Got the same thick Harvard brochure and a cover letter with emphasis on affordability 
students with household incomes of under 200K can easily afford Harvard as they pay 50% or more of COA in aid/scholarships(if you get in that is 
)
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S24ās last report card comments from Math teacher said āFunny, but sense of humor positively impacts atmosphereā. I was thinking well thank goodness at least his teacher appreciates his sense of humor.
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This is us exactly. We also know that if S24 isnāt majoring in something he is really interested in, he will not so well. He is one of those kids that really only puts in the effort if he loves the subject matter. Heās not good at faking it just to get through- he will do it but with minimal effort.
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Well said Curium245! My heart goes out to you, hello06 because I went through the exact same things with my older one. If it makes you feel any better, socially well adjusted kids who know how to have fun while maintaining grades (even if itās not to the level of expectation that we have) is a good thing. She will be more than fine in college as my older one is. It is us who need to lower the sky high expectations that we keep. The insane competition and comparisons in some school districts do not make it easy of course.
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Any good suggestions for colleges from Virginia all the way to east coast for business/economics/government/pol. science for her GPA. She is looking for a college that has more than 15000-20000 student population size of colleges. Interested in close to city but too urban, not much interested in LACs.
American? GW? What are her stats?
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She has 3.75ugpa/4.1wgpa. Still didnāt take sat/act. Good ECs.
If you are not interested in spending 70-80K and she wants to be near a city your state flagship is probably great, SUNY Binghamton, Fordham has scholarships but she may not qualify, American and GW may be too expensive. DId you run the net price estimators for schools to see if you will qualify for financial aid? Maybe James Madison? University of Maine? Once you know your EFC maybe post on the main page to get help.
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I think UMD College Park meets all these requirements. You might want to go take a tour.
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@helpingthekid73 , thanks for your response! Weāre not from NY. tās that my older D is studying in NY and weāre planning to move to east coast somewhere close to both the girls. I figured out that our EFC is around 45K. I think we can afford that amount if the rest is really covered.
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@DadOfJerseyGirl , Thank you! I heard about that. Itās great college but heard they hardly give any scholarship to OOS students. Any idea if she has any chance for her stats? DC is our preferred location as she is kind of interested in government/law (future goal) but it may change. Does she have any shot at GW/American? Do they give scholarships?
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You need to see if they are needs met, if your EFC is 45K and you can afford that then she doesnt need scholarships. I do know that American gives scholarships but I dont know about GW. @AustenNut is wonderful about giving suggestions for lists if you give a little more information.
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Yes, I think UMD should be a target for your daughter for govt/political science, and a high target for economics. Business might be harder. Unfortunately, you wonāt get FA as an OOS applicant. They do have a few merit scholarships but hard to say if your daughter will get one. I think itās worth a visit.
Agreed. But please start a separate āmatch meā thread @hello06.
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Looking for big schools with 15k+ students on the east coast while staying north of Virginia is going to be one of your bigger limiting factors.
Whenever I hear that someone us interested in poli sci and government, I think about state capitals. U. of Vermont and Virginia Commonwealth are the first two to come to mind.
UMD may be worth an application, but I am unsure if it will reach your budget, but it is within the realm of possibilities. I would also take a look at U**. of Delaware**, Binghamton, and Towson as additional possibilities.
GW is the largest of the DC schools, but I think itās between 10-12k students. Would your D consider mid-size schools (perhaps like Providence in RI which has more than 4k undergrads)?
If youāre willing to consider a little further south, what about U. of South Carolina? Itās in the state capital, has a very well-reputed honors college, and a strong program in international business (perhaps all businessā¦Iām unsure).
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It is hard, but try to stop stressing. Chances are your daughter will find a school that she likes and can afford. My middle had a active social life in HS, 89/90 average, and was even offered a scholarship. Try to do college visits that are good safeties and hopefully sheāll be excited about those (and possibly even get merit scholarship offers).
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Do parents know about this thread about different colleges shuttering?
I just learned about this thread recently.
My warning to parents:
with so many colleges shuttering (or on the decline, and thus have to make tough decisions of hiring freeze - impacts class sizes or class availability, vs. dorm upgrades vs. more financial aid),
do deeper research on the college,
even if the college is throwing a lot of money towards some applicants.
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First time I had read about it, I wondered if I should worry about Columbia, Manhattanās original āKingās Collegeā - before realizing itās a different King.
This is āThe Kingā 's college, a one-time transplant from the Jersey shore. 
Hi everyone, This is my first post, but Iāve been reading/logged in for months. Hereās a question. My D24 is probably going to major in Psych of some kind. She has 4 reach schools: Northeastern, Georgia Tech (in-state), Emory, and Boston U. Is any of these schools an environment in which most of the students will be obsessed with making money/the rat race? We donāt want a school like that. Many thanks in advance.
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I donāt remember any of these schools having been mentioned for a cut-throat environment - my daughter had applied to several of those and visited them twice (before and after admission).
But if you want to yield the widest and most informed responses from alumni and parents of current/recent students, I suggest you start a new thread with a descriptive title and then ātagā the four school names to your new subject.
FWIW, my daughter eventually chose a more selective college where one might easily have assumed such an environment, but in reality she found a very cooperative spirit. In colleges with a large percentage of high achieving students, people donāt really compete against with one another any longer, but if anything, with āthemselvesā (hard to suddenly shake that A-type personality after K-12).
Now, in some areas of study, there might be competitiveness with respect to eventually gaining internships - such as finance, engineering, etc. or access to grad school. With Psychology I donāt expect that either.
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Iāve been running NPCs for possible colleges for S24 and Iām annoyed.
Some are easy because they either (1) are clear upfront that they donāt offer merit aid, and they give you an expected cost based on your finances, or (2) have very well-defined merit that is either automatic (or āalmostā) for certain stats.
But there are a lot of schools that donāt fit into either of those categories that give an estimated cost that doesnāt take into account any merit, but I know from reading CC the school often does give merit. 
The easy thing is to just keep those schools off the list, because it isnāt worth the effort to apply at the cost they list on the NPC.