<p>If there are links please let me know because I'm sure this has been asked before-how do the experts on CC come up with financial safey list. With my S's stats I can't barely figure out academic safeties - 3.1U/3.5W 1460/2220. All I've come up with it is our State U - and acceptance isn't even a given.</p>
<p>Of course he would like as challenging an environment as possible- honors college if he could get in. Psych/Neuro major possibly. Preference is CA. LMU or OXY would be great but they are becoming very selective now from what I've seen on CC.</p>
<p>They publish general guidelines but it is very hard to see how many they offer etc. I know there is a link for colleges that give good merit, but even that is out of date. I was looking at Auburn and the new SAT figure is 1490 for some of the larger scholarships and these aren't guaranteed.</p>
<p>I have the US News rankings, but they have lists for everything - LAC's; research U's etc</p>
<p>Thanks for your help. At least he's starting to ask the questions - "what should I be looking at"? but I don't really know what to tell him. And he is trying to get his grades up/take 3 APs senior year in hopes of improving his chances as well as taking SAT again.</p>
<p>You can search for price ranges for tuition and fees using [College</a> MatchMaker - Type of School](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) or another of the college search engines. Unfortunately, none of these search engines seem to use estimates for total COA. You will have to guesstimate another 12k or so for room and board, and something for books, personal expenses, and transportation and subtract that from what you can actually afford to get the range of tuition and fees that would work for your family.</p>
<p>If you come up with a list of solid academic safeties, you can go through their individual websites to look up the COAs.</p>
<p>For a rock-bottom financial safety, check out the community colleges that your child could commute to. They should offer the core introductory science and math courses that your child would have to take in the first two years of a program elsewhere. Find out about articulation agreements that are available. Chances are that two years of CC followed by transfer to an in-state public will be your least expensive option.</p>
<p>Does your HS have naviance? We don’t know your kids school and therefore can’t put his stats into proper context.</p>
<p>I found that the best prediction of my kids results came from other kids who looked like them from our HS. Once you figure out where kids with that profile get admitted, you can get to work understanding the finances.</p>
<p>While you’re at it, run your numbers through a few of the financial aid estimators. Even if you think you won’t get aid (and maybe you won’t) I found it helpful to line up the numbers for a snapshot. Bad news- we wouldn’t be eligible for need based aid. Good news- I had been focused on what we had saved as the financial limitations, and hadn’t really been thinking about ways to whack our expenses. So just the discipline of thinking about the numbers can help you get started.</p>
<p>No naviance at his school. No grade inflation, highest grade is 94; he has 86. But that’s in only in the top 50%. The automatic calculator links were helpful. No not in CA, lots of choices there.</p>