Daughter’s stats: Valedictorian, 4.8 weighted, 3.9 unweighted, lots of community service and awards. Computer science/mathematics major. Retook and received a 1430 SAT. Need full tuition scholarship to afford college. Need under 20k per year family contribution.
Is your daughter a senior? (I’m hoping not, as many of the deadlines for scholarships have passed.)
What state are you in? Would suggest starting at some of your state universities for affordable options.
What is your EFC? Will you be eligible for any needs based aid?
What does she want to study and what is she looking for in a school?
Go to FAFSA and do the EFC. Then each school’s website has a Net Price Calculator (NPC). Do the exercise and see how each school will help. It will vary. Also, these are ballpark figures, not exact. Based on her stats, she might be competitive for some very good private schools (they provide more aid than most publics). About 50 are need blind and meet 100% of demonstrated need which means :
- They don't consider need in the admissions process
- Based on their formula, they determine how much you can pay (through the CSS Profile- another system you'll need to access) and will fill in the rest with aid.
So for these schools, she doesn’t need to win a merit scholarship (VERY competitive and some don’t offer any merit), she just has to gain admission.
Of course, these are highly selective schools. I would also look into your state’s university system for economic safety purposes.
If she is a senior, you are really late to the game here.
You need to figure out a financial safety school quickly:
- What is your lowest cost in state campus and can you go there on your budget, perhaps with your daughter taking the 5500 freshman direct student loan.
- What is your best community college option. Can she go there and bank the difference between the CC cost and the 20K budget each year to afford junior and senior year.
You need to figure out if the financial aid formula thinks you can afford 20K or 50K
Run the college board EFC estimator (google it) and see. If the financial aid formulas come out close to your budget, run the net price calculators on her college list to see if they will come in at your budget. But, if the EFC estimator comes in really high, you won’t get need-based aid to come in close to your budget and you will need to focus on merit aid schools.
Deadlines for merit aid are flying by fast. You can find info here http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2006094-2017-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html
Spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum after reading through that link about automatic scholarships. It is likely that you will find a lot of good ideas there.
@collegeorbust1, if she is a senior, the next (maybe last) deadline for merit aid at a lot of schools is December 1. Please come back and respond so people can help maximize the options provided by her hard work so far.
What is her SAT breakdown?
Wanted to update everyone. My daughter retook SAT and scored 1500 and was accepted into an ivy. She turned it down for full tuition and had enough outside scholarships to cover room and board for a full ride at a state school (oos)