<p>I need to decide which colleges to apply to but my list seems very haphazard. I tried to cut down on application costs by deleting colleges that were too expensive to apply to. I also deleted any college with an outrageous estimated net price. After this, my list does not seem very balanced. Is there any college that strikes you as one I should add or delete?</p>
<p>Here is a list of colleges I plan to apply to, in the order of my interest:
Reed College
Middlebury College
Macalester College
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
Colby College
Haverford College
Swarthmore College
UC Santa Cruz
Wellesley College
Grinnell College
Smith College
Sort of on the fence about applying to Olin College of Engineering (they waived my app fee and the net price calculator says they're really cheap). </p>
<p>My Stats:
California Resident
3.92 cummulative UW GPA
SAT (retook, awaiting new score) : 2070 overall. 730 CR, 660 M, 680 W
ACT: 31 Cummulative. 34 Math, 34 Reading, 32 Writing MC, 30 Writing Combined, 24 Science.
Class rank: 9 out of 405 (top 2%)
7 AP classes
extensive list of EC activities
intended majors: political science and genetics(or biochemistry) with the goal of getting a Ph.D and pursuing research.</p>
<p>I'm looking for schools with a liberal, activist climate. Preferably small. With an intellectual reputation. However, affordability is my primary concern. It would be really helpful to have someone else's opinion on this list.</p>
<p>First, could you please clarify your financial situation? Are you okay with need based aid or do you also need merit? Have you asked for fee waivers?</p>
<p>I think your list is fairly cohesive [except Olin for engineering which seems out of context]. I’m not sure about Colby. I’d add Wesleyan. Maybe look at Williams – good biochemisty/molecular biology concentration + good political science. Not as activist as Reed, Swarthmore and Wesleyan, but similar in personality to Middlebury and Wellesley. Also Pomona.</p>
<p>Are the UCs your safeties? If you want small, you should try harder to find small safeties. I believe Smith would qualify.</p>
<p>I qualify for some need based aid but it usually is not enough. My estimated family contribution is $10,956 according to the FAFSA4caster. However, my parents have only saved $17,000 for college so far. The best net price I’ve seen from a net price calculator was Swarthmore at $15,873 a year. That still would have me graduating with tons of debt. It seems that the less likely I am to get accepted into a school, the cheaper it is to attend. So merit aid would be good but it only seems to be avaliable for someone like me at the schools that do not give great need based aid. My back up plan is just to go to community college because there does not seem to be enough schools that I can afford to find true safeties.</p>
<p>What do you mean about Colby? When you say Wesleyan, are you referring to the one in Connecticut? </p>
<p>I considered UC Berkeley a reach, UC Davis a match, and UC Santa Cruz a safety. Does that sound about right? It would seem weird not to apply to some UCs. I would prefer small but I’m also sure I would succeed at a large school so it’s not the most important thing to me.</p>
<p>I think it’s kind of the opposite: schools that give good need-based aid, usually don’t offer merit.</p>
<p>My guess (and this can only be a guess) is that unless your family has some financial complication like a family-owned business, all of the selective colleges in the Northeast will offer you more or less the same amount of need based aid. So you should see too much difference in aid among Swarthmore, Williams, Middlebury, Wesleyan and the others on your list in the same selectivity range.</p>
<p>I would cast a wide net and be prepared to compare and negotiate offers.</p>
<p>Only your family can define what’s management and what’s a ton of debt. If your EFC X 4 = $44,000 and your parents contribute 17,000, that leaves you (your parents actually) with a debt of about $27,000. Not ideal, but not completely unreasonable either. Your parents may be able to contribute more over the next four years.</p>
<p>My guess – again guess! – is that you would get merit aid at Smith and Grinnell. Both sound like they’d be good fits for you. I’m not sure about Colby or Macalester. You might also consider Rhodes, though the environment may not be what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>My comment on Colby is that I don’t think it fits with your activist profile, but it’s a good school. If the money works then I’d leave it on the list. Wesleyan, yes, the one in Connecticut. Some personality overlap with Swarthmore, Reed.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert on the UC selectivity, but it’s great that you have them as your backup.</p>
<p>Momrath’s estimate of debt may be wrong since MOST schools will ALREADY include full loans to meet need. So, if you need to borrow for EFC, then you’d have about $55k in debt.
This is a common mistake people make. They think that students can borrow to reduce EFC only to find out that the Stafford loan is already being used in the FA pkg.</p>
<p>The only way to use Staffords to reduce EFC is if you attend a “no loan” school (few and hard to get into) or attend a school where the merit is so big that the remaining costs are about what your EFC is, so THEN a Stafford loan can reduce what your parents have to pay.</p>
<p>Your parents have some college savings, but how much are they also going to contribute from current income??? Ask them.</p>
<p>It seems that the less likely I am to get accepted into a school, the cheaper it is to attend. So merit aid would be good but it only seems to be avaliable for someone like me at the schools that do not give great need based aid</p>
<p>^^^
The above is true. The schools that are the least likely to accept you are probably the ones that give the best aid, hence would be the cheapest. </p>
<p>And, yes, the schools that give the best merit scholarships to someone like you, probably do not give much need based aid…however, in your case, that may not make much difference since merit gets applied to “need” first and if the merit is big enough to cover “need” you wouldn’t qualify for much/any need based aid. </p>
<p>For instance, if you were to get a full tuition scholarship, then a $5500 loan and your parents’ EFC would pretty much cover your costs. </p>
<p>Do you qualify for Blue and Gold for UCs?</p>
<p>You seem to have a lot of reaches. What are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s important to read the fine print when it comes to financial packages. My understanding is that Swarthmore and Williams offer no-loan packages, Wesleyan and Middlebury include limited loans and that Wellesley offers both. </p>
<p>Of course there’s no guarantee that the OP would be accepted to a no-loan or low-loan school so she needs financial safeties, but she appears to have the credentials for the most selective.</p>
<p>Whether it’s a good idea for her parents to borrow for her education (even if she agrees to pay them back) is unknown because we don’t know their circumstances. This is a very personal decision, but some degree of debt is not unreasonable.</p>
<p>You seem to be favoring small LACs, which is fine…but, then you mention Olin, which is Engineering. You do know that most of the LACs on your list aren’t really the best bet for engineers, right? Do you want to pursue a career in Engineering? If so, turn your sights to different LACs like Lafayette and Bucknell. </p>
<p>And, to follow on momrath’s post, I’ll add that Colby offers no-loan packages as well. But, no engineering. So, think a bit about what course of study you really want.</p>
<p>If your parents’ $17,000 means $4,250 per year, and you self-fund about $10,000 from direct loans and work earnings (the most that students can reasonably expect to self-fund), then you need a net price of $14,250 or less after subtracting financial aid grants and scholarships (not loans or work-study) from the list price. Obviously, a lower net price is better, so you are not at the maximum of loan and work needs.</p>
<p>But with your EFC of $10,956, the colleges which meet full need are going to add the expected student contribution of up to $10,000 to that to get the net price, putting them out of reach on just need-based financial aid (and they may calculate EFC differently from the FAFSA calculation).</p>
<p>Hence, you need merit scholarships to start at a four year school.</p>
<p>Starting at a local CC can be another option to keep costs down.</p>
<p>@ momrath
Thank you for the tip, I will look into Rhodes. When you say that Wellesley offers both do you mean that it offers both no loans and limited loans? </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
No, I do not meet the Blue and Gold eligibility requirements. Should I be looking for schools that offer excellent merit instead of really good financial aid? $55,000 dollars of debt does not seem very reasonable to me. Especially because I will need to go through more schooling after I graduate to be a scientist. How do I find a financial safety school? They all seem very unaffordable. I’m likely not going to a four-year college right away but everyone still thinks I should apply, just to make sure.</p>
<p>@BossyMommy
I’d prefer to do biology and political science. I would do engineering rather that science if that I meant I could afford to go to school. I think I’m going to delete that from the list because it doesn’t make much sense. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Does that mean that I really shouldn’t be looking at these schools that give the best financial aid and instead look at schools that give good merit?</p>
<p>If the schools with the best financial aid are still too expensive based on net price calculator results, then you should really tilt your list toward large enough merit scholarship schools. You could always try the net price calculators at the good financial aid schools to see if any of them do fall into affordability range.</p>
<p>Follow the link in post #8, then look at the sticky threads for shopping lists of schools with big merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Remember that biology is not a particularly well paid career path, so it is important to keep debt levels down if you go that way.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m looking up the competitive scholarships right now. How should I determine which ones I actually have a good chance at being considered? How much above average should my test scores be?</p>
<p>I would add Pomona and Amherst to the list of no-loan schools. I would expect the same EFC as Swarthmore at Pomona, Amherst, Williams. And close at Middlebury, Wellesley, Haverford. These are all reaches, but not out of range for you. </p>
<p>So I would do both: 1. Widen your reach list 2. Make sure you have one or two financial AND admissions safeties.</p>
<p>Colby is a conservative school imo. Might replace it wth Holy Cross top 25 LAC THAT MEETS 100% DEMONSTRATED financial need. Holy Cross is strong in sciences and political science and its alumni network includes Chris Matthews of MSNBC,1 Senator, 4 Congressmen, and 3 current Supreme Court Justices have Holy Cross ties including 1 alum.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell how competitive the scholarships are, especially if they don’t mention how many are available. You probably want to find one of the automatic big scholarship schools as a safety.</p>