Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculator on the school website’s of some of those schools on your list – this year’s tax forms plus some basic bank account info is generally what is needed. The NPC spits out an instant assessment of financial aid – which will tell you if you are in the ball park of affordability or not. If siblings will be finishing, or starting college, while you are in college, that will affect your financial need.
If Colby, Hamilton, Bates and Bowdoin are among your favorites, then keep St Lawrence front and center on your list, as an admissions match with a fantastic soccer program.
All of these are relatively isolated NESCAC liberal arts colleges. You also indicated that you “really liked” Union – which is a former NESCAC.
If these schools appeal to you, then the obvious additions would be the other two isolated NESCACs: Middlebury and Williams. People who apply to your “favorites” routinely apply to Midd and Williams as well.
Both of these schools seem like they could be fits for you: (1) they are unusually wealthy and offer good financial aid; (2) they are strong in STEM, with good-sized computer science programs by LAC standards; (3) they are top schools for Division III athletics, and (4) they are conspicuously rural. Williams a bit more so than Midd in all of these respects.
Assuming this to be true (which I confirmed is a new thing for FAFSA 2017-2018 which took my parents by surprise), I ran my numbers on F&M.
Freshman year <5K
Sophomore year 10K
Junior year 35K
But my older sister is graduating this year, and my younger sibling will be in college 1 year after me.
How much debt is considered to be reasonable and manageable? $50K? I also have $25K set aside
Could Franklin and Marshall reject me based on my first year’s need? Even though my situation will be vastly different over the coming years?
Is Franklin and Marshall a middle tier school in terms of my list?
What are other schools from my list good to run? I don’t want to be using too much of my parent’s time
Do I need to consider other schools? I also would like to have some backups in case I have a career-ending soccer injury. I’ve heard some horror stories about kids who had compound fractures and almost had their legs amputated, and not getting into the college they were recruited for.
Some updates in terms of my list. Bates is off; they do not offer CS. Amherst, Williams and Middlebury are on. Actually, here is the list now (also in order of preference):
Colby
Amherst
Williams
Hamilton
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Franklin and Marshall
Lafayette
Johns Hopkins
Haverford
Dickinson
U of Rochester
Union (only school I have actually visited)
Swarthmore
Bucknell (have to consider the greek factor)
St. Lawrence
Conn College
Gettysburg (have to consider the greek factor
Denison
Fallbacks:
University of Richmond
Universit of Vermont
Removed: Bates (no CS), Babson (weak CS), Kenyon (no CS)
Assuming this to be true (which I confirmed is a new thing for FAFSA 2017-2018 which took my parents by surprise), I ran my numbers on F&M.
Freshman year <5K
Sophomore year 10K
Junior year 35K
But my older sister is graduating this year, and my younger sibling will be in college 1 year after me.
How much debt is considered to be reasonable and manageable? $50K? I also have an additional 25K set aside for college
Could Franklin and Marshall reject me based on my first year’s need? Even though my situation will be vastly different over the coming years?
Is Franklin and Marshall a middle tier school in terms of my list and ability to provide financial aid?
What are other schools from my list good to run? I don’t want to be using too much of my parent’s time
Do I need to consider other schools? I also would like to have some backups in case I have a career-ending soccer injury. I’ve heard some horror stories about kids who had compound fractures and almost had their legs amputated, and not getting into the college they were recruited for.
Some updates in terms of my list. Bates is off; they do not offer CS. Amherst, Williams and Middlebury are on. Actually, here is the list now (also in order of preference):
Colby
Amherst
Williams
Hamilton
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Franklin and Marshall
Lafayette
Johns Hopkins
Haverford
Dickinson
U of Rochester
Union (only school I have visited)
Swarthmore
Bucknell
St. Lawrence
Conn College
Gettysburg
Denison
Wooster
Fallbacks: University of Richmond
University of Vermont
Schools to consider if something goes wrong with soccer:
University of Richmond
Wake Forest?
Removed: Bates (no CS), Babson (weak CS), Kenyon (no CS)
@happy1
I was just about to go back and edit that. Realized its acceptance rate is in the 30s. But that is a school that doesn’t have soccer and I am much less interested in it, I think I would only apply if I wasn’t playing soccer.