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In terms of EA/ED...I would like to apply ED to Princeton but my parents won't allow me to because they want to keep our "financial options open."
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Actually, Princeton is a "special case" in terms of ED. They are pretty generous, and they don't include loans into the finaid packet (although they offer institutional loans if you need to cover part of EFC). Thus, what you see is what you get (sometimes what you get is even better). Try to plug your family's projected income for 2006 into Pton's online calculator (including your Dad's new salary). Then think (and ask your parents) what will you prefer: to pay $10,000-$15,000 for Princeton, or (best-case-scenario) to pay nothing for UVa (if you get Jefferson) or for a LAC which will offer you merit full-ride? If the answer is "Princeton", go ahead and apply ED; if you prefer full-ride, research for merit scholarships and do not apply ED. With other universities, ED is pretty risky; with Princeton, you know the price tag upfront, and there is no risk (if Princeton is what you prefer anyway)</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that merit aid is usually NOT applied to your EFC, but is used to substitute for some parts of need finaid (there may be special cases, though... ). That is, in most cases merit aid is not "stackable", and you may end up paying the same $10,000-$15,000 of EFC (unless you get a full-ride or something close to it).</p>
<p>J07, I don't think you should tinker too much with your list. You might want to drop CLemson, and perhaps Lehigh, because Clemson especially is more of a science/engineering school.</p>
<p>I think that you have a good chance of being admitted to more than one of the schools on your list - probably not all, but likely some, and it is almost impossible to predict which ones, and hard to judge how much aid you will get - that is why the advice to group them best you can and start working on the apps for your favorites first is not a bad strategy. It is tough to do a good job on all those apps, so look at it as a job where you are earning thousands of dollars an hour by working hard on those essays!</p>
<p>Do go visit some schools in your area, sit in on some classes. Visit UT if you haven't already, and try to stay with or at least talk to students from Plan II. You don't have to spend a lot of money or time to get a flavor of large vs small or big city vs small town - you may learn that you still want to keep options open.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the merit route is for you, have some frank conversations with your parents about costs. I hear what they are saying, and you should be glad that they are willing to pay for a private college, but it sounds like they are willing to pay for a school that they perceive to be of higher value/prestige/whatever, than a state school. From what little I know of Plan II, it may be difficult to get a better education than Plan II and may be a hard sell to them to pay the shortfall between a generous merit scholarship at private LAC with merit vs paying the same total amount to go to Princeton. What I mean is, you might be in for good merit aid at many schools, but still fall $10000 a year short of total costs, vs falling 12-15000 short at Princeton - they might be willing to pay for Princeton, but not Private LAC. It is their money, they do get some say-so (I did), but it is better for everyone to lay out as much of the money stuff as possible before the apps go out - saves a lot of heartache, and helps you get ownership into the process.</p>
<p>Finally get on the phone with some of your choices and find out about the availability of funds to do visits in the spring. I'm almost positive that Amherst and Dartmouth are good bets to fly you out for a visit, and some others might as well. Often they will contact you, but it doesn't hurt to inquire.</p>
<p>A few of you have mentioned that places like Amherst and Dartmouth might offer me visits or something to that extent...what is the correct protocol for contacting the schools? I would feel incredibly awkward saying something to the effect of "I'm Hispanic, I'm from Texas, I have pretty good stats," even if I could think of a more eloquent and diplomatic way to put it. I am interested in visiting both of these schools but I am unsure how to go about contacting them.</p>
<p>A Duke admissions representative visited my high school a few weeks ago. At our meeting I gave the representative, Chrissy Cortina, a brief sheet of my statistics. Later from some advice on a CC post I found out that she was the Latino Recruitment Coordinator at Duke. I emailed her but never received a response. I know she must be an incredibly busy woman but I thought perhaps after 3 or 4 weeks she might have the time to respond...I emailed the address she provided on her business card. </p>
<p>Anyway, can anybody tell me how I should contact Amherst or Dartmouth correctly?</p>
<p>contact sybbie, a parent who is an alum on the Dartmouth board</p>
<p>You have to make some choices and they all don't have to make sense. </p>
<p>Try five reaches and three really solid matches would be my advice, keeping in mind that Reaches are entirely unpredictable but you are fully qualified to apply and should be at least make it to the discussion pile for acceptances for considered for all. Keep in mind that many good matches give a great education and you will also have to be sincere in those applications and mean it to write good essays for them.
Vandy gets a lot of Texas applicants but Nashville is a great city and spouse is a graduate. Very very fun town with spirit and a lot of maverick personalities, artistic venues, fun sports, great places to intern, capitol city advantages as well as friendly culture.</p>
<p>You are going to get in absolutely everywhere. You are going to rank among the top 100-150 Hispanic female applicants in the U.S., and, if you play your cards right (and ask), virtually every one of those schools is going to fly you in to take a look around. </p>
<p>Have your GC call the admissions offices, explain who you are, what your situation is, and ASK. And if they really don't want you (which I doubt), they'll make that clear by not offering an invitation. </p>
<p>Once you've visited, you can start winnowing.</p>
<p>Vague narrowing:
-- Eliminate all those not on the east or west coast (there goes ND);
-- Marginal focus on undergrads - do you want more or less? If more, get rid of all schools with graduate programs, or, if that's too stringent, eliminate all schools where grad. school (not prof. school, but grad school) students outnumber the undergrads.
-- Top law school - won't matter in the least if you remain one of the most desirable Hispanic female applicants.
-- Social life - what kind? Greek? non-Greek? eating clubs? Finals clubs? Heavy drinking? Not much? in cities, in the boonies? Does economic diversity matter? What do you like?</p>
<p>The only problem with the advice of having my GC call schools is that she won't do it. My GC, unfortunately, does not care much about me gaining admission to a top-tier school...she is much more concerned with getting kids into public Texas universities. Despite the fact that I have been attempting to set up private meetings with her since the middle of my junior year, I have succeeded exactly once in my nine or ten requests (I leave written requests in her box/with her secretary...my parents have even contacted her, so it's not as if she isn't getting them.) I have met with her in private to discuss other issues (scheduling conflicts, etc.) several times this year and she still has no clue who I am when I say hello to her in the hallways. I sent her a well-written (or at least, I hope it was) letter this summer outling my qualifications and my college plans along with extensive explanation as to why I am applying to so many reach schools. She never responded or commented. I refuse to be negative about the situation and have decided to submit three letters of recommendation from teachers (the 2 regulars plus the supplemental) to make up for her letter which...considering that she knows nothing about me...will most likely be a little dry. </p>
<p>That was entirely too lengthy, but my question is...if my GC can't and won't call admissions offices and explain my situation/"who I am" to them, how could I do it without seeming arrogant or needy?</p>
<p>Do you have a teacher who would be willing to do so? If not, email the adcoms of the schools you are interested in and explain your situation. It is very likely that you will be contacted back and invited.</p>
<p>Would the principal or assistant principal of your school be willing to call some colleges to try to arrange visits for you?</p>
<p>I think a well-written snail mail letter from you to the admissions office of your colleges explaining your circumstances and that you are very interested in the college would be in order. You would need to say something specific about each college that interests you. You can politely ask if there are any arrangements that can be made for visits under special circumstances. You won't be seen as arrogant (you have a lovely, modest writing style). You aren't really "needy" in a negative way, but you do have special circumstances here, and as mini pointed out, you have qualifications that are in demand. It's OK to ask for assistance here.</p>
<p>I am only half-Mexican...my father is Mexican but my mother is white. While admissions officers or schools in general view my URM status less favorably because I am not "fully" Hispanic?</p>
<p>Do you live in a major Tx city? Look on the websites of the colleges you are interested in most will post visit schedules for the adcoms - and they will come to cities in Tx - perhaps you can go to their event and ask the adcom directly. It is a little awkward, but bookiemom's wording is good. I'm very interested in your school, I'm a Hispanic student, but I'm having difficulty visiting etc.</p>
<p>j07: Here is the site for info on Jefferson Scholars at UVA. I think you would have a good chance at this. You can see if your school is allowed to nominate someone (Participating Schools--check by state). You might have to get your principal to do that since your GC isn't helpful. If your school doesn't particiapte UVA will still consider you for this. The deadline is Nov. 7.</p>
<p>Here's what I think you should do. Get your list in order--10-12 schools. Make up a resume listing with all your test scores, sports info, ECs. Write your one-page letter explaining your circumstances. Ask for additional info about campus re your possible major, any DVD or other materials college may have for distant students. Say that you would like to visit; do they have any program available for URM candidates that can't afford to visit; perhaps a student that you could talk to at each college. Send this off now. You will get some calls and interest and have some names to correspond with at the schools. Set up a filing system now for each college so you can keep track of all contacts.</p>
<p>My school, unfortunately, cannot nominate anybody for the Jefferson scholar program. </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice bookiemom, I plan on doing exactly that. University of Virginia sent me a letter and email today requesting my presence at a Fall Blast, which is a seminar/open-house type thing for Latino students. However, even if I could afford to fly up to Virginia, I don't think I could miss school to do so. I plan on calling the office though and letting them know that I would have liked to attend.</p>
<p>Perhaps a parent or two will volunteer to read the letter that I draft to mail off to colleges to make sure that I am including all of the necessary information and that it is modest enough and coherent enough to present my request respectfully and clearly. </p>
<p>Also, should I send the letters to the admissions office? Or should I try to track down my regional representative? The Latino recruitment coordinator? I plan on starting to work on these letters tonight.</p>
<p>Also, I have not received notification of my National Hispanic Merit Scholar thing yet, however, I received a 214 on my PSAT and the cut-off for this was around 186 or so last year. I doubt that it jumped 28 points in a single year so I should be OK. My school, however, hasn't contacted me about it. I know I didn't qualify for National Merit Semifinalist (they have already told those kids) but I thought they might have mentioned something to me or one of the other two kids who should be receving Natl. Hispanic Merit Scholar. Do any parents know how this works?</p>
<p>Thanks to everybody again...your advice and attentiveness is truly overwhelming in its sincerity and generosity.</p>
<p>I'd be glad to read your letter. Some admissions offices have Hispanic recruiters, others don't. If you know there is one, send the letter to him/her. If not, send it to the admissions office, attention of regional recruiter for your area, unless you know the name of that person. Beware that they are likely to be traveling at this time of the year.</p>
<p>About NMSFm call the National Merit Corporation and ask about both the cutoff for regular NMSF and for Hispanic Merit Scholar. A 214 is quite decent.</p>
<p>There's a current thread in the Fin Aid forum discussing NHRP. A poster said that they talked to a coordinator of the program who said that letters are going out this week. Don't hold your breath though, here is a quote from a poster last year: </p>
<p>"Regarding getting the news, it will happen first from many, many colleges sending you a flood of letters. I think they have their letters all ready to go and when they get the disk from NHRP they mail merge it and have it in the mail that day. Our experience was that we got at least twenty letters of congratulations from universities before we ever got the official letter from the College Board. The Board will send one to your home but it's quite a bit later. We never heard a word from our high school about it until the end of year awards ceremonies. They always seem to be the last to do anything!"</p>
<p>As long as you and your GC turned in the necessary information last spring, you should have no problem making either NHRP Honorable Mention (gpa = 3-3.49) or Scholar (gpa = 3.5+).</p>
<p>Alright, I've edited my list down a little bit.</p>
<p>As of right now, here is the still-too-long list of schools.</p>
<p>University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Southern California
Princeton
Middlebury
Yale
Dartmouth
Duke
Harvard
Stanford
Notre Dame
+1 more LAC, I haven't decided which!</p>
<p>I now have two safeties, sort of. USC offers half-tuition automatically to National Hispanic Recruitment Program Scholar Finalists (or that's what they said in a letter they sent me), and since I received my letter from College Board today notifying me of this award I think that I have a pretty safe chance of admission. </p>
<p>I also have a pretty good mix of West Coast/East Coast, big-city/isolated, sunny/snowy, huge school/small school. I want a few options, like I've said before.</p>
<p>Any comments on my semi-new-and-improved list? Also, do any parents have comments about LACs? I've thought about Amherst but don't know much about other LACs...I have visited school websites and looked in Fiske guides but those only say so much about a school. </p>
<p>Thanks for those who said they would read my letter, I worked last night and am working tonight too so I haven't had the chance to start it yet. I'll keep you posted though!</p>
<p>You are going to get into all of them. There are big schools and little schools, urban schools and rural schools, schools in cold climates and hot climates, schools with huge graduate schools and schools with none, privates and publics, schools big on athletics (most of them) and some not so big. On that basis, I wouldn't dare comment, because it is clear to me you really haven't figured out yet what you want. (You really NEED some visits, and then some values clarification.)</p>
<p>Middlebury (to me) is an odd choice for your only northeast LAC. It is about the least diverse, and among the most isolated of all the possible choices. But maybe that's what you wanted?</p>