<p>@mommdc: You could be right. I just thought his test score was within range.</p>
<p>Hmm, seems that publics might care more about class rank/GPA, so maybe nevermind, then.</p>
<p>yeah, don’t count on aid from Pitt or UMD. Your gpa, scores, and rank are not high enough. This year the cutoff for Pitt’s merit was somewhere around 1480 CR+M; they aren’t entirely sold on the 5%, but it seems you should be top 10%. And being OOS at UMD you’ll probably be paying full price. Lafayette has two scholarships: one is for 40K and that goes to the top 20 or so and the second is for 24K and that goes to the top 15%. You’re unlikely to get the first. Case has about 12 full tuition and 1 ride scholarships; you won’t be getting one of them. It has other scholarships at 21.8, 16.4, and 12.5K. I don’t know how many of these there are. Remember, merit only matters to your parents if it’s greater than what the net price calculators estimate you would get in need-based aid. So if the school offers you 20K in need-based aid and another 5500 in loans, the 24K scholarship doesn’t have an impact on the cost because merit will go first to pay down the need-based aid and loans. To that extent, it is some help to you in terms of debt, however. </p>
<p>Lehigh and Lafayette guarantee no loans in fin aid under a certain income, though.</p>
<p>Oh, and while you’re at it, Bucknell also has engineering.</p>
<p>I think you really should consider USC. No, they are not intellectual at all, but they do have a strong alumni base and are need-blind and full-need.</p>
<p>I think I will put USC back on my list, although it will be a bit of a reach. Lafayette and Lehigh can be match-ish schools. Nonetheless if all else fails I stll have my safeties.</p>
<p>Hmm. It might come down to your ED decision.</p>
<p>WashU’s ED acceptance rate is 27% (compared to 14% RD).</p>
<p>Rochester’s ED acceptance rate is 47% (compared to 30% RD).</p>
<p>As a comparison, Northwestern (who <em>really</em> favors kids who have them as a first choice) has a 32% ED rate and 12% RD rate.</p>
<p>WashU does give a bump to local kids, but it seems that the vast majority of kids they take are top 10% in GPA and your test score would not be special there.</p>
<p>So it comes down to how you value the two vs. each other and vs. your safeties (or maybe Syracuse/Tulane/Lehigh/Lafayette). You’d require full fin-aid or a ton of merit at your matches which essentially makes CWRU a reach (Syracuse & Tulane may provide good aid if they want your test score; might be worth checking out their common dataset to see what percentage they give full fin-aid to).</p>
<p>If you value WashU and Rochester almost the same, but much more than the rest (and so are risk-averse), ED to Rochester may make sense, as I’d say you have a pretty good shot there so long as you don’t screw things up (still show your excitement for the school, do research about why you love it so much, etc.).</p>
<p>If you don’t mind attending one of the other schools so much or value WashU much more than Rochester, then you may want to spend the ED on WashU (though your chance there is probably low despite being an StL kid and going ED).</p>
<p>As I mentioned, I actually hold Rochester and WashU in about the same regard, despite the much higher test scores and lower admission rate at WashU (I believe WashU is adept at gaming the rankings), because their alums do roiughly as well as each other. </p>
<p>. . . .on the other hand, by not applying ED to Rochester, you can play schools off each other when it comes to fin aid packages (and you still have a good chance of getting in). Maybe ED to WashU after all.</p>
<p>I actually really like all of the schools on my list (as far as I know - I haven’t visited most of them so I can’t say firsthand). Our family can afford roughly 10k-12k/yr. If I could go to any of them on my list, I would go to Rice because I think it suits me perfectly. However there is probably little to no chance, and I think ED only gives you a very small boost at Rice (14% vs 20%). Although I know I should apply ED to my favorite school regardless of admissions chances, getting into any one of my reaches would be great, and I’ll likely apply ED to the school that gives me the highest advantage. I should go see if my school has some statistics on WashU early decision. On Naviance they accepted 38% of our students over the years, 31 ACT average and ~4.20 GPA weighted gpa average, my WGPA is 3.8 and my ACT is 32. Although last year, 17 applied, 3 got in. I guess taking in acceptance rate over a decade isn’t going to paint the most accurate picture.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, even with RD, I feel like I’d have a pretty good shot at Lehigh, Lafayette and/or Tulane. At least at these schools a far less amount of students are in the top 10% of their class. Are there any other universities similar to Lehigh, Lafayette & Rochester (selectivity and “intellectually”)? I’ve already checked out Bucknell.</p>
<p>At least with engineering, it mostly doesn’t matter where I go. I’ll end up picking the best financial option (unless I am accepted ED somewhere)</p>
<p>Have you checked out Northwestern? I rate them higher than WashU. Not just because of personal bias but because there are a higher percentage of NU grads in those post-grad categories I consider (percentage in elite professional schools, “American Leaders”, student award winners, PhDs).</p>
<p>And as I said, they love kids who apply ED. </p>
<p>BTW, what’s your unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>However, most Bucknell undergraduates join fraternities and sororities. This mean limit the social scene for someone not interested in fraternities and sororities.</p>
<p>My UW GPA is 3.67.</p>
<p>And yes, ucbalumnus got it, the reason I didn’t really care much for Bucknell was because of the social scene. I read about it on other websites and it doesn’t seem to appeal to me much. Although the case is somewhat similar to Lehigh, however it looks like a more adaptable option.</p>
<p>Would Northwestern be worth a shot? I understand greek life is pretty big there, but being an overall larger university and in a city like Chicago, I’m sure there’s many other things to do.</p>
<p>Hmm. Chances aren’t great at either. If you get an SAT of 1500 (M+CR), your odds ED at WashU are much improved.</p>
<p>I think I might want to remove Case Western from my list. I really need schools that will meet my full need (our EFC is 10k, and we can’t really pay that much). I’d have to get accepted to one of my 100% full-need reaches, or stick with my in-state financial and academic safeties (SLU & Rolla). I had a more in-depth discussion with my mom on what we can and can’t pay for. I’ll probably have to take out the Stafford loans and work a bit. Assuming the net price calculators are accurate and these schools end up meeting my need, 10k can be made up with the loans and my own contribution. Anything much more wouldn’t be a viable option. I may want to take the 2/3 safety - 7-8 reach approach. I would be perfectly happy attending my safeties so I guess I can splurge on reaches, if I can write quality essays of course.</p>
<p>However, Case doesn’t have an app fee or any supplementary essays, so I guess I could give it a shot anyway. They want 2 teacher recs though - and as of now, I only have one teacher I planned on asking.</p>
<p>If your EFC from a given “meets full need” school is $10,000, your net price will likely be between $14,000 and $20,000, due to adding a student contribution of $4,000 to $10,000 (expected student loan and work earnings contribution). Of course, different schools will calculate their own EFC differently (and differently from the FAFSA EFC), and have different expected student contributions.</p>
<p>However, if your net price (not EFC) is $10,000, then that can be covered by a federal direct loan ($5,500) and some work earnings, although that is kind of a stretch limit with no room for error. If you are an engineering major who gets good summer internships, that may be more easily doable in later years than for most students. You may also want to ask on the school-specific forums whether there are opportunities for cutting costs through frugal living at the school, or if the listed budget is very difficult to live within due to being in an expensive area, or not getting the low cost dorm, etc…</p>