I agree. There are a couple of Penn State branches that are can provide a traditional college feel, like Behrend, but not all and not all will have every major.
I know that most top students want a “better” experience, but I also have known NMSFs and kids with perfect SATs who chose less rigorous schools so that the could be close to home or so that it would be affordable. It sounded like this student wants to be close to home.
Being close to home is great- but is home over the river from NJ? near Harrisburg or Pittsburgh? We don’t know enough to suggest…
If close to home is a criterion, what about schools in New York?
Your daughter would be a very competitive candidate at the highly selective private schools, such as HYPSM, which also offer very generous financial aids; for example, for the students entering Princeton in the fall of 2023, the EFC for families with a yearly income of up to $100,000; 150,000; 200,000; 250,000; 300,000 are: $0; 12,500; 25,000; 37,500; 50,000, respectively. The school also gives extra aid to those with multiple siblings attending college simultaneously and with special needs.
Princeton is not considered “top notch” in CS; however, it does have other attributes to compensate.
She said that according to the NPCs, they will not qualify for financial aid.
Even if she didn’t run a NPC for the kinds of schools that have a more generous definition of who qualifies for financial aid, those are lottery ticket schools. There is no reason for her not to apply, but it can’t be her primary plan given these constraints.
Fordham gives full tuition scholarships to all National Merit Finalists and Semi-Finalists.
Thanks for all of your input and my daughter hopefully will get to a place where she finds optimal college experience.
We are very close to Princeton. I have told my daughter about opportunities in Fordham as well. This is all parents can do .After certain point it’s up to students to make best decision about their future. She knows how hard it is to earn money and all the struggling we are doing .
Appreciate everyone’s input!
Would you be able to find a very part-time job that would let you earn the $5,000 differential for PSU/Pitt before next August? (That’d be earning $500 net per month so depending on what you’d be doing, it may be too much time.)
DO run the NPCs on colleges such as Wellesley, Amherst, Williams, HYP, Columbia, Barnard… Don’t tell your daughter but see if some offer lower cost estimates, even if they’re not affordable - then, email each financial aid office about your circumstances. These would be the most likely to take these family/health circumstances into account. If you need help with what to include/not to include in that statement some members here should be able to guide you.
Bryn Mawr is near Philly, academically rigorous, and offers a good range of classes due to cross registration with Haverford.
Now, even if 1 or 2 of these colleges take your financial circumstances into account, they’re “lottery” admissions, so certainly apply but it’s impossible to count on them.
Right now, you/your daughter need to figure out what her essential criteria&optimal college environment would be (dealbreakers) as well as “nice to have” (that are not essential or that can make an otherwise “dealbreaker” a bit less unpalatable).
Then, find 2-3 financial safeties with decent Honors Colleges that match some of these criteria as well as a few matches.
Is Fordham too urban? Or is it fine for her?
What about NJIT Honors? Rowan Honors?
NJIT Honors would be strong in CS. UMBC is another one to look into (since B/K at UMD can’t be counted on - though definitely worth applying for).
Run the NPC on SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Stony Brook (commuter/suitcase though), SUNY Bing (residential) – the last 2 likely closest to where you live-, look into the CS programs, the Honors College/programs, and the merit scholarships. They’re 45K OOS before any scholarship so merit scholarships would probably decide whether it’s worth applying or not.
I agree that a Penn State branch is unlikely to be adequate. In addition, she’s likely to get into PSU “Main” and based on the information provided since it doesn’t sound like she could commute to Behrend/Altoona/Harrisburg (the branches closest to what would be regional, public 4-year colleges in other states) there’s no financial benefit for her to attend any of these 3. The tuition differential is 3K but the level in CS will be quite different and since your daughter is very accomplished it wouldn’t be worth it.
For PSU, she can interact with the college of engineering to show interest (as there are some COE-specific scholarships), asking relevant questions such as linking her academic interests or experience and courses, etc.; she could also try and participate in any invitational weekend she’s invited to (ie., “For the Glory” weekend) as this may lead to an additional scholarship.
If she’s lucky, she may get a Provost scholarship but no one knows the criteria. With her superlative profile+ being a girl interested in CS, a “women in science&engineering” (named) scholarship may be added to her package at either Pitt or PSU (or Temple, if she applies). But that’s completely impossible to predict, so PSU may end up well below budget or above it. :s
Right now, PSu is 34K (tuition, fees, room&board) and Pitt 36k (tuition, fees, room&board), in-state. (A family with an EFC 0 is expected to “find” 25K, v. 10K in MD for instance; tuition is ~10K instate in NYS or MD v. 19K at PSu and 22K at Pitt).
Since those two are her best value choices after NJIT (most likely to admit+ cost/quality return) you need to think of the way it’ll be affordable if she doesn’t get any of the huge scholarships in MD.
Basically, PA is financially terrible for university access compared to other, similar States (high cost publics and poor financial aid, leading to a precipitous fall in national rankings since that criterion was added -77th v. 57 in 2020 and 47 in 2010… as well as/related to a ranking of #403 in the national mobility rankings). A decision (?pending?) in Harrisburg could yield some more money for the university, some of which would be used to freeze tuition and create scholarships. You can keep your fingers crossed on that, or call state lawmakers.
Good luck to your D. As long as she applies to a nice mix of schools she probably will have some nice options in April. Be sure to apply to Honors programs. I still think Pitt could be a nice option. Apply ASAP.
If she’s thinking about some reach schools like Princeton maybe a school like Lehigh might be appropriate. They meet need although I’ve heard it’s a mixed bag of how they calculate need. Someone more knowledgeable about Lehigh might know.
Once all offers are in don’t be afraid to ask for more money. It may or may not happen. It depends on how much they want your D. S20 asked a couple. Got another 5k/year from one school that was mentioned.
The Rowan Honors idea is a good one. Rowan is moving more toward need based aid, but a top student like this might still get a great scholarship.
I love the Rowan Honors kids I’ve met. Bright, hard-working, down-to-earth, well-rounded. The graduates are doing very well. A friend’s son in Rowan CS (not honors) had amazing job offers from NJ to California.
If the OP’s family is near Princeton, it would be a very easy trip home. Maybe an hour?