<p>Hopefully that title was suspenseful enough to draw some people in. I just applied to Lawrence EA because it seems like a wonderful school and I feel as if I have a very good chance of getting in. It seems like a safety to me, but before I make this assumption, I want you guys to assess my stats and see if you agree. If not, I would love some recommendations for other safeties.</p>
<p>GPA
Freshman: 3.0/3.7
Sophomore: 3.7/4.3
Junior: 4.0/5.0
Overall (this is an estimate): 3.7ish/4.4ish
My grades have a pretty dramatic upward trend, and I'm hoping that will really help me out. In all honesty, I had difficulty adjusting to high school and my grades suffered initially.</p>
<p>AP US: 5
AP EURO: 5
AP AB CALC: 5
AP STATS: TBD
AP WORLD: TBD
AP LIT: TBD
AP CHEM: TBD</p>
<p>ACT: 33</p>
<p>ECs
I hate rambling on about these, so just know that:
I volunteer (A lot, like 10 or more hours a week. It's kind of like a second job)
I am heavily involved with both art and music
I am a member of my school's engineering club
I have a part time job
I am a writing tutor at my school's writing center. Go writing.</p>
<p>Nothing fantastic, but I do a few things and I generally do them well. So. . .Would you guys qualify Lawrence as a safety? If not, throw some recommendations my way!</p>
<p>Oh, here is my college list:
Lawrence
Macalester
Reed (Probably my top choice as of now)
Grinnell
U of C
Swarthmore
Haverford
Bowdoin</p>
<p>If time permits, I may add:
Oberlin
Carleton (maybe. . .I visited and I was not thrilled)
Wesleyan</p>
<p>As you can see, I like hippie dippy LACs, but feel free to suggest some other school types if you think they match with the LACs I've chosen. Anyway, thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Lawrence is less selective than the others (which are slightly reach-heavy).
If cost is not a concern, I suppose it could be a safety for you.
There’s nothing in your past you’re not revealing, such as prison time?</p>
<p>Personally I’d be inclined to view it as a “low match” and add another school like Earlham or Hendrix before a more selective one like Carleton, which you aren’t even thrilled about. </p>
<p>If cost is a concern, add your state university.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot tk, I think you may have helped me in the past (in some other thread I created, your name looks familiar) and your help is always appreciated. I’ll definitely take your advice. My parents liked Carleton much more than I did. So tell me if the way I’m grouping things is crazy or whether this makes sense:</p>
<p>Safety (but not totally):
Lawrence
Some other school (Hendrix, Hampshire maybe?)</p>
<p>Match:
Macalester
Grinnell
Reed</p>
<p>Reach:
U of C
Swarthmore
Haverford
Bowdoin</p>
<p>Where exactly would Reed fall into place on my list of schools? It’s kind of my top choice, and I know it’s less selective than some of my other schools, but I’m never sure whether it’s a reach or a match. Also, would Hampshire work as a safety or is that again more of a low match?</p>
<p>Edit: Cost is a bit of a concern and I will definitely be applying for fin aid. I think my parents could manage to pull full tuition for Lawrence, but it would be a horrible strain. I think my parents would be willing to pay around 40k at the most, and would much prefer to be in the low 30 range (or below of course). Although I am from a relatively affluent neighborhood, there are a number of circumstances surrounding my family situation that will probably help my chances at financial aid.</p>
<p>One thing that may help me is that my high school is a really well known public. We send a very large portion of our graduating class to places like WashU, Northwestern, top state schools (Michigan, Wisconsin, etc), and a handful to ivies.</p>
<p>I’d be more cautious than you are. I’d consider Reed, Grinnell, and maybe Macalester as “high match”; Lawrence and Hendrix as “low match”. If cost is at all a concern, I’m not confident you have a true admissions & financial safety yet.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to be unclear about Reed, or about Hampshire for that matter. These schools sorta march to their own drummers. That’s one reason you like them, right? And if memory serves, Reed is not super generous with merit aid (double check, o.k.?) I dunno about Hampshire for merit aid.</p>
<p>You have a good list. The schools go together well, and they do span a good match-reach range. But it’s a bit weak at the low end when money is considered. If you were in my own state, I’d recommend adding St. Mary’s College of MD as a safety.</p>
<p>If your LORs, essays etc. match up with your stats and ECs, I predict you’ll get a mix of good news and disappointing news from this list of schools. I think it’s fairly likely that one or more of your reaches will accept you, but also likely that they’ll be priced above your parents’ comfort level. Your sweet spot seems to be Grinnell, Mac, and Lawrence. Chances are, at least one of them will come through with merit aid but not $20K or more. More like $5-10K, maybe $15K, probably leaving you with a bit of a gap to fill with loans, work, etc. So you have to decide if that would be a viable option for you or if you need more of a safety cushion with an in-state public or a less selective LAC. Too much less selective, and it becomes a question of whether a good student like you wouldn’t get more out of the in-state flagship.</p>
<p>Curiosity got to me so I double-checked on merit aid at Reed. Unfortunately, it appears they do not give it.</p>
<p>Swarthmore gives some merit aid to applicants from the local Del-Mar-Va region. I don’t think Haverford or Bowdoin give significant merit aid (double check). Chicago does give some generous merit aid grants, but competition for them will be tough. About 100 accepted students get $10K grants.</p>
<p>So, as I said, your sweet spot seems to be Grinnell, Mac, and Lawrence. Those are the schools on your list where I think you have the best chance for both admission and enough merit aid to begin narrowing the gap between your parents’ ~$30K comfort level and the full COA. And the full sticker price is a little lower than the top Eastern LACs to start. Even so, you may need to shoulder some of the burden with loans, work, etc.</p>
<p>TK is right. Reed offers NO merit aid, need based aid only (though very good at that). It would also be a reach. As far as applying for need based aid, if your parents can afford 30-40K yearly then I doubt you’ll get any. Please go online and figure out what your EFC will be to see if you need to look at more financial safeties.</p>
<p>I would second Grinnell and Mac as high matches. I think Lawrence is safety-ish.</p>
<p>My older son had a roughly comparable resume and was deferred, so I’m not sure you could count on Lawrence as a “safety.” He also applied to Beloit and Kalamazoo, and was admitted to both, with good merit aid from K, which he now attends very happily. Those are both wonderful schools, and are very similar to Lawrence in a lot of ways. You may want to consider them. </p>
<p>My younger son’s Lawrence EA app will be going in today. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks guys. Yeah, I’ll definitely do the EFC thing with my parents tonight. It kind of sucks because I’m straddled right on the border when it comes to financial aid. I’ve had this conversation with numerous people, and it always comes to the same conclusion. Luckily, my parents are wonderful people who really really want to see me at a good school (especially since none of my family members have completed degrees) and will do anything to help me, but I really don’t want to burden them with an unreasonable pricetag.</p>
<p>Anway, I’m thinking about removing Bowdoin because upon reflection I got a really NE preppy feel from that school, and I don’t know if I would fit in socially (plus it’s a very big reach for me). Perhaps I’ll add in Hampshire, Oberlin, and one of the safeties you guys recommended (Hendrix?)</p>
<p>Also, just as a side rant, I feel like the counseling department at my school is incredibly incompetent. The few times I’ve met with the college counselor, he has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, my list used to to lack Lawrence, it had Carleton on it instead. I added Lawrence University by myself because I felt uncomfortable with getting in at my other schools. My counselor thought nothing of it, never even recommended a safety. I’d like to think that this may have to do with the prestige of my high school or something like that, but I feel like it’s just misplaced confidence and faulty judgement.</p>
<p>And thanks, I may add Kalamazoo and Kenyon. My list was sorely lacking in “K” schools anyway.</p>
<p>If your EFC is 30 to 34k, you really truly need to find out just exactly your parents would come up with that kind of money for each of the next four years. Perhaps they have a college fund stashed away. or they can are willing to live on rice and beans. Find out how much they can truly pay. Find out how much student debt they are willing for you to take on. Find out how much money they expect you to earn for your own expenses during the school year and during vacations. Learn all of this now, not next spring.</p>
<p>If the cost of attendance (COA) of an institution is 50k
and your EFC is 30k
and the institution meets full need
then your aid package might be something like:
5,500 in unsubsidized Stafford Loans for you
plus
14,500 in scholarships and grants
which means that you and your parents will be on the hook for 35,500.</p>
<p>However, most institutions do not meet full need. You should expect to be responsible for more than that 35,500.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that you make a detour over to the Financial Aid forum to learn more about this topic.</p>
<p>Whether or not Lawrence can be considered an admissions safety, is distinct from whether or not it is a financial safety for you. A real admissions safety would be somewhere that you know you must be admitted given that you have a certain GPA and/or test score. Lawrence looks to me like a “low match”. Your real admissions safety is probably a home-state public U that has a numbers-based admissions policy. Your real financial safety is a place that you and your parents can afford without any need-based aid. Again, this is likely to be a home-state public U.</p>
<p>If your EFC is $30-$35K, which seems to coincide roughly with what your parents are willing and able to pay, then you probably can find a way to pay for a school like Lawrence. The full COA at Lawrence this year is ~$43-45K (depending on travel costs). Don’t forget that you can make about $5K or more from summer and campus jobs. So some combination of loans, grants, and jobs may very well be sufficient to close the gap. In this situation, a merit grant of $5K-10K can help a lot.</p>
<p>If your calculations are reliable, then I see it as good news, for 2 reasons:
the EFC seems to be in line with what your familiy actually is willing and able to pay;
the gap between EFC and COA seems to be in line with average aid packages at the schools on your list</p>
<p>Suppose Haverford accepts you. I believe that is a need-blind, 100%-of-need-met, no-loan school, with an average need-based aid package of over $31K. So if they accept you, I would expect them to make it possible for you to attend.</p>
<p>That’s Haverford. Suppose no high-end, no-loan schools accept you, and you are down to schools that do not meet 100% of need. A school like Lawrence might make loans a bigger part of the package than you like. But you should find out early if they accept you; at that time they may let you know about aid, too. If you’re not satisfied, then at that point you can apply to an in-state public if it’s not too late. </p>
<p>There is still time to add an EA application to one or 2 more low-match schools, such as Earlham or the College of Wooster. “Low Match” could be as good as a safety if you have admissions and aid decisions early enough to apply to other schools, if necessary.</p>