New to the forum, and boy do I have questions.

Parents Forum
1

<p>My son is a HS senior and we are just into the college process...and I am completely overwhelmed. I guess I'll give you all some background and we'll just start the conversation...</p>

<p>My son will graduate in the Top 25% of his class with a GPA around 3.3 unweighted, 4.1 weighted. His classes are dominated by AP & Honors classes (incl 5 yrs of language (Spanish)). His extracurriculars include 3 years of soccer and 4 years of music leadership in marching, concert and jazz bands (plus some miscellaneous volunteer time in a local food bank & in the school's Link crew).</p>

<p>His ACT was 33. His SAT Subject Matter Tests (SAT II) scores were 700 (English), 730 (Math) & 740 (History). His SAT scores were in the hugh 600s. He's retaking in Ovtober. At this point, we'll simply submit the ACT.</p>

<p>He is undecided for a major, but possibly Computer Science (major) and music (minor).</p>

<p>He may tryout as a keeper for Men's Soccer wherever he goes.</p>

<p>He has a brother & sister, both HS freshman - thus making one year of college when we'll have three in concurrently (Yippee...)</p>

<p>As to college, we can afford to commit about 15K per year to his college expenses (approx equal to in-state fees). I think that he would like to go to a smaller private school a bit further away from home.</p>

<p>We've been on one college trip (5 schools in 5 days - Lawrence, Beloit, Knox, Univ of Illinois and DePaul).</p>

<p>We've decided to take the following approach to college: he'll apply to a fairly large number of schools across the reach/target/safe spectrum. We'll see where he's accepted, who offers the most aid THEN make some final visits and select.</p>

<p>My initial questions are:</p>

<p>Considering his background above, do you think this is the best approach to finding the right school?</p>

<p>How do we know where to apply (can't visit all due to cost)?
Note: Sorry for the length of this, but this is the very broad, no-cuts-made list so far: University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Eckerd College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Ohio Wesleyan University, College of Wooster, Syracuse University, University of Puget Sound, Boston University, Skidmore College, Beloit College, Lawrence University, Clark University, Hampshire College, Dickinson College, Southwestern University, Northeastern University, Earlham College, Rhodes College, St. Olaf College, Denison University, Case Western, Macalester College, University of Texas, Pitzer College, Bowdoin College, Middlebury College, USC, Oberlin College, Rice University, Bennington College, Clarkson University, DePaul University, Knox College, Marist College, University of Tulsa & Wabash College)</p>

<p>What should we know that we don't know now?</p>

<p>Thank you all ahead of time for all of your help.</p>

2

<p>You do not indicate if you qualify for financial aid/need …that’s a big factor in how folks can help you. It will also impact what schools folks will suggest.</p>

<p>If you don’t understand this … most schools give two types of assistance. Financial need/aid is based on your family’s financial situation. You can fill out a calculator on line …at FAFSA.gov to get a sense of your EFC, estimated financial contribution. You need to know this to start with. </p>

<p>If your EFC is more than the cost of the school, you will not get financial aid/need. Your son may get an award of a merit scholarship … obviously these are based on merit for grades, sports, etc. So, then you need to tailor your search to schools where your son is in the top 25% of applicants to get merit consideration. </p>

<p>Keep in mind, that most of the deadlines for merit are for the first deadline for admission, often November 1. </p>

<p>Also - branch out from the parents’ forum, and look in some of the other threads. There are some very helpful sections that it took me awhile to find. </p>

<p>In general, most state schools do not offer a lot of merit. In general. </p>

<p>It’s also important to know if the school meets 100% of financial need, some do some don’t. Also - if the school is need blind. That means the school does not pay attention to the students who need aid or not - they accept the best applicants, without consideration for financial aid. </p>

<p>So - as an example, if KU is out of state for you, I’m guessing that full out of state costs would be about $40K. If your EFC is $20K, that means KU would possibly give you aid for $20K and you have to come up with the other $20. KU offers some merit, but not a lot, and not to a lot of students. You can find this on their website.</p>

<p>That’s how you start the search. Determine your EFC. Then determine if the school meets 100% of need. Estimate if you can afford the rest of the cost. If you can’t - cross off the school, unless you want to take out some loans.</p>

<p>If your EFC is more than the cost of the school, you then need to focus on merit scholarships, where your son is in the top pool of candidates at that school. I would say that his test scores look pretty good, but his unweighted GPA is low for the top merit scholarships at the top schools. My opinion only. (For example Rice) </p>

<p>MomFromTexas has a very good thread about how she found merit scholarships for her sons, at different tiered schools. Search for “momfromtexas” and look for that string. Or one of the veterans will post a link for you.</p>

<p>You have to send test scores, SAT II scores, letters, etc to all of your schools. If you do not qualify for a waiver on admission …then each school can cost you between $100 and 200. So I would suggest using this method first to narrow your list and make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck on the application process.</p>

3

<p>I would definitely apply to one or two of your in state safeties, apply for any merit, or honors scholarships that might be available.</p>

<p>Then focus on out-of-state schools that you can afford based on your EFC, or schools that put your son in the top 25% of the pool to try to qualify for merit. There are lots of strings about different schools, go to the alphabetical list of schools and read through the strings. If you go the to bottom of a discussion page - you can click and read through much older strings which can also be helpful.</p>

<p>I hope this gets you started …good luck!</p>

4

<p>Gulp! I’d start by grouping your list of colleges, either as </p>

<p>reach–just right–safe
or as large–med–small
or as financial reach–just right–safe (where you assume in state public is the safety)</p>

<p>Since finances seem to be a big factor you’ll want to consider, go to that thread (FA) for ideas. Also explore local merit aides possibilities.</p>

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<p>look for schools where his stats would get him merit aid…with a 33 act, son got full tuition at ua, auburn, pitt, utdallas, and tuition and room at uab. he got very good merit at rhodes, ursinus,tulane and urochester and indiana. figure out what your efc is and then what you can afford to actually pay (as the schools determination of your efc may be very different than the reality). if you look for merit aid schools, apply EARLY, preferably to rolling admission schools with guaranteed merit based on stats alone.</p>

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<p>Good advise above on determining EFC. Then you’ll know if you are more chasing need based FA or merit $.</p>

<p>“At this point, we’ll simply submit the ACT.” - Yes, 33 is a great score. If he did not take the Writing section (which was not part of our state mandated ACT), check whether any of the colleges require it. Most colleges seem to take ACT or SAT, but some require the ACT to include Writing.</p>

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<p>Whoa, that’s a giant list. You have to move hastily to pare that down. </p>

<p>1) I suggest you start by making a spreadsheet listing all the potential colleges. Then go to some of the online sites where they have data (collegesearch.collegeboard. is a good place to start). Find out what the 50% range for ACT scores and put them in your spreadsheet - eg. Marist is 23-28, along with number of undergrads (Marist 5530), and any other data you deem useful (distance, tuition, whether they have appropriate majors, etc). Some of these on the list are neither small, private, nor far. Safeties, maybe?</p>

<p>2) Have you completed an online estimation of your EFC? Don’t have a link, but if you google EFC estimator, you will find some. You may be thinking 15K, but FAFSA may have other ideas. </p>

<p>3) Suggest that if you eliminate schools from the list, you might want to leave them in the spreadsheet for now and note WHY they were eliminated (size, ugly campus, etc.) so you don’t end up re-examining them for no reason (happened to us). </p>

<p>4) People here are going to start making all kinds of suggestions. In our case we added these to the spreadsheet with notes on why they were eliminated if necessary. CC posters will help narrow this list down, but we found the spreadsheet essential in keeping track of all the data points.</p>

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<p>You can also google “common data set” “name of school” 2009, 2010 won’t be posted yet. These sets can give you a good idea of how strong of applicant your son is compared to others admitted … by GPA and test scores. A very useful tool, especially when trying to determine if your son might be a strong merit scholarship candidate.</p>

9

<p>The FAFSA 4caster said what I expected: we’d qualify of 9K in aid. If you add that to the 15K we can contribute ourselves, that means that we can easily afford state school (KS) but will need additional help (approx 16K, based on a 40K school) from the schools themselves.</p>

10

<p>Besides financial aid, your son will probably have a preference for an urban or rural campus, size of student body, etc. My daughter had no idea what she would prefer and we could not afford to visit the schools she was applying to, so we visited some closer schools (which she was not applying to) to get a feel for different sizes and locations of schools. She immediately realized she definitely did not want to go to a school with a student body below a certain size and she preferred a location that was in or at least had access to a city. We were able to eliminate a lot of schools with this information.</p>

11

<p>Read this thread. There is a link to the original thread as well.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It sounds like you are looking for full tuition or 1/2 tuition to out of state private schools. Maybe even state schools. I found private schools to be more generous with merit aid. If you can get 1/2 tuition, your $9K in aid, and your contribution you could make it. I do not know if merit reduces your need for aid - someone needs to answer that who knows - or call or email schools to find out. </p>

<p>If you can get full tuition - you could also afford room/board with your contribution and not need aid. </p>

<p>Again - read through my post above and start with some of those ideas. Read CC, find posts, read the momfromtexas post, read the individual school threads as there is scholarship info in there as well. Use the common data sets to find where your son will be in the top tier of students.</p>

<p>one other idea … some schools superscore the ACT and SAT. This means that they take the highest score from each setting, and combine them for one superscore. Wash U and University of Denver both use this method for ACT and SAT for merit scholarships. If your son thinks he can move up his ACT with another test or two - and superscore to a perfect 36 or 35 …that will move him up for merit at schools that superscore.</p>

<p>Hope that helps. I will tell you that we used the momfromtexas strategy with great success. You can PM me for more info.</p>

12

<p>I think you listed 38 schools. Others have suggested ways to pare this down. Basic decisions like city or not, size, strength of computer department, opportunity to play soccer, and other factors should help a lot with this, as well as the very crucial financial questions. </p>

<p>Visiting can be the only way to really get a vibe. The poster who suggested at least visiting nearby schools that fit certain categories had a really good idea: visit a large school, a small school, city, rural, suburban, conventional versus alternative, etc.</p>

<p>Starting in the fall of senior year, you and your son will be completely overwhelmed, I would think, with this kind of list. Make some cuts now, and then after further investigations, cut some more. A reasonable list would be 6-12 schools, perhaps. Applications themselves are expensive: our family does 5-6 max!</p>

13

<p>One more thought. Almost all schools accept either SAT or ACT …I just reread that part …</p>

<p>“His ACT was 33. His SAT Subject Matter Tests (SAT II) scores were 700 (English), 730 (Math) & 740 (History). His SAT scores were in the high 600s. He’s retaking in October. At this point, we’ll simply submit the ACT.”</p>

<p>You might consider retaking the ACT instead. He scored better on it - some kids naturally score better on one than the other. Shoot for a 34 or 35 …and or a superscore that is higher on the ACT to use at schools that superscore the ACT. Seems like that might be a better investment of time than a second sitting on the SAT. As you said, you can just submit the ACT. 34 is a great score, and 35 or 36 is better!</p>

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<p><a href=“How%20can%20the%20FAFSA%20forecaster%20say%20a%20student%20is%20likely%20to%20get%20$9000?%20Is%20this%20whether%20his%20tuition%20is%20$33000%20or%20$22000?%20I%20don’t%20get%20it.%20Or%20is%20it%20that%20he%20could%20receive%20$9k%20in%20need%20based%20aid%20at%20a%20school%20with%20a%20COA%20of%20$40K%20because%20your%20EFC%20is%20$31K?”>i</a>*</p>

<p>I agree - the ACT is more his cup of tea - if he is up for another standardized test, redo the ACT and try for a 34 or 35.</p>

<p>I may be wrong, but I don’t think Macalester is going to be affordable.</p>

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<p>“The FAFSA 4caster said what I expected: we’d qualify of 9K in aid” - That does not sound quite right. I think caculators usually define EFC (expected family contribution). Then the school does what it can to fill the gap - some 100%, w/o loans…others much less. In other words, I don’t think you’d know how much aid (maximum, estimated) without knowing the cost of the school. </p>

<p>I’m not sure I explained that right. But I bet the links above will help.</p>

16

<p>One angle for admission and aid that no one seems to have touched on yet is:
“He may tryout as a keeper for Men’s Soccer wherever he goes.”</p>

<p>Is he good enough to be a D3 player? (his coach, or others in your area should be able to give you some idea) D3 schools do not give athletic scholarships. But…they can give merit scholarships to qualified students…who may have soccer as a hook.</p>

<p>You will need to do some additional research…and you’ll need to do it quickly. Look at the mens soccer roster for all of the D3 schools on your list. See how many have senior starting goalies (you’ll need to look at recent game stats to figure out who is the starting goalie.) Also…see if the other keepers are juniors or sophomores. These are schools that may be looking for a freshman goalie.</p>

<p>It’s a real long shot…and…you’ll need to check out the athletic recruiting threads for better advice on how to contact coaches and get noticed…but could be another angle to pursue.</p>

<p>(Just quickly checked Rhodes…as an example. They have 1 senior GK and 2 sophomores. So…they could be looking. They have info. on soccer recruiting on their website, and mention some tournaments they’ll be attending to look at players. Page on recruiting also mentions that ACT mean for the freshman class is 28…so your sons 33 looks really great!)</p>

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<p>OP - There are some really good suggestions in prior posts. (My favorite is the Goal Keeper angle!)</p>

<p>Every student is different. Would a kid from NYC feel comfortable at a school in KS? Would an engineering-oriented kid be happy at Macalester? Performing arts major at MIT? And so it will be with your student. Since you can’t visit a lot schools, you probably need to have a couple of safties … will Kansas and K.State do? Beyond that you may need to pare down the list to “vistable” schools. Casting a wide net sounds like a good idea … but what if he gets into half the schools from the current list of thirty-seven? Like several prior posters, I think financials are a good starting point for paring the list. Good luck!</p>

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<p>We applied to several schools that we had not visited. If you are accepted with the right need/merit package, you can visit next spring. We only applied though to places where son would qualify with strong merit.</p>

<p>You might consider Colorado State …they give 1/2 tuition for good merit, that would put you in the $22K range. With your contribution and financial aid - that would get you there - if your son is set out of state. Have to investigate the soccer program to see if that’s a possibility. Also, Honors is another $1K a year.</p>

19

<p>My daughter also took the approach of applying to a lot of schools to see where she would get in and get good aid (she needed full financial aid and applied to 14 schools). Depending on how involved the applications are, it will be very difficult for your son to apply to too many schools. With all the different applications and supplements, plus the financial aid applications and deadlines, my daughter struggled to keep up with her grades and activities. Although she got application fee waivers for all but one school, we still had to pay to send test scores, etc. After narrowing down her list to schools likely to give her good aid, she cut it down further based on her preferences of majors offered, sports and other activities offered, school size, area of the country (many places she was willing to go, but a few where she didn’t want to be), proximity to a city, etc. Not all the schools on her list exactly matched all her specifications, but all had at least some of the more important ones.</p>

20

<p>Have you checked the Princeton Review website? It covers a vast number of colleges and enables you to input preferences (school size, urban/suburban, distance from home, religious affiliation, sports, ACT/SAT, grades, etc) and then provides a nice list of matching colleges. I highly recommend it.</p>

<p>As far as merit aid goes, I can provide a couple of personal examples although there must be a comprehensive list on the internet. I’m guessing you live in Illinois based on the colleges you’ve already visited. You might consider St Louis University, a fine Jesuit school that offers considerable merit aid based on a formula combining ACT/SAT and GPA. My older daughter got a nice offer from SLU but was fortunate enough to get into Holy Cross and ultimately had a fabulous four years there. The second school I’ll suggest is where my second duaghter just started: Tulane offers big money for merit aid–very big money and, of course, it’s a terrific school. So–good luck on your search.</p>