Help Making a College List

College Search & Selection
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Please help my son with opinions on his list. Profile: 4.0 GPA unweighted 1560 SAT Hispanic. Public School in NJ. School doesn’t rank but will provide if college asks. Most likely top 5 of aprox. 600 class. No national awards but leadership. Accepted to NJ Governor’s School. SAMS (attended) at CMU. Fly in program at Williams and Amherst (rejected from MITES and Caltech fly in) . President of Key Club. Also FBLA, Mock Trial etc. with board positions. Challenging course work. All AP and Honors classes. Independent study as senior on Linear Algebra in addition to Calc BC. Intended major undecided but most likely Mathematics. We can afford our EFC so most schools are meet need schools. Otherwise merit scholarships will be important.

His list is:

Princeton (considering REA)
Brown
Harvard
Swarthmore
Williams
Amherst
Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
La Fayette
NJIT
Stevens Institute of Tech
Tufts
Boston College

Should he even try for MIT? It is top heavy. Is this a mistake? Should he have more public schools? If merit can’t bring it below $35K it would be very hard to afford) . Thank you

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Have you run the NPC for these schools?

Why isn’t Rutgers on the list as a safety?

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I think he has a good chance at most schools on this list. He is very likely to be admitted with merit at Stevens and NJIT.

I had the same two questions @chmcnm asked, so interested in hearing your response.

No harm in applying to MIT RD if it’s affordable but it’s a “fit” school so less predictable than say CMU.

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What is he looking for in a college? Big, small? Sports? Urban?

Is he a NMSF or NHRF? That could expand the list of possibles.

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Yes we are ok with the numbers from the NPC’s at most schools except CMU and LaFayette which will require some loans or merit (in LaFayette)
Rutgers mainly because of the size is not in the list. Will he have a chance at the Honors College and would it make it feel smaller. He is mostly worried about class availability and class sizes.

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He got the College Board Hispanic Award but I believe he is one point shy from the NMSF for New Jersey.

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It’s always best to set this as a first parameter. That way you don’t have to deal with how to handle a school that’s out of budget. The power of being debt free can’t be overstated. He’ll have lots of very good options that are in budget.

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I should add that he did get: AP Scholar with Distinction Award and National Hispanic Award by the College Board.

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He should try for MIT if he thinks it is a good fit! Congratulations on his outstanding record. I think he has a very reasonable shot, more than the average applicant, at all of his schools. He should apply REA or ED to whichever is his absolute favorite, consider ED2 somewhere else if it an option.

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Princeton just redid financial aid and it is now probably the most affordable college for UMC (donut hole) families.

Because of this (and being from NJ, slight boost for NJ students, just an impression so not verified), I would lean toward SCEA Princeton. Last cycle, Stanford/Princeton gave best aid out of the schools my son was accepted to (compared to Duke, Brown Wash U, Vanderbilt, did not apply MIT, did not get into Yale Harvard). This year Princeton aid will go up, but alas so will competition. Best of luck.

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About 16% of the undergrad population at Princeton comes from NJ, more than any other state. Also, just to be clear, Princeton’s new financial aid recently announced goes into effect starting in the fall 2023.

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This site may help your son refine his current list and offer ideas for potential additions:

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I’m assuming he’s eligible for these. Not sure if the list is exhaustive. Northeastern and BU might be options. Boston is a great college city.

https://nrpfacts.com/the-ultimate-hispanic-scholarship-list/

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This and the rest of his profile will get him into Princeton REA, especially provided it is the Sciences Gov School. You can worry about the rest of his list after December 15th if he doesn’t make REA. Of course you need to put in the OOS Publics early.

There is a significant personality difference between Princeton and MIT. You need to go in person and assess. No one can tell you how you will feel about each of the two places.

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And yes, Rutgers should be on the list.

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So - you stated this:

If merit can’t bring it below $35K it would be very hard to afford)

Therefore, while you may get into any school in the country, you need to run the NPC on schools that have no merit aid - that’s Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Swat, Williams, Amherst, Tufts, and MIT if you go that route. You hint that you’ve done that - but different schools will give you different #s so make sure you run for all.

If these schools are not giving you money to hit your price point, how will you afford them? If you can’t and I would follow up with a call to financial aid to ensure you filled out the NPC correctly, then they should be removed.

Schools like Vandy, Rice, WUSTL, Emory, USC and more are elite type schools with merit aid. Macalester amongst the LACs - and the Trinity, Connecticut College type.

And yes, you should add Rutgers - and if you want to go dirt cheap, schools like South Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, etc. “buy” kids in - it’s way more schools than this - but you can take advantage of their largesse, get in the Honors College and go for free.

Assuming your list will meet your needs, yes it’s top heavy - but adding a public not named Michigan, UNC, UVA, UCLA or UCB will cure that.

That said you said can afford the meets need schools - so I assume you’ve done that work and you are ok. A school like Lafayette is need aware so they may make a decision based on how much you need.

One last thing - you say you were accepted to Governor’s School - but did you go? If not, I don’t see the relevance to an app. I was accepted to Harvard but went to UMASS - guess what - I went to UMASS, etc…if that makes sense.

Great student - just ensure you add a 100% affordable safety - NJIT may be that, Stevens may come through as maybe will Lafayette - but if none are affordable - then get one that is - and we can help you develop that list as a just in case.

Good luck.

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True. Good catch!!

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@neela1 my son was accepted to NJ Governor’s at Drew (science) and SAMS at CMU. Both happened at the same time but this year, Governor’s, because of COVID, was cut to two weeks virtual and one week in person. So long story short, after much debate, he did SAMS because it was full 4 weeks in person experience (all paid by CMU) . His EC’s have so much virtual components, he really was craving some in person experiences (he was accepted in sophomore year to the PAN-Physics of Atomic Nuclei Program and it was virtual too)
Do you think he should explain that in the extra section to say how covid affected their experiences?
@tsbna44 thank you for your thoughtful response too. Yes we did run all NPC’s. Geographically south is not an option for now. Michigan and UVA I thought would be too expensive OOS?
We will look into the mentioned LACs.

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Doesn’t hurt to explain. I am not sure if they will consider his explanation. They may. I have no experience in this situation.

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Not familiar with SAMS but if four weeks full paid at CMU I’m sure it’ll impress. I see no reason to mention Governor School as you chose not to attend and that’s ok. I would ensure you describe SAMS as invite only fully paid, etc.

You just need one or two financial safety. Does Rutgers and TCNJ work ? Or NJIT ? Njit is on your list.

If not then you have to look at OOS merit. There’s many.

Again just a back stop as your list is heavily loaded up top. But no reason to think one won’t work.

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