Help me with my list! Which of these are safeties, matches, reaches?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>This is my list so far:</p>

<p>ED: Claremont McKenna College
RD: Pomona College
Scripps College
Loyola Marymount University
Santa Clara University
Occidental College
Lewis & Clark College</p>

<p>I really love the Claremont Consortium. If I don't get in there, I at least want to attend a school on the west coast.</p>

<p>These schools have offered me priority application:</p>

<p>Tulane University
Quinnipiac University
St. Lawrence University
University of Portland
Wells College
University of the Pacific
Loyola University Maryland
Case Western Reserve University
The College of Wooster
Seattle Pacific University
The New School</p>

<p>Which of these schools should I consider safeties, matches, and reaches? Are there other schools I should consider?</p>

<p>Profile: </p>

<p>Female
White
I attend a public high school in northern California that sends few students to top schools. Most go to the local community college.
I will need financial aid. Badly.
I'm considering a major in psychology, education, or pre-law. I would honestly love to pursue pre-law, but I'm worried about the price of graduate school. </p>

<p>Scores:
ACT:
Composite 33
English 33
Math 30
Reading 35
Science 34
Combined English/Writing 30
Writing 8</p>

<p>SAT:
Composite 2140</p>

<p>GPA (9-12) W: 4.2667</p>

<p>Advanced Classes:
Freshman year: Honors English
Sophomore year: Honors Earth Science, Honors English, Honors Geometry.
Junior year: AP US History, Honors English (Academic Decathlon), Honors World Geography/Religions.
(Planned) senior year: AP Language, AP Statistics. (I know, not very challenging, but my school is small and this is all that will work with my schedule & grad requirements.)</p>

<p>A's or A+'s in all of these.
APUSH: 4
AP Lit (self studied): 4
Will take: AP Stats, Language, Govt, and maybe an Econ test.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>2013-2015 School Newspaper - Editor-in-Chief (2013 was the inaugural year. I helped to found the paper and was elected as editor by my peers.)
2013- Current Journalism Fundraising Club – President
2012-2013 Associated Student Body Member
2011-Current California Scholarship Federation (Hopefully president senior year, will definitely be in a leadership position.)
2014-Current Ecology Club (Hopefully president senior year, will definitely be in a leadership position.)</p>

<p>2011-Current Frosh, JV, Varsity Volleyball – Middle Blocker ("Most Inspirational Player" junior year, likely captain for senior year)
2011-2012 Frosh Swim Team
2012-2013 JV Soccer - Goalie - Most Valuable Player</p>

<p>2011-Current California Scholarship Federation – Community Volunteer
2011-Current Humane Society - Volunteer
2011-Current ATCAA Food Drive
2013-Current Bear Service Club
2011-2012 American Field Service</p>

<p>Academic Honors:</p>

<p>2014 Academic Decathlon Regional Competition
- Overall High Scorer, Honors Category
– Gold Medals: Social Science, Music, & Super Quiz.
– Silver Medal: Interview
– Bronze Medals: Essay & Art</p>

<p>2012 -2013 Student of the Year: World History, English II Honors
2013-2014 Student of the Year: Journalism
2013 Sophomore Scholar – Rotary International
2014 Junior Scholar – Rotary International
Honor Roll all through high school</p>

2

<p>If you will need FA badly where are the UCs and CSUs on your list? Is your family low income or just unable to pay much for school? There are some pinned threads in the FInancial Aid forum you should look at with assured merit aid.</p>

3

<p>Willamette offered my son a generous financial package, and his stats were lower than yours. They have non-binding Early Action, and a free application, and so you’d have nothing to lose. I think you could consider them a safety. They were a “low-match” for my son, who had an unweighted GPA of 3.3-3.4 (weighted somewhere around 4.0 - he was in the full IB program, and took all IB and AP classes his junior and senior years); SAT:2060; ACT:31; excellent “leadership” credentials; etc.</p>

4

<p>Even though CMC, Pomona, and Scripps are in the consortium, they have VERY different vibes. CMC is pre-professional and conservative. That could not be said for either of the other two… So a list that has CMC as first choice and Pomona and Scripps on your RD list seems unusual. The consortium is great (one of my kids attends one of the colleges there), but the schools are not interchangeable.</p>

<p>Also, completely ignore the priority application list. Believe me, they are saving you $50 so you will spend thousands. It should be irrelevant in your decision process, and have no bearing whatsoever on where you apply.</p>

<p>Have you run the net price calculators for the colleges on your list? Since you badly need FA, this should be a first step. They are available on the financial aid web pages for each college. If your parents are divorced, own a small business, or own rental real estate, the numbers will be off (probably showing more aid than you would actually receive). </p>

<p>Also, “pre-law” isn’t really a major at most colleges. If you do well on the LSAT, you can take ANY major to law school. There aren’t even really pre-req classes for law school. Lots of history, English, and criminal justice majors go to law school, though.</p>

<p>I also agree that you probably are going to want to look at some UCs and CSU if cost is a big issue for you. You need a safety that you KNOW you can get into and you KNOW you can afford.</p>

5

<p>Don’t look at which schools offer to waive your application fees. If you’re concerned about cost, there are a lot of general fee waivers available depending on your financial situation. (Also, in my opinion, law school is a worthy investment that you will most likely be able to pay off if you make it through.)</p>

<p>Your SAT scores, self-studying AP scores, and founding of your school’s newspaper are more impressive than I think you realize. Your school’s lack of opportunities don’t tie you down, and you look much better for taking full advantage of what you have. </p>

<p>That being said, your list is kind of all over the place, and it seems like you’re only considering location. Decide the qualities you want in a school before trying to see if you can get into someplace you might not want to go in the end. </p>

6

<p>@Erin’s dad: I put my information into the UC SD net price calculator, and I ended up with less aid than I did with the Claremont calculator. Is this unusual? The EFC for Claremont is around $5300, which is not plausible for my parents. The issue is that we had an income of ~ $30k until about two years ago, and therefore we have no savings and a ton of debt.</p>

<p>@intparent: I really love Claremont, so I think my judgement is clouded by desperation to be there. I appreciate your information and I will take that into account.</p>

<p>@brm114341‌ That’s excellent news about looking impressive :slight_smile: I have filled in many calculators which are supposed to “find college matches,” but I always end up balking at the prospect of applying to the Ivy league/super selective colleges. I think I’ll post a thread with my preferences and sse where that takes me…</p>

7

<p>Don’t start a new thread, just ask away on this one.</p>

<p>It sounds like cost is going to be your biggest driver. If I read your post right, your parents’ income went up recently, but they have no savings for your college and they are still struggling with a lot of debt. This is not (as you can already tell) a great place to be when applying for colleges. Income in the year right before you go off to college is probably the biggest driver of the amount of need-based aid you qualify for. So if they make $60K now, for example, colleges will expect that some of that would be spent on college. </p>

<p>California parents, isn’t there some kind of Cal grant (I don’t live there, so don’t know the details)? Would the OP qualify? And CSUs are cheaper than UCs, you should run some of those calculators.</p>

8

<p>Also, OP, is that EFC for Claremont after taking federal loans and work study into account (still remaining)? Does it include any summer earnings for yourself (you could probably knock $2,500-$3,000/year off by working in the summer) if they don’t have that assumption included.</p>

<p>Also, if you really need FA, do not apply ED anyplace. You want to be able to compare financial aid offers across schools, and you can’t do that with an ED application.</p>

9

<p>@intparent The Claremont NPC is: </p>

<p>Estimated Self Help: $5900

  • Student Work: $1900
  • Student Loan: $4000 </p>

<p>Calculated Family Contribution

  • Parent Contribution: $5388
  • Student Contribution: $1900
    Total: $7288 </p>
10

<p>Here are some distinguishing features I am looking for in my future school.</p>

<p>1) High-rigor academics: An environment conducive to success, but without cutthroat competition.</p>

<p>2) Strong psychology and/or education departments: Knowledgeable and experienced professors, great academics, great post college-successes, etc. </p>

<p>3) Opportunities to explore other majors: I’m not completely sold on psych or education, and I want to be able to a) explore different majors and b) be able to switch fairly easily if I find something I love.</p>

<p>4) Good career services: In this economy, I’d like all the help I can get.</p>

<p>5) The social life: Where not being a drinker and/or a party-er is not looked down upon and does not affect your social life (little to no peer pressure). </p>

<p>6) The people: accepting of one another, generally happy, no cliquey feeling… everyone is there to succeed and experience college together.</p>

<p>7) The professors: a school focused on the undergraduate academic experience, with professors who are willing to meet with you outside of class, answer questions readily, want to help you, care about your success, are knowledgeable and experienced in their respective fields, etc.</p>

<p>8) The residential life: most students live on campus, great dorms, hopefully a substance-free dorm.</p>

<p>9) Size: a primarily undergraduate school with a small to medium-sized undergraduate population; excellent student to faculty ratio; very small class sizes.</p>

<p>10) Geography: I would like to stay on the west coast. I’m open to city/urban/suburban, anything but rural because I have lived in a small community for my entire life and would prefer to live near a larger population.</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>Not sure because I can’t see every line item. But to me this looks like:

  • It doesn’t include quite the full amount of federal loans you could take in a year. You can take out the following in Federal Loans as a student per year:
    $5,500 freshman year
    $6,500 sophomore year
    $7,500 each junior and senior years</p>

<p>Because the amounts are the same, I can’t tell if the “student work” in the first section and the “student contribution” in the second section are the same thing or not. Assuming they are NOT for a moment (so assuming you get $1900 in work study during the school year), then maybe they are assuming $1,900 in summer earnings. My kids each earned at least $2,500/summer (and could have earned more with a 2nd job or hustling more). So you could earn some more than they show there, too.</p>

<p>Those two items for freshman year add up to about $2,100 ($1500 in additional loans, $600 in additional earnings). So that makes a dent in your parent contribution. </p>

<p>Can your parents pay anything? </p>

<p>Also, run the NPC for all of your schools. Pomona, Scripps, etc. all handle their own FA, so you will get different numbers from each of them.</p>

12

<p>@intparent My parents will be able to pay some, and are very supportive. However, I don’t want to burden them any more than absolutely necessary. The $1900 are different. I hope to be working part-time at a restaurant after volleyball season ends in November, so that should help. </p>

13

<p>I just ran the CSU Mentor net price calculator. </p>

<p>An undetermined campus - on campus (residence hall)
Estimated Cost of Attendance (COA) for 9-month academic year $22489
a. Estimated tuition and fees $6633
b. Estimated books and supplies $1682
c. Estimated room and board $11648
d. Estimated other expenses
(Personal expenses, transportation, etc.) $2526</p>

<p>Estimated total grant aid: $5472</p>

<p>Estimated net price: (Cost of Attendance minus grant aid) $17017</p>

<hr>

<p>Total estimated financial assistance:
Estimated Federal Pell Grant Eligibility $0
Estimated Cal Grant Eligibility $5472
Estimated State University Grant Eligibility $0
Estimated Eligibility for Need-Based Student Loan $3500</p>

14

<p>Again…you are eligible for more than that in federal loans. $5,500 freshman year. $3,500 is the subsidized loan amount, but for whatever reason they are not listing the unsubsidized amount you can also borrow. So you can borrow $2,000 more than this show yourself (no cosigner, no parents borrowing).</p>

15

<p>@intparent I’m sorry but I’m having a hard time understanding this :confused: So you’re saying that I am able to take out $5500 instead of $3500. That’s still $13517, nearly 3 times what I could have at Claremont… Am I missing something?</p>

16

<p>Federal loans are available to most students, and it seems certain to me you would qualify (if someone else disagrees, please say so). You are able to take out the following amounts in loans each year of college:</p>

<p>Freshman year - $3,500 subsidized loan, $2,000 unsubsidized loan
Sophomore year - $4,500 subsidized loan, $2,000 unsubsidized loan
Jr & Sr year - $5,500 subsidized loan, $2,000 unsubsidized loan</p>

<p>The subsidized loan means no interest accrues until after you have graduated (essentially the government pays the interest that accrues during that time, hence the ‘subsidized’ name). The unsubsidized portion does start accruing interest as soon as the money is disbursed to your college. But you don’t actually have to make any payments until after you graduate.</p>

<p>I think you are seeing some colleges just show the subsidized portion in your NPC runs. Don’t know why they do that… again, maybe someone else could speak to that.</p>

<p>Here is a good website on the subject:</p>

<p><a href=“https://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized”>https://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

17

<p>@intparent
Okay, thank you! That is good info. However, I’m still not sure why I would choose that over Claremont’s estimate.</p>

18

<p>I don’t think any schools you have listed in either thread you have going are giving you the subsidized loan portion. All I am saying is that you can borrow a bit more than any of them seem to be showing you via federal loans. </p>

19

<p>Oh okay, thanks! </p>

20

<p>You’re virtually guaranteed admission to a CSU (probably honors at Chico or Sonoma for instance), and could get regents at UCSC, UCI, UCR, or UCM. However, since these are not undergraduate-focused I understand they’re not a great fit. Still, better than being shut out for academic or financial reasons…</p>

<p>But overall, you’re right, the Claremonts have better financial aid. The catch is that they’re very very selective - so you need to have other schools that are affordable. </p>

<p>Your choice of McKenna ED doesn’t make sense considering your interests in Education or Psychology - you could do Scripps ED, Pitzer and Pomona RD perhaps. Pitzer seems to “fit” what you want more than McKenna (which is heavily geared toward economics, government, business, etc.) </p>

<p>Essentially, you need to apply to more schools that “meet need”, after running NPC’s on their website to see which ones would make you the best offers.
At least look into Mount Holyoke (in a consortium similar to the Claremonts although the colleges are further away), and either Barnard (consortium with Columbia, literally accross the street) or Bryn Mawr (consortium with Haverford, you can take classes at either, plus Swarthmore and Penn.)
Some of the “meet need” schools don’t package loans - meaning that, if your parents contribution were $5,000, you could use the subsidized part of your loan to cover part of it and they’d only have to cover $1,500, for instance.</p>

<p>Then, add schools where you’ll be competitive for merit scholarships.
On the West Coast, Willamette would probably be good for merit. What about Pacific Lutheran, UPortland, USeattle, what do the NPC’s indicate? (Those colleges, like many on your list, do NOT meet full need so be careful to check costs at each).
But don’t stop at the West Coast: look into Clark’s LEAP program, for instance (excellent school for Psychology).
You’d get automatic Honors College, Honors Dorm, Full tuition at UAlabama; your remaining costs would be around $12-14,000. Subtract $5,500 in loans, a work study/on campus/off campus job for $2,000 a year (very doable), summer earnings for $2,000, that means your parents would have to come up with $2,500-4,500. (If you were to major in CS or engineering, you’d get a $2,500 stipend, further reducing that - could you major in CS and Psychology, combining both for research purposes, for instance? This would also fit for CBHP, an honors program within honors.)</p>

<p>Unfortunately, your high financial need means you need to consider leaving the West Coast to hunt those big financial aid packages - if you get into one of the Claremonts, good for you, no need to go elsewhere, but otherwise you’d have more choices than if your only remaining choice was Unaffordable U or Community College… </p>