Fortunately we are not in a senior year, but this has made me think about the choices we would make if we were in this situation. My heart goes out to all families having to navigate this process now in such uncertain times.
I am going to be a transfer student this fall. I got accepted into my state school’s computer science program already. I did submit other applications to these reach schools. They are private schools and they are expensive. Covid-19 recession will cause 2 problems for me. 1) Will the school consider me as an attractive candidate if I require more financial aid than the other prospects? Only 5 schools in the US are need-blind with a good amount of school being need-aware. Which means if I can’t pay I will be considered last. 2) Even if they accept me and give me a good amount of aid will that aid amount change in the future? How will that affect me?
Your question is a very good one. Since my high school senior has verbalized he also wants to attend graduate school when the time comes, we have to play our financial situation safely. He has good options now, thanks to working hard in high school, and two OOS universities have offered him in-state tuition. So we’ll most likely steer him towards one of those for the time being.
We’ve always told him, once he gets there, if he feels it’s not the right fit, he can always transfer.
He has not visited either college yet, so that makes it difficult for him to get excited by either one.
He was admitted to several private universities that he’s more excited about, but didn’t get the merit aid we were hoping for. Such an uncertain time.