did not run calculators, he did most of the research on where, I am willing to see what he can get when they send him the finalized spring packages. He was the one which discovered UAH and was considering after we visited, but had changed his mind after seeing UM.
When we started the college process we sat down with our kids and discussed how much we would be willing to contribute to their education. This would be from savings, current earnings and money we might be willing to borrow (though in our case that was 0). The rest they would need to come up with either through scholarships, financial aid, money they could borrow, earned income both over the summer or at school and in the case of our engineering D co-op earnings (a bit of a risk as at her school there was no guarantee of a co-op). If, after all was said and done, the school was unaffordable, it was unaffordable. They understood that just getting accepted did not mean they were able to attend that school. You might be in the position that he may not be able to attend UMN given the parameters you have. Good luck.
We were full pay at two pricey schools, from a combination of savings since they were in diapers and a nice little contribution from their grandfather. But to be honest there is no way I’d want my kids to start off with 100k in debt. Our daughter got a nice paying job after her expensive education, but it’s in an expensive city and she has very little money to spare. She’s trying to save for a home (i.e. condo) in this pricey city and it’s a long road for her. I can’t imagine if she were also trying to pay off that much student debt. Do the math and figure out what the monthly payment on that loan is going to be, and weigh that against all the other things he will want to have (car? apartment? vacations) once he graduates.
From my experience, it makes sense to wait until April. I do know with D17 some schools when she told them she was still undecided , upped the amount of merit aide. Does not usually happen, but with your son’s scores, it likely might. You also have 15 other schools to think about. I do agree that they need to be somewhat happy where they are , and sometimes that is worth the extra $ and sometimes its not. Depends on the kid. Can they adjust to being anywhere. The other option is to do two years at UAH and then transfer. I know that for similar reasons we will be looking at UAH for S19, but will weigh all our options next year. S19 did say he could see himself there, so at least we have that.
Is he NMSF? $25-30k at UMN-TC means $5-$10k in scholarship. They do offer large scholarships to top students and he may receive more later. I think my D received 3 scholarships from them a few years ago but one of them is specific for NMF. Note that you have until May 1 to decide.
You should take the time to do that, especially if you haven’t paid all the test and application fees for those 17 schools.
17 colleges times the application fees, the cost to send in all the scores-- wow. That’s a big chunk of change NOT to have run the calculators to see which of these colleges are going to even be in the ballpark of affordability.
^^^
I had the same thought. NPCs can be an effective pre-screening process that saves time, money and sometimes lots of student angst.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20798968/#Comment_20798968 can help you with colleges that will offer large scholarships for high stats. Verify on college web sites for the scholarships and his intended major.
Agree with other that running net price calculators before applying can save a lot of wasted applications to schools that will not be affordable.
As someone on here once said " as long as the school is accredited, the student can see themselves there for 4 yearrs, and it’s affordable." Why go into debt…with those stats, there are more affordable schools.
- The highest stats scholarship awarded at UAH is tuition + room. You'll still have to pay board, fees, and books.
- What you should be considering is whether you can afford the school, and whether your child will be happy there. Rankings don't matter.
I specify whether you can afford the school, and not whether it is the least expensive, because fit matters a great deal. That’s why my daughter is at UAH even though with tuition remission + scholarships she could have gone to a school much higher ranked in her major for free. UAH was simply a better fit, and we could afford it.
@NerdMom88 UAH does offer close to a full ride to National Merit finalists.
Each college and university has a Net Price Calculator link at its website. If you cannot find it inthe FinanicalAid section, then just search for net price calculator on the websit. Some are actually run through an external website which will allow you to save your data and use it for other institutions.
Don’t feel bad about waiting until now to do this. A lot of other parents have made that same error. What is important at this point is that you and your son do run these NPCs, and that you do talk about the financial implications of his options. You need to get on the same page about finances. He may want to reconsider his entire list, and focus on places where his stats will guarantee him significant aid. In that case, he should check the threads at the top of this forum for ideas.
My DD got into Univ Minn TC College of Science and Engineering as an Astrophysics major. We flew to Minnesota, toured the school etc. I thought it was a great school although I froze my hiney off but in the end, UM didn’t offer up a dime of merit, instead, they instituted a large tuition/housing increase that is supposed to continue to climb over the next three/four years and what started out as maybe a financial stretch OOS school became a completely out of financial reach school. Its a beautiful campus with so much to offer but the price tag for OOS was just too high. I regretted that we went and that DD really liked it because it was just not affordable.
Enter UAH, DD has applied, been accepted and offered the Charger Excellence Scholarship (Tuition/Housing) No brainer, DD and I are flying to UAH in November to tour the school but as it stands right now, she is off to UAH.
Good reputation, she loves the idea of single rooms in all dorms, the new dorm complex is supposed to be quite nice and the school is small which is something she really likes. She is currently exploring their honors college as well as the options for study abroad.
She will walk out of college (undergrad) debt free - that works for me.
Excellent answers all around… Going through the process ourselves as I am writing this. Minnesota Carlson is high on our D17 list. Got a free OOS Application waiver to apply with the understanding that the financials will have to work at the end. No risk is doing this. Having said that, she is only applying to 7 to 8 schools. Some higher ranked than others.and some have different Meri/aid Financials will make a difference at the end. She understands this as well. Not saying, the least expensive will be the ultimate choice, but it has to make sense. I can’t imagine that you applied to 17 schools and another University would not even come close to UM. I can see the differences between a large Big 10 schools and UAH. But what about IOWA or Purdue in the big 10 or another school is the Southeast like UCF or even Arizona State in the SW. You seem to have some limited funds to work with if UAH does not work, but then you have to look at the options that would work. Why even bother to apply to UAH if they would not want to even go there… You are better off with a smaller list of school in which all the schools would work assuming the financials work.
I was reading about a lady whose daughter applied to 27 schools Why?