It is actually highly likely OP’s D will get an offer by MIT. MIT makes three times as many offers to girls who apply far less frequent than boys, because they know many of the top stats girls wouldn’t matriculate there. In my D’s engineering/CS circle most top stats and stem girls got admission to MIT but almost none went.
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That is not a factually correct statement. According to the 2018-19 Common Data Set, 721 males and 743 females were accepted. Of those, 567 males and 547 females enrolled. That is nowhere near 3x.
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Thank you for this post. You put into words what I have been feeling, but I hadn’t really been able to identify. There’s value in the process. And honestly, IF (and it’s a big if) she’s accepted to MIT and the cost comes back at $80K, there’s not much of a decision. We simply cannot afford $320K. And that is a valuable life lesson.
On a side note, I think that one of the reasons my DD is excited about Clemson is for a reason that you alluded to above. They have invited her to a few recruiting events. They have sent her gift boxes full of Clemson items. It’s creating excitement for her about Clemson.
I hope that your son ended up at the perfect school for him!
Agree with that.
Do you have data on how many men applied and how many women? I’d love to know. The last three people we know who were accepted were all female. Just curious. I thought from previous info I had read that they get fewer applications from women (nothing like 30% but just relatively fewer). Maybe the women who do apply are also by stats more apt to be accepted.
Common Data Set 2018-19 — MIT Institutional Research
According to this CDS from 2018-19, Roughly 5 percent of male applicants were admitted vs about 10 percent of women.
Thank you for the well wishes! He is still waiting on all the decisions and offers to come in since he’s a current senior, so I’m watching this process play out in real time.
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Fill out the NPC on MIT’s website. It’s not 100% accurate, but it’s close. Estimate your cost | MIT Admissions
It might seem like a pain to get your basic tax stuff together for this, but trust me you will be doing this 100 times if you’re chasing $20k cost of attendance.
Clarkson University now offers 10 full-tuition scholarships. The additional essay was not complicated. Excellent value school, though it may be cold for anyone coming from Georgia!
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Based on the NPC, we are not expecting any FA. Any aid would be a pleasant surprise. It’s also why we are focused on getting full tuition merit scholarships (at a minimum) at every other school to which my daughter is applying. Aside from MIT, we aren’t applying to any school that doesn’t have a full tuition or better award.
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For most of this criteria, look very closely st the University of Rochester.
With no need based aid, $20K per year will cover room, board, fees and books but not much else at many schools. If there are travel considerations, that amount is likely low. Your daughter needs to find full tuition scholarships or better to make that budget work. Effort now finding options where such merit is realistic (or even offered) will be more wisely spent than adding “what do I have to lose” throw away applications.
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I agree, but I think it’ll be tough to get down to $20k, even with this student’s stats.
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UR says they offer merit scholarship recognition up to that of full tuition. Would this be highly unlikely for the OP’s daughter?
There are few full tuition scholarships, and many of their scholarships are awarded to specific niche applicants. Some are also tied to income level, even though they are merit-based. Cap for NMF students is $25k I believe. I’m not saying full tuition isn’t possible, just very competitive.
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Except for a few schools that automatically award merit based on GPA/scores or NMSF/NMF. most schools in NE and Mid Atlantic have the evaluation process that sometimes got us parents scratching out heads and said “what are they doing” ?
My daughter is also in the “top 1% student” category minus NMSF and is applying for colleges for this fall. We are chasing merit with the goal of total around 27K/year (our instate COA) but also have another 2 wrinkles:
- School that daughter likes.
- Must be close to home" requirements, which made it hard to come up with a list.
It took a few months to come up with the list and we removed and added schools to the list during the first 6 months before finalizing it, which included COA and potential scholarships. My daughter was involved with college’s searching and knew our limited budget. The final list was mostly low reach/match (financially) to high reach (to see if her stats can get her in and maybe with luck she may get enough aids to attend). So far, we know most schools will cost us around 25K to 45K (Fordham). However, there are potential for larger merit awards up to full ride from Pitt, UMD and UofSC.
So my suggestions would be:
- Look for school that “fit”. my D was not interested in attending VCU or NJIT even though she may qualified for full tuition or full ride.
- You may have to increase the limit amount to 25K instead of 20K. Seem like that is current cost after merit, unless kids get full tuition or full ride scholarship.
- UMD has Banneker/Key scholarships, which hey invite 400 students for interview and granted about 250 students for full ride, which is pretty good odd , compare to other schools.
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Take a look at Clarkson University ~~ Automatic Merit for stats that is very high, and Honors Program Scholarships, along with. full COA available. Great Engineering programs.
Also, consider Case Western Reserve, as they have automatic consideration and further full tuition scholarships.
I am in the same situation as your daughter in terms of no Need-Based aid. I have received merit awards from those schools. GT offered In-State tuition (OOS - RI). Also applied to Colorado School of Mines(14k automatic), URI, RPI (30k), UF, U of Washington, U of Utah, Northeastern,U of Rochester, with a few reaches - Cornell/Brown/Carnegie Mellon. I applied for computer engineering / CS. I would say to have her apply to many different schools, knowing that her dream school may be our of reach. Luckily, GT was where I realistically wanted to go and they gave some merit, being out of state. Wish your D the best!
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Do you know more about their full tuition scholarships? I already applied but I’m just curious. I’m a NMSF (very likely a NMF since I didn’t get any scary emails), and I am debating changing my first choice to them but not sure if it’s worth it. My current first choice has actually changed although I have not updated it in the portal. Out of schools that offer scholarships for NMSF/NMF, I’m thinking University Rochester is my first choice. But will they just not even consider me for full tuition if I were to do that and then just take off whatever they think I should get as a NMF? I am getting like no financial aid.
Thank you for these suggestions! Are you familar with TCU? Is it part of Dallas, or is the campus set off from the city? While a school like Harvard is in Cambridge, the campus itself is very clearly defined. MIT, on the other hand, really feels part of the city. I don’t think “urban” is an issue per se … my daughter just prefers a clearly defined campus that is separate from the area around it.
TCU is a few miles outside of downtown Fort Worth, TX. The campus is pretty well defined in it’s own area. Around the campus are houses, shops, etc.