@tacocat333, your $20K merit aid is FOUR TIMES more than my DD’s best merit aid and her GPA is the same. So yeah, I think the high ACT - 10 points higher than my DD’s - was the reason he was offered so much.
Edited: I don’t want to take away from TacoSon AT ALL! His GPA and ACT are really great and he choose a great school in the University of Mary Washington.
@tacocat333 can you remind me again about what TacoSon will be studying? The University of Mary Washington is a school that I’ve been thinking about for D19. It’s a little out of the geographic range she wants to consider (New England), but it’s still East Coast, and seems to have the vibe that might work for her (I say this without having visited and after just very preliminary investigation, so I may be all wet).
@rbc1999 , thanks for the nice words. I’ve been so, so impressed by the offers to kids in this group – I think we all worked hard to find schools that would value our kids even without perfect transcripts. In this group alone I’ve seen really generous offers for students with lower GPAs and test scores.
I’m proud of TacoSon but bitter that even with nice offers we can’t afford any of the marquee name schools – especially when you look around CC and hear about all the “full rides.” And exactly zero of TacoSon’s offers brought private schools under the cost of public for us, which is the other thing everyone says (not here; elsewhere).
@tacocat333 , I know what you mean about the rest of CC. I ventured into the regular “Parents of 2017” thread, saw all the marquee college names and quietly backed out.
Hi @klinska (also waiting anxiously for a decision from your house!) – he’s planning on studying marketing. It definitely has that classic campus feel. Happy to share what I’ve learned if you have specific questions.
@rbc1999 , CC was a scary place until I found this group!
So, here’s a story that makes me happy TacoSon made the choice he did – during the accepted students event, anyone who paid the deposit right then and there got a special gift. Once TacoSon made his choice a week later, I emailed the admissions counselor to ask what the gift was, and the counselor said he’d dig up a spare gift if there were any left. It just arrived in the mail!
@tacocat333 I share your bitterness a bit. I think what I struggle with the most is the judgement.
There is a vibe (real or imagined or perhaps both) that implies the following.
It just bums me out. Our amazing kids have gotten plenty of MAC. No. It may not be BIG by CC standards and it almost always is not even close to in state costs. That doesn’t negate the fact that darn it, it isn’t full pay and in many cases moves a school into a livable budget range. it is truly truly wonderful that some 2017 kids have multiple full ride/full tuition offers and are being flown all over for scholarship weekends and being offered crazy study abroad perks and all that. It truly is. I celebrate them, I am in awe of them.
But that’s not real life. It’s a small minority that here, is the majority. Even our kids on this thread, to be honest, are a minority if we look at the big picture of the country. But the attitude really can make the mid or lower stats kid (or parent) feel pretty bleak and discouraged. It’s in the guise of trying to be “helpful and honest” in a tough love way, but unless you’ve been in that boat with your own kid I really don’t think many CC posters actually understand where the parents of this thread may be coming from. Add in that many in this boat are full pay and it’s just hard all around.
@rbc1999 It’s also relative. 15K at one school could equal 24K at another in terms of net COA. Or 1K could result in a net COA that’s far lower than the 24k one. People forget that part and get hung up on the $ award versus what the end price tag looks like. For us, with lower ACT (25 superscore) and 3.47 GPA, we saw a range of merit offers ($14k-24k) and about a 10K spread in total COA for all schools that were NOT in state. Add in the talent scholarships and it was a $15k-26k merit award range. No one came remotely close to our instate pricing, nor did I expect them to.
@eandesmom I’d also add that many of our kids just wouldn’t thrive in the large state school environment. My kid is coming from a high school of less than 700 kids and while moving to a campus of 8000 may be daunting to him but 20,000 and I think he’d run the other way.
@eandesmom love your post. At the beginning of this process, when visiting schools, we are lead to believe MAC is there and some schools even try to tell you that it will be less than your state options. But for the non 4.0, 32ACT kid, not as much. There are still schools out there offering big MAC, just not as many. And Alabama is not for everyone.
@rbc1999 I totally agree with you. Amazing kids in the class of 2017 thread and where many got accepted. Love that this thread exists.
@eandesmom Once again, great, thoughtful (and at times, amusing) post!
Wish I had found the 3.0 - 3.4 thread last year, when I thought our S17 would be lucky to get into a state college school. We were really stressed! He worked hard to improve and we can’t believe how it all worked out! :-bd
@rbc1999 said “I know what you mean about the rest of CC. I ventured into the regular “Parents of 2017” thread, saw all the marquee college names and quietly backed out.”
As you can see, I’m relatively new here. D17 falls somewhere in between this group and the “Parents of 2017” kids and I felt exactly the same way as you @rbc1999! However, S19’s stats seem to fall in line with this group here so I started reading it thinking I could get good information for when we start the search process with him. After reading for a bit, I think I feel more comfortable in this group for D17 too! She has a good GPA but her test scores prevent her from fitting into the “marquee” group though she didn’t have aspirations to be at a marquee school anyway. She spent all of h.s. in a friend group who are the smartest kids in the class, one of whom is the valedictorian, and always felt like she was the dumbest one.
@smakl70 my kids are in a h.s. with less than 500 kids. D17 thought she wanted a big school but ended up at a campus of about 7000. I think that will feel plenty big to her. I went to a high school with more kids in my graduating class than in her entire school, went to college with about 5000 kids and still felt like I was always meeting/seeing new people. D17 got into our flagship state school which is huge - she had no desire to go. I think medium size will be good for her.
@eandesmom totally understand where you are coming from. I just finished my first round of getting a kid into college. Her GPA is 4.0 but her test scores are average and she has no desire to study engineering. 
S19 has around a 3.3 but not nearly as studious and I think suffers from test anxiety. He could do much better in school if he applied himself, but his test scores, unless we can figure out how to help him, will be even lower than D17. He’s interested in ROTC and wants a huge football school. S21 has a mild learning disability. That will be an interesting college search. Thankfully he starts h.s. next year in a specialized program at a private school that has loads of experience getting this type of kid into college. Then there is D23. Only in 6th grade now but she is more like D17 and I think a better test taker. But I’ve learned a lot of lessons and hopefully by the time we get to her, the search process will be much easier. Bottom line, there is a college out there for all kids who want to go, marquee or not. I wish I knew about CC a year or two ago!
@tacocat333 love that they sent the gift to your son.
Great post @eandesmom ! We, too, weren’t able to get MAC that brought COA to at or below in-state public (and our in-state publics aren’t particularly low cost). But we ended up with most schools coming in at an affordable number–and that was really the only thing I cared about.
What’s interesting to me is the number of folks here on CC who are pursuing the elites, where you are either full pay or you’re getting financial aid–I’m sure a lot of those folks are quietly taking big loans or paying the $65K+ and are just keeping that information to themselves.
Thanks @tacocat333! I’m going to give myself a break for a couple of months between finishing up with D17 before moving on to D19, but I will definitely follow up with you on UMW. Love that TacoSon got the gift from admissions (what is it?)
Almost no merit $$ offered here… In the end OSU offered $3K a year, and UofO $2K for freshman year. But my son only applied to large state schools. Several of which there is really very little merit offered. (The UC’s.) Plus we were playing a different game and not searching out the $$.
With his GPA he really wasn’t eligible for much. (Good thing we have been saving for years.) I do think his high SAT helped him get INTO several of the schools, but didn’t really help with any of the merit. And in the end he chose one of the cheeper schools. So I’m comfortable with what we will be paying.
Somehow I can’t count, not sure how it skipped from #5 to #6. LOL!
I really am NOT bashing Bama but boy, 1) that school couldn’t be more wrong for my kid and 2) he wouldn’t qualify for the big awards making it such a great deal anyway!
I cannot think of ONE school in the entire country that would have come in less than our in state option at S17’s stats. Not ONE. We are full pay and WWU would have been 22K total COA. I realize that’s my state and my EFC issue (and a screamin’ deal) but to me it’s not a fair point. State option prices range quite a bit.
@tacocat333 YAY for special gifts! Love that.
@smakl70 you are 100% correct. That was a huge focus for us and the best price did not equal the best environment for this kid. CC wisdom would say suck it up buttercup, almost like by not having top stats you haven’t earned the right to be picky and do what is best for your kid. I respectfully disagree even if that means I pay more for it. A 40,000 state flagship, even if my kid got in, would ensure total failure as he sat in a 700 person lecture hall, made no connections and didn’t ask for help.
@klinska well there’s the rub. On CC it is seems ok to be full pay for prestige, if you can pay for it and even i. But not otherwise.
@4kids4us welcome welcome! I have an S19 as well so who knows, I may end up starting another version of this in about a year depending on how things pan out. He is capable of being at the top but doesn’t have the work ethic, interest and does have ADHD. As a result I expect him to be somewhere between this group and the main 2019 high stats kids but we will see. He will be our 4th in the process and each one has been totally different!
Absolutely no offense intended for Alabama families (roll tide!) – but I picture a big group of high-stats East and West Coast freshmen gathered on the quad, looking at each other wondering how the heck they landed in Alabama.
@eandesmom 's eloquent post hit the nail on the head. The judgment is hard at this stage. We’ve been in college admissions combat for more than a year, and only we know about the strategies and scars!
@klinska , it was a pillowcase – a really nice kind of sailcloth-like pillowcase, though! And the adcom guy also threw a banner into the package as well. It made TacoSon smile after a long evening at work.
@tacocat333 we got a similar style pillowcase from Valpo when son committed. Must be the new “in” swag.
@smakl70 , it’s quite nice, isn’t it – it quickly rose to Top 5 status in overall swag!
How are the Struggling Calculus Sons doing? TacoSon got a C for the third quarter, after getting a pretty solid B for the first semester. Neither of us are bothered by this; I have Senioritis by Proxy.
I’m making him apply for a pretty big scholarship that requires 4 teacher recommendations, meaning he had to ask for 2 more. And for one of those, he’s asking … the calculus teacher. I asked him why he wouldn’t go with a teacher in whose class he has an A – or a B! – but what can I do at this point?
@tacocat333 – sorry no merit at Pitt, but I’m really glad you posted about it. Pitt has been relentlessly emailing my S17 to apply. Many, many, extended deadlines, waiver of fee, consideration for Honors College and merit, etc., etc. I have been wondering if S17 should have put in an application because it seemed like they wanted him badly enough that they might give big merit. S17’s GPA is lower than your S’s, but he has a perfect ACT. The 3.8 required for merit would have made merit money there a nonstarter. I now feel better.
I also agree that the high ACT helped S17 get admitted to some of his schools. It also got him some merit at schools who have sliding scales for their merit awards (the lower the GPA, the higher the test scores that are needed), but there aren’t many of those. And like your son, the marquee (and marquee-ish) name schools came with zero merit for my S17. I share your frustration!
Applying to engineering, where so many of the schools are big publics, makes getting merit really tough with lower stats, since they don’t seem to take (or have) the time to do a holistic review–I suspect (without fully knowing) that a computer does a first cut and culls the applicants who don’t meet a minimum GPA/test score combo. Also, engineering applicants have such incredibly high stats that the competition is incredibly tough. Like @curiositycat333 we weren’t searching out the big merit, but it would have been really nice!
@klinska – the schools my S17 is leaning towards (yep, still no decision made!) are full pay.
“I picture a big group of high-stats East and West Coast freshmen gathered on the quad, looking at each other wondering how the heck they landed in Alabama.”-----LOVE this!!!
I am on both threads but definitely feel this thread is a better fit for me and D. We honestly never wanted an Ivy for D, and she didn’t want one for herself. Our family likes to travel in a slower lane. I am happy for the families whose kids are deliberating over which Ivy to commit to. It’s fun, if a bit intimidating, to read about their experiences. I am also happy for my cousin’s daughter who just committed to the Coast Guard Academy. A service academy would never be D’s choice (nor would Alabama), but that doesn’t mean I can’t be happy for those who do choose one. When I read this thread, however, I feel like I am amongst kindred spirits, and there is certainly a comfort in that.
I did have the impression from talking to some acquaintances that it was fairly common to get enough merit aid to bring the COA at a private school down to the COA at our in-state flagship. I also ran several NPC’s and thought “that can’t be right - they can’t expect us to pay that much.” Somehow I thought we’d get mire than the NPC’s showed (and in 2 cases we did, but it still wasn’t enough). I diligently researched the schools that were known for offering generous merit aid, then set aside that list when D didn’t want to apply to most of them. (Fortunately she applied to one, and that is the one she will be attending.) I didn’t realize the difference between a 29 and 30 ACT can be $2,000 a year. I didn’t realize that despite assurances otherwise, my child is not an individual to the admissions committees and is judged on her gpa and test scores and very little else. Once reality set in and I realized we were actually going to have to pay our full EFC, I crunched some numbers and found out that it’s almost doable. We may have to borrow a little starting second semester junior year, but I can live with that. I will carry these lessons with me and make appropriate adjustments for S22. All in all, I am pleased with the outcome. As someone else said, our children are privileged. D is the only kid I have heard about in her HS graduating class who is going to an OOS private school.
@Hankster1361 , I really, really love Pitt. Not sure if it would have been the perfect fit for TacoSon, but I’m a huge fan. He too got the emails about waiving the application fee, Honors, merit, etc. In the end, he got no honors and no merit; you are likely right about the computer making the determination there! That’s the formula we found ourselves up against.
Overall TacoSon got some nice merit offered, but as @eandesmom 's mom pointed out, $20K a year in merit doesn’t help when the COA is still substantially over the number we are comfortable paying. It’s kind of like getting a free gift bag at Clinique, and the lipstick is a shade you’d never wear.