Colleges that “meet need” take all this into account - Rice is the only "meet need school in Tx though.
https://rice.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx
If you get in, Rice would limit your loan per year to $2,500.
Also, note that if a parent works at Trinity, Rice has special prices too.
I briefly ran the NPC with basic numbers such as you provided and typical assets, and the net price would be $5,780 before any loan - meaning that, taking the $2,500 subsidized loans and a summer job, you’d be good to go - no taking on thousands and thousands in debt. Run the NPC yourself.
If you can get admitted to Rice, they will be the most generous of anyone in Texas.
Trinity is going to be second. They have a $1.5B endowment for only 2400 kids. They spend it.
If you can get Trinity for $4K to $12K v. $24K to USTA, that is a total no-brainer if you can swing the finances. Trinity is a much higher ranked school with smaller classes, better professors (on average), etc.
Don’t automatically assume you will live at home at Trinity. See what they come up with. The first step is to schedule a campus visit to demonstrate interest and see if you like the atmosphere and classes. Finals are right now, so if you want to sit in on a class you need to wait until 1/11. Since you live in town, schedule a visit with Admissions now, lay out your situation, and see what they project they can do for you.
Good luck!
I believe that makes your household income 86k. Is that what you filled out your FAFSA with? You should use your parents 2015 tax returns to fill out your FAFSA and in the student section fill out with your own 2015 tax returns if your have worked in the last year.
They factor in your sibling being in college for sure. When your sibling leaves college, your EFC should double, so be prepared for the increase when she leaves.
@ucbalumnus Does having a parent in college cut your EFC in half as well of is it just siblings?
Do you mind sharing your SAT score? You say your GPA and class rank are on par for Rice, but not your SAT.
@Jpgranier My mom wasn’t employed until July of this year, so in 2015 all she received was child support for my younger sister and unemployment, so her contribution was 0.
And my math was a 490, my CR was a 640, and my reading test score was a 34.
My class rank also might be an issue, I rank in the top 20% and not the top 10%, but my GPA is a 95.3 and I am in mostly AP classes (the exceptions being my math and elective courses).
Your parental income would be $65k at colleges that only consider the custodial parent (your father), but $86k at those that consider both parents.
Can you retake the sat in January, or try for English Literature, Foreign Language, History subject tests?
I assume you’re applying for humanities / social science?
If I’m hearing you right, you take mostly AP Courses with an A average, top 20%, and a 1130 SAT?
You definitely would not fall into the race for Rice. I’m not so sure about Trinity, maybe @ColdinMinny could give some feedback
@Jpgranier Yeah, my math on my SAT is awful and really dragged down my score. Plus I attend one of the most competitive schools in SA, if I were to attend almost any other HS I would be top 10%. College Data showed Trinity as being a good bet, and they also consider whether or not one SAT score is vastly greater than the other so that helps.
@MYOS1634 When is the Jan. SAT? And, I’ve considered subject tests but I am not sure how much they would actually help.
Register before Dec 20, Jan 21 test date.
Three subject tests would give you a chance to prove what you’re capable of in your subjects of predilection. You have to choose though, either regular sat reasoning OR subject tests. They’d help at rice, trinity, Rhodes, Hendrix, Sewanee …
Honestly, rice is pretty much out of the question unless your SAT gets up to a 1400, at least
Trinity superscores. The bottom 25% is around 1180. Trinity will most likely be a reach, but it’s a great school, probably the best financially you could get.
If you improve the reading to 600, you’ll have a pretty decent shot at getting in.
@Jpgranier Is this for the redesigned SAT as well?
Well, redesigned requires higher scores.
Are you lower income?
@MYOS1634 For Texas, not really. My dad makes 65K a year and the cost of living down here is relatively low
Most schools (the ‘meet need’ ones) have informal thresholds at 75k - Rice 80k - for what they consider 'lower income '; anyone who get a Pell grant of any kind also ‘counts’.
There are more 'meet need’schiils outside of Texas and they’d be easier to get into than Rice - Could you consider attending school outside of Texas and can you retake the sat in January?
I am with @Dustyfeathers on this. Try to get in a top law school. The supply of new lawyers today is quite high.
Great responses! This is an example of all the good CC can do. I can’t add anything useful aside from look into taking some CLEP tests that may credits and allow you to ease your workload each semester.
This could free some hours for an on campus job.
Best of luck
Yes, for law school it’s top 14 (20 at most) or find something else. And while law school admissions in general doesn’t care about your undergrad, attending Trinity or Rice (or UT or Austin or Southwestern) will definitely help you more for those top 14 - in fact, attending a respected LAC outside of Texas can help, how about you apply to Bowdoin test optional? I bet they don’t have too many applicants from Tx, relatively speaking!
@MYOS1634 This is very true!
How do I stand compared to other applicants at Bowdoin?