Maybe too south for you, but Vanderbilt and Rice are both top 20 schools that offer decent merit, and are #1 and 2 in terms of student happiness.
Thanks all. We have about 80k saved for her college. We can contribute more but also need to plan for other child who will likely never be independent. That only became apparent in the last year or so (or we finally faced the brutal truth). Having an academic child we always assumed she would be a great fit for Brown or something like that. We always assumed naively that scholarships would be available. Then you start to research and the reality sets in. We would like to help her as much as we can because as you can imagine due to our necessity of caring for sibling, she has had to grow up quickly and without much guidance from us.
You can talk to the financial aid office about a sibling who needs extensive support…especially if this is happening now.
Scores come back December 12. Her score for sophomore year was 224 so we are hopeful for this year. We live in the city of the big school and it is quite close to our home (2 miles). As parents we have mixed feelings about her going there…she is a late bloomer socially and we think by going away she will hit her stride. The big state school is chock full of kids from her current high school. It is still close to 35K in state to attend and live on campus.
I went to a medium sized public university. There were plenty of kids from my HS there. My college friends were NOT my friends from HS. I mean really…there were 25,000 students and they all didn’t graduate from MY HS. Your daughter will be able to meet plenty of new people if she wants to.
If she is a NMSF, this will open up some doors in terms of merit aid for her!
“Many people consider Richmond ‘in the south’” The city of Richmond maybe, but not the University. When I was there, I did not hear any southern accents the whole time. All the kids that I met were from were from New England, NY/NJ or the Wash DC metro area. Also, I don’t know how long you lived in MD, but if you have spent any time in Northern Virginia lately and are following the election, many parts of Virginia are quickly losing their “Southern feel”.
Sit down with her and open the NPC on each elite school she wants to attend. Ask her if she’s aware of how much the costs will affect your family. If she’s smart, she’ll realize what’s possible and what isn’t, given your family dynamics, and what is available at schools that will provide funding.
Our son won National Merit. Yes, actually won. He was offered a USC scholarship-which was not the major award-but half tuition (at that time- $20K), the other half of tuition and room, board, incidentals were to be covered by us, or, $40K per year. Too much money for our family of 5, with 3 in college.
USC is now upwards of $70K per year. How will you cover that?
DD needs to rethink her priorities and you need to give her a budget to work with.
My brother actually went to U of Richmond so I am familiar with it. Lots to think about.
UR has definitely changed a lot, especially over the last 10 years. There has been a lot investment in the campus and students there have incredible opportunities, My full ride UR D spent a semester abroad at the U of St. Andrews in Scotland, completely paid for by her scholarship, and she was able to use a stipend that was part of her scholarship to explore the UK, too. She started doing lab research her freshman year, with an awesome professor who became her advisor and mentor. She had paid summer research internships, too. UR now guarantees to fund a paid research experience every student who wants one, regardless of major, research is popular with humanities students too, up to $4k, I think.
My full tuition UR D participated in the Sophomore Scholars in Residence SSR program last year, where she took a year long class she was interested in, lived in an area of a dorm with those students, took a learning trip with the class over Fall break, and worked in several group research projects together, it was a fantastic experience and all costs were covered by UR.
There are so any opportunities for UR students, for all majors, They have a very healthy endowment and use a lot of it to support the students through merit scholarships, research and other opportunities, the facilities are top notch, dorms are nice, with beautiful on campus apartments that are popular with upperclassmen.
You may think that, since your D has ivy level stats, she may not be challenged at a lower tier school such as UR. My Ds have had challenging academics at UR, along with many other high stats students. The Richmond area is a really nice place to live, there are lots of fantastic restaurants, museums/arts, parks, and outdoor activities. We have really come to love our visits there. There is also good access to transportation, with an Amtrak stop several miles away from campus.
The University of Alabama is absolutely worth a look, too. The campus is beautiful and there are lots of opportunities for high stats students there, too. There are a lot OOS students from all over the country. It is becoming more popular in my area (mid Atlantic), and I hear nothing but positive feedback from students and their families,
^ I agree that UR is a great school. There are some great threads at College Confidential here about UR. I think I read somewhere at CC that UR has (in that poster’s opinion) the best combination of number of full-tuition merit scholarships and US News Ranking for Liberal Arts Colleges (or something like that). Also, UR poaches a lot of high stat kids who were planning on going to UVA, UNC, W&M, etc. with merit money.
Thanks for all the information. It’s not that I don’t feel she will be challenged because she seeks that out wherever she is. It’s more of a social fit. But its great to know UR has changed so much…back in the day it was a big party school. I will definitely look into it.
I just finished doing a spreadsheet for my daughter where I had these columns: Tuition, Room & Board, Books, Travel Expenses (less for driveable schools, more for flight necessary schools), then did a total cost column. Then ran another column with Merit Aid and subtracted that from the total cost column for her net cost. For now, I’ve been using this site and the individual college sites to predict her likely merit aid. We are paying half, so I did some other columns to show her the difference between all of her choices. Then I sorted by net cost and as she gets final acceptance and merit, we are filling in and highlighting the final net costs. We took that final net x 4 years to give her the true price difference and then I also did a formula from the least expensive school to show the differential.So, for instance the top 5 prices are within $10k total of the lowest priced option. Once she saw this, she is now more serious about taking the ACT another time (currently at 31 with a 3.4 GPA) so she can get some favorite schools in the top 5 within 10k. It was the writing on the wall we all needed. Now we are looking at what/if the differences in the schools will mean for future employment, we aren’t stuck on that it has to be in the top 5, but there must be a very valid reason for her choice . She originally was going to be a pharmacy major but thinks she now wants to major in psychology and biology with an emphasis on forensic criminal science. So that changes her salary and placement percentage and higher debt would have been easier to manage with a pharmacy degree even with extra schooling.
Anyways, long story short, she grew up quick when it was all on a chart. She is now taking 2nd looks at public universities with honors programs while she waits to see if her favorite small private LOC’s can give her decent Merit. Even if you think you will contribute more than half to her education, it’s a good place to start saying you’d do half (if you can) or with a set amount. We are thinking that in the end, if we think there is a good value LOC option that she sets aside to bring down the overall cost, we may kick in to help. But we aren’t going to do that yet until she proves that she can make good choices with ours and her money. Also, another recommendation from a friend, You should make them pay for the first two years of college for their half. That way if they drop out, it’s all on them, which will make them more likely to stay in school. We may end up loaning her money, but we are clear that it’s her responsibility to pay us back 100% if she were to drop out. Hope this helps. She has some great stats, so Merit Aid should be nice for you but this was the only way we could really keep it all straight. Best of luck!!
One thing to consider is how important music is with the cost. And to look if non music majors can play in the orchestra. At some schools that is not possible.
My daughter was a state ranked musician who played first chair in a precollege wind ensemble and orchestra, attended summer music camp for three years, and was a member of a well regarded children’s choir. She played an underrepresented instrument…and also piano. Onof her college criteria was being able to continue to take lessons, and play in the college orchestra as a non-major. It was THE hardest thing to fulfill in her college search.
She emailed the heads of music departments, orchestra directors, and the private instructor on her instrument at every school she was interested in applying to. They were very helpful, even though some just said…not possible.
My kid attended Santa Clara University as an engineering major. They welcomed her into their orchestra…where she played first chair on her instrument for all four years. As long as she played in that orchestra, she received a 45 minute private lesson weekly. She also got a small $750 a year performance scholarship as long as she played in the orchestra.
The orchestra wasn’t a super strong one…it’s a small school, with a very small music program. But it was fun for DD. She liked her private teachers and her orchestra director a lot.
If she likes smaller liberal arts colleges with good music programs, Grinnell and Macalester would likely offer decent merit money for someone with her stats and interests.
You are right the music is proving to be a challenge. Her high school orchestra is better than most college orchestras at non well known for music schools. We talk about compromise a lot. We did a few college tours last weekend of smaller liberal arts colleges. I was surprised how much she liked some of them. We talk about in terms of orchestra being a big fish in a small pond and how that can foster growth which can sometimes be more important than the degree of difficulty in the music. As a parent sometimes it is all about the marketing! In general I am becoming more comfortable in the notion that decent merit aid is a good possibility. She is now very aware of costs too and that has become a big part of the conversation and has helped us begin to narrow choices. Thanks to all for your imput and information.
Oberlin offers merit and has great music (with possibility of a conservatory program). Other possibilities include Lawrence, Vanderbilt, Rochester.
Oberlin, Vanderbilt and Rochester/Eastman likely will not allow non-music majors in top ensembles because of their well known performance programs, though they probably have ensembles for non-majors. If @Veryapparent’s D is used to a high level ensemble it may be tough to find a suitable program, as thumper1 says. Lawrence is one of the few schools I know of that has a good school of music or conservatory but does allow non majors to audition for all ensembles and they can take lessons from conservatory profs (https://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/non-music-major-opportunities). @Veryapparent if your daughter is liking smaller LAC’s Lawrence is worth a look. It is known for good merit awards in general, though I don’t know if they give a lot of full tuition awards if that’s what you’re hoping for.
How about URichmond? I know it allows non-music majors into their student orchestras.
My daughter did not want to major in music…or minor in music. Her college orchestra was not as strong as the precollege orchestra she played in…but that is not why she was IN the orchestra. She said…playing in the orchestra was her relaxation, and break from her regular studies…and she really liked that.
She knew she would likely NOT be playing in a tippy top orchestra in college…and that was fine…as long as she COULD play.
Keep looking…there are a ton of larger schools that also have ensembles for non-majors, and schools hat welcome all majors to audition for seats. And then there are schools that just let everyone who wants to play…play.