Hi, my oldest daughter is a rising senior & we are looking for some advice about schools we should be adding to our list.
She is a really good student, 3.8 unweighted GPA, all Honors & AP courses, 1450 on her most recent SAT’s (700 reading/writing & 750 math). She scored 5’s on AP Calculus AB & English, still waiting on APUSH exam score. Her EC’s are OK, member of a few clubs at school, Concert band, VP of NHS & she works part time at “Code Ninja’s”. She is also active in the community, she is a church lecture, summer camp counselor & volunteer for our athletic association.
She wants to study Computer Science. Not sure what specific area she wants to focus on, but she loves to code.
We’ve visited some local schools in New Jersey as well as some out of state schools. She really liked the College of William and Mary but I am not sure if that will work out financially. Money is definitely a factor for us, so any schools that will give her merit aid or scholarships, will be of special interest to us!
She likes small to mid-sized schools in suburban settings, not a city girl! She is definitely leaning towards heading out of state, probably to the south since she hates the cold weather. Not sure if we should be only focused on “Tech/Engineering” type schools or if we should be looking at Liberal Arts schools as well?
Any help and information would be greatly appreciated!
Would you qualify for need based, or strickly merit?
TCNJ and Rowan are both very good for her area of interest and she would likely get some money from each.
Several of the super smart computer science kids I know go to U of MD College Park. Not sure what you’re looking to spend, but U of MD won’t be MIT expensive, even out of state, I don’t think.
I honestly don’t know if we will qualify for need based aid, this is our first time dealing with any of this… I have a feeling that we will not qualify for as much (if any) need based aid, so the more merit aid she can get, the better!
We did look at TCNJ and it is definitely an option. My wife is an administrator and Rowan’s school of osteopathic medicine, so we actually get a very good deal on tuition for Rowan. That is her safety school but I think she has her heart set on going away to school, as long as it make sense financially.
if she wants to go South, maybe Elon? I think they have an approach that can offer intellectual challenges to any caliber student, and she might get some merit $. beautiful suburban campus.
Get on some of the college financial pages and run the NPC (if you haven’t) and see if they look affordable. If they do you’ll have a better idea of schools you can look at. If not, then you know merit aid is a must. I’ve seen students be successful with CS as a major from a huge variety of schools (small/large, public/private, secular/religious, etc).
Really need cost constraints but maybe James Madison, UNC Wilmington, UNC Asheville, Furman, College of Charleston. Her stats would be on the higher end but kind of a match. The nice thing about comp sci is that you don’t have to go to MIT to be successful. She could look at UMD, Virginia Tech, or NC State if she wanted higher ranked schools.
A good cost-management strategy would tend to focus on one or the other (merit or need-based … or else the sticker price advantage of local public schools). The best approach for your family will depend on several factors, including your income, assets, and possibly the number of children, marital status, business ownership, etc. etc. The online net price calculators are a good starting point.
In general, the most expensive (and selective) private colleges tend to offer the most generous need-based aid (up to incomes of about $200K or a bit more). That may or may not translate to the lowest net price. Those same colleges generally don’t offer much (if any) merit money. If they do, the competition will be intense, and the awards are likely to offset (not add to or “stack” with) any need-based aid you otherwise would receive.
Many selective (but not super selective) private colleges do offer many merit scholarships but they tend to top out at around $20K - $25K, which still leaves you with a large net cost. Your own in-state public universities may be lower priced even at full sticker. Even some OOS public schools might be. But again, the devil is in the details of your circumstances and school policies/practices.