Sorry @KevinFromOC I need to ask (and you may or may not choose to answer).
Hockey’s a pricey sport (ice time and all that). So, was the decision to attend the boarding school on a hockey scholarship one that ended up saving you money? I’m guessing you had to play club at the CA public hs (not a lot of school hockey teams, I’d imagine) and if the activity is school sponsored at MA Private Prep, no fees?
Pitt sent the acceptance first, then merit notification came later, but it is to her advantage to be in the early applicant pile.
If you send a transcript from the high school, then you don’t have to do SRAR. She can do the online application for Pitt, and there are supplemental short essay questions for merit consideration.
Did you have a similar budget, application strategy with your son who graduated from college 5 years ago? You mentioned he did not get any merit aid. Did he apply for any ?
Hockey is a VERY pricey sport. Especially for a goalie! She played travel ice hockey at the highest level from 6th - 9th grade (with a club team) here in California, but girls hockey in California is extremely limited, and her teams had to travel to find competitive competition (and be seen by college scouts). For her 9th grade year, she had tournaments in Toronto twice, Detroit twice, Boston, Washington DC, and Minnesota. Apart from her team, that year she also attended showcases and camps in Banff, Denver, Rochester, and Minnesota. That’s 11 coast to coast trips for hockey in one year. Add that to the team dues and showcase/camp fees, and yes, it got extremely expensive.
All of her hockey expenses for her prep school team, except for equipment, is now covered by the school. In season (winter), they drive all over Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and even New Hampshire to play other schools. She also plays on a local club team in the fall season - the coach of the team has a daughter that also goes to the same school, so he is able to pick her up and drop her off for practices and games. Pure hockey costs for us are now probably only 1/10th of what they were in 8th and 9th grades.
Did the switch to boarding school save us money in the long run? No, but not by much (thanks to the school’s very generous hockey/academic/financial aid scholarships). I would say the amount we spend on her now (hockey + school) is only slightly more than we did in 8th and 9th grades (with the school cost being virtually 0 those years). But, the payoff is huge. She still gets the same competitive hockey and chances to be seen by scouts, plus the entire prep school experience instead of our local public high school, for only a little more than it cost us for just hockey before.
Yeah, we could have saved all that hockey and prep school money from day 1 and had enough to pay for at least two full years of Harvard (after financial aid), but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“My understanding “ are words I check out at the source . Call the Counselor at the specific school. The school would know for sure. They have to get NMS each year. Though, yes, I do agree with Art’s Understanding. Unfortunate, because she’d be NMS if she stayed in CA for high school. Even if the regional rule doesn’t apply, the school is located in MA. But check.
I have found that these independent schools, including top boarding schools are excellent in presenting students to top private colleges, the highly selective ones , and LACs. That is their fortè. Not so much for schools like you are seeking. I’ve seen some horrible missed in that department. You and DD have to be right on top of those things. I doubt they know a thing about UK, the UAs. They simply do not get kids going to those schools.
Nope, not at all. He had good grades (3.6ish), and was in the top 20% of his class, but nothing spectacular. He only applied to 4 schools, was rejected by 2 and waitlisted by 1. He attended the school he was admitted to - University of LaVerne here in So Cal. I thought at the time, based on the names of the grants, that he did receive some merit aid, but now I’m pretty sure it was all need based. The total costs were manageable, and he graduated with about $20K in loans. My wife wasn’t working then since she had to stay home to care for our disabled daughter, so our income was lower, and we qualified for a ton more financial aid. Since then our combined income has gone up by about 35%, but somehow our EFC to most schools has pretty much tripled. Must be that new math!
@thumper1 Just to make sure, you’re talking about Alabama Tuscaloosa (Crimson Tide), right? It looks like a simple application, and after you are admitted you apply to the honors college and apply for scholarships.
@mom2collegekids can clarify.
I believe NOW you submit the application for admission and the scholarship application to Alabama.
Huntsville was literally a 10 minute application. It asked almost nothing. Scholarship was automatic after they got the HS transcript and test scores directly. They didn’t let you self-report. My son applied to 4 of the 5 schools he was applying to in one evening. Copy/Paste for the extracurricular section. If there are no essays, it’s pretty straightforward stuff. The worst part was inputting all the classes and grades for the self-reported schools.
Alabama (Tuscaloosa) honors application is after acceptance.
And I highly doubt the 6 college counselors at her BS have never dealt with students applying to schools with an Oct 15 deadline for EA and/or scholarship consideration. This is way more common than you realize, OP.
Why not do the other Alabamas too (Huntsville and Birmingham)? All good engineering schools; Huntsville has better hockey options (rink and men’s team, usually means good options for club/community teams).
Yes, I say do ALL the easy ones like Mines, Utah, Nebraska you can now, and then just let them ride.
If she is NMF, definitely do the florida schools. Full rides through Benacquisto.
On August 22, several of us advised you to have your daughter apply to Pitt ASAP if she wanted to be considered for lots of merit aid. And you still are delaying that application for some unknown reason.
We also, a bunch of us, suggested you have her complete the Alabama application(S) and she probably would have gotten her admission decision and aid by now if she had done the all of 30 minute admissions and scholarship applications on August 22.
These schools have rolling admissions. The Pitt awards are not guaranteed…and money goes to the early birds…so get cracking on this application.
Alabama…does she have 30 minutes this weekend to get this done? If so…get it done.
Agree with @twoinanddone . Get the easy application ones done now. Right now.
If she is going to apply to South Carolina, get that one done too…and they have her work on the honors college/scholarship application which is a doozie.
If you still feel like researching…fine. But your parent research should NOT preclude her getting applications completed that can be.
OH and MANY prep school kids apply early decision to colleges…and many of these applications are due by mid October. The counselors at her prep school are more than familiar with early applicants. This won’t be a surprise to them.
OP I understand that your daughter doesn’t have any preferences and can be happy anywhere. What else has she said about the process? Has she begun any applications? Is she ok with the essays, etc? Has she expressed any opinions? If she needs big merit she needs to get going now.
FWIW my D applied to Pitt the first week in September and had a full tuition scholarship 3-4 weeks later.
We don’t know every little fact of the OP’s life, we don’t know if his daughter has applied or not to the schools you mention, etc etc.
The thing about early applications – absolutely! Most boarding school kids apply ED, so of course prep schools are familiar with early applications. But they absolutely are not familiar with differing deadlines/timelines for scholarships, they won’t know that Alabama Huntsville has better merit aid than Tuscaloosa etc etc.
@cinnamon1212 actually, the OP did say upstream not very far that Pitt and Alabama applications would be done later.
He had been forthcoming with information but some of it is contradictory. If he wants excellent merit aid for his daughter at rolling admissions schools…like Pitt…he needs to get her to apply now.
There have been a lot of affordable options, and good schools too, recommended on this thread.
I’m sure the daughter will find a college that is fine for her. We are told she is very flexible.
Being at a prep school gives her excellent college counseling guidance…and I’m sure there will be discussions there too.
@cinnamon1212, with the OP’s D going to a boarding school with 1 college counselor for every 27 students, their job is to know how to advise their students on every aspect of college admissions. If they don’t know, their job should be to research it and find out.
Right now…take time to be with your family…celebrate the life your mother had. I’m sorry for your loss.
The college search can continue at some point later. Right now…family first.
@CottonTales I am very familiar with boarding school college counseling. It is a sad fact that there are very very few “donut hole” families at these schools. The counselor almost certainly will not spend the same amount of time that Kevin will, and honestly, won’t do as good a job.