Thanks! I wasn’t aware that each school provided this. Wonder if going to the school is more accurate or if they tend to “fudge” numbers?
Use the one from the school’s financial aid web site for the best results. Some do use a custom version of the College Board template, but each school’s version could give different results based on the school’s financial aid policies. However, you can save your inputs to make it easier to run several schools’ College Board based net price calculators.
Texas Tech & Florida International are large schools where your son would probably get scholarships & out-of-state tuition waivers which would cover all tuition. So you’d come in well under your $20,000 limit. Both have at least minors in actuarial science and/or stats (sometimes you have to dig into the web sites a bit to find these programs). If he’s open to majoring in accounting he will greatly expand the number of possible schools.
https://admissions.fiu.edu/cost-and-aid/scholarships/index.html (looks like your son would get the Presidential Premier scholarship covering tuition, fees, & books)
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/scholarships/FreshmanPresidentialLevels.php. (your son would likely get his out of state tuition waived & a scholarship covering most of the in-state tuition)
You can reduce expenses by:
maximizing the credits he gets for AP exams
taking some community college classes
while still in high school
having him get a Residential Assistant position after his first year.
These positions aren’t guaranteed and shouldn’t be counted on to reduce costs.
Nobody said the RA gig was guaranteed. He’s looking for ways to whittle the sticker prices down to what he can afford. There are several of ways to put a dent in the tuition (merit scholarships, out-of-state tuition waivers, need aid, take fewer classes due to AP credit or college classes taken while in high school,etc); but few things will affect the housing cost as much as being an R.A.
Yes. Thanks. I need this info and I hadn’t thought of the RA route.
Iowa and Drake in Iowa are know for actuarial science. Bryant too, but that’s a hike from Oregon.
Some of the WUE schools do not stack merit scholarships with WUE. At Wyoming, for example, it is better to take the Rocky Mtn Scholarship which is the same amount as the WUE (150% of instate tuition) but each has different rules.
Based on the suggestions here, I dig some digging on WUE and it seems that some schools use the program primarily to draw students into unpopular majors. I am still just beginning to sift through the info. This is certainly daunting. Thanks to all who have taken time to chime in.
Should not be a surprise that WUE is used to fill seats at less popular campuses and majors that cannot fill them with in-state students (even at in-state price) or out-of-state students paying out-of-state list price.
No. You are right. I guess I am just starting to understand some of these systems. Appreciate the help from you and all.
OK. I am in need of some College Confidential therapy, a stiff drink or intensive yoga… after running some financial aid estimators and looking at college cost calculators we are in a much more challenging position than I anticipated. First, I am seriously doubting that schools that use the CSS profile will be affordable. I don’t know how precisely home equity is counted in the formulas, but we have quite a bit. We bought a short sale house before the 2nd boom in an area around Portland, OR that has seen meteoric price increases over the last 5-10 years. On paper we have 400k plus in home equity (although to move across town would negate all of that as all home prices in the area have gone crazy). Also we saved a small amount over the last 20 years in a non retirement basic, taxable index mutual fund that now has about 50,000 dollars in it. According to some info. on the web this combined with our income will push our EFC to over 40,000 a year! Considering our top # was 20,000 per year, I think we are going into a much more limited list of options for our 2 kids than I had thought.
Being realistic, we are likely going to need to look at schools that we can get to 20k range based entirely on merit aid and I know that shrinks the list considerably. We could also look at 2 years at Community College or a dual enrollment but from what I know about state schools in Oregon they will take away the merit aid if he chooses a community college dual enrollment. I think this would disappoint our son as he has really done a nice job working very hard on his grades and AP classes and tests but I also know this is life for many families.
Is there a way to find information about schools that traditionally offer significant merit aid? Like I said earlier, I attended a “big name,” Ivy university and do not see the value unless a student is absolutely certain about his/her path.
Sending virtual drink, relaxing yoga and positive thoughts. It’s great that you are on this early. Read through the many threads (recent only, as things change quickly) on schools that offer significant merit aid, it’s a little tricky without ACT/SAT scores but will be a good start. U Arizona, ASU, Pitt, Miami of Ohio, U Alabama and some of the others mentioned upthread could be in the mix, and their merit requirements will give your son a sense of the ACT/SAT score he needs for each school, ACT 32+ is a typical starting point.
Upthread you mention he’s a sporty kid, but maybe not destined to play in college-----not sure if that is by choice or talent, but if the talent is there maybe reconsider and cast a wide recruiting net? By that I mean, a range of divisions, eg., D1/D2/D3 schools. Look at light D1 schools like Patriot league, also some D2 schools offer substantial athletic scholarships for non-star athletes. No athletic scholarships at D3, but many schools will give good merit aid to recruited athletes, again, lots of threads on that.
You can click-sort on the columns in Kiplinger’s that refer to merit awards (percentage of students who get them, and avg. amounts).
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts
Also see:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
For more up-to-date numbers, go to section H2A in each school’s Common Data Set.
Also refer to any college web pages that discuss amounts and criteria.
And don’t overlook in-state public colleges. Their net prices may be lower than what you’d pay for private schools even after fairly large merit grants.
Thanks to you both. Really interesting looking at the Kiplinger data. Isn’t “Average debt at graduation” mostly an indication of the relative wealth of the student’s family more than institutional practices? And “salary yardstick” shows us that a huge % of Princeton grads go directly into finance I would think.
Regardless, this is quite interesting and I appreciate you both responding,
That average apparently is the number shown in the Common Data Set, section H5a, column 3.
My understanding is that it is only calculated for students who have debt, not for all students.
So it shouldn’t be inflated by the wealth of students who never borrow at all.
I suppose it’s possible that, even among FA recipients (or borrowers more generally), Princeton students tend to be less needy than students at many other colleges. Note that of the 25 research universities with the lowest average debt at graduation, almost all claim to cover 100% of demonstrated need; I believe many of them do not (as a matter of policy) include loans in their FA packages. However, if you were intent on attending Princeton despite a very big gap between your budget and your Princeton-defined EFC, then yes, you might have to resort to big loans.
Thought I would include an update. SAT score (Junior fall) was 1380. Not what he was hoping for (although still pretty decent by my thinking). Not sure if that limits, helps or doesn’t impact potential merit aid. Thanks to you all for taking time to post.
Truman State has a BA/BS in Statistics (not as common as you might think), and a 4.0 GPA + 1380 SAT already gets direct costs of tuition/fees + room&board down to 16K (about $8K cheaper than Oregon/Oregon State). Adding in books, travel and incidentals would make 20K pretty tight, but maybe doable? Truman is a public LAC in Missouri, and it is a great bargain for very good students who have stats like your son’s.
For future reference, is $20K the total cost of attendance that you can afford, or is that tuition + room/board, or something else?
Thank you. I think our 20k number is everything “school.” So this would not include a ticket home during winter break but would cover all tuition, fees, room and board…
Thanks moooop! I think I would need to work on my son before he thought about 4 years in Lincoln! In his mind it is is just frigid. (Personally I had a great visit to Lincoln and found the place pretty interesting!)