We are watching for merit for ACT scores just to see if theres other options (although our school choice list is already long). Or schools who give high music talent merit.
We need total cost under 20k to get him out of state.
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This I would assume only applies to high stat kids. Some of us are not so fortunate. So, we have to look at COA for each school. For us, a win would be tier 2 or 3. Thankfully, in state options are around $20K all in including pretty solid schools like NCSU and UNC.
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Not necessarily. My husband worked in college admissions for over 20+ years. Many âmeritâ awards are simply tuition discounts. So look at the schools that are in the range of your kids stats and see what there merit awards are. Iâm not saying merit awards donât exist but the term merit sounds better than discount. It is marketing on their part. This doesnât happen at all schools but it does happen at many schools including some well ranked schools. Unfortunately it still favors those with a bigger budget. So instead of being a full pay a merit award is certainly enticement to get you to attend their school.
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Some might say better than solid.
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Good suggestion and I understand what you are saying completely. I think a good strategy is to apply to schools where your kid is over their 75th percentile. However, we are living in a covid world and the old rules of engagement may not be very relevant. I am well aware that private schools across the country that are at least semi-competitive (meaning 1350+ median SAT score) are usually attractive to parents making north of $200K or have some other means of paying for school. This is reflected squarely in the demographics of a lot of popular colleges that get love on these forums.
Our EFC and what we can afford/willing to pay are not congruent. We are also insistent on making undergrad education loan free if we can for our children. Fortunate to have in state options.
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This is a gift that your kids will thank you for at some point. My D17 already has, and sheâs making big city electrical engineer salary now. She can easily afford her car, a nicer place to live, and max out her 401K match at 23 when it matters a lot because she doesnât have soul-crushing debt to pay.
And as @Dolemite wisely said, UNC and NCSU are great options.
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We have set a budget for our D23. It is based on full pay at UMASS and anything private that can come at that price point. Her stats are high unfortunately our budget is not. She will have to add 2 more in state options as UMASS can no longer be a safety. We are not complaining and we feel she is fortunate to be able to college though it probably will not the one of the popular ones.
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#3 would be ideal
Welp, Honors PreCal has officially kicked Thing 1 & Thing 2âs collective backsides 
âŠtheyâre both looking at Câs for the first time. It is what it is I suppose. This class and teacher is a notorious GPA buster at our school. My eldest son warned the twins lol. He dropped down to regular PreCal his junior year and finished with a 92. Other friends warned them as well but they both wanted the challenge and I think it was a little of an ego thing too because neither has ever taken anything but honors/preAP/AP classes. In the grand scheme of things I donât think this will effect their overall college apps that much, like theyâll both still be firmly in the top 10% but it definitely will knock Thing 2 out of the top 6%âŠwhich again, donât think it will matter all that much as heâs not sold on UT Austin anyway and honestly, Iâm too tired/drained to care much at this point. They both went to tutoring and triedâŠIâve heard the same from other parents, most of their friends group are in the same boat with this class.
Funny thing is everyone says AP Calc AB (which theyâre both taking senior year) is much easier compared to Honors PreCal 
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Are there any out there anymore for perfect ACT, high gpa? We have plenty of reaches on the list, she doesnât want a huge school, our in state schools are really high cost. At a loss for safety and target schools with great merit. Also, no clue what she wants to study. We do also have TE as an option. Met with the TE coordinator at husbandâs school who mentioned some expect over the top demonstrated interest. Who has time to play that game? I hate this 
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I just hate this. Totally unnecessary and a power trip by a teacher who thinks they are showing kids âwhat itâs going to be like in college.â Our experience is that many core classes in college are actually way easier than the AP (or pre-AP in this case) equivalents.
In our high school, the GPA buster class is AP Global History. Guidance tried to insist to us that all three of our kids should take it, and we simply refused. They were all going STEM, so ours just took the non-AP version history classes and enjoyed sophomore year so much more.
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Same pattern was true at my kidsâ school. First kid started in Accel PreCalc sophomore year, struggled despite meeting with the teacher. We got some advice from parents with older kids and pushed him down to regular precalc by the end of quarter 1. Night and day difference; got an A. Moved back up to AP Calc AB ad then BC Jun/Sen years without issue. By kid two we proactively dropped her down to regular PreCalc sophomore yea, then back up to the APâs. Kid 3 we did the same and he tested out of AP Calc AB and went to BC junior year. Meanwhile some of the kids who stuck it out in accel didnât test into BC.
Lots. Just not the ones that all the kids want to apply to.
Many are state flagships or close with world class resources. They are not âeliteâ as per USNWR standards but if one is looking for a full ride based on academics then there is surely a deal to be had.
I would categorically look at schools in the deep south. TN, AR, SC, TX, FL, MI, MS. Many have auto merits listed on their websites. WY and ME are also pretty good.
Also, as parents, we sometimes need to give our kids tough love. If your kid has no idea on what to study then why limit yourself to a small school? What exactly is that going to achieve? It is more important to find the right fit. Almost all large schools have smaller honors colleges that are reserved for talented kids â top notch professors, facilities and resources. Heck, I am told UT-Dallas NMF get their own robot servants and monthly art/music outings with their professors. Yet kids and parents line up to toss their money and hope at the same 20 or 30 schools that are deemed selective by a DEFUNCT magazine.
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Did summer school at Loyola eons ago. Pretty campus by the lake. Halfway between downtown Chicago and Northwestern, its located in a good part of the city- Its like a mini NorthwesternâŠa little more urban than Evanston, but not as urban as Depaul or IIT.
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Need some help in adding safety and targets to my daughterâs list. We did not go to college in the US so the process is new and daunting to say the least. She is interested in a business major with a STEM minor (such as data analytics) and good internship opportunities. Her stats â 4.3 (W) , 3.9(UW) , 35 ACT, some extracurriculars but nothing as exceptional as I have been reading about other kids ( Will be President Debate Club senior yr, NHS , Student Council District representative for State).
We are in Nebraska and she wants to go a warmer place or atleast manageable winter. Wants a medium to large school , preferably college town or near a city, not remote.
Financially, we will not qualify for anything so looking for schools with good merits (hopefully her stats will qualify her for some money to bring down the OOS costs). Very possibly qualify for NMF so we looked at schools giving merit to NMFs but didnât find good business programs (but I could be missing a gem).
The plunging acceptance rates this year have me really worried as it seems schools that were targets last year are now reaches. Please share some options we should look at.
@Mom_2023 I have been pretty impressed with the communication from U of Louisiana-Lafayette. They are now an R1 institution with high research options. Lafayette,LA is known to be one of the âhappiestâ cities and they have decent diversity on campus. Your daughter would get into honors and get a package for about 61k plus a year with their Live Oak Scholarship.
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So not exactly sure how this will effect your decision but some places to look at are:
University of South Carolina (mild winters - merit including some NMF (can be stacked with their other merit)
Pitt (rolling admissions and good merit possible - winters shouldnât be too bad)
UGA - I donât think they have Business Administration but plenty of Business related majors
probably look at other southern flagships not UNC or UVa.
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Many of the Southern flagships have quite good automatic scholarship packages for a student with those stats, and a whole bunch of public regional universities (e.g., Louisiana-Lafayette, as mentioned by @2plustrio), particularly but not exclusively in the South, have automatic scholarship packages that are jaw-dropping.
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Thank you @2plustrio Hadnât looked at U of Louisiana, will surely note that.
D18 has just graduated from Utah (which she loved) and S23 is planning to apply there. Thereâs some decent merit (eg Business Scholars) and you can get instate rates after the first year (WUE is also available but not applicable to you). Itâs good safety in a nice city thatâs easy to get to and has decent weather most of the time. Itâs particularly good for outdoorsy kids, with great skiing close by.
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