<p>I think the point is that you don’t know for sure how much it would end up costing you to go to UT, TCU or SMU.</p>
<p>Stew…have a chat with your dad. Be SURE that you know what he will be able to contribute for your college costs each year. Add to that the Direct Loans…and see what you have for a total. Then make sure you have at least one school that either COSTS the remaining amount or where you will get guaranteed merit aid for the remainder.</p>
<p>Since the schools on your list do NOT guarantee to meet full need, you cannot count on them to provide you with a full need based award to cover your costs.</p>
<p>For merit awards…keep in mind that the “bar” for these is a constantly changing one…and it all depends on the OTHERS in the applicant pool when you apply…unless merit aid is guaranteed for your stats.</p>
<p>*Lol. UT, TCU,and SMU are three schools that I’m sure to be accepted to.
I know that. Those are my safety schools *</p>
<p>Those aren’t “safety” schools for you because your dad won’t pay for them if they don’t give you enough aid. </p>
<p>You seem to misunderstand the meaning of a safety. There are a TON of schools that will accept you, but NONE are safeties if you don’t know FOR SURE that you’d have the funds to pay for them.</p>
<p>The parents here advising you have been doing this for some time. Year after year, we see posts from kids saying that School X and School Y are their safeties. Then guess what? In spring, they’re complaining that they can’t afford their safeties because they didn’t get the aid they thought they’d get. Sadly, then they either have to take a gap year or go to their local CC. </p>
<p>How can a school be a safety if you’re not CERTAIN that it’s affordable with ASSURED money sources???</p>
<p>*and I may throw in a university of Houston or something. *</p>
<p>Yes, please do. Add in UT-Dallas and some other UTs that will FOR SURE give you merit.</p>
<p>*With that said, I know for a fact that Tulane offers merit aid because I have two friends that go there with similar scores and background as me and aren’t paying much.
*</p>
<p>Yes, Tulane gives merit, but not for your test scores. You will NOT get any significant merit from Tulane with a 1260 Math + CR SAT. NO. You might get a tiny little award, but not enough to make it affordable. Tulane gives a $25k per year merit award, but you must have above a1400 M+CR to be considered.</p>
<p>All you have to do is look at the chart in post #18. Merit is given to those with stats in the upper quartile. That’s 1410+</p>
<p>Maybe your friends are URMs and got some kind of diversity award, or something… But a non-URM with a 1260 M+CR is not getting significant merit from Tulane. No way. </p>
<p>Maybe they had a 2000, but the breakdown of their M+CR was much better?</p>
<p>Maybe your friends qualified for a bunch of need-based aid. If they come from a family of 4 (2 parents/2kids) and have an income similar to yours, their EFC is going to be a LOT lower than yours. the FA calculation when there are 2 adults in the home and a larger household is going to be VERY different, because the “cost” for each adult is quite high, and more children will also be a factor. </p>
<p>And, if any of those friends have siblings in college, then they would get more FA from Tulane. </p>
<p>As I said earlier, a family with 1 adult and 1 child will get hit quite hard with the FA calculator because the single parent’s income is only supporting 2 people…1 adult/1 child. If your dad remarried, then the calculation would assume that his wife is costing the household a large amount of money (food, clothing, car, insurance, etc), and your EFC would be lower. </p>
<p>You can’t really look at other people’s aid and figure out what you’d get. </p>
<p>*Thirdly, you said that I need a hook… I am an athlete that could probably be recruited to play for some of these school’s tennis teams and *</p>
<p>If you get recruited for tennis, then fine. Which schools might recruit you for tennis? A Div I school? Div II school? Div III school?? </p>
<p>However, tennis isn’t a full-head scholarship, so you could still be gapped. Getting accepted isn’t your only issue…affordability is. </p>
<p>I am in clubs, I have tons of service hours, I have good reccs, and I’m from Texas not some powerhouse like new York(yes that makes a difference). I realize that an 1890 isn’t ivy material but i think that some of you have been blinded by those schools high standards and are making scores any lower than those seem like crap.</p>
<p>Your scores are fine for many, many schools… They just aren’t merit-worth at the schools that you’re considering. And, they aren’t likely high enough for some of the schools that you’re considering…like Duke, UNC, and maybe Tulane. </p>
<p>And, the Writing portion of the SAT is rarely considered as strongly as the M+CR. Your CR score is lowish for the schools that you want or the merit that you seem to think that you’d get. </p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to Tulane, UNC, etc…but PLEASE apply to a few schools that you know FOR SURE will give you either large merit or FA and you’ll be accepted. Surely, some of the other UTs would give you merit for your stats. Have you looked at any of their scholarship websites? Look at the ones that have med schools.</p>
<p>No one here wants to see an upset Stewfoo next spring.</p>
<p>Okay cool thanks. That was some good advice^^ I could get recruited for some lower D1 schools and a lot of D2 schools. My problem with D2 schools is that I don’t know anything about any of them… I know you recommended UT-Dallas… are there any others that you can recommend for me that offer great merit aid for people like me and if you know any D2 schools or whatever I’m open for anything.</p>
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<p>Stew, do you think you could raise your SAT scores if you took it again? Given your outstanding GPA, you seem like a bright kid who might be able to raise those scores. It’s NOT that they’re bad at all, but just that if you are looking for merit scholarships, higher is obviously better.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m actually gonna take the one in October to try to get that last minute score raise. I’m taking a class with Kaplan for a month before the test so hopefully I can get it up near the 2k range… fingers crossed. But I’ve already taken it twice.</p>
<p>Sign up for the Oct and Nov SAT…</p>
<p>ONLY study the Math and CR sections if time is an issue. Those are the ones that matter for merit, and for many acceptances.</p>
<p>I’d suggest taking the ACT again, but it looks like you only do well in the math section of that test.</p>
<p>Be aware that the ACT is a predictor for the MCAT…so you do need to work on your testing abilities.</p>
<p>If you are a smart kid, you will carefully re-read every post here.<br>
And, you will do some deeper research into what those colleges like, expect and respect. And, which colleges might just take you in as pre-med, only to brutally weed you out of the program. This is no joke.
You’ll also bone up on what finaid is really about.</p>
<p>College admits are not about the strengths YOU see in your record. Or whether you can point to someone with similar stats who got in. It’s about adcoms seeing a the pattern of strengths they know works at their individual schools- and having confidence in you.</p>
<p>UT and TCU will leave you with more than $10k to pay. Look at the smaller private schools in TX that would love a kid with a 690 M. Schools that will work with you, not against you, for a med future.</p>
<p>You don’t realize (most people don’t) how many highly competitive kids there are in Texas, with fine records and great LoRs, more challenging ECs, including in their potential major. And, they play tennis.</p>
<p>Ques: I was under the impression that coveted athletes would have some hint of their recruitabilty at sports powerhouse schools before start of senior year-? At least, some hint from coaches, some talk about the coaches’ connections?</p>
<p>[qutoe]I could get recruited for some lower D1 schools and a lot of D2 schools. My problem with D2 schools is that I don’t know anything about any of them
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<p>Wouldn’t now be a great time to start researching them? There are people here whose children attend a wide array of schools. You can ask her and defintiely on the parents forum to get some feedback about a particular school.</p>
<p>(To the above post) I’m more talking about D2 schools for just academics. I don’t really care to play collegiate tennis unless it turns out I can walk on or play club. As for some other above poster yes you are right for most top national and state players looking to play top D1 tennis you get recruited junior and sometimes sophomore year but I’m not at that caliber.</p>
<p>Oh and because i’m taking the SAT in october should i put my current SAT score on my application and then send my new score or just not put a score at all and risk my new score being worse then my old…? Do colleges care how many times you take the test?</p>
<p>When are your applications due in comparison to when your October scores will be available? Usually for EA/ED October scores have to be sent “blind” (you specify who you’re sending them to when you test, and don’t get to see the scores first). IIRC the common app asks you to self-report all scores, but for scores that allow “score choice” you don’t have to. But… usually there is no penalty for listing a score that is later improved upon, and most schools will “superscore”. I believe that only the tippy top schools really care if you’ve taken the SAT “too many” times (they want the kids who can breeze in and get a 2300 on the first shot)</p>
<p>Regarding Tulane, their NPC will estimate merit aid based on your stats in addition to need-based aid based on your finances:</p>
<p><a href=“https://tulane.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx[/url]”>Tulane University - Net Price Calculator;
<p>Oh dang so for schools like rice and Tulane where I’m doing ED/EA I need to make sure that I do well on the test because I wont have time to choose whether or not I like my score… but if I put my current score on my app and it for some reason ends up being higher they’ll just use that? And alright thanks Bob</p>
<p>It will depend on the exact deadlines, and the school’s policies. Each school will list which test is the last one that will be accepted for EA/ED. Often they will accept a test whose scores will come out AFTER their deadline, as long as you list them when you take the test so that they get the scores immediately. It’s possible with a later EA/ED deadline, that you could get the October scores back in time to send them manually only if they’re good. You should definitely check the details with your early application schools.</p>
<p>Also check whether any of your other schools require EA applications for scholarship consideration, or give priority financial aid to EA applicants.</p>
<p>“Also check whether any of your other schools require EA applications for scholarship consideration, or give priority financial aid to EA applicants.”</p>
<p>Wow i can see where that could really screw someone… i wasn’t aware that colleges don’t do that to every application. thank you!</p>
<p>many schools that have merit awards, have scholarship deadlines in Nov and Dec 1st. Dec 1st is a popular deadline. </p>
<p>If you don’t apply by that date, and submit any req’d scholarship apps, you won’t get considered.</p>
<p>Even schools that don’t have scholarship deadlines often “run out” of money for later applicants. They’ll award “first come/first serve”…and then when the money runs out, that’s it. They can’t even later “re-award” because their award models tell them how much to “over award” and come out with the “right” number of acceptances. </p>
<p>Do NOT make the mistake that some kids do. don’t wait to see what your ED/EA results are AND then apply to safeties/merit/etc. That’s often too late.</p>
<p>Are you doing Rice ED now? Is that in replacement of Duke?</p>
<p>yeah rice is gonna be my school that if i get accepted to i will be ecstatic lol. because it’s veryyyyyy cheap after all the price deductions and i could live at home. does ED/EA cost extra? why wouldnt you do that to every school if you had your apps ready in time?</p>
<p>Stew, you can only do ED at one school. But for as many schools as offer EA you can, and many do, apply to all of them EA (no it doesn’t cost more). Why people don’t is if they don’t have their apps ready in time, want to try one more SAT before applying, etc. (A few schools offer some kind of “exclusive EA” which generally means that you can’t apply EA or ED anywhere else if you apply EA there, but it’s still not binding on you to attend if you are accepted, but that’s very rare.) </p>
<p>Rice is a great school. Good luck!</p>
<p>Yeah I’m aware that you can only ED to one school. when I said ED/EA I mean ED to rice and EA to the others
… but thank you so much for the info! It was extremely beneficial!</p>