My list of colleges, what to add/take off

College Search & Selection
1

This is my tentative list. Note: I am only a junior so this is more like colleges I want to go look at and research more deeply, not definitely apply to. How many reach/matches/safeties should I have? Are the schools I have in the correct category? Please help either take some off or add some on.

Copied and pasted from last thread:

GPA: 95.1 UW 97.1 W
SAT: Projected based on practice and psat: 2200

Money not an issue at the moment.
I live in NYC and don’t want to go more than 4 hours away
Want to dorm
No conservative schools
Looking for a big campus
Into the “preppy” scene
Good party scene is far from a deciding factor but I’d consider it
Intrest in science

List of schools:

reaches:
columbia
upenn
bowdoin
amherst
georgetown

matches:
u maryland
bu
northeastern
wake forest
gw
bc
nyu

safeties:
binghamton
stonybrook
temple
syracuse
penn state

2

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Money not an issue at the moment.


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What does that mean?

Do clarify from your parents how much they’ll pay. It may seem like fun to identify a bunch of fun and exciting schools to attend, but it can be bad for morale if you find out none are affordable.

3

If you don’t want conservative schools, you might want to further examine Wake Forest and Boston College. I’ve heard both of them described as leaning conservative.

Also, if you are looking for matches more along the lines of schools like Amherst and Bowdoin, check out Connecticut College.

4

@lalalemma thank you! I think I’m taking wake forest off and I’m visiting bc in a few weeks because it’s near bu and amherst

5

Trinity College, Hartford. While more middle of the road than some LACs, it is not exactly conservative, has big Greek life, certainly preppie, with party scene.

And if “money isn’t an issue a the moment” means anything other than “we are full pay and my parents can easily write a $65,000 check each year”, then the OP needs to talk finances, financial aid, financial safeties and whether merit money is a priority, with their family.

6

@Midwestmomofboys My parents are willing to pay 20k, since my custodial parent is low income I qualify for a local scholarship which (if I get) will be about 10k a year. We’re anticipating 10k-20k in fa. The rest, if any, would be taken out in loans.

7

If this does not go according to plan, it’ll be a different story which is why I included some affordable schools or where I would potentially qualify for merit scholarships.

8

Wake is solidly moderate with a noticeable and vocal population of liberal students. I’m less familiar with BC, but I’m not sure I’d classify it as conservative either. That said, I think UVA would fit the OP better than Wake in terms of size and location.

Lehigh is an obvious suggestion. If you’re open to smaller schools, there’s F&M and Bucknell.

Since you’re interested in science, note that Cornell CALS and Human Ecology are about $16K cheaper than Cornell A&S for NY residents.

9

to the OP: when non custodial parents are part of the financial aid determinations, it gets unpredictable. Also, you, individually, are limited to about $5,500 a year in loans – you cannot borrow the rest yourself, and your parents would need to get loans themselves. In a low income situation (and even middle and upper middle class), that is a dangerous strategy to borrow significantly (you seem to be imagining $25,000 a year or or more in loans).

Get both parents to cooperate in running the Net Price Calculator for some of your schools – you can use your College Board account to access the NPC and save your data, and change which schools you are running it for. The NPC will estimate how much in grants and loans you will receive, and how much you are expected to contribute. This is ESSENTIAL to get a handle on now. Every spring, students come onto College Confidential stunned to discover that they cannot afford to go to the favorite schools. Please spend time figuring out the financials, and build your list from there.

Ivies – Columbia, U Penn and NESCAC schools – Amherst, Bowdoin – do not give merit aid, only financial aid. NYU is famous for giving poor financial aid packages. Public universities such as Maryland and Penn State also are known for not giving good financial aid packages to students who are not from their own state.

Start identifying your safeties – schools you will be admitted to and can afford to attend. If you are from New York State, those would naturally include some of your own public universities. Run the NPC for those and see where things stand – again, with noncustodial parent finances in the mix, financial aid is unpredictable.

Then, consider schools where you might qualify for significant merit awards, and whether those schools allow a students to “stack” merit awards on top of financial aid or if the merit awards reduced the financial aid award. I would be particularly concerned about the outside $10k scholarship you referred to – if that is a merit award, often schools will reduce your financial aid package by that amount, though some reduce the loan package rather than the outright grant portion. Please spend some time reading on the Financial Aid board, some of the “sticky” threads which go through financial aid basics.

Rather than build your list from the top down, start from the bottom up, focusing on financials.

10

@midwestmomofboys ive discussed it with my parents, i suggested going to suny school because theyre significantly cheaper and both of my parents were against it, theyre fairly confident they can make the financials work where ever i choose to go so thats why I said money is not an issue at the moment.

11

I’m more concerned about it than they are to be honest, they want me so cross binghamton and stony brook off the list completely.

12

Definitely keep some SUNYs on your list, while I don’t know the schools well, I always heard Geneseo was the small, liberal arts type campus, and Binghamton and Stony Brook were excellent. Do keep them on your list! When you can, try to sit down with your parents and get them to focus on financials – private schools without financial aid are about $65,000 a year, for 4 years. Financial considerations have to be a big factor for most families. Better to sort it out in advance than get some unhappy surprises in the spring of senior year.