My kid wouldn’t look at our flagship because “kids from high school” and also it’s huge, and the teacher-student ratio is not great and most intro classes are ginormous and she wanted to see another part of the country etc.
That’s all FINE.
This family can afford a lot of schools without any merit aid at all, and plenty more with merit. Not ND or NW or UC, but a level down?
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That’s all FINE.
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Totally fine as long as parents are happily paying for elsewhere.
That said…It’s also important that parents realize when their child is exaggerating.
A school being “huge” or “intro classes being ginormous” is a different issue, altho many privates also have huge into classes (which is a shock to many once they register). I remember when my older son took an Intro class at a top private Univ (just for interest) and it was held in a big lecture auditorium. There weren’t even seats for everyone…some had to sit on the steps in the aisles, which surely was a fire hazard!
And again, rarely are there that many fellow HS classmates actually going to the state’s flagship unless it’s commutable. We’ve seen too many posts where kids say “everyone from high school goes to XXXX,” and that’s just BS. Many won’t get in, many will not have funding, and many will want to go elsewhere.
<<< There are a lot of LACs that cost less than $50k, but they are much smaller, like Rhodes, Centre, Knox. >>
Good suggestions. I don’t know if Rhodes is still under $50k, but this student should get some merit.
Edit: Rhodes COA is $60k, but again, merit is possible…and might get cost down to $50k
@mom2collegekids OP already said
Perhaps she needs a reality check that a 31 won't get merit in any reaches. She can get admission to schools that are probably not as good as the gift horse she has. What is her UW GPA if 4.1 is weighted? I know Sybbie says 32 for big merit, but big merit where? Not at a school like she has right there.
I'd hate to have her crippled in debt out of undergrad<<<
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She won’t be though, as she can only borrow staffords.
@TREKfam we are from Wisconsin. Both my older kids were extremely opposed to Wisconsin. We actually have been able to find multiple schools that are CHEAPER for us than UW, based on academic merit. We told our kids we would pay up to UW cost, and they figured it out. Stats were a bit higher though (D’s ACT 34, S NMF expected).
So step 1, raise ACT if she wants more choices.
Step 2, figure out what schools are affordable that your child would like.
For my D, Kansas was her sure safety. I think this would likely work for your child with a 31 (but they might want 32?). She wound up choosing elsewhere, but she liked honors program. Best merit from anywhere was Truman State–a bit off the beaten path in Wi, but we liked the public honors college feel.
I actually regret not making D apply to UW, so told S18 he has to apply to either UW or UMn (assume you are aware of reciprocity). Good luck!
The thing to remember about Merit aid is that some schools are generous awarding as much as 20 of students merit money and some give very little. If you google a school’s Common Data Set and look at the section showing the number of freshman awarded “non need based aid” and you consider your child’s probable competitiveness it will give you some idea of what is possible. Yes Notre Dame offers merit aid but to something like 30 students out of an incoming class with an average ACT of 34. Possible yes, likely no. In contrast look at Illinois Wesleyan. Many kids would jump at the chance to attend UW Madison at in-state rates
20 percent, sorry
She should apply to UMN Honors (with a 31 = CLA, CFANS + Honors are clearly in play. Both have lots of interesting majors.) Have her investigate Chardbourne at UW. Organize an overnight at both UMN and UW Madison. If she wants public LACs, Eau Claire and Morris are there (overnight to be planned too), plus Truman State.
Raising her ACT to 32 would help for merit aid. See if she could take the August SAT (if she’s prepped for the ACT, she’s ready for the SAT, as the new SAT is very similar to the ACT. Part of their “reading” section even includes a Science section similar to the ACT’s.) Have her prepare SAT Subjects to increase her choices, unless she’s already taken them. Those should be taken in the 2-3 subjects she’s strongest at, any combination is fine.
Private colleges that offer financial aid: Beloit, Lawrence, St Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, Concordia-Morhead, Luther, Drake, Butler, Illinois Wesleyan. Run the NPC, look at the “merit scholarship” and “music/talent scholarship” pages.
our state has a flagship as well as another elite public that some consider a flagship- My children both wanted the the flagship neither wanted the other school literally for the reason the OP mentioned. Generations of their classmates are there- up to 1/3 of every class since we can remember from both of their high schools. Granted it is a giant place, but they just want to move on from seeing the same people every single day- both attended small religious prep schools and felt like everyone went on to that particular school. One of mine is attending the state flagship and loves it- very few of his classmates are there. If your child ends up in greek life or other social settings - these things make a giant university very small and you would tend to run into each other all the time. Most kids from my kids’ schools go greek and therefore when 1/3 of your class is attending the same school and rushing the same greek organizations it can feel like high school 2.0. My son knows about 8 people total from his high school in his greek circle( four years worth of graduates- none from his own class though). Had he chosen the other school- there would have been more than 80. My second child is applying to colleges now. I made both apply to both of the states top two. Had my son not gotten the flagship school, he would have likely attended out of state at another state’s flagship school. He was THAT set against this second best school in our state.He was accepted to many privates as well - some of the mentioned schools from OP- he received NO merit from any elite privates with 33 ACT. My second child has the exact same plan. So sometimes It really really is that they want a clean break. I would make the child apply to state flagships and consider those safe schools. Try for some other schools that she may like better. Many schools superscore so taking the ACT again would be a great idea. TCU in Texas will give money for her numbers and it will get it down to below 50k per year. Many out of state students go there.
A friend and I had daughters heading to the same college. They’d gone to K-5 together, been in girl scouts, basketball, other activities, but weren’t really friends. Friendly though. The mom and I were still good friends. My daughter kept saying “I don’t want to be roommates with H. We aren’t going to be best buddies just because you and her mom are.” I told her she didn’t have to. My friend had also told me H had no interest in sororities and mine did, so figured they wouldn’t run in the same circles anyway. (another boy from K did live in my daughter’s dorm, but she only saw him a few times).
Well, my friend was killed about a month before they went off to school. The girls were in different dorms but my daughter did seek out H to be nice. The first pictures I get are of them at a football game with the dad and sister of the other girl. I told my daughter to ask H to go through rush just to meet a few other people. H loved it and they ended up in the same house, with H being very involved (officer). When they were in the dorms, sometimes H would call my daughter and just ask her to sit with her, watch TV, or study. H was lonely and having a familiar face was comforting. And my daughter liked having a familiar face around too. They now get together when they are home and go to the movies or shopping, sometimes with other friends from Kindergarten. One of the funniest things was when they were doing a slide show at the sorority and the girls brought pictures from when they were young. Someone asked H why there were pics of my daughter with H! We’d always gone trick or treating with this family so the pics were of these two, plus their sisters and other friends. No one at the sorority was even aware that they knew each other before joining.
My nephew goes to the state flagship where half his high school goes. He joined a fraternity and yes, there are a few high school pals in the group, others are in other houses, they all run into each other all the time but have plenty of other friends too. Having 80 high school kids in Greek life is not a big deal if there are 1000 members across 10 houses. My nephew probably did know about 500 kids at college from his high school, grade school, friends of his parents, neighbors, swim club members, youth sports, girls from other high schools. Some are a year or two older, some already in his fraternity before he joined. Yep, 500. Out of 27,000! Drop in the bucket.
Much like the preferred type of college (big/small, urban/rural, public/private, etc.) varies by kid, I think the comfort level for the number of kids going to the same college varies as well. So what one kid may find to be acceptable (and some kids totally love it – pretty much college is a continuation of high school with some independence and a few new friends mixed in) another kid may not like.
I see a fair number of kids who don’t to go our state flagship (Ohio State) because too many of the kids from their high school go there (10-15% or more of graduating classes at various area high schools become Buckeyes). Some of those kids do go out of state (some chase OOS merit money and others actually do pay more than OSU would cost (which is under $20k/year with some merit $$ which many kids get)). But I see more of them going to other colleges in Ohio.
And I am willing to bet that in many instances, experiences in high school are a huge influence. Many kids have amazing experiences in high school and the idea of continuing high school times on at least some level is very appealing. I hear talk from parents/kids in pretty much every top suburban public and private high school I know talk about facebook pages for a given high school at Ohio State. And other social media groups. Very popular again I suspect with kids who had great times in high school and who are going there.
But a lot of kids have less than an ideal time in college. Teen years can be challenging times. And teens can be rough on each other. So the idea that college would be a continuation of high school (on any level or even the possibility of it) is a big turnoff. As such, those kids are not interested in the state flagship. I will not fault them for that. Is that a less valid reason than a lot of other reasons you see given for a particular college?