@ThreeRedheads, I don’t like that the NPC for MD state universities only includes need-based aid.
@mstomper these schools would attract a lot more students if they included merit aid in their NPC calculations. I cannot imagine why they wouldn’t. Many schools include it.
I have been stressing all weekend trying to calculate what I believe are his final grades and gpa. Junior year has been the most difficult year for my son. Mid year he lost focus a little bit. I think it was all the snow days that contributed to that. Once they returned they did not have very many grades to average. If he did not perform his best on something there was no opportunity to buffer that grade with another assignment. He worked really hard towards the end of the school year. Anyway, I know there is nothing that can change the end result. I just want to know how much this year affected his overall GPA. Right now his GPA for this year could end up anywhere between a 3.0 and 3.28. He has two grades that are less than a point between letter grades. Anyway, report cards will be mailed on Thursday. A few days after that I should be able to find out his overall GPA and his class rank. Then we will be able to move forward.
Oh and we still have his final attempts with the ACT and SAT dangling out there. He is not good with standardized tests. He spent time prepping for SAT. However, he took the ACT without any prep the first time and scored better than he did with SAT. He prepped some before his second ACT test but we will have to wait and see his scores. His scores are really low in comparison to scores on this site. We live in Virginia. It is very competitive to get accepted in most colleges here. We expect his overall GPA will end up between 3.14 and 3.23 depending on this year’s grades. I know that is not high enough to overcome low test scores in VA.
Anyway, thanks for allowing me to vent! LOL Hubby thinks I am making too much of it. He says it is out of our hands so don’t worry about it. I don’t want to stress my son out so I don’t mention my concerns to him either. I just encouraged him to work hard the final quarter so he did not have any regrets. I also encouraged him to try his best on the latest round of tests. That is about all we can do.
Oh and on top of all that he is trying to get recruited for his sport. One coach really wants him to play on the team. His GPA would still be within the range that he needs. However, his tests scores are not high enough. He would need to apply ED to that college. His ACT score was at least 2 points off from what he would need. Coach said there is no score that would absolutely guarantee that he would get accepted. However, he needed to at least get 2 points higher and then the consider his GPA,test scores, letters of recommendation, community service,etc. I know academics are more important than any sport. However he has played since he was 3 years old and would love to have the opportunity to play in college. So many things to think about…
@allboyz, It will be okay! I, too, live in Virginia. So your son probably won’t end up at Tech, UVa, or William and Mary. There are many, many fabulous choices here for him. Don’t forget about Mary Washington, Longwood, George Mason, Christopher Newport - and all the private schools like Roanoke and Lynchburg. I know many students in this GPA range who’ve gone to these schools and done great things. Often the private schools will end up very competitive price-wise too.
If he’ll consider the LAC route, I’d suggest applying really early for best money - and the great feeling of having an acceptance under your belt in September! If you visit 3 Virginia private colleges between July 27 and August 1 they’ll give you application fee waivers too http://www.cicv.org/Our-Colleges/Virginia-Private-College-Week.aspx
@mamaduck Thank you very much! I think we need to start looking into some of the private colleges. Lynchburg and Randolph have sent him a few letters. We did not seriously consider them because of the cost. Thank you for the information regarding Private College week.
We spent the day running the Net Price Calculators on the college websites for an estimate of likely award packages. Very helpful. This kid is going to have to live at home and commute. Seriously.
@dyiu13 - are you still a Tuition Exchange family? We are too - D13 found (and was accepted to) some schools that were <$10000 for room and board, and you could subtract the $5500 in loans from that if need be. My D13 paid a higher amount for room and board at her perfect fit school, but just got an RA position going into her Junior year to cover 90% of room and board, which is fabulous.
Yes, aiming for TE. RA job would be a dream, up her alley, and D16 is going to try for it – if she’s a residential student somewhere.
Now that I have the updated NPC results, I’ll apply the TE grant, adjust for the two schools on her list that cover room as part of TE, and see what we can afford. I assume she’d be eligible for subbed student loans (right?), but even that debt adds up.
Must crunch numbers this week to see how much college we can afford. The only free money she’d get is the TE grant, as far as I can tell, which is very generous but we might not be able to close the gap and still keep loans low. It seems Room & Board tend to come in around $12k to $18k. Plus fees, books, travel, insurance, and personal expenses.
By not living at home, she shift her HS commuter train expense to college costs. But that’s only about $1k/year. She aims for summer jobs and 10h/week campus job during school year. We’re already paying off loans from her private HS for 11th and 12th grade, so I don’t think we can add any loans beyond a subbed loan for her .
Am I thinking about this correctly?
In our case, we didn’t really look at the NPC since TE would be applied, really invalidating anything the NPC came up with. We just subtracted whatever TE would cover (full tuition or the set amount) and added in the required fees and room and board. In all cases, that’s exactly what we got. We were offered a mix of subsidized and unsubsidized loans for the first two years, and chose to only accept the subsidized portion. D also earned a small outside scholarship that helped cover some costs. And you may qualify for the $2500 tax credit, though you have to plan carefully since TE goes against tuition, and room and board aren’t “eligible expenses”.
Aargh, just a few more days of projects and exams and we’re done with the year! Bad timing that there’s almost non-stop soccer to watch (Women’s World Cup, for example). My mantra with S16 has become “You’ll get what you earn.”
Ugggg…same song second verse…I thought maturity was heading are way…Second semester grades are out and 5 A and 1 B- …can you guess what teacher does not appeal to him.
Last day of school here, which meant an all-nighter to finish up the last two assignments due. The year was a struggle most of the way through, and on the whole we saw improvement in work ethic and organizational skills. Still room for more improvement, but I think S16 earned all A’s and B’s. I tried to share that it is clear that he can work hard. He says he also pushes himself hard in his recreational life (e.g. gaming, creative writing, social media). I reflected that it would be good to be more intentional about where he wants to put his efforts in the future. He knows this last minute stuff isn’t his best work, but he says it isn’t as simple as deciding whether to work or to play. Unfortunately, S16 has his driver’s license exam tomorrow morning. He just realized that the last minute rush to finish all his projects this week meant he didn’t get practice on his turning or parking.
On the up-side, both of the teachers he asked for recommendations agreed to write them! I am proud that he managed to ask (he was worried they would say no) and that he’s doing this self-reflection. I do see the maturation this year.
I learned that two of my S14’s friends have done so poorly in their freshman year of college that they won’t be going back in the fall – still don’t know what that really means for them. Both are really smart, and one of them was a consistently hard-working high school student, the other more like my S16. This is a bit sobering for us.
@crowlady do we have cloned kids? 
DS finished yesterday. Was disappointed with most of his final exams. I am not sure he did as badly as he is intimating (but he is not discussing it much). Spending a lot of time playing games, listening to music, hiding in his room. He did say “Junior Year” was a lot “harder than I thought it was going to be”. He said he thought he did his best, but that “other things” got in the way. I am not sure what the other things are…but maybe with self reflection, he’ll realize it was himself…and the choices he made? I think he’ll end the year with all B’s. That’s not bad at all…but not what he was aiming for. Also on a good note, his two teachers agreed to write recs for him. So that is good. I hope this summer is a growing year for him. He really needs another year of maturity…no matter what college he goes to!
Reporting back, S16 has his license now! Now he has two whole weeks of no obligations (other than chores) before our vacation (which he considers an obligation).
Yes, @drmom123 I think we’ve got similar kids. My S16 says he fully understands that "I’ll do it later’ is not a successful approach but it is still not easy for him to defer gratification. The most disappointing thing is AP Bio where I know he enjoyed the material and learned it, but procrastinated on straightforward assignments (including self-reflection busywork which he argues is important even though he didn’t do it regularly). I think he knows he might get a C in the class for the year but hasn’t broken the news to us yet.
Well, I finally have my son’s final GPA. He ended up with a 3.14. 
His class rank is 71 out of 151. Percentile is 52.98. I was really hoping for at least 3.2. His June SAT scores (Math and Reading combined) are 60 points lower than what he needed according to one of the coaches at his top pick. We are still waiting for his JUNE ACT scores. He said he felt better about that test. Fingers crossed that it materializes into a higher score. He needs two points higher on the ACT to get in his top pick. I wish they would hurry up and release the score so we would know exactly where he stands going into his senior year…
@allboyz They release the ACT scores every Wed and Friday around 8 am CST. Good luck to your son!
Thank you!
Got final grades here, too. As predicted, he didn’t reach a cumulative 3.0 unweighted, but weighted he is at 3.6. So, between the two maybe we belong on this discussion board!
Time to jump in with both feet…S’16 will take the ACT in September he refused the June or May SAT because he wanted to study for finals…I guess his rational was sound but the execution of the plan was lets just say there was not one. He has not open a study guide and probably will not. I now am at the point that sometimes it may be better for them to fail so they can later on succeed.
His school does not weight or rank…his school only teaches at the honor or college level and the medium GPA is 3.1-3.2. He currently stands at 3.52 but testing uggg. They have application seminar day in two weeks they are suppose to compare with an initial list of 8-10 schools…his so far in the Spring was 6, now…0. Yes, 0 He is driving me crazy. We have started to talk about a gap year…until he gets his act together I can not see sending him off to university…