<p>My d (a junior) is putting together a school list and I'd like to point her toward places that might offer significant financial support. She is a venture scholar but her SATs aren't top of the top -- 1900 as of now, should be able to push to 2000. She has a strong and rigorous background in math (taking both AP calc BC and AP stats as a junior) and science, but she also wants the option of taking liberal arts courses. Her favorite schools so far are:
Mt. Holyoke
NYU<br>
McGill
Carleton (on paper--hasn't been)
Barnard (reach)
Oberlin (on paper)</p>
<p>Although she likes big schools as well as small,I think she would do better in smaller classes. Her only geographic restriction is she doesn't want to go south of DC.</p>
<p>All things being equal, I'd like to get at least some (if not all) straight-out merit support (not just loans). Any thoughts about where we should look?</p>
<p>You do realize that NYU is the school with the greatest reputation for poor financial aid on these forums?</p>
<p>Put “net price calculator” in each school’s web site search box to get an estimate of financial aid.</p>
<p>If you are residents of New Jersey, Rutgers actually has a very good reputation in math, and a decent one in chemistry. Stony Brook and University of Massachusetts Amherst are similar in this respect, and have relatively low out of state list prices, but probably less financial aid for out of state students. University of Minnesota Twin Cities is another school good for math that has a relatively low out of state list price.</p>
<p>If she takes college sophomore math at a community or local college as a high school senior, then she will likely find small class sizes in junior and senior level math courses that she will take as a college freshman, even at big universities. She may also want to consider schools with a strong graduate program in math, since students that advanced in math often want to take graduate level courses as undergraduates.</p>
<p>However, freshman and sophomore chemistry courses are likely to be large, due to the popularity of doing pre-med and majoring in biology, both of which require chemistry.</p>
<p>Check schools’ on-line course catalogs to see if they have sufficient math and chemistry courses to keep her interested. Check schools’ on-line schedule of classes to see what the class sizes actually are.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what your daughter’s future plans are, but I just wanted to say that if she wants to be a math major, and has thoughts about going to grad school, she should be really careful about liberal arts schools. Even the LAC’s with strong reputations in math, like St. Olaf and Williams don’t have a very deep curriculum, so she may have trouble with finding enough courses to take to be competitive. At the very least, she might have better luck at schools where cross registration at colleges with grad departments in math is easier, like maybe Barnard or Amherst.</p>
<p>Of course, if this isn’t the case, then I’m sure any LAC with a math major would be fine. I just remember that when I was looking for colleges, I fell in love with the idea of a LAC, but then found out that I would be finished with their curriculum in about 2 years, and that there were other schools that offered many more courses I wanted to take. This may also be true for chemistry, but I’m not familiar enough with chem to say much.</p>
<p>“You do realize that NYU is the school with the greatest reputation for poor financial aid on these forums?”</p>
<p>Yes, I do. That’s why I would like to supplement her (cost-blind) list with my own suggestions.</p>
<p>I already have general information on financial aid – what I am looking for is information about schools that might have a particular interest in a Hispanic, female, strong math/sciences student. These might include schools that are actively recruiting Hispanic and/or female students, and/or schools that (geographically) might not have occurred to us. I don’t believe state schools are known for their generosity in this regard. </p>
<p>I would recommend Colgate, Hamilton, Bucknell, and especially Lehigh. Lehigh has more males than females, and would be easier for females to get in. As an alum of Colgate, I know it has very strong math and science programs. It also has a view of world as its classroom. It’s one of few small LAC with its own study abroad program - taught and led by its professors. Most students do study abroad at some point. It would be worth your while to take a road trip to visit all of those schools, they are not too far from NJ.</p>
<p>One of the challenges is that when it comes to URMs young women are overrepresented , because they attend college at a higher rate that URM males. Now if your son were a black male (who are the most underrepresented in colleges), it would be a different conversation. </p>
<p>In addition, what kind of hispanic is your child, because even among hispanics not all groups are underrepresented. If your daughter is not Puerto Rician or Mexican (which are most under represented of Hispanics), the URM “boost”, is going to be negligible. </p>
<p>If your daughter is a URM with a 1900 coming from a middle class suburb, there is not going to be much of a boost for her URM status (because to those whom much has been given, much is required). If were between her and a first gen student, from a low income family attending a magnet or low performing school, the other school would receive the tip.</p>
<p>Take a look at the University of Pittsburgh- they tend to offer good merit to OOS students with great scores (and maybe with some prep you could get your D up to the 700s?) and the hispanic factor would also be a plus…do you think she will be recognized as a national merit hispanic scholar? There are several threads over on the Pitt forum where people have posted the amounts of scholarships received. [University</a> of Pittsburgh - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pittsburgh/]University”>University of Pittsburgh - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>should she decide to apply to Pitt, get the app in early (Sept) for best shot at scholarships.</p>
<p>First, what Sybbie wrote regarding URM status is right on the money. I am assuming you won’t qualify for need-based aid and are strictly looking for merit? If so, you might want to look at the thread on colleges that give merit. </p>
<p>Two suggestions: please consider Case Western seriously. It is strong in science and gives merit. </p>
<p>Has your daughter looked at U Toronto? If you don’t qualify for need-based aid, Canada is a good option. It might be the equivalent of receiving a merit scholarship here.</p>
<p>Have you figured out how each of those schools handles non-custodial parent information and are you ok with that? </p>
<p>In case you don’t know: some schools require the non-custodial parent to fill out financial aid paperwork and will take that parent’s income and assets into account when deciding how much aid to give the student.</p>
<p>While you may live in a single parent household, most of the schools on her list are CSS profile schools. Most of the schools on your list will also require the non-custodial profile. </p>
<p>This means your income and assets along with the income and the assets of her dad will be used when it comes to awarding financial aid. </p>
<p>Hopefully you are having conversations with your ex regarding how much he is willing to pay or borrow for her education (even though the NCP will look at how much they believe that he can afford to pay). If there is a step parent, then the stepparents income/assets will be used to the extent of how much your husband is benefiting from the marriage (because there will be some expenses that are paid jointly). X-posting with 2collegewego.</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke Profile/Non custodial profile
NYU - New this year profile/non-custodial profile
Carleton (on paper–hasn’t been) profile/non-custodial profile
Barnard (reach)- profile/non custodial profile
Oberlin (on paper)- profile/non custodial profile</p>
<p>Go north and small. My son (Asian, so URM at small northern colleges) got a huge chunk of institutional aid (no loans) from his top 25 school even though our income is over $100K. He was accepted at all 9 schools he applied to and got money from everyone except SUNY Binghamton (were he was definitely not a URM.) He also got merit aid ranging from $18K/yr up to $30K a year. His SAT were 1920/ACT 30, good not great GPA 3.8 ish, and he had no AP’s but did have Physics from our local community college.</p>
<p>My soph dd attends University of Buffalo a SUNY, they have an honors college and do offer partial to full Pres scholarships, you can find info on their website re stats ect. My dtr is chem eng major and loves the school. She has a full scholarship & works hard to maintain 3.5 plus GPA to keep it. She is minoring in math. Believe me a full ride for undergrad is a beautiful thing. As a SUNY the tuition isn’t bad even for OOS. She has been a undergrad SA and last summer did an undergrad research experience at Univ Iowa so her experiences attending UB have been very positive.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. Re: noncustodial parent, we haven’t seen her dad for 16 years so he won’t be providing information. Some schools will accept this and others don’t; nothing I can do about that. I have a financial/legal advisor to help negotiate that situation when/if it becomes necessary, but the bottom line seems to be that if they want her/want to give her money, they’ll accept the situation; otherwise they won’t.</p>
<p>North and small is a definite possibility, emilybee. Where did your son apply? His grades and boards sound similar to hers, she does have APs but who knows how the testing will go.</p>
<p>She is scheduled for the ACT this April, thanks. Several schools on her list no longer require either SAT or ACT (Mt Holyoke/Smith, for instance), as well.</p>
<p>except the issue is that colleges ‘buy’ students (with merit money) that can bring them top gpa’s and/or top test scores. A 3.6 may be enough to gain admission to a higher-ranked, test-optional, female-only school, but it is unlikely to garner any free money (at Mt. Holyoke since I believe that Smith is need-only).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There is a wealth of finaid information available for free on cc. Most financial/legal advisors don’t have a clue as to the ins and outs of college financial aid.</p>
<p>“the bottom line seems to be that if they want her/want to give her money, they’ll accept the situation; otherwise they won’t”</p>
<p>Not sure that’s completely true. What I’ve seen is that it depends not only on circumstance and the parent’s ability to prove it but on the school’s coffers. Personally, I would make sure to have an affordable school or two that doesn’t require ncp information.</p>
<p>Also, have you gone through the school’s net price calculator to see if you can pay your efc (assuming they accept a ncp waiver)? I would think that will give you the best case scenario for the schools you listed since merit probably won’t be a factor there.</p>