Another thing I need to understand more is how SAT scores or lack thereof are affecting merit. I wish they could see hers is from Soph year. We are considering not submitting it to reach schools. We could try retaking but she was ready and prepped in March and then came all the cancellations that she feels 5 months of no school is not going to help her raise her score - she feels burned out by the process. Not to mention here in No VA people are driving/flying OOS to take it!
Also know the CA UC’s only use 10-11th grades for the a-g core/course requirements and require a year of Visual/performing arts during the 4 years of HS.
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades and caps the weighted classes (AP and IB only for OOS students) at 8 semesters taken 10-11th grades only.
If you truly want or need to stick to under $25,000, please be sure your daughter understands the budget she has to work with going into this process (especially since you have more than one child ). As noted, the California schools are not going to come in at your budget, so they can be eliminated upfront.
OK I see that on the common data set… was so focused on languages or even academic electives that failed to notice the visual/performing arts. Pretty sure she won’t meet that criteria.
Utah grants residency based on physical presence for a 365 day period (not more than 28 days absence from the state in total, although official study abroad courses count towards residency). That means staying through the summer after freshman year (you could do the summer before but that is inconvenient for most people). You can take classes and get accommodation (many take a minimal course load and work part time) or be an orientation leader (in normal circumstances) for which you get free accommodation and a stipend.
There are a few other requirements (register to vote, change your drivers license and not be claimed as a dependent on your parents tax return) but those are simple things to do. You do need to document physical presence when classes are not in session (eg bank statements showing you used a debit card in the state)
@StacysMom24 , not having high SATs might be OK as you I’m sure have heard that the test scores are optional starting this upcoming year at the UCs and CSUs. That might help with these schools and their Regent Scholarships, but still being OOS, your tuition is going to be high.
With her high GPA, solid APs and extracurriculars, and being an URM, she should be admitted to some very good colleges with decent aid. Places like University of of Iowa (the IMAGES program) or Minnesota might be good universities to consider.
Use this calculator at ASU as an estimator. I show total cost based on her stats as being $32-33K/year. That’s about 50% of the OOS cost at the UCs. https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator
@stacysmom21: VPA could be Drama, Music, Art, Ceramics, Photography, Graphic Design etc… Taking 1 semester of a College course would fulfill the year long requirement. VPA is a minimum requirement for the Cal States and UC’s so this might be a better way of eliminating them from the list without pushing the over budget issue.
JMU seems like a match, UVA definitely a reach. UVA all in is over $30,000 these days instate, if full pay. Be sure to factor in increased travel costs when going far from home into your calculations.
Good news is that she LOVES JMU! It’s 2 hrs from home. Beautiful, well maintained campus and everyone we know that goes there loves it there!!! We are pushing for it but also allowing her to explore other options.
I know it’s not on a coast, but Case’s merit got my daughter to about $30,000 - great biology programs. She did have higher test scores, but I’m really not sure how this year is going to work with testing and merit.
@stacysmom21 I applied to both UW Seattle and UC Berkeley, and note that they both require art classes (check the admissions website for specifics.) As I did not take art in high school, I took a community college class on the history of photography during the winter of my senior year after listing it on my application (school district paid for it as it wasn’t offered at my school, so look to see if your school offers a similar program,) that was 4 quarter credits and met both schools’ admissions requirements.
I believe UW might admit your daughter if she doesn’t have the art requirement fulfilled and require her to take an art class once enrolled, but the UCs don’t really have any exceptions for this (I read a while back somewhere that a student was admitted w/o art, but idk if they expected him/her to take art before starting college; contact the admissions office to be sure if this is an option.)
That is good news that she loves JMU. One of the problems with merit hunting is that you can get a lot of acceptances but don’t get the merit that you need. That can be very difficult for some and they end out rationalizing paying a price above their original budget.
@StacysMom24 As @Darcy123 said above, Case Western has an extremely generous merit scholarship program w/multiple half-tuition scholarships and their top-ranked medical school nearby. However, they are very big on demonstrated interest, so unless your daughter is applying to their PPSP BS/MD program (which doesn’t allow EA,) make sure to apply Early Action to maximize your chances of acceptance/merit scholarship.
That depends on your definition of “extremely generous”. Even with a half tuition scholarship the COA will be $40K-$45K per year. It’s very unlikely to be affordable.
@StacysMom21, curious why Virginia Tech and William and Mary aren’t listed? Is it cost for W&M, and location for VA Tech? Both are great schools and seem right in line with your daughter’s stats.
@Twoin18 By “extremely generous” I meant they offer a large portion of their admitted class a partial-tuition scholarship. Yes, it’s definitely not enough to bring down the COA at a private school to 20-25K, but it’s a better scholarship model than the few extremely competitive full-tuition scholarships offered by other similar schools, where the rest get very little funding, if any.
