A safety is a school where your student will most certainly get in, can afford, and is willing to go. Am I understanding tht you are very low income thus have a near-zero EFC? That would really help with affordability! If not, then take a look at the links provided above for guaranteed full-rides, and the one in the admissions forum for guaranteed admissions. Those might give you some safety ideas. There’s a world of difference between the lottery schools and community college-especially for a top student.
Take a look at some of the southern state colleges. Some of them offer in-state rates for students with high stats, and some are pretty cheap compared to other colleges to begin with. But with her stats, your D has many, many options.
Also, do look into grants that do not need to be paid back, that are available for different majors. D’s choice of major will make this an option at her college, which means she had an extra pile of money to consider when she looked at her acceptances. Some colleges have their own grants, others are federally funded, and are not based on student income.
@blossom I agree about rural colleges. Mine was in the middle of nowhere, but very large. Few of us had cars, but there was always something going on on campus, usually free. It wasn’t expected that ANYONE would be going off campus to spend on this or that. Even the wealthier kids stayed around because there was so much to do.
@ClaremontMom, we cross-posted. The stats hadn’t been posted when I belatedly pressed post comment.
@fidoprincess, I beg of you, look at the Ivies and their peers, such as Stanford and Duke. Also look at the elite LACs with particularly good FA, such as Bowdoin, Pomona, and Swarthmore. Don’t make the assumption that the UCs are going to be cheaper!
Given your D’s SATs, forget what I said about trying to get the best possible scores: she already has them!
I don’t see why you say your D has no chance of getting in to Stanford. She seems like a perfectly reasonable candidate to me, although of course the acceptance rate is very low.
My S was unwilling to apply to anything that would be considered a slam-dunk safety. His “safety” was U Rochester, from which he got the least money of any school he applied to. Sometimes high stats kids for whom all of the “matches” are “reaches for almost everyone” have to play without a net, especially if they need really significant FA.
Our high schools never ranked. Had they ranked, I always knew one of mine would have been at the top or very very near the top. I never even considered that in a ranking high school some people would be gaming the system to hold on to a ranking. It makes sense, just like ranked sports, there can be a way to play certain events to help keep yourself at the top. For years it always grated on me that my student wasn’t getting that cool ranking that others got to put on their app, but I am now grateful that my daughter took all the classes that challenged her because she wanted to, and still rocked it. Thank you for enlightening me, CC.
Not “safeties”, but there are schools where your D would be competitive for significant - even full-ride plus - scholarships. I am only basing this on personal experience, so of course YMMV, but there are many lesser-known schools that would invite a student with your D’s stats to compete for significant scholarships. Centre in Kentucky and Valparaiso in Indiana are two we have experience with.
Please understand that if you have to make what you see as compromises now - taking a school in the South, or one you see as having lesser name recognition - the long term goal is providing an education. I chose a school many would barely consider a safety - but they offered me full tuition and I could commute while still living with my mother… And I’ve had a great professional life with the foundation that school provided me (I always contribute to their scholarship drives because I know I wouldn’t be where I am if they hadn’t offered me full tuition within commuting distance). I wasn’t able to live on campus, and I had to work off-campus (early morning shifts before classes), but it put me in a position where my children are able to have more than I ever did. That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?
Use the Supermatch tool with the filter for schools where your D would be above average. And don’t focus on name recognition. Your D sounds like motivated student who will succeed no matter where she attends. A basic college education along with drive and motivation will carry students a long ways…
At HYP outside scholarships can reduce the student contribution to $0. All 3 apply outside scholarships to work study and then to summer savings requirements before reducing school grants. This can result in a bill lower than the family’s EFC.
@fidoprincess My daughter was in the bottom half of the top 10 her year because she did not game the system by taking APs as electives. She took classes she liked as electives. She got into every school she applied to including two Ivies. The Val the year before her and the Val the year after her were both rejected from the college she attends.
We were/are in a similar position of looking for colleges that “meet 100% need” in order to give the kids the ability to go away to college. You can google colleges that meet 100% need. You can also search for schools that meet need without loans. Some examples of schools outside of the Ivy League that don’t package loans include Colby with a 28% admit rate or Davidson with a 22% admit rate. There are a few more.
We had a mix of both with and without loans schools on my kids’ lists. You may want to also search how each college handles outside scholarships. My son has already been admitted to one meets need (with loans) school that will allow outside scholarships to replace loans first. So $5500 in scholarships per year will help him a lot.
It looks from previous post #76 that the OP has (FAFSA) EFC significantly higher than zero, but either
a. cannot afford to contribute that much, or
b. wants to avoid the student having to have a student (loan and/or work) contribution ($8,000-10,000 at UCs and probably many others, $4,000-5,000 at some of the super-financial-aid schools).
Ah, I was thrown off by OP saying that even a full-tuition scholarship wouldn’t be enough, that only a full ride would make living on campus possible. That led me to think low income.
The OP will have to afford her EFC at a school that meets full need. Not sure what her EFC is and if she can afford it. I It is also true that schools may add loans as part of the package- this may not be bad but it will likely happen. I would make two lists of schools- one with schools offering large merit awards, and one that meets full financial need. Choose schools from both lists and cast a wide net.
The original poster’s first posts are a perfect example of why high schools are getting rid of ranking. High school education should not be determined by concerns about GPA to this extent, though I understand the financial concern.
The irony is that sometimes it is the arts and other areas of study that aren’t offered in AP’s, that help kids find new direction and even help kids get into the right schools for them, whether elite or not. And also bring scholarships. And they can make high school life so much more engaging.
All in all, the original poster’s child will do well in admissions, but the motivation during high school for attaining #1 is a false motivator, and she will have to transition to more authentic motivators once in college.
Sounds like a great kid all in all.
There are many strategies for finding affordable schools, and scholarships, and wishing you good luck!
I disagree that wanting to be #1 is a false motivator. It does not mean being less engaged in school. One of my kids happened to set his sights on being #1. Did he strategize and plan? Yes. He decided to take some AP classes online in the evenings so he could offset his orchestra, chorus and drama classes. He competed in flute and Model UN and participated in student government. He was far more involved in HS than my older kids. Self-motivated. Was #1 for 2 years before transferring to a HS that does not rank. Still just as involved in flute! Model UN, student government, and motivated to take challenging classes.
Personally just watching him exhausts me, I don’t know how he does it. Just wanted to show there is another side to kids that want to be #1. Sometimes it’s internally driven, in my family possibly because he’s the youngest
Sadly, wanting to be #1 has become the only motivator for many companies. It has become a fact of life for many US companies and the short term gain is all they are looking for. Striving to be #1 (and often times the lack of ethics to get there) seems to be the only goal for many. Many companies like to hire athletes because of there focus on team and desire to win.
…If I dare say “Winning!”
This is the world of work these kids are graduating into.
Agreeing with NYMomof2. Vassar is need-blind, guarantees to meet full need, and is the most socio-economically diverse of the academically competitive colleges. Wes and Swat are also good options.
Who said they are less engaged? Plenty of #1 (or any top student) are engaged in many activities. The problem is in thinking that one must be #1 in HS in order to gain admission or win scholarships.
I’d say being #1 then wasn’t the sole motivator, if that was the only motivation then he would have stopped at a HS where they didn’t rank. Sounds like a kid who’s just self motivated to be involved and be the best he can be!
intparent, “My kids went to a high school with no ranking & no weighting, only a few AP” - yes, this was my D’s HS. Apparently, this facts are irrelevant for colleges. We were curious about these and the other negative fact was that it was not possible to make a top 2% in D’s HS class of 33. The top student was making only top 3%. So, we asked these questions at some adcom information sessions. The adcoms said that they are aware of this, they strip the weighted GPA to unweighted for everybody and recalculate it themselves. They also determine the applicant rank based on student GPA and HS profile that HSs have to provide. Few APs did not hurt either. The funny thing was that D. never had a goal of being #1, she was new to the school, most of her classmates were there in k-8, since it was small private k-12. Her goal has always been to do her best in everything, even the classes that she did not like and did not understand easily, she simply worked much harder in these hard for her classes. Since school did not rank, we did not know about D’s ranking until graduation ceremony when she got 2 parents awards - for the highest GPA overall and the highest GPA in senior class. Then, when I checked the class profile, there was only one student with GPA 4.0 uw. I guess, nobody else had straight As. Our experiences during HS and college application cycle and later medical school application cycle were very relaxing and enjoyable. I feel sorry for all who experience turmoils, but I think a lot of it the families are bringing on themselves. I never understood why to have such a stressful approach to various aspects of life and more so to the wonderful years of HS, college application, etc…Just relax, enjoy the show!
I loved Vassar when DS and I visited, and I would have been happy if he’d just applied there ED. His chances would have been nearly 100%, because his scores and grades were high for them and the acceptance rate for boys is twice that for girls. OP, your daughter would be a shoo-in at Vassar. The academics are great, and they have an excellent track record of producing science PhDs (even if your daughter is not interested, it’s a good measure of academic rigor). It’s a beautiful campus in an outlying area of Poughkeepsie, with easy (nearby train station, probably ~1 hour train ride to Grand Central) access to NYC. Quite a few students do internships there. It has a genteel feel; I would have loved it for DS, who has a “soft” personality.
My school is usually ranked in the top 100 nationally because students tend to work ridiculously hard with hopes of getting into an Ivy or the likes. Nearly 50% of the school takes an AP exam each year, and our chapter of NHS is extremely selective. Consequentially, making the top 10 is a rat race to the extent that students with averages over 100% still do not make it.
Last year, we got a new principal from a more touchy-feely background than our community dictates, and he decided to make several changes to our long-established system. For one thing, he decided that no one besides the top 2 could know their class rank because it “was making people feel bad.” People were FURIOUS. Those of us who had trudged through more than 10-15 honors and AP courses were suddenly being told that we could not be recognized for our labor. More importantly, we were scared beyond belief that no one would be able to get scholarships without that number.
Then, one genius had a brilliant idea. Another one of the changes this new principal made was to move funding from STEM to sports (which will totally keep this school as reputable as before), and said genius was a cheerleader. She realized that she would have a lot of power over this new administrator and decided to use it to get her way. Soon enough, she was told her class rank, and anyone else who wants to know for scholarships may now get it.
That being said, I would recommend taking the same strategy by asking them to keep ranking, but keep the numbers private. That way, your D would still be able to get the money.
“I disagree that wanting to be #1 is a false motivator.”
For some kids, it is fine. I just hate to see students give up great courses in order to chase that number one spot.
1, 2, and 3 are very often separated by only thousandths. OP’s daughter still has three semesters of grades to come in. I wish her all the best, but it is by no means a done deal for her.
