<p>Daughter is avoiding selecting a safety school. She is an excellent student that is top 3%, NMSF, 12 AP classes, 4 years of theatre and wants to study physics/ math. Problem is her peer group keeps telling her she can get in anywhere . </p>
<p>Were proud that she done the work to complete 4 EA applications (1 reach, 1 hopefully full NM tuition and 2 hopefully merit). You will notice the hopefully because every time we run a financial calculator the numbers range between $15k- $30K. Weve saved for 21K per year but cant pull off any more than this.</p>
<p>Originally her safety was UT because she is guaranteed admission. We/she dont think this is a good fit for her but academically it is the strongest safety university. Weve tried to encourage Alabama & Oklahoma schools due to the huge scholarships. She is strongly opposed to any school in the South- I have no clue why! Now she is considering University of Arizona or University of New Mexico as a safety. Shes never been to Tucson or Albuquerque.</p>
<p>As you can tell, I need another parent to talk to and get advice.</p>
<p>Here’s what we did. We found 2 out of state schools where DS would qualify for in-state tuition and scholarships. One he chose, one I recommended based on letter in mail stating he looked good for big scholarship. One of these schools was Texas A&M. He liked A&M, so it made a good safety for him (auto admit and in-state tuition and scholarship due to Corps of Cadets). Explain that these safety schools offer HER lots of flexibility. If she gets large scholarship (very likely with her stats) and honors college if available (very likely with her stats) she could be going to college for very small $$ which will allow her to look at the tippy top schools for grad school.</p>
<p>We tied the $$ into DS’s choice by explaining that the money could go to grad school or a new car or his bank account if he spent less than we were willing to provide for college. He became financially vested in the process! :)</p>
<p>Look at Arizona State U also. It’s a great school in a great town. The honors college is very good, and their housing is new and nice! She can get a great education in a lot of places! Tell her you want her to reach for the stars, but to leave her options open! </p>
<p>My DS was glad to have the options when all the admits came back. What if she visits after admission and doesn’t like her top choices (my son really disliked one of his top three after visits)??? She needs to be able to choose the best fit (academically, socially, financially) and to do that she needs options!</p>
<p>Good luck! Tell her she’s done the hard work, and now she needs to cast a wider net to reap the benefits!</p>
<p>I don’t know the physics/math schools, but Michigan State? Very good total package for kids with high stats/NM status.</p>
<p>My DS is in the NM hunt as well - he’s applied to Alabama, MSU and is thinking about Arizona. Then again, he’s been to AZ several times and we visited Bama in October, so no worries there.</p>
<p>Not that it’s necessarily a good way to go about it, but I think Alabama’s offer usually stays “on the table” for quite a while (don’t know about the others), so she could wait until she hears from the EA schools to pull the trigger.</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh has historically given full-tuition scholarships based on merit(with additional engineering school scholarships that stack) to this type of student, but if she has any interest at all, i would recommend applying THIS WEEK, as students who apply earlier in the cycle are far more likely to get the scholarship. Once she gets an offer, it will stay on the table until May 1, and she can visit at any time.</p>
<p>Perhaps not as strong in academics as UT, but Pitt Honors College has traditionally attracted some very strong math and physics students (who usually turn down schools with higher ranking to attend.) And, it is not a southern school.</p>
<p>I agree that it does not hurt to have several of these options to choose from come May 1.</p>
<p>Every student needs to have at least one rock-solid safety on his/her list that meets these four criteria:</p>
<p>1) Guaranteed admission based on grades and test scores (lots of public institutions post this right on their website).</p>
<p>2) Affordable to the family without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, and/or guaranteed state aid (for an in-state institution), and/or guaranteed merit-based aid awarded by the college/university itself. If your family can pay 21k each year, that plus a Stafford Loan ($5,500 frosh, $6,500 soph, $7,500 junior, $7,500 senior) will get her into the $26,000 range for total Cost of Attendance (tuition, fees, books, housing, meals, travel, personal expenses) and leave room for cost increases in later years.</p>
<p>3) Offers the major(s) the student is interested in. OR if a community college, offers the first two years of the major(s) with a guaranteed transfer or articulation agreement with at least one 4-year institution.</p>
<p>4) The student will be happy to attend if all else goes wrong in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Tell your daughter that if she cannot find any place that meets these four criteria, then she needs to come up with a Plan B in case she doesn’t get in anywhere that she likes and that your family can afford. She does not want to be the author of one of next April’s “Didn’t get in anywhere I can afford, what do I do now?” threads.</p>
<p>I know a Physics major who received a ginormous scholarship from Guilford. Perhaps it is still too much in the South for your daughter, but it may be worth investigating.</p>
<p>Although you may miss the chance at some other scholarship monies, I am pretty sure you can apply to Alabama and Oklahoma pretty late and still get the NMF scholarships. So there would be a good chance she could apply after she would have heard something back from the Early application schools. If those EA schools do not pan out, she might be more open to Oklahoma or Alabama.</p>
<p>OP, another Texas parent here. I’m sure you know all of this, but just in case, I’ll make my pitch for UT. ;)</p>
<p>Aggie money for NMF is sweet, but I have no idea about their honors/similar tracks. Has she made a custom campus visit to check them out? She might be surprised…it happened to my 2011 grad when he took a closer look at UT, which I feel compelled to say a good word not only because it’s my undergraduate alma mater, but also because I was impressed, too. Although UT is tough when it comes to merit money, it actually offers a number of opportunities for kids who need intellectual challenge in a more personalized setting. My physics kid fell in love with the Dean’s Scholars program (CNS honors) and Freshman Research Initiative opportunities (although he ultimately passed on the offer–too close to home). Plan II is also appealing (their priority application deadline has already passed, and they work on rolling admissions, so she should apply ASAP if interested). Living in the honors quad is a plus. She could also apply for the new (as of last year) 40 Acres full ride 4-yr scholarship sponsored by Texas Exes (her NMF status will push her app up to the “serious contenders” pile). </p>
<p>TCM, sometimes a kid will soften the resistance if you suggest applying to a group of safeties instead of just one. It’s counter-intuitive, but sometimes thinking about them en masse relieves the pressure/discomfort of picturing herself there. The safeties mentioned on the thread have relatively simple applications, so she’s not going to have to write a bunch of extra essays. Remind her that you will NEVER force her to go anywhere she doesn’t want to go, even if it is the only place she gets in. She’ll have lots of time in the spring to investigate the safeties, so she can just fill out those easy forms now and leave the analysis for a later date.</p>
<p>I think Pitt is a great suggestion. Pittsburgh has turned into a nice town. I know a number of happy students at the honors college who are attending because higher ranked universities didn’t cough up enough merit money. For physics/math she might also look at some of the second tier (but still very fine) tech schools. They are eager to have young women and often have merit scholarships specifically aimed at getting more of them. I am thinking of schools like Case-Western, RPI, WPI, Rose-Hulman. </p>
<p>I asked my kids to apply to two safeties so they’d have at least two choices come spring. I also strongly suggest having rolling or EA schools on your list. It was kind of sweet for S2 to have U of Chicago as a safety since he’d gotten in early. (He hadn’t visited so he went ahead and applied to the safety he loved, but dropped the other safety that he wasn’t thrilled about.)</p>
<p>^ mathmom’s son’s experience notwithstanding, I don’t think many, if any, applicants would be prudent to rely on U Chicago as their “admission/financial safety school.”</p>
<p>^What I am saying is that a reach school that you get into early is ipso facto a safety school. You certainly can’t count on it to work out that way, no one was more surprised than my son, but that’s why I highly recommend applying early if the school offers EA or rolling admissions. My oldest didn’t get early acceptances from two schools he wanted to attend, but he also heard early from a school (RPI) that had a priority application - they let him know he was accepted before Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Financial safeties are a whole nuther kettle of fish, and not my area of expertise. Though my experience is that safety schools generally offer strong students nice merit money.</p>
<p>I am a strong Pitt booster (D just graduated, yay!), and the full-tuition scholarship is terrific. But I would recommend checking out the physics department carefully. One of D’s friends was not happy with the overall strength of the department. Although that’s just the opinion of one person, it wouldn’t hurt to delve deep.</p>
<p>Check the programs and majors in Ohio University in Athens, Ohio,and see if one of them is a fit. Inexpensive in state Ohio tuition with good stats.</p>
<p>I also agree with the Pitt and Michigan State ideas.</p>
Though my experience is that safety schools generally offer strong students nice merit money.</p>