<p>chinablue, maybe you and your child should look at some smaller privates that meet a high percentage of need: </p>
<p>St Lawrence University (NY) Greek Life, very little impact on social life
Alfred University (NY) No Greek Life
Wheaton College (MA) No Greek Life
Connecticut College (CT) No Greek Life </p>
<p>Best of luck in your search!</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t think of Connecticut College. What a great school! My D knows several kids that go there. Hmmm</p>
<p>Chinablue, DD1 just graduated from college. She decided not to go with the waitlist. Carleton’s stats have gone up in the last four years so it would be even more competitive. Definitely not a safety.</p>
<p>Some comparable schools to St Joe’s would be safeties (like U Dayton).</p>
<p>*We had excellent luck getting off of wait lists and getting financial aid. The college gods must have been with us. I know our HS counselors really helped us too. I wish your D the best.</p>
<p>Now, let’s say we could put in $20,000 per year.
*</p>
<p>Yes, it does sound like you had great aid from NYU. But, NYU’s aid is often “merit influenced”…meaning that your son likely had very high stats. NYU doesn’t usually give great FA for just really good stats, you usually nead very high stats. </p>
<p>Connecticut College</p>
<p>Very good school… Not a financial safety. Try running their NPC as well.</p>
<p>UDayton and SLU might work, but might not get enough merit to get costs down to $20k per year. </p>
<p>If you can contribute $20k per year, then you need to find out what schools that give “need based” aid will expect. Run a Net Price Calculator on UPenn’s website to see. Don’t include those graduating students as being in college or in your household. See what results you get. </p>
<p>If you find that UPenn’s NPC will expect about $20k, then awesome. If you find that UPenn expects you to pay a much higher price, then that will be an issue. </p>
<p>As for your safeties…If you can pay about $20k per year, then that means that your D will need merit scholarship in the 3/4 tuition range (at least), so that your remaining costs will be about $20k (1/4 tuition plus room, board, fees, books, etc). Does that make sense?</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids - You are making a great deal of sense.</p>
<p>$20,000 per year means that you can afford:</p>
<p>SUNYs like Stony Brook at list price
public universities in the Dakotas and perhaps other mountain west states at out of state list price</p>
<p>Just slightly above that amount (perhaps around $22,000 per year) would be some small public LAC type schools:</p>
<p>Truman State University at out of state list price
University of Minnesota - Morris at list price (no out of state surcharge)</p>
<p>Most of the “less expensive” out of state public schools like Minnesota - Twin Cities, Virginia Tech, NCSU, Iowa State, Massachusetts, etc. are around $30,000 per year. You can run the net price calculators for financial aid estimates, though don’t get your hopes up too high being from out of state. But they may offer merit scholarships as well.</p>
<p>Schools with big merit for stats include:</p>
<p>University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa with Presidential Scholarship (3.5 GPA, 32 ACT) for full out of state tuition, leaving about $15,000 per year other costs
University of Alabama - Birmingham with Blazer Elite Scholarship (3.0 GPA, 28 ACT) for $15,000 per year, leaving about $10,000 per year other costs
University of Alabama - Huntsville with full ride (3.0 GPA, 34 ACT; full tuition at 31 ACT)</p>
<p>May I suggest Ohio State Honors College?! The school offers great merit scholarships to qualified OOS students:</p>
<p>[Scholarship</a> Programs - Student Financial Aid - The Ohio State University](<a href=“Accept your scholarships - Current and Campus Change Students - The Ohio State University”>Accept your scholarships - Current and Campus Change Students - The Ohio State University)
*
Geographic diversity<a href=“Columbus%20campus,%20autumn%202011”>/I</a></p>
<p>Ohio State enrolls students from every state and territory. States with the highest enrollment:</p>
<h1>500+: Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, California, Michigan</h1>
<h1>300 – 499: Texas, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia</h1>
<h1>100 – 299: Florida, Indiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, Arizona, Tennessee, Connecticut</h1>
<h1>50 – 99: West Virginia, Washington, Colorado, South Carolina, Kansas</h1>
<p>Best of Luck! :)</p>
<p>One point higher on the ACT would get your D a Trustee’s Merit Scholarship at Dayton.
[University</a> of Dayton : Apply: Undergraduate](<a href=“http://www.udayton.edu/apply/undergraduate.php]University”>Undergraduate Admission : University of Dayton, Ohio)</p>
<p>Would Holy Cross be a good safety (academic/financial)?</p>
<p>Certainly not an admissions safety. Only 33% admitted. ACT only considered, interview very important, level of interest important. <a href=“http://offices.holycross.edu/sites/all/modules/tinytinymce/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/planningbudget/CDS20112012Publishr1.pdf[/url]”>http://offices.holycross.edu/sites/all/modules/tinytinymce/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/planningbudget/CDS20112012Publishr1.pdf</a> They do meet need (as defined by the college). They do require the Profile and NCP info. <a href=“https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv[/url]”>https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the input. We are still looking for those safeties. My D gets her April ACT results back on the 30th. I wonder if that will change the picture a bit.</p>
<p>Tulane gives a lot of merit aid and though not a realacademic safety- worth looking into. This is there wayof attracting very good students. They also have early action so you hear back early and get merit notification early. it also happens to be an excellent school in a nice climate. I don’t know the public NY schools too well- but in PA- Pitt is very popular as a good back-up for top students, again with a great reputation.</p>
<p>TULANE what a great idea!</p>
<p>UPenn (favorite)
Notre Dame University
Northwestern Univ.
University of Michigan
Boston College
Boston University
Villanova
Tulane!</p>
<p>I thought UPenn and UMichigan would be out because they don’t give financial aid to OOS? Or am I mistaken? I take it this is the regular list, not the safety list. Still wondering why you are excluding SUNYs as safeties.</p>
<p>3.9 GPA UW
31 ACT (retaken with lots of prep, wait for results)
HS Counselor says “stellar” EC’s</p>
<p>So the current list for this snapshot of time:</p>
<p>UPenn (favorite, great with fin aid)
Notre Dame University
Northwestern Univ.
University of Michigan
Boston College
Boston University
Villanova
Tulane
Binghamton</p>
<p>My D really doesn’t like SUNY’s. I am not sure she would attend Binghamton even if she got in. I know I know Binghamton and the other SUNY’s offer a great education.</p>
<p>She hasn’t had a chance to check out:</p>
<p>Wheaton College
Connecticut College
University of MN
Ohio State Honors</p>
<p>She is studying like crazy for the upcoming AP’s (Bio, US Hist.) and SAT II’s (Bio, US Hist., Math II). </p>
<p>I think the college safety search might have to be put off until the tests are over and she gets her latest ACT back.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of those HS juniors out there.</p>
<p>Having been on CC for quite a while, if you have high need, then the following schools are not good bets & all are well over 50k/year… </p>
<p>Notre Dame
Boston University
Villanova
Tulane
University of Michigan (OOS) </p>
<p>If your D is willing to look at women’s schools have her check out Smith, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, etc.</p>
<p>Oh, Notre Dame was so so so so generous to us! I love ND! </p>
<p>It is really confusing about financial aid. Many cc members say NYU is bad about fin aid, but they too gave us a good package. </p>
<p>Now, with my younger daughter looking I am not sure what to think.</p>
<p>“Preferential Packaging” for the students the schools really want, an outstanding FA package is offered, for others applying to same school they might be “gapped.” </p>
<p>NYU must have really wanted your child to enroll & so they made an offer he/she could not refuse. Colleges are a business after all!</p>
<p>We really lucked out, I guess.</p>