT: 1520 cr+m
SAT Subject tests: Math2 800, Spanish 700
Extracurriculars include debate, math team, varsity soccer, creative writing and yearbook, etc.
He is a good math/computer science student planning to major in computer science</p>
<p>The List:</p>
<p>Safeties:
Arizona State U (Honors)
U of Alabama (Honors)</p>
<p>Matches:
U of Denver
U of Miami
Georgia Tech
U of Richmond
U of Rochester
Santa Clara</p>
<p>What do you think? I'm hoping for enough merit aid from one or two of the match schools. I told him $15,000 range (or less!) is what we are shooting for and $20,000 is about the max we can pay, and he seems to understand. ASU has already offered him basically full tuition and I believe Alabama will do the same, so at least he has two really solid safeties. </p>
<p>First of all, you mention merit aid for Dartmouth, and they do not give merit aid to anyone…the Ivies only give need-based aid, so depending on your income, you really MIGHT be able to afford it if he gets accepted. Same is true for Harvard and Princeton. Stanford also typically gives very good need-based aid. ALL of the Ivies are a reach for just about anyone, but your son has a shot for sure. I would call most of your “matches” safeties actually, and I might say that Rice is a match. He has himself in a good position with the ASU offer and likely Alabama offer, and I do think he will be admitted to most if not all of your “match” schools, and I think he has a great shot at Rice and is certainly in the running (though tough of course) at those Ivies.</p>
<p>Why is it that you think you can’t afford Dartmouth? If your household income is less than ~$120,000, you should get a very favorably financial aid package from all of the Ivies. If you make less than ~$65,000 a year, then if he’s accepted, he would be 100% free (including room and board) or very close to free.</p>
<p>^^
I believe that the OP’s child has a remarried parent who won’t pay and/or won’t do the NCP paperwork. Without that info, those top schools won’t process the FA paperwork.</p>
<p>Since your son is Comp Sci, Bama will give him free tuition plus $2500 per year. Your remaining costs will be about $13k per year. </p>
<p>Thanks! Running the net price calculators came back with dramatically different results at various schools. Dartmouth came back with some huge net price (can’t remember exactly what it was, but at least $45,000 or higher) while Stanford was around $18,000 I believe and Harvard and Princeton were even lower. That’s why I wish we’d just eliminated Dartmouth. And yes, our financial situation is complicated by a remarried non-custodial parent with unknown financials who won’t be helping out. However, he did submit the CSS profile right away when I asked him (U of Miami wanted it early), so I’m hopeful he will at least cooperate with that. And his income is probably extrememly low if I know him, so maybe that won’t affect things too negatively.</p>
<p>Many of the matches had high net price quotes too, but he has a chance at merit aid at most of them, U of Miami for example, has a full tuition award that would be ideal, though very hard to get I’m sure.</p>
<p>All in all, I’m pretty happy with the final list, and having two great safeties makes me feel like there is a good backup plan if we can’t afford the other schools.</p>
Yeah, I figured that out AFTER we spent $80 on the application, and AFTER I accidentally signed my name on the signature line instead of having him sign his own name! LOL!!! So yeah, Dartmouth was a huge goof in every way, but if one $80 goof is the worst mistake in this whole process, I’ll take it. </p>
<p>I’m hoping one of the reach or match schools comes through with a good offer, but if not I think we can make Bama or ASU work. From what I’ve learned so far, they both seem like really good schools with a lot to offer honors kids. :)</p>
<p>Rochester has the full tuition Rochester Scholarship (how many?), the full ride Handler (how many?), and the full tuition Renaissance & Global (how many?).</p>
<p>and Richmond has beaucoup full tuitions and maybe a couple full rides (frankly, I don’t remember); both kinds you have to get at by interview. Very competitive.</p>
<p>Yes! Rochester actually gave him an automatic scholarship last year (small though, like $8000) plus an apply-for-free letter because he won a math award that is connected to the University (Bausch and Lomb award). We wouldn’t have considered Rochester otherwise because we really want him to be in a warm location, but since they seemed to have some interest in him and since the application was free, we went for it! After learning more about Rochester it actually seems like a great school and it would be great if he got full tuition there. :)</p>
<p>This is a good list. Only comment would be that some of these match colleges are way more selective than others. Georgia Tech is a superb engineering school but average test scores make it a reach for most students</p>
<p>Yes…we are really going for a mix of schools, hoping for a few good offers. We also prefer a warm climate because my son has asthma, so that was a factor too with a lot of the schools. He has an 800 on the math portion of the SAT and he also got an 800 on the Math2 SAT subject test, so he’s probably got a shot at acceptance at Georgia Tech, just not sure if they would give him any merit aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think the prestige matters at all for his major (with the exception of Stanford). He is a normal very good student. I would choose the safest financial fit for the full four years. There is another student on here who just posted that their freshman merit aid package was not renewed to the same level the next year (U of R). Now they may have to transfer back to a CC in their home state. You will not get the same aid if you have to transfer. Make sure that merit aid if for the full four years.</p>
<p>I’m surprised your net price estimate for Dartmouth was all that much higher than the other reach schools.
According to the IPEDS database, financial aid recipients at various income levels paid the following average net prices for these schools in 2012-13:</p>
<p>The OP should put greater weight on the actual net price calculator runs rather than the quoted IPEDS numbers. There are various reasons why the IPEDS numbers may not necessarily reflect the OP’s actual situation.</p>
<p>^ I’m not suggesting that the IPEDS data should override a net price calculator’s estimate … as long as that estimate is based on accurate, complete input. However, if the NPC estimate is way out of line with the IPEDS averages, then you may want to run the NPCs again (unless there is a clear reason why Dartmouth should be >$25K higher than the other schools.) </p>
<p>Similarly, if multiple offers come in and one school is way out of line with other offers from peer colleges, then you may want to bring that to the school’s attention to see if they’ll, uh, check their math (if that school still interests you, that is.) </p>
<p>So, my financial situation is complicated and I don’t know how the need-based aid is going to play out at any of the schools. My gross income for 2014 will be about $110,000 for a family of 3, however this is the first year I have ever made anywhere near that amount. (2013 was around $60,000 gross.) I’m a divorced mom of two boys, and my ex-husband has paid exactly zero child support, so I’ve been on my own paying for everything pretty much the entire time and I don’t have any savings. In fact I actually have a bunch of debt. But the schools are going to see the $110,000 gross income for 2014 and they are also going to want financial info from the non-custodial parent and his new wife. Fortunately I think they will cooperate with the paperwork (the ex already submitted it once for the U of Miami which wanted it early), and I suspect they don’t make much, although I really don’t know what the wife’s income is. And of course they won’t pay anything towards college so I hate for their income to be used against us. Ugh what a mess! </p>
<p>So for all those reasons, need-based aid is sketchy at any of the schools and we are really going for merit aid. Unfortunately I’m not sure my son has enough of a hook and his scores and grades are high but not extraordinary. (I’m bummed that he missed NMF by just a couple of points …if he or I had known that the PSAT test was super important I think he would have tried harder and could have gotten it. We were both under the impression it was like a practice SAT.) Hopefully including less competitive schools like Denver and Miami will increase his chances for merit aid somewhere…and ASU has already offered him a great package. He doesn’t really want ASU, but it’s looking more and more likely. And then there is always U of Alabama, which seems to have a great honors program for smart out of state kids, and should be quite affordable.</p>
<p>On the topic of Rice, which I actually think would be an ideal school for him, we just received a letter from them thanking him for his interest and encouraging him to visit. I have heard before that Rice really wants people to visit, but it will cost us like $1000 to visit Rice, and probably even more if we try to get out there before the regular decision deadline of Jan 1…is that necessary? If we don’t visit can we pretty much forget about merit aid at Rice? And if we do decide to visit, when do we need to go by? Getting out there before Jan 1 would be challenging and expensive. What do you think?</p>
</p>
But the schools are going to see the $110,000 gross income for 2014 and they are also going to want financial info from the non-custodial parent and his new wife. Fortunately I think they will cooperate with the paperwork (the ex already submitted it once for the U of Miami which wanted it early), and I suspect they don’t make much, although I really don’t know what the wife’s income is. And of course they won’t pay anything towards college so I hate for their income to be used against us. Ugh what a mess! </p>