D23 doesnât quite realize it but if she asked for anything at the moment Mom & Dad would definitely buy it for her. Ironically she is the least materialistic of the two girls. We told her to take part of her Spring Break this week and go visit her sister. She turned us down. Instead she will probably work 30 hours at her job this week picking up shifts for friends.
I will say we as a family were very strategic on the schools the kids applied to. We were hunting merit and the second time around we hit on something big. The schools wonât impress a lot of people especially on CC. We donât mind because the schools will fit the total needs of the girls. Both girls had some reaches on the lists and were successful in terms of acceptances for some.
Congrats. Our initial merit award was 42K. Updated financials got another 14K, so looking very doable (still waiting for them to actually publish 2023-2024 rates). Without the extra need-based $$ it would be out of reach, though, so I feel for her.
Congrats to your kiddo as well! Thatâs a great deal. If we could get it into the (even upper) 20s, it would be doable, but 40k is too high. Iâll likely reach out to them (they can only say no), but if it is no, D23 has other good options. Your kiddo will love SLC, itâs a great place!
Yes merit is out there and at a myriad of schools but small number of large merit awards per school. Therefore, that requires applying to a lot of schools and additional apps for large merit. Lots of essays and time. Some complain that students are getting denied acceptance due to same high stat kids applying to a large number of schools thereby taking spots away from others. So to point, you have to apply to have a chance. How else would you âwinâ one of those large merit awards if you donât apply? Iâd say a conundrum.
My kiddo did get lucky with large merit and we are over the moon about it. However, kiddo was not awarded one of the few offered at selective schools such as Vandy, Hopkins etc., those are extremely competitive (this is in no way a complaint, just a statement - very thankful and happy with offer received). I just donât think itâs reasonable for some kids to have to rely on that extremely low probability of âwinningâ one of those awards as the means to attend a high tuition school that is otherwise not âaffordableâ for the family. Not everyone will fit in this pool of kids, or even understand, but unfortunately this is the case for many family situations for various reasons.
thx, it IS a great deal. Not QUITE as good as the 23K COA at Grinnell, but she loves the east coast, and loved the âvibeâ on campus. And we randomly sat at a table in the cafeteria with a current student at lunch, she had a great conversation - it was a great fit.
My only worry is that she is planning to do grad school specifically for physics. And Sarah Lawrence isnât necessarily known for that.
BUTâŠat lunch we also got introduced to the main physics professor at the college - and she really liked her. So even though itâs a small department, the stars seem to be aligning for Sarah Lawrence
Oh, we agree here!
My family doesnât fit a normal situation, and it certainly pains me to have had to remove many target/slight reach colleges from contention for S23 because we donât fit their image of middle-income quintile and have a divorce situation that is complicated.
Certainly, to win any of these, a student has to apply very widely, which adds to the explosion of applications in a vicious cycle. (That was D17 strategy which worked out very well but was unpredictable when it came to the top merit awards.)
I definitely agree with the idea that the middle (say 40th percentile e.g. often just above Pell grant status possibility and the 70th percentile) is in a difficult situation for many reasons in getting into these colleges and then affording them. Someone has posted twice that a college considered it allowable to have twice the household income in savings. This means, the higher your income, the more money you can have saved (even though with a high income, it might take only one or two years to âreplenishâ the savings compared to a family with a lower income where it might take two or three times as long.)
In the end, we just had to let go of any of the schools that look at family income/need as opposed to merit unless we wanted to organize our lives around it and move money and housing around accordingly, which we didnât. I agree it is frustrating though.
For future applicants, I just wanted to make clear that there are some selectives with merit. I personally consider Baylor selective even though it was a target for my son, and he was offered about half tuition per year in merit, for which we are grateful. He may yet choose it, and we couldnât have without the merit because they use non-custodial parent CSS.
You might study the catalog though. What classes are offered and how frequently?
Are kids in the major able to finish in four years ? Are they able to focus on sub areas of interest ? It looks like they have only three faculty. Grinnell lists 14.
When I hear small department that would be a concern.
What is their track record for grad school placements?
It doesnât matter if an undergrad program is âknown forâ somethingâif the goal is grad school and they have good placement rates, itâs a good spot.
This I do not believe. At top schools, a certain percentage of kids do not have the stats others do. They came in due to athletics, large donations, legacy, connections. My friendâs kid noticed this at her top 20 school. Others have mentioned it here frequently.
Harvard admits those with SATs in the 1300 if they are from certain parts of the country or notable enough.
Any school has a mix. At Harvard, probably 20% of the kids will be truly stellar at something, globally stellar. Spread across many different areas â politics, policy, religion, stem, English etc. And that is a critical mass. It is a pleasure to hangout with such a crowd.
I think the nature of the top 20% at Harvard will be different than the top 20% at some other random R1. We donât need to debate this to death. Agree to disagree.
yeah. That is part of the final consideration weâre having D look at. Sarah Lawrence doesnât do specific majors - another concern. But they do very detailed transcripts. Supposedly very good grad school placement, but Iâm not sure thatâs necessarily for STEM.
supposedly very good placement rates. Trying to dig up the info on what areas and specific schools, if you know of any good sources for that data Iâd appreciate any direction
My niece is in her third year at Sarah Lawrence. We looked at it for my D23 for film but I couldnât get past the lack of majors. I know from my niece that they have had serious housing issues for upperclassmen. I donât know if it will get better the further we get away from the pandemic. It seems like the student body is always upset with the schoolâs administration.
One thing you should understand is the school break schedule - I have no clue with SL - but if they tend to have shorter breaks throughout the year (like some of the east coast LACs) kids will be travelling, have family weekend homes etc or trips in to NYC and not inexpensive - if your child does not have the extra funds, they may feel left out. Grinnell all the extras will be way less and I would imagine less pressure regarding extra spending. I am bias - as I still wish one of my kids chose Grinnell
