I know the basic reach/match/safety rationale mentioned often around here – and I think it makes sense. But what is the college selection strategy when it’s necessary to get merit aid (particularly competitive merit aid) to get under a certain yearly cost? (For my rising junior son it’s $35k – not too low, but cuts out a pretty wide swath of schools.)
Would it be something like this:
Safeties: One or two schools that meet the normal safety requirements – basically guaranteed to get into, affordable, you’d be willing to attend.
Matches: Four or so schools that either (a) you think are fairly likely you’ll get accepted to, but the merit aid to make it affordable is somewhat competitive, or (b) that would be affordable if you got in but it isn’t a guarantee you will.
Reaches: Five or so schools that either (a) you’d have to get a pretty competitive scholarship to be available to afford or (b) that are well under 50/50 for you to get into but are affordable.
Thanks for any insight you can provide!
(I’m speaking more generally, but a few facts about my son if you want to make specific suggestions:
- likely math or math/CS major
- not generally qualified for need aid
- can only spend about $35k a year for college
- 35 ACT (36M/36S/35E/33R) and 1540 SAT (800M/740E)
- 3.90 UW taking all honors/AP courses available
- 1x USAJMO qualifier and 3x AIME qualifier
- already taken BC Calc/AP Stats/Discrete Math; will take MV Calculus/Linear Algebra as a junior, and probably Diff Eq/upper-level prob and stats/Real Analysis as a senior.)
Your categories are about right, but “match” schools may be difficult to find for those seeking merit scholarships. This is because there is often little information on how competitive a large merit scholarship is, so that it is impossible to consider such a scholarship to be a “match” (i.e. good chance of earning it). Most competitive large merit scholarships should be considered “reaches”.
Yes, you’re on right track.
We were chasing merit this past cycle and our approach was:
Safeties: 2 safeties, one of which we knew would be affordable w/ no $$ and the other we were pretty sure she’d get good merit aid. Both ended up be accurate predictions.
Matches/Low reach 4 high matches/low reach colleges known for generous merit aid and where she was somewhat of geographic diversity pick – which was her only hook. She ended up getting into all 4 of these and 2 with very generous (1/2 tuition) merit offers.
Reach: 5 reaches (but only 1 Ivy) where we we knew odds were fairly low for getting in, and if she she did we crossed fingers that a generous institutional methodology for need-based definition might put the college in reach. Didn’t expect merit as they either didn’t offer or very little and we knew she wasn’t likely to be competitive for it. The wealthier the college the more generous they are with need aid was our thinking, and we’re a bubble family with EFC of just over $60k so we felt like we might eke in. She got into 2 of these, WL at 2 and denied at 1. And, indeed, one of the 2 admits did surprise us with just enough need-based aid to put the college in financial reach. COA is more than several of the other offers she had, but it’s a great college, great fit and ultimately that’s where she’s attending this Fall!
Hope this helps!
When I went through this with my Ds who had very comparable stats, we considered anything that required a big merit award as a reach. So, for example, BC would have been considered probably a match, but it was not affordable unless they were awarded one of the full tuition scholarships, so we considered it a reach.
You’ve got it
Automatic merit = safety
Competitive or not guaranteed merit= reach
My daughter’s list (no need based aid here either):
Safety schools:
UA- guaranteed full tuition scholarship
Local/regional branch school- guaranteed full tuition scholarship
Match schools (for cost they were matches because we knew we could afford in-state tuition), perhaps a reach for admission to her specific major (engineering)
University of Texas
TAMU
Reach schools (for cost)
Purdue
Clemson
Pitt
Northeastern
In the end we came out with total costs per year at Pitt right around the total costs for our in-state options so her reach school worked out. Best of luck—you’ve got a good strategy.
I agree with others that you seem to be on a good track.
However, in your case, you don’t necessarily need merit aid.
$35K plus “self help” (student loans, summer jobs, work study) should be sufficient to cover many state universities, including some state flagships at OOS sticker prices. Many state flagships have solid STEM programs and more than enough course offerings for a student entering with advanced math standing.
$25K in institutional merit awards would be above average for many fairly selective private schools that offer them to more than ~10% of entering students (e.g. Rice, Vanderbilt, Case Western, Boston U, GW).
See Kiplinger’s: https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=prv_univ&state_code=ALL&id=none&sortby=ug_ft_nn_noneed_d&sortorder=DESC
STEM programs at those schools aren’t necessarily stronger than what you’d find at many state flagships.
Minnesota-TC has OOS sticker prices < $40K; FWIW, at least at the graduate level, USNWR ranks its math programs in the nation’s top 20 (higher than Rice or Vanderbilt). Wisconsin is a bit more expensive (but even higher ranked); Maryland is a bit more expensive (and just a bit lower ranked).
My point is that for you, the best cost-management strategy may include considering sticker prices as well as award/aid amounts.
@tk21769 raises a great point, and I can’t help plug my alma mater UNC where OOS is $50k (and they even do some merit for OOS, though not much). It’s high reach for any OOS student but might be worth a look. Strong STEM but no engineering except biomed.
Kiplinger’s has listed UNC as best public university value for something like 17 years in a row.
$35k is quite a lot for college. It should cover nonresident tuition at most any school out of state. I would check out the University of Alabama. He qualifies for the Presidential scholarship, which covers 95% of his tuition. Also, TCU and Baylor offer similar scholarships. With TCU, they actually include the scholarships in their net price calculator. This way you can get an accurate ballpark of the family contribution.