Narrowing the Search - Need to pick your collective CC brains :-)

College Search & Selection
1

My daughter is a junior at a public IB school in FL. Her GPA is 4/4.77 and numerous APs (5s on all.) Her PSAT scores were 760/ 750 and she’s shooting for 1570/1580 on her SATs.

From what I’ve seen on CC, however, her ECs are not great - she has focused on swimming, which is a huge time commitment, but she’s not fast enough to be a recruited athlete. She has the typical high school club activities but nothing that really stands out or screams “leadership.”

She’s definitely an introvert and tends to get overlooked sometimes because she’s pretty quiet - but she’s also very determined and ambitious in an under-the-radar way. (When she was little, she explained to me one day that she didn’t want to be the President; instead, she wanted to be the person behind the President telling him what to do!)

Finances are a huge issue - I’m a single parent and we need either a full ride option OR a “no-loan school” with a low EFC (So far our estimated EFC ranges from $1000 at Yale to $14000 at some mid-tier LACs.) Like many people, I feel caught in the middle - I make just a bit too much for Pell, QuestBridge, etc. but not enough to be able to even afford to visit more than a few colleges, much less pay for them!

She’s also undecided about her major. She’s learning toward science/medical research, but she’s also expressed interest in urban planning/policy and environmental law. On the other hand, her friends and I all see her in finance/economics/business. I think she feels pressured to pick a major - any major - at this point, but I’d like her to find a school that can help her grow and expand her horizons so she can truly find a career path that’s right for her.

She’s trying to narrow down her criteria, but as she pointed out to me, it’s hard to know whether you’d like a NE school when you’ve never seen snow or whether an urban campus is right for you when you’ve only driven through a few cities. But as this point, she’s leaning toward:

Small to mid-size school
Southern, mid-Atlantic, or north east state
Strong science/research programs
Excellent reputation/success for grad school
Pragmatic academic focus (research, internships, etc.)
Residential, “aesthetic” campus (urban or small town)

This last requirement is interesting - she says she’s not interested in seminar-style discussions where people pontificate about the meaning of life. She wants more “real-world” learning…

I do realize - and am extremely grateful - that she should qualify for NMF (SI is 227) which translates into a free ride at a number of Florida colleges. This is definitely her safety plan, but she’s anxious to look beyond Florida as well. We seem to have large universities, very small colleges (New College and Wilkes Honors), but nothing in the middle which I think would be her sweet spot.

She can only apply to so many schools and it seems like everything is a long shot because of our financial situation; basically, she needs to either be admitted into a no-loan Ivy/Top 20 or receive a full scholarship to a next-tier school (University of Richmond, Washington and Lee, South Carolina Honors, etc.) Are there more realistic options I’m missing? I’ve reviewed the NMF thread, but none of those public colleges appeal to her - primarily because of location. UK and UA were intriguing, but I guess they no longer offer full-ride as I understand it.

Not sure if I should encourage her to spend the summer working on her ‘resume’ or just tell her that, realistically, she needs to stay in Florida for undergrad. (Her preference is to focus on swimming to meet her personal goals and to work to buy a car.)

Thanks for any insight or advice!

2

Congratulations to your daughter on her hard work. My first thought is that you will have no problem obtaining excellent financial aid from the meet full need type schools ( generally very selective and larger endowments). Hopefully this will give you some idea.

Here’s a sense of out experience last year with D with very similar academic profile to your daughter. (Ours had a lower sat than your projects to receive but over 1500 and 35 act ss) the 12 aps and was school Val. She did have some leadership and had committed to some interesting ecs on top of the sports.

She was also from Florida and attended a really good Florida school of choice. Also a bit shy and quiet. A bit more of a boss with me at home though!

Also wanted out of Florida to some degree and east coast to except for USC.

Ideas that she Looked at that might be useful for you. Duke wake forest Georgetown boston college USC cmu Colgate and public’s known for good merit . Alabama auburn. Uf and FSU of course for banquesto. Bowdoin Wesleyan brown Williams Harvard Didn’t apply to all and visited all. Each was fantastic in its own way but some felt better for her in meaningful ways immediately. I believe that all were schools that meet full economic need.

She received some acceptances. Some rejections and some waitlists. Hard to know why but that was the way it went down for us. Super happy and super tired after first semester in Boston at BC.

3

Is her father deceased? If not, then schools like Yale will expect to see her father’s financial info, including his spouse’s info. Net Price Calculators are not accurate for students who have a non-custodial parent.

If her dad is alive, will he provide his financial info? Will he help pay for college?

UA never offered a true “full ride” but their award is substantial for NMFs…

UA NMF award is practically a “full ride”…

Value of tuition for up to five years or 10 semesters for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate (or law) studies

Four years of on-campus housing at regular room rate* (based on assignment by Housing and Residential Communities)

$3,500 per year Merit Scholarship stipend for four years.

One-time allowance of $2,000 for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)

$2,000 book scholarship ($500 per year for four years)

4

My kids had similar financial constraints but didn’t have the extra boost of being National Merit Scholars, which will add some opportunities for your daughter. But it sounds as though she would have a good shot at many highly selective liberal arts colleges that “meet need.” Of course, what that means varies somewhat. :slight_smile: She might want to look into women’s colleges. We didn’t look in the South, but as I recall, Agnes Scott has a full-ride scholarship for which your daughter might be competitive.

5

We don’t have any contact with her father, and we are currently not receiving the court-ordered support. I am hoping we would qualify for a waiver, as I don’t think he would complete the form. I’ve tried to find out more about the likelihood of a waiver since there’s been no contact - in fact, I"m not sure what state he lives in at the moment. If he did agree to fill it out, his income is likely quite low, but it’s still a bit of a cluster.

We’ll have to look closer at UA - for some reason, I thought they had cut back a great deal on their NMF awards. Thanks for the info!

6

Hi Trenda,

Sounds like your daughter may be an INTP on the Myers-Briggs personality type scale, which is fairly uncommon and a very cool thing to be. Anyway, I am in a similar situation with my daughter–Junior IB student in FL, dedicated but average swimmer, similar stats, etc. Thankfully, finances aren’t a constraint with us, so I can’t advise you on that part of the equation. I’m sure you’re familiar with all the top schools in the south and mid-Atlantic so there’s no need to list them. However, I’ll add that I’ve just discovered that Wake Forest seems to give out a decent number of merit scholarships, and may be worth applying to. There’s another school in NC, Elon University, that is often classified as a “regional university” and so doesn’t appear on most lists, and is pretty good.

I’ve also heard that Georgia Tech accepts Florida Bright Futures credit, but as a large school it doesn’t sound like a great fit.

Besides Wake, maybe you could consider William and Mary, although I don’t know how much aid they give to out of staters. Davidson is a great school that not too many people focus on, but I don’t know about their financial aid profile, either.

If she thinks she is willing to try going further north, there are a host of options in Pennsylvania and new england that are in that sweet spot size-wise. Myself, I’m worried about my daughter being unhappy in a location where it is cold, dark, and snowy, and we are struggling with how far north she should consider. It is definitely something to consider. Good luck to both of you!

7

Twinsmama, my daughter is a twin too! I’ll be curious if she’s open to the idea of a woman’s college - I read a bit about Smith as they have a D3 swim team and a strong science program. The challenge is that schools seem to expect families to be able to contribute up to 20% of income - and on a modest salary that is not feasible. I don’t want her to take out a loan if she can go to school in Florida without any out-of-pocket cost.

8

Yes, look at Davidson! It’s a no-loan school, 100% of need, and generous definition of need. Strong in sciences with brand new science building. Very rigorous, strong focus on community, happy students. Very quaint/cute town. About 2000 students so small.

My D is an introvert who is a first-year bio major and loves it! Like other top LACs, many/most end up in grad school of some type. PM me if you have any questions!

9

Getting a non custodial waver will add some uncertainty to the process. The process will need to be done for each CSS school.

I would spend 95% of your time right now working on safeties. Just remember, a true safety has to satisfy all three criteria: 1) near certain admissions, 2) guaranteed affordable and 3) willing and happy to attend. If she is will to attend Alabama, then it would be a safety like some of the FL schools. Her first app should be to a safety school. It is great if it is a rolling admissions school. Having something in hand early takes a lot of stress out.

If you as the parent can contribute very little to none, then your application list will become very bimodal. You will really have only reaches and safeties. The reaches will be two types. Affordable by FA or by merit. The merit schools become psychologically risky. It is very likely that she will be admitted to the school but may not get the big merit needed to pay for it. Then you have to deal with that. The meets full need schools are better in that regard because at least you can run the NPC before she applies and eliminate any that don’t look feasible from the cost side.

10

Smith’s merit tops at $30K I believe, Mt Holyoke has a bigger scholarship - I’m not sure if it’s full ride or full tuition. Wellesley has no merit and you’d have to do the NPC to see what it looks like. Of course any need-based school will cause you to deal with the non-custodial parent. BU has a competitive full ride you could try. Fordham gives Full Tuition for NMF and it’s possible they could bump it to their Full Ride.

UF and other Florida publics are great choices. I wouldn’t get too hung up on prestige at the UG level. You are in a great position. That being said you still identify some schools you like and go for it.

11

Mt. Holyoke has a full tuition merit scholarship, but not full ride.

12

@TrendaLeigh How cool! I agree with @Eeyore123 that because your daughter has guaranteed affordable safeties, the other schools she applies to should be “reaches” that are generous with need-based aid. I think you can trust with the wealthiest schools that if your daughter is admitted, they will make it possible for her to attend. Chasing merit aid is a lot of work and is the preferred strategy of higher-income families who don’t qualify for need-based aid. Of course, for your daughter, it might be worthwhile to chase a full-ride scholarship or two if offered by schools she really likes. And I wouldn’t necessarily eliminate schools where financial aid might include modest loans. However, with a guaranteed full ride at a wide range of Florida schools, the wisest course of action might be to identify which of those colleges she likes the most and apply there and just a couple of others she loves that would be affordable. Applications are a drain on the soul and the pocketbook (I speak from experience; my own daughter applied to 16 colleges and really loved most of those…yet, like everyone else, she was able to attend only one!).

13

Lots of great suggestions - a quick follow-up question which will show how new we are to this. So at any of the private schools, if she qualifies for let’s say 40k need-based grants and 15k in EFC, would any merit aid reduce the needs-based grant, essentially leaving us with the same expected family contributions? I assume that’s the case - which means merit aid won’t help unless it’s very generous.

14

Exactly. And I saw this in practice: one twin was awarded a very competitive and generous merit scholarship at a college that I think doesn’t officially meet full need but which is trying very hard to achieve that level. The other twin was also admitted and was not in the running for the scholarship. Their total aid amounts were equivalent.

15

Yes, we were chasing merit last year and it replaces need – except possibly work/study (and, of course, federal loans that anyone can get). We were high EFC – $63k – and my D had three merit offers of about 1/2 tuition last year and all three also her offered work/study on top of the merit, and included loans as part of the aid package.

So if your D got, for example, $25k merit scholarship (roughly 1/2 tuition) + loans ($5500) + work/study ($7500 - if I’m remembering right) for a total aid package of $38k. If your EFC is less than $38k then a 100% need-based school would then also add need aid on top. So if your EFC is $15k they’d add another $23k in need aid.

If the college didn’t offer merit, your D would just get the 48k in need-based aid plus the loans and work/study. Unless it’s a no loan school in which case the need aid would be bumped by the $5500.

So basically, if you are low EFC there’s no advantage to merit unless it’s a free ride. Well, and some merit scholarships offer leadership development and special opps – but those are very very hard to get.

With your low EFC I agree with other about combining safeties and reaches that are need-blind/100%. Adding in the ‘no loan’ is also a benefit.

Sorry this got long…

16

At this stage, the best advice is to let your daughter relax & enjoy her time in high school. She is doing well academically & seems to be confident in a quiet, self assured manner based on your posts.

You are in great shape with respect to affording colleges whether Florida state schools or elite privates or out-of-state publics with merit scholarships.

The real decision, in my opinion, is whether she wants to pursue medical research or business/economics course of study. If your daughter remains unsure/undecided, then she is a perfect candidate for a liberal arts college (LAC) as exploration of subject areas is encouraged–as opposed to direct admit into a business school, for example, at a large university.

17

I apologize if you’ve already stated this above: will your daughter’s twin be in college at the same time?

18

She skipped a grade, so her brother is a year behind. He says he wants to take a year or two off, but he’s also working on getting most of his AA credits locally. I think New College would be a great fit for him if he can keep his grades up.

19

Rollins College in Winter Park FL comes to mind, if she wants to explore medicine, law and business.
Its got a very good science center,and very strong reading and writing/pre law,
and sends students to science REUs and many great summer experiences.
Rollins is likely to offer her a financial package as well.
Rollins is a small LAC with business focus, and night school,
and a beautiful campus on Lake Virginia, with Spanish architecture and devoted faculty.

20

Vanderbilt and Princeton do not require non-custodial info, of course both are very selective but Vandy likes test scores and hers are great. I would definately look into the 100% need met schools which she would most likely be in at least the 50% range for test scores and so wold be worth applying to. In the meantime, do some research about the non-custodial waiver and get your ducks in a row there as well…at least find out what his income is, communicate that you’ll need him to fill out paperwork, etc. I don’t think you are in that donut hole spot, your income would estimate low enough that it might “work” for you instead of against you. Good luck.