Glad to hear you will follow up with Princeton. They were, by far, the most generous with need-based aid for my son. Came in well under our EFC.
We were one of those families - our s’s are 4 years apart. Paid for college for 8 straight years. But you do not need to pity us at all. We simply focused on merit money, not need-based aid. S#1 got some outside scholarships, S#2 got a great institutional scholarship, and both were NMFs that added some additional merit $. It is quite doable for folks who won’t qualify for need based aid… even with 8 straight years of college payments.
@KevinFromOC - It sounds like folks here are wondering if you put only one in college when you ran your NPC on Princeton’s site (sounds like you did) to explain the difference between the EFC number one your award from Princeton. Some awards are close to what a schools’ NPC estimates, and some are not. Princeton has its own calculation method, as you know. You might consider reading Lynn O’Shaughnessy’s “college solution” website and Ethan Sawyer’s “college essay guy” site for ways to approach appealing a FA offer. Keep us posted.
Congrats @KevinFromOC on some great choices! I’m sure your daughter will do very well wherever she attends. Just curious how Vanderbilt’s FA compared to Princeton’s?
Great job Kevin and UofSC & Miami were not even on your original list, post #1. I’m also glad that your D decided not to attend one of the local UCs and commute. She will have a fabulous residential college experience OOS. So happy it all worked out for her, she sounds like she will be successful no matter where she ends up. Good luck!
If I follow correctly you now have five affordable candidates: Rose Hulman, UofSC, Miami, Alabama and ASU.
At this point, shouldn’t you factor the US News Undergraduate Engineering ranking?
I plan on spilling the beans on the final COAs from each college in the near future. But as a preview, Vanderbilt came in about $4K more expensive than Princeton. It was all financial aid, she was not offered any merit aid at all. And it was based on 2 in college.
My daughter was really hoping for a CV award from them - her prom date decided on Vanderbilt (he’s full pay).
Do you have to build in caveats? Like your own finances, plans for D1, your 401K, like the rest of us? If 1/3 of the USA is soon possibly unemployed, I am surprised to see parents not baking this in.
My DD will be attending Northeastern studying business/finance. She received the 30K honors scholarship and we were told she would get an additional 3-5K for being a NMF. She was also invited to audition for a music scholarship which would stack on top of the merit money. She sent the audition tape today. Not ideal recording conditions, but hopefully they’ll understand. She did not apply for financial aid since with 2 in college we still have a sky high EFC. Waiting to hear tomorrow about the IBM Watson Scholarship.
They have definitely made her feel like they wanted her and that went a long way in her choice. Came down to Carnegie Mellon, U of Mich, UIUC (in state), and Northeastern.
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@twoinanddone The number of college varsity slots for hockey is significantly smaller than the other team sports. For females, there are about 250 d1 softball, over 300 basketball and soccer teams, and only 36 ice hockey teams. Maybe each team holds 4 goalies. Maybe. Of those schools, I’d say one third are in her academic league. Of those, a handful have chemical engineering. A goalie spot on a d1 team at a school like Miami? Where she can study her intended major? Lightening strike. And she went through the whole recruiting process…she wanted to play hockey, it just didn’t work out for her (or for most).
She may be concerned about warming the bench for 4 years, but she wouldn’t be the first D1 goalie to have that situation. And maybe just has decided she is over hockey. It happens. But if not…she did incredibly well if she gets her major, a super low COA, a solid school not near the arctic circle and she gets to skate. Fantastic.
The roller coaster continues…
She just received an e-mail from Rose Hulman awarding her their Circle of Distinction scholarship, which covers full room & board for all 4 years. This, coupled with her previous full tuition scholarship there, effectively gives her a full ride. They are also giving her a scholarship for the full cost of the laptop they require students to purchase there (which otherwise costs $2400).
So needless to say RHIT has jumped into the top 3 with UofSC and Miami. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the RHIT scholarship competition on campus was cancelled and it was moved online, so she never got to visit RHIT to see things like the dorms, food choices and quality, student life, etc., and probably won’t be able to before having to make a decision. Now that the school choices are narrowed down, those aspects are becoming more of a deciding factor.
It looks like info and insight on Rose Hulman is much more limited than other schools, especially here on CC. If anyone has such insight we’d be happy to ask you some questions!
Rose Hulman obviously has a great reputation in engineering. We drove through the campus about three years ago while in the area on a road trip vacation. H and I were passing through and because he and both sons are engineers, we were curious so decided to check out the campus. It is somewhat by itself, outside of town. Nice, small campus. But, it is probably one of those schools where fit would be very important. I don’t think either of my sons would have been interested in it but it is clearly the right school for many kids. Good luck with the decision.
Congratulations to your AMAZING daughter!!!
I have toured it 3 years ago with my son. I also have female patients that go there /went there. I am no expert but know students that got accepted to name brand schools like Purdue or Michigan choose to go there since they wanted a smaller school environment. Pm me if I can answer any questions. Again, just know the school superficially.
@KevinFromOC Can your D talk to some students? I bet the school could set her up with that option. Maybe even see if she could Zoom with them. If she has specific questions about curriculum, get her in touch with professors. You can google Rose Hulman and see multiple virtual tours.
My nephew went to RH and graduated in 2016. Smart young man, but a slacker in classes he didn’t care too much about. He really liked his experience there, was challenged where he needed to be, and received several very good job offers. He ended up in Seattle over San Francisco, companies wanted him.
His ex-GF at RH was from the LA area, she ended up in SF. Smart personable, very talented, a lot less nerdy than him. She also loved her experience there.
Both were accepted at large state schools, but chose RH for the very personal small school experience.
PM if you like, I can ask my sister or nephew specifics.
Your daughter has great stats and can probably get a full ride to many great schools. She should target some private schools that have big endowments and give out generous amounts of aid. I know UMiami gives a lot of merit money, I received 10k/year with considerably lower stats than your daughter. She has a strong shot at a full ride there.
UCLA is probably not a safety: it’s acceptance rate is 16%. Even being in state with her stats, nothing is guaranteed. Consider it a strong target school. I strongly suggest more safety schools, especially since she will be applying to many schools. I wish I applied to more safety schools because I got into 10 schools, but only received merit to one. It would’ve been great to have an option where I received a half or full ride.
I would never apply to 25-30 schools because it will drain her mentally. She should focus on strong applications and quality is more important than quantity.
Ohio State is a strong engineering school and it gives a lot of merit money out; she has a shot at a full ride. Northeastern gives a decent amount of merit, so does University of Pittsburgh, both good schools. Pitt would probably give her a full ride. Best of luck to you and your daughter.
@Brycebixon Applications have already been submitted and offers are being evaluated!
This student has already completed the application cycle and is deciding from acceptances/offers.
@KevinFromOC - A full ride is a sweet gift!! If finances are/were the strongest component in making this decision, especially in a school with strong engineering , it seems this is a sweet opportunity. There are always some trade offs - I recall the son of a friend who went there saying the biggest weekend excitement was going to the Wal Mart. But he us happy he went there and is doing well in a great job in DC.
There is a great book (not sure when the last publication was) called “The Yale Daily News: Insiders Guide to Colleges” that describes different aspects of the school and what it’s like to go there from the students’ perspective. Highly recommend this book.
Last question- didn’t you say at the outset of this thread that your DD was very flexible in her approach to schools and would be happy if it had nice buildings ad a good department. Has that changed?
No, it hasn’t really changed, those factors had no influence on which schools to apply to. But now that it’s down to just a few schools with no obvious “winner”, those aspects could factor in to a tie breaker. For example, she is very excited that South Carolina has a Chic-Fil-A on campus that she could use her meal card for! It was always in the plan to visit the schools that are the serious contenders, but unfortunately now that doesn’t look possible!
So I think at this point, she really can’t make a wrong decision. She’ll have a fantastic time, flourish where planted, etc. Nice job, Kevin and family! We’re just all anxiously waiting for the final choice. 