I’m a Puerto Rican student that will graduate at the top 10% of my class. I have a 36 ACT composite score and my GPA is a 95.88 unweighted and a 101.1 weighted. (My school doesn’t do a 4.0 scale) My dream school for the past two years has been Duke University, and I know that I have a pretty decent chance if I apply early decision. However, as a middle-class family (not to complain about my financial state because I am doing very well), affording Duke won’t be a possibility. Because we make too much income to receive a good financial aid package, I would need to take massive student loans out and pay for them over time. My parents and guidance counselor have pointed that I could receive a full ride to a lower tier school and that might be a better option for me. However, the main thing my parents are pushing me against is applying early decision to Duke because it locks me into that school without any other options. What do you think my best move is here? I am very scared to apply regular and not get into my dream school just because I wanted to see what others could offer. However, on the flip side, people have been telling me because of my ACT score and ethnicity that Early Action Stanford is a possibility. What do you think my approach should be on the college application process? Also, I’ve heard of people who have received full rides to Duke, and if that were possible, that would be my top choice over any school in the world. Please let me know if you know anything about this scholarship/how to get it. Thank you so much!
- Your should first have your parents find out their EFC and then base your list on what your family can afford. It is pointless to apply to Stanford or Duke if you cannot afford it. Stanford gives no merit so unless you can afford your family's EFC, do not apply just to be disappointed. (It would be rare to get enough private scholarships where financial need is not a consideration to make it affordable for you if your family's efc is $15-$20K or more.)
Like you, we are a middle class family so our efc is too high to make full pay schools affordable. My children therefore had to apply to colleges where merit money would make it affordable for our family. Duke does give out a very small amount of merit so you should definitely not apply there ED. Instead apply RD with the full understanding that you cannot attend if accepted unless you are one of the students that gets that full-ride scholarship. Look at past winners and compare yourself to them. Duke gets a ton of applications from students with the same qualifications as yourself so you can’t “count” on getting that scholarship.
- Definitely do the research to find colleges that would give you enough merit money to make it affordable to your family. There are some lists here on CC, but also do your own independent research. Since I don't know your family's EFC I can't give you the best advice. Some colleges that may fit this description are Alabama, Ohio State (with National Buckeye and Morrill), Miami of Ohio etc. My DS back in 2010 got three scholarships from Ohio State which amounted to a full-ride. My DD goes to Georgia Tech which is not known to be generous. Some students at GT get the Stamps Scholarship. Latinos at GT are also eligible for the Goizunta Scholarship (I can't remember the exact spelling but it sounds like that).
- Apply now to the student awards from the Hispanic Heritage foundation. My DD got one and it opened a lot of doors for her.
- If you do apply to the reach schools then know you can only attend if you get the full-ride scholarship. I have know some Hispanics to get it at Vanderbilt, but again the group of students who receives that is very small.
You must have more than one “dream” college. It is better to apply to 10-14 colleges with a mix of reaches, matches and safeties, but with all of them being affordable to you or the understanding that the reaches are only available if you get the rare merit money at those reaches. You have to remember that there are almost 40K high schools in the U.S. and everyone has a valedictorian that has stats similar to you, yet schools like Stanford and Duke accept around 2K of the applicants. I agree with your parents and counselor that it is better to spread out your list.
- Don't forget about diversity fly-ins. With your stats you might get some of them and it would help with your admission to those colleges. This is the time of year to apply to them.
I don’t like to be discouraging but for middle-class students it is tough when the colleges that are full pay are really not an option for you. The economic reality is that schools like Duke and Stanford may not be options for you, so do not waste your time and apply there. The students that I work with understand that lesson early on and their college lists are all economically viable. As a result they are much happier about the college admission process and are happy at the colleges they attend.
thank you so much for your insight! it means a lot. also, i was wondering if there were any outside scholarships for hispanics that could make up for some of the cost of those expensive schools
Does the Hispanic Heritage Foundation have its own definition of Hispanic? Is it 1/4 like NHRP?
Since Duke is truly your first choice and finances are a legitimate reason to decline an ED acceptance, I think you should apply ED to Duke as well as applying to other reach, match, and safety schools. That is if you have very strong leadership and community service experience and might be competitive for a scholarship. ACT scores alone won’t make you competitive.
I would strongly disagree with applying to Duke ED. You should only apply to a school ED if you know without a doubt you can afford to attend.
My first question is what makes Duke your dream school? I ask because it shares characteristics with a number of other schools and some of those other schools give better aid. Duke has about 70 merit scholarships available and quite a number are restricted such as having to be from North Carolina to qualify. I believe Vanderbilt has similar. As far as need-based aid Princeton and Harvard seem to have the best followed by Yale and these are much better than Duke, Stanford, etc. Your parents should run NPC on them and you’ll see - Harvard’s takes about 2 minutes as it only has a few categories. Other top schools with merit include UofChicago, Rice, and WUSTL - Chicago gives 4k for NMF and NHRP plus has other merit aid. John’s Hopkins has a minute number of merit scholarships. Slightly lower tier schools with merit include USC and some LACs - Harvey Mudd if you are interested in STEM, Smith College and Mt Holyoke if you are female.