We toured Elon University during Spring Break. My daughter is also interested in becoming a PA. Elon has a direct entry PA program. It is very competitive. She plans to apply in August. We have also looked into Nursing programs at several schools in the Southeast. If going that route, she would complete her BSN program then continue on to a PA program. She is also hoping to have “typical fun student activities and well rounded student experience”. Elon seemed to be able to offer lots of what she is looking for.
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Elon is great if you can pay for it, which is not the same as being “affordable” based on NPC. Their typical year tuition discounted rate is like $45K. That means, if you can swing that amount, it is a fantastic option.
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We just completed what we think is the last college tour with my D23 at Vassar. Definitely makes her short list, but now there are things she has to think about this summer. She has a tough list that could go either way, so I’ve told her she has to apply to one of our state flagships because she’s an automatic admit. My husband thinks I’m crazy to make her apply there but he’s given up trying to convince me otherwise (he used to work in T30 admissions but that was way too many years ago to be pertinent).
While she’s keeping quiet and I’m not going to push at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if she decided to ED at Vassar. We are taking June off from any college discussions in this house and will pick it back up in July. Learned from my older D not to make it too much of a focus so as to avoid college app fatigue!
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D23 gets emails in her college account - on my desktop and on her phone. Got one today from Harvard, Princeton, etc. Virtual Information Sessions – with a typo/spelling error in the subject line. I sort of smile at those things. Good to know - it happens to us all! we are all human!
ok -carry on!
Begin rant:
Can the colleges out there please recognize that the reason net price calculators were mandated by federal law was so that potential students and their families could get a good idea of what an education at their institution would cost? Simply asking for extremely minimal information (specifically: dependency status, state of residence, housing choice, and annual household income from a limited set of bins where the top one is $100k+) does not satisfy the intent of that law—especially when your response says that students fitting that profile got an average of $X in combined merit and need-based aid. You didn’t even ask for GPA and test scores, how are you giving me an average that includes merit aid??
Of the 12 colleges remaining on D23’s list, fully 8 of them have an entry on our spreadsheet column for NPC results that says simply “unhelpful”.
End rant.
ETA: Especially when so many colleges have gotten rid of their merit scholarship matrices, so you can’t even look those up or help anymore.
Okay, now the rant is really over.
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I have not even attempted to run a true NPC yet partly because of those reasons (and partly because our split household and my new husbands self employment really complicate things.)
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This 
!!!
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Those have been replaced by discount calculations specific for each applicant. I kid you not.
Probably developed by folks that got laid off from/could not get into Jane Street or whichever prop trading firm that is the flavor of the month. OK, the last statement was meant as sarcasm.
If the colleges made standardized test scores optional, how could they ask for them specifically from applicants for financial aid (including merit-based aid)? Grades aren’t that useful because they aren’t comparable from one high school to another, in the absence of test scores to validate them (and AP scores can’t be relied upon because not all students take, and not all high schools offer, the same AP courses).
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There are (and long have been) a solid number of colleges that are test-optional for admission, but that are not test-optional for awarding merit scholarships—and there are others that are technically test-optional for merit scholarships, but where test scores are still required for the good ones.
(And high school GPAs are still a better predictor of collegiate academic success than SAT/ACT scores. The idea that GPAs aren’t comparable across high schools but standardized test scores are doesn’t actually hold up.)
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I always find the standards these colleges use confusing. If they can admit students without the assistance of test scores, why couldn’t they determine merits without the assistance of test scores? Are they saying the other pieces of information they have on the students, which they use to determine admissions, are insufficient to tell who the students they really want and would offer inducement (i.e. merit awards) to are?
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All the best to all the kids taking SAT on 4th. My DS will be taking his first SAT.
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I sort of look at it as simply one more piece of information that they have to make a judgement when assigning “value” to their decision (i.e. their merit money offer, aka your discount).
Akin to maybe buying a house that you can’t see in person and have to make a decision via real estate listings…?. Having additional photos, or maybe a floor plan is just one more piece of information to help inform your decision from several houses. You’d still buy the house (admit the student), but you’d maybe decide to up your offer if you really want that house because you have a better idea that it’s the right house for you as you have an additional piece of information. 
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Good luck to him!!
Are you saying that test scores have no value when they don’t need to offer you a discount but have value when they do?
It is interesting to read about how much more unpredictable admissions have become for top schools in recent years and I’m just glad that my twins who were amongst the top students in their high school were applying in 2018 not 2023. Back then it was pretty easy to feel confident they would get into UCB or UCLA (they got into both) and now I think it would be much more stressful.
In contrast S23 continues to want to take a relaxed (often too relaxed) path and isn’t aspiring to those schools. The irony is that he is as smart or smarter than his siblings (who are graduating from college this year at the top of their classes) but still doesn’t like school and doesn’t want to do much beyond video gaming outside school. So his UW GPA is about 3.7, he’s taken mostly easy courses (except Calc BC), but he got 1410 on PSAT (750 math) and 1510 (800 math) on his practice SAT without any studying - we’ll see the actual result after this weekend’s test.
He wants to do astrophysics, because math and physics are easy and it doesn’t require any essay writing, and would be happy with Utah or Arizona which are both essentially auto admit. So I think he may only apply to 3 or 4 schools (perhaps UCSC and SDSU as well but they are test blind and more reachy).
I think the biggest challenge will then be in him convincing us he’s responsible enough to go off to college and keep on top of all his work, as opposed to staying home and going to community college for the next 2 years.
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I’d say submitting test scores as an additional piece of information applies to both admissions and merit/discount decisions.
Sure, technically it does nothing to hurt your application to not submit scores, especially if the applicant has many other things going for them in their application. But if their scores do happen to be at the higher end of that particular college’s range, then IMO it’s helpful to include the scores as just another data point.
In my kid’s situation, as he has always attended Waldorf schools (and goes to a Waldorf high school), my opinion has been that good test scores may “validate” his GPA to some AOs, since Waldorf schools probably do not use a curriculum that most AOs would be familiar with - yes, they’ll get the secondary school report, but still, it’s different. How would an AO know that it’s rigorous?
So he’s submitting his 790/750 SAT simply as a little marker that (I hope) serves to say: yep, his GPA is legit.
I don’t expect an AO to spend more than 2 seconds on reading that score and moving on to his transcript and essays, but it’s a data point that I feel will be useful as his type of school is less known.
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Not only have NPC been useless, but so far my individual conversations with school financial aid staff has been useless. Basically, I get that is a complicated situation, explain it in additional information section and it will be considered after your child applies and we will not do an early read before they apply. I’ll reach out again this summer.
It took at least 6 conversations before someone said husband’s income from year he died should not be included and by the way you probably (not my area of FAFSA questions) won’t be able to import taxes from IRS. This was an on-line conversation with FAFSA support.
Yes, my husband is self-employed too so not sure what $160K combined income and $40K EFC will actually mean when it comes to financial aid (maybe a little?) and merit. We refuse to pay $40K and our target is SUNY prices (around $25K.) We managed to get my daughter’s COA to $23K so we are hopeful but not overly optimistic since that was in 2019 and things have changed in recent years. Just for fun, I tried the NPC at some of the more generous meets-need schools like Harvard and UChicago and it was less than $20K which shocked me but Northeastern was $37K so who knows what the actual price tag will be? We have 2 great SUNY options that my son really likes so I’m not too worried, overall, but it’s definitely frustrating to feel the NPC might be unreliable.
My son scored a 1450 (700 Reading/750 Math) in October and he is taking the SAT tomorrow (6/4) to see if he can bump up a little. He refused to do any formal tutoring or prep other than a 4 hour SAT bootcamp earlier in the year. He looked at his personal October test assessment given from College Board to see weak areas and is focusing on those with some Khan Academy free review, so we will see what happens. I think the 1450 is fine for most of the schools he wants to apply to and he can always go test optional if needed. Good luck to anyone taking the SAT tomorrow!
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