We know firsthand that admission in prep school requiring more than $50,000 in need based aid is a very detrimental in admission chances. We were lucky that daughters were accepted with all this wonderful need based aids. All prep school wants to protect their yield. Thus competition for the ORM kids who require need based aid is fierce.
As daughter is approaching college admission cycles, we are wondering. Is this harder (or similar to prep school) to gain admission if a student requires need based aid in order to matriculate at a top college. I know that out of state colleges it is extremely tough as colleges may not have funds for out of state students. Therefore we are limited to top colleges or LACs or college that provide merit based aid.
That is true, but issue is that admission in the need blind school is fierce. How many colleges daughter should apply,? Is 10 a good number? Student is in top 10% ( may be in top4 to 5%) of the elite prep school just by looking and comparing with college profile. Course load is very challenging may be among top 2 to 3% of the student body. If GPA, sat, sat II scores, ECs are very tipy top, how do you select a reasonable list? We are going to meet the Guidance counselor but I want to have something in my mind. Any suggestion to search for match, safety and reaches
@nynycasino1234: These are all questions you should be asking of the prep school CC office and your daughter’s GC. Excellent, indiviualized advice based on knowledge of your student and her particular circumstances as well as how she compares to her direct peer competition is what you get at those schools. They are your daughter’s and your family’s expert advocates. Use this resource! It doesn’t matter what advice you get here; your daughter’s GC will provide all you need to know. Very little of what I read here outside the prep forum and our son’s GC at his school had any relevance to his (non-SA) college process. Apples and oranges.
@choatiemom I understand what you are saying. Unfortunately fierce competition for admission to prep school has made us nervous. I sent you a PM. I just want to process this college admission with care as our financial need dictate us.
Here is the advice that a not-prep-school parent would receive here:
Carefully define how much you can afford to pay each year for all four years.
Decide if you are ready, willing, and able to pay for an additional semester, summer, or year, or if you will hold your child to a finish-in-four-years plan.
Let your child know your financial limits.
Let your child know your financial expectations from them (summer job? school year job? federal student loans?).
Work with your child to identify at least one dead-on financial and academic safety that your child will be happy to attend if all else fails. This place guarantees admission for your child’s stats, and is affordable with only guaranteed federal aid and/or guaranteed aid from your state of residence and/or aid guaranteed for your child’s stats by that particular college/university. Apply there first and lock in the admission and guaranteed aid.
Build the application list upward, knowing that there is one certain admit that your family absolutely can afford.
. I understand that but her criterion is only she wants a pool of lot of peers that has similar diversify interest in multiple fields such as writing, politics, science research, volunteer work, new technology, philosophy etc. She wants to push herself hard and not limit herself to education in class room only but wants to be challenged outside of the class room. For her bookish knowledge is secondary, she thrives when she is among peers who have similar dreams and ambitions and want to chase dreams. This was her reason to go to prep school and she has loved every minute of it as she found that many kids are pushing envelopes in multiple directions.
She is going to meet smart kids and her academic/intellectual peers no matter where she goes. She will come across many smart kids at a multitude of schools because the school was the most financially feasible for the family, kid got a generous scholarship, parent got a good TE deal or works for the university, etc.
One of the goals of a college is to choose a well rounded ** class** not simply a bunch of kids with similar stats that can be interchangeable to one another.
With most of the top 15 schools having admissions rates under 15% with the top 5 perhaps hovering around 5% many really bright and accomplished kids will be denied admission as the college’s tries to fulfill their institutional mission
@sybbie719 My daughters main achievements are not in education, but her major achievements are outside the class room where she has done very well. She has been exposed to things that are not possible if she has remained in our LPS. She has been invited to summer opportunities that are breathtaking and very diversified, but she won scholarships to pay for her summer ventures/spring break as she wrote to programs coordinators or private entities to fund her. That is what we want in a college that can invest and nurture her varied interests. Had we remained in Asia, I would have not even 1/1000th opportunities available to my daughters. Thanks to USA and its education system.
My younger daughter graduated from high school in 2011 and college in 2015. We had high financial need. She was very high achieving in high school (and college and to this day). She is not an ORM; she is white and had no hooks. She got into many good schools and was offered very good financial aid by nearly all of them.
@geramom so far no idea. It could be psychology, math, cs, physics, engineering, or even history that may go towards career in finance, venture capital, computer science, politics or management. She has no interest becoming an academic person so far.