<p>Hi. Parents I need your advice. I am an incoming senior applying to colleges soon and I have made the following list:
Safeties:
Louisiana Tech (full ride with my stats)
Temple University (full tuition 12000 stipend)
Match:
Denison University
Rhodes College
Missing one more
Reach:
Skidmore College (I like this one cuz I have a lot of family in New York)</p>
<p>The problem is I showed my dad the list and he keeps saying "don't limit yourself" and stuff while all of these colleges are respectable colleges and a lot are qualified liberal arts colleges. Just because he hasn't heard of them doesn't mean they aren't good colleges. He wants me to apply to places like Syracuse and Tulane. While I could get accepted he doesn't get the fact that I probably couldn't afford it. How can I explain without sounding disrespectful that he needs to get a reality check and that colleges don't just hand out full rides and my list needs to be realistic?</p>
<p>Have you shown him the net price calculators? They are fairly new, just around for a few years, but every college is required to have them on their website to give you an idea of what the cost of attendance would be. You need help from your parents to run them, so it is a perfect way to involve him in the process. Print out the results of each one so you have them to discuss (remind him) later if he wants you to consider schools that aren’t affordable. </p>
<p>I told him I won’t get enough financial aid because he made 79000 this year (special circumstance currently unemployed)…he is hoping for a merit scholarship but I am trying to explain to him that there are a lot of people with excellent academic achievement and it’s really competitive and the chances are slim if not impossible to get a full ride at top colleges</p>
<p>So here is how you can get a better chance at figuring out your odds for merit money:</p>
<ol>
<li>Look at the college financial aid webpage to see what it says about merit based scholarships.</li>
<li>Google “<college name=”"> Common Data Set". There is a section in the common data set that tells the % of students that get merit scholarship and what the average amount is. You can try to extrapolate by how your stats stack up to the pool of accepted students to figure out if you are in a high enough percentile to get merit aid and what they give on average. I would not assume you would get more than the average amount.<br></college></li>
</ol>
<p>Print it out and show this information to your dad along with your test scores. </p>
<p>He may be feeling badly about having to restrict your options because of finances. </p>
<p>Asking him to sit down with you and look at the CDSs and NPCs might help him get the picture, or it may make him feel worse. </p>
<p>I’d suggest telling your dad that you are happy with the schools on your list, but asking your dad where HE thinks you should apply. Then add it to the list. If he is willing to pay for the application, it doesn’t hurt. You’ll be accepted, or not, and get enough $$, or not. </p>
<p>You can certainly add Tulane and Syracuse to your application list. If you get better offers from other schools, you then will consider which offer meets your financial and academic needs.</p>
<p>It’s a shock to parents that colleges aren’t handing out basketfuls of merit scholarships to their well qualified kid. When your dad was going through this process, (like me) he probably applied to a couple local schools, sent in the transcripts, and wah-lah, got accepted. The cost probably wasn’t a deal breaker for him or his family. </p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to some top colleges but get the financial facts and data first. The net price calculators and common data sets are indeed the starting place. Also show your dad the number of applicants at each “top college” and the percent accepted. These institutions have plenty of applicants who are willing to pay or finance the full cost of attendance. It’s become a racket and one I don’t suggest playing in.</p>
<p>My point of view: search and apply to colleges that (1) offer excellent merit scholarships for someone with your stats, (2) focus on undergraduate teaching (for you this could be through an honors college at a large state university or a 100% undergrad liberal arts college), (3) are mainly residential so you have a real community, (4) have a proven track record of preparing students grad school or the workforce, and (5) won’t break your or your family’s bank. </p>
<p>Side note: my younger D applied and was accepted to Rhodes and got a great merit scholarship but we could not afford the remainder and still sleep at night. She selected a local LAC that is financially doable and has a great track record for grad school admittance in her area of interest.</p>
<p>I’ve posted them somewhere else I forgot sorry @happy1 my stats:
GPA: 3.957/5.624
SAT: 2150
ACT: 31
AP: World, Psychology, Lang, Cal AB/BC, US HIS, BIO, French, Macro, Lit,
Clubs: French Honor Society (2 years), English Honor Society (2 years), Biomedical Club (2 years) others plus continuing these</p>
<p>Internship at Florida International University in Psychology
150 hours community service church pianist
also hours from internship</p>
<p>@shockwave457 you have similar stats as my D’11 had. She is a rising senior at Tulane and received roughly a half tuition merit scholarship 3 years ago, and has maintained the needed grades to keep it. It doesn’t hurt to apply and see what they offer, I do not know if (or how) the merit scholarship criteria may have changed at Tulane over the past three years.</p>
<p>I like the advice of going ahead and applying and see what happens. You can always say no in April instead of now, after the final financial information is in front of you.</p>
<p>oh, and I think that Tulane has a free app, so you are only out time and not money at this point. Just make sure you do the (not so much) optional why Tulane? essay if you are serious at all about going.</p>
<p>My son received generous merit aid packages from Guilford, Eckerd, and Willamette. He did not receive any scholarship from Tulane, but your stats are higher than his. You might qualify for merit aid from Wake Forest. What about SMU?</p>