Definitely! As I said earlier, I have run the NPC, and unless I happen to get a full-ride competitive merit scholarship, I will most likely get the same end #, regardless of the school (+/- maybe 5k at most). Most I have seen have us covering a bit more than R&B, so the only exception to this tuition range is if I commuted (since no R&B payments). @Midwestmomofboys
I don’t have any family that could help me, but I will try to talk to my GC about this in the fall. While I’m not sure how accessible he is, it’s still worth a shot. @suzy100
Haha, how I wish I could just sabotage the applications I don’t care about! I am a very innocent kid though, and I would totally confess from guilt to my parents before decisions even came out. 
@BuckeyeMWDSG @doschicos
Remember, reaches schools have very low admission rate no matter how generous their financial aid is. Most applicants would have similar stat like you. Don’t even dream if you “happened to get into all” of your schools. That is the main reason to cast a wider net for other financially feasible schools with decent to great admission chance. Unless you apply ED, the final decision should be made after you got all the admission notice and financial package. You will have to balance between the cost and your preference.
@writergirl0316 Could you perhaps research alternative safeties that would cost the same as the two you don’t like and present that information to your parents?
Alternately, could you identify at least one safety that you like that has rolling admission or nonbinding early action? If you got into that and it were affordable and you were willing to attend, then there would be no more reason for more safeties, right?
My D applied to 9 schools - two safeties, two low matches, four matches/low reaches, and one reach. She got into all of them and got merit at all but the reach. Had we to do it over again, I’d suggest cutting one or two of the lower matches. But she also needed merit scholarships, so she played it safer.
Also, if you could post a list of the schools you are considering, people here would be able to help you to refine it. 15-20 is a lot of work.
I agree with you completely. I just said the “happened to get into all” hypothetical because that’s essentially what you’re doing with NPC… “if I did get into this school, this is how much I would pay.” I’m sorry if I implied otherwise. @billcsho
My safeties all have competitive full-ride options, but no rolling admissions. I have seen a few rolling options, but no conceivable choices would give that same amount of money (especially since my parents strongly prefer me to stay in the NE, where merit at all is tough). They would still want me to apply to the competitive full-ride scholarships at their schools, so it wouldn’t change much. I don’t think posting a list would be helpful right now because my parents haven’t been receptive to me offering to remove any school from my list, so I’m more trying to gain the ability to refine it at all. @mamaedefamilia
Save the 2-3 safeties that you don’t want to apply to do last. If those application deadlines are Jan 1 or even Jan 15, you may have been accepted to another school by then. And really, does your commuter school require essays? Do your state publics have long essays?
But you really need to cut YOUR list of 20 in half. Managing that many applications is a full time job. School A changes your FAFSA, that’s a mistake and you have to ‘unchange’ the information with 19 other schools. A school asks for a clarification and your guidance counselor has to make sure the information is correct with all schools. Interviews with 20 schools, thank you notes or email…
I think 20 is too much but I’m in the camp of thinking 15 is fine, even if they all have supplements, which it is doubtful yours will all have. Sure it’ll take work but it is doable.
Note that also you have space out the applications. For merit aid consideration, some schools request early application (by EA or another priority deadline). In my D2’s situation, she is applying EA to her top choice school which is a match to low match and a reach school with priority deadline before the result of the first EA school. The rest are RD with different deadlines. After you find out the decisions from EA, you probably don’t need to apply to all of the remaining schools (particularly safeties) in RD.
Yes, my commuter school requires two 500-word essays for merit money & does not use the Common App. I believe my state publics have an honors supplement but I am not quite positive. I am trying to take baby steps and first get my list down to fifteen. @twoinanddone
(Baby steps because my parents don’t want me to remove any particular school from my list, so even getting it down to 15 is tough.)
I think ~10 of my colleges require supplements, and I am already done with two applications & almost finished with my SCEA school. I don’t think it will be possible to cut my list in half with definite applications to six safeties & four or five Ivies…
I have one SCEA school & one EA safety, but the EA’s merit decision doesn’t come out until March (and it is one of the schools I do not wish to apply to). @billcsho
You asked what you can do in these circumstances – your parents (like many of us were our first time through this) are operating under the “old” rules of college admission. And it’s hard to accept that our kids can be more “expert” than us, especially when they haven’t done this either.
To make your point about admissions//safeties etc – consider putting together a chart or even just printing out key data, for your current list of 15-20 schools. Use the Common Data Set to pull details about the acceptance rate (ie. 94% of students who apply to Harvard are rejected), find data/anecdotes about how many vals and 35-36 ACT students are rejected by top 20 schools. Educate them about how difficult, and unpredictable it is for a high stat kid who is not a movie star, child of president, recruited high profile athlete in a major sport or Mark Zuckerberg’s kid. Use Common Data Set to show which schools care about demonstrated interest (most Ivies do not) and which other top 20 universities do, so you can be efficient with visits etc. Perhaps show them some of the threads on this board from April, where some high stat kids always, unfortunately come back and say they didn’t get in anywhere, as their “safety” was Vanderbilt, NYI or being an OOS applicant at Michigan and they didn’t get in or can’t afford it.
Then, sit down to craft a workable list, building from the bottom up, with safeties, matches and only then, reaches.
Think about schools like Wake Forest, which has a very competitive full ride merit award program, with weekend interview program. Match schools might include Emory, Tulane, BU, BC. Find the common characteristics among your reach schools, and concentrate your focus – if you loved Columbia, then Chicago, Swarthmore and Reed (all still reaches, other than Reed) might be similar schools to include. Or if you loved Dartmouth, then Bowdoin, St Lawrence, might be others to include on the list. If you loved Princeton, then perhaps Wake Forest, University of Richmond, would have overlapping qualities.
If you can enlist your school’s guidance counselor to meet with you and your parents, depending on your school, that might help. Your parents share the goal of you having good choices come spring. The task now is to get on the same page so that you can work together. Good luck.
Tell your parents to set up an account here and posts with their thoughts and strategy and ask for feedback.
Did you choose any safeties, or are all of the safeties parent choices?
If you did not choose any safeties, then your parents are right to be concerned that you may be shut out.
You may want to re-evaluate your list so that it includes safeties that you like, and which you know are affordable (based on automatic, not competitive, merit scholarships). You should generally assume that competitive large merit scholarships are reaches, even if the school is a safety for admission.
I understand! There are three safeties of the six that I like, all of which I can afford at the sticker price but also offer competitive merit. @ucbalumnus
How do their prices compare to your parents’ choices, assuming that you do not get any competitive merit scholarships at any of them?
One of their choices only has competitive merit, so without receiving any FA, it is out of the question (OOS public tuition). The only one with a lower price would be the commuter school because of the lack of room & board fees. @ucbalumnus