<p>i really really want to go to Haverford College and i want to apply early but my parents are convinced that i can get a full ride somewhere else so they want me to apply to a variety of schools regular decision so that i can go to the cheapest one. From what ive seen in previous threads only a few students win scholarships. What kinds of schools would i be the top %1 of applicants? Is there anywhere that i can feel certain that i will be able to go for very little? I know that there is a difference between a full ride at Uchicago and Rutgers and i need to know what kinds of schools i could get a scholarship at. If i would not be able to go to other schools for very little money than it would be stupid of me not to just try and get into Haverford Early and accept their financial aid. Please help me!
My stats
2330 SAT, 3.91 cumulative unweighted gpa, 3 APs my junior year and all 5s on the AP exams, 790 history SAT 2 and 770 math SAT 2, 4 years on varsity XC and winter and spring track, member of Mu Alpha Theta (math honor society, National Honor Society, and Chess Club, tons of community service, worked as a lifeguard for 3 summers</p>
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<p>Haverford provides need based financial aid only. They don’t have scholarships at all. It sounds like your parents have some financial limits on how much they are able/willing to pay for you to attend college. You will need to discuss this with them and find some schools that are affordable and agreeable to all of you. Yes…go ahead and apply to Haverford but do so REGULAR DECISION so that your family and you will be able to realistically look at the finances and make a decision.</p>
<p>If your stats are sufficiently high to gain acceptance to Haverford (and my guess is they are at least close)…you will get admitted RD as easily as ED.</p>
<p>Someone here can link you to a thread about guaranteed scholarships. </p>
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<p>A full ride is a full ride. They are few and far between. Do you NEED a full ride? </p>
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<p>Well…no. You will not KNOW if you could attend “other schools for very little money” if you apply accept an ED offer from Haverford. You will NOT HAVE any other financial aid offers. Haverford might be a good offer …but it might be the worst…no way of knowing because you are not giving yourself the chance to SEE what other schools will offer you if you accept an ED offer from Haverford.</p>
<p>Need based aid is based largely on parent income and assets. Will you even qualify for enough need based aid? You need to run your financial stats through an online EFC calculator using the Institutional Methodology…but keep in mind…this will give you an ESTIMATE only. Since Haverford uses the CSS Profile for the awarding of their institutional need based aid, they can disburse it using ANY formula…and THEY will determine your family contribution and your need based on THEIR formula.</p>
<p>I would suggest you apply RD.</p>
<p>You might want to look at these:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html</a></p>
<p>I agree with everything Thumper said…but if they offer Early ACTION do that. Not Early Decision but early action is nonbinding, allows you to see how much the school offers you and gives you time to try to talk to the FA department about your financial aid package as well if needed.</p>
<p>Haverford has only Early Decision…not early action.</p>
<p>Haverford is an excellent college. No undergraduate college, however, is worth taking on massive debt or asking your parents to prostrate the family’s finances for four years when there are many other very, very good schools at which you would qualify for a significant merit aid package. Your parents are right.</p>
<p>Are you a likely NMF? What was your PSAT and what state are you in? New Jersey?</p>
<p>What is your likely major?</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay? It sounds like they’re not prepared to pay much for college, which is why they are directing you to schools where you would get large merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Certainly there are schools that will give you large merit. However, some may only give you full tuition, so you’d still have to pay for room, board, books, fees, etc.</p>
<p>My PSAT was a 221. Im in NJ. According to what the Haverford Financial Aid office told my parents, my parents would not be able to afford the full cost and i would personally have to take a student loan of about $10,000 a year. I am not sure what i want to major in but i am pretty sure that i want to follow the pre-med track and apply to medical school after college. Thanks for all the replys and at this point i am leaning toward just applying RD and comparing costs with different schools. I just thought that i might have a better chance applying ED…</p>
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<p>Interesting as the student loan in your name (Stafford) has a $5500 limit for freshmen.</p>
<p>If are planning to go to medical school, you want to keep your undergraduate debt to a BARE MINIMUM…if anything at all. Your medical school costs will be huge and most of that WILL come in form of loans.</p>
<p>For many schools, you would have a better chance of acceptance ED. I don’t know what the differential are between ED and RD at Haverford. But what you gain in acceptance chances, you lose more in your options. The way it works for ED is that you have to make that decision to take their acceptance and aid offers pretty much on the spot and withdraw your other applications. If your family is ok about paying up to $50K+++ a year for your college, that’s one thing, but if they are not, then you need to look at some scholarship and low cost options as well.</p>
<p>My one son had stats similar to yours, and got only one full ride offer from an in state school. But the other costs varied from under $20K to close to $60K. He ended up picking something in the middle and negotiated a bit more merit money from them as he had offers that were more generous than the school he liked. If he had applied ED, he would not have known what his options were.</p>
<p>Full rides are very difficult to get even for kids with high stats , especially from schools that are well known and selective. They are true lottery tickets. My son did not get any of those. But a number of schools may come up with some nice merit numbers. Keep your options open.</p>
<p>* I am not sure what i want to major in but i am pretty sure that i want to follow the pre-med track and apply to medical school after college.*</p>
<p>Well, if you’re going to be pre-med, then you don’t want to borrow that much for undergrad.</p>
<p>I don’t know if a 221 will be high enough for NMSF/F in NJ. I think 221 was the cutoff last year.</p>
<p>And…BTW…for you to borrow that much, you’d need co-signers. Many parents won’t do that.</p>
<p>YOU can only borrow the following amounts…</p>
<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>
<p>haverford is JUST as hard to get into rd as it is ed. not to mention, from at least your stats, you seem to be well within the range of admitted students RD (again, these chances things aren’t always right). with your stats, I would apply RD to haverford and a bunch of other schools, including those in which you have a high chance of receiving merit scholarships. i agree with the above, there’s no need to incur a massive amount of debt from undergrad. but still, i think you would get in RD, so ED doesn’t seem to be worth it in your case (unless you are a recruited athlete, and have talked to the coach and he/she has suggested you apply ED- is this the case?).</p>