@vistajay Thank you! I think of Tulane as a party school (maybe one of the reasons she didn’t like W&L?) but I could be wrong. I forgot about Trinity in TX, which a friend’s daughter attended and loved, but if I recall it was expensive.
@PickleParent I think of all of those schools as too expensive, but I don’t really know. Interesting to hear about Davidson. What year is your friend? Could Covid be affecting the viewpoint? We know so many students who have loved it that she is considering applying ED there. Those kids are graduates now, though.
@Mwfan1921 Yes, she will qualify for the maximum Pell.
@Mwfan1921@thumper1 Would she be a serious contender for Questbridge if she’s at a private school (with full aid)? That was the other reason we’ve never had our kids apply.
@Bill_Marsh Yes, it was interesting to see her siblings’ results given their respective profiles.
@comtnmom She did that and still had (relatively) abysmal results. Wildly different from all of her practice exams, so I think anxiety is the culprit. I hope that if she takes enough practice tests she will overcome that.
@BirdintheHand our friend is a junior. He was an athlete but decided not to play this year. He was happy to live off campus this year. I know one of his friends transferred because he decided he wanted to pursue business and they don’t offer much. It’s too close to home for us, but when we’ve tried to talk ourselves into considering it the majors offered did seem limiting.
I’d still encourage your daughter to apply! im also from a similar background. my parents are married and well-educated in their home country. they are immigrants and we are a minority (but ORM) but I think it’s still a great opportunity to take advantage of. QB is made specifically for low income, high achieving people which I presume includes your daughter.
@thumper1@EconPop@Mwfan1921@harrypottereatspie Her GC did not seem supportive of her applying to Questbridge. When I mentioned it early last year, she kind of scoffed and mentioned the reasons I noted for not pursuing it (well-educated parents, intact family, non-URM, private school, etc.). “It’s not meant for people like you.” But I don’t know if she is very knowledgeable about it. I’m pretty sure she has not ever had a student apply. But she did make me feel kind of bad for considering it, and so I assumed my daughter would not have a shot. I need to look into it more. (For some reason I thought there was a downside when we considered it for one of her brothers a few years ago, even if our background didn’t hurt him. Something about it limiting his options in some way, or hurting his chances if he didn’t match, maybe? I can’t remember what it was.)
@harrypottereatspie Thanks for the additional info! Are you a College Prep Scholar? My daughter started the application but didn’t complete it for the reasons noted above. It looks like the National Match application isn’t open yet but will be due in September. Yikes, seems like a short turnaround time, especially if she’s trying to get her ACT up.
there’s not much of a downside if you don’t match. if your daughter receives finalist status but doesn’t match, it does count as an honor / award that she could put on the common app. the school options obviously are limited but the schools that you indicated she likes are QB partners + some of the most selective schools are partners so at least it seems more attainable, if not anything else.
yes, I am a college prep scholar :)) and NCM isn’t open yet. it opens in mid to late July and is due in late September. I agree that the drawback is that it is due super early but that is because the application is applying for finalist status FIRST, not directly to the colleges. it’s also a drawback that you can’t edit your application after you have received finalist status, which means it’s extra important to refine the essays very well before submitting though there is the time crunch. when is your daughter retaking the ACT? I’m not quite familiar with it as I take the SAT but if she’s taking the first test of the year maybe she can squeeze it in. for CPS they allowed us to upload the score report later if we were pending results.
@Eeyore123 No, and that is part of my stress. She doesn’t really have a list at all (reach, match, safety). Safety is the hardest, by far. Maybe Sewanee could fit the bill if they now meet demonstrated need.
as for safeties, what about your state uni? schools in Florida if she likes the sunshine? I’m not sure about acceptance rates for OOS students in public Florida unis though. if arizona isn’t too far - ASU is a reliable safety and merit would be likely although it may be unaffordable without the merit/financial aid.
I wouldn’t even think about reaches until you have 1-2 true safeties. Are you able to contribute to her education or does she have to find something that is affordable with Pell + federal loans?
My son’s science score on the ACT was an outlier (29). He took 5 practice tests of that section only. Retook the ACT and raised his score by 6 points (35). I remember him saying that the science was particularly hard the date he took it the first time so I’m not sure if it was the practice or just the questions.
Be careful how Sewanee defines “need”. I just ran their NPC and it spit out a number double what we pay at a different “meets full need” school where D20 attends.
OP- focus on affordability for now. Find a few schools where your D is sure to get in, and where the combination of the Pell, Federal Loans, and some work study (to cover books and the occasional pizza, not to contribute to tuition) means she’ll go to college.
All the discussion about liking sunshine, not liking this or that- irrelevant until she’s got two rock solid safeties. And I’m not being mean- a couple of Aprils on CC will get you to where the rest of us are- some heartbreaking stories about kids who did “everything right” and yet don’t have a single affordable option come April 30th. We all start chiming in with suggestions of places still taking applications- but nothing beats a rock solid safety which is FIRST on the list of applications to be finished.
Ignore your GC. Questbridge does not penalize you for being an intact family which cares about education. It’s goal is to help kids who qualify (based on income, educational achievement, etc.) go to college, and to help colleges attract a different sort of the student from what they typically find in the applicant pool. If you qualify- for sure apply. There is no downside.
@Eeyore123@blossom Thank you so much, and I agree, so we’d really appreciate help finding safeties. My original point was intended to be that I’m aware that the schools that meet full demonstrated need are not anybody’s safeties, so we need help figuring out where she should apply. At this point all suggestions are helpful. We have to consider these things (the whole list) simultaneously, since summer is short and she will get busier in August (and my job will also get a lot busier again soon). Plus, the QB application is due really early, and I know most big scholarship applications are due early, too.
@Eeyore123 Yes, she needs to find something affordable with Pell and federal loans/work study.
For a little more background, I’ve followed this forum for years but have rarely posted. We took a lot of great CC advice given to others, and our older kids had awesome results. They had roughly comparable profiles to D22’s except for higher ACTs (34 and up). Their “safeties” turned out to be by far the most expensive options, so we were fortunate they were accepted to schools that truly met our full need.
I don’t know much about Questbridge, but if your D meets the requirements, it seems like a good program to try. Let Questbridge decide if there are more needy students. Is there a # you could call and speak to someone at Questbridge to ask questions about your concerns? I originally thought my D would want to be at a small or mid-sized college but after learning more about honors colleges at big universities and her interest in research/Engineering we targeted larger universities in warm climates that had honors programs that would make a large school seem smaller. She had a 4.0/33 gpa. She received the best merit scholarships at U of AZ, U of AL, U of AL Huntsville and FSU. This past year U of AZ had automatic merit based on gpa only, previous years it was gpa/ACT combo, but you might want to check out the auto merit charts (that could change yearly) at U of AZ and the U of AL universities if she would consider a larger university.
