<p>here is what Andi son did with his Gap year:</p>
<p>"He put together activities based on his main goals and from there the year took on a life of its own. As he got involved with activities he made new connections and new opportunities just kept coming up. His main directions were – studying piano; studying science and earning money to travel the following summer and help with expenses and doing some volunteer work. He began taking lessons from a new teacher, on a college level, with a goal of doing a solo recital in the spring. From here, he was invited to participate in some recitals at the university where the professor taught. Then he was asked to be a piano teacher himself at a local music school. He worked up to teaching 8 students. He established himself as an accompanist which lead to performing with a choir at a state univ., with a children’s choir at a church, with a high school choir that eventually invited him to tour with them to Armenia! They performed in many places in Yerevan and visited several orphanages where they donated clothing and toys to the children. He was also involved in accompanying for a wonderful organization that supports children of color in learning classical music. What I’m trying to illustrate here is that he didn’t plan all these things out in August. He worked hard at what he did and got to know people and this opened doors for him along the way. Some of his goals overlapped – for example his volunteer work was connected to his music.
He worked at Starbucks for five months but soon he was making enough money from his music activities that he didn’t have time/need for that any more. And he was not unhappy to give up those 4 a.m. days
He also applied for a ‘special student’ status at MIT where he studied science. He took a few courses of interest to him, while commuting from home. His involvement with the university also enabled him to attend some interesting seminars."</p>
<p>and these are the colleges he applied to and the results:</p>
<p>"When he created his new list he came up with schools that covered a wider spectrum of selectivity. Once this became part of the process, he realized that there were many more schools that could meet his interests than he had originally thought. Here is the new list:
Brandeis
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western Reserve
MIT
University of Rochester
Vassar
Worcester Polytechnic Institute</p>
<p>Along with two repeats:
Swarthmore
Yale ( added at the last minute due to pressure from a friend there )</p>
<p>He decided to get new recommendations from his senior year teachers since they would be more recent. He wrote new essays and did the applications from scratch. Didn’t re-use anything. Put ample time into every question and let his personality show through more. He didn’t retake any SATs or SAT IIs. He did add new AP scores (even thought they’re not supposed to count) and had some new awards he had received at the end of his senior year.</p>
<p>Results:
Accepted at all the new schools . Every school offering merit aid awarded him a generous scholarship and he received need-based aid from the others. Brandeis awarded him a full-tuition music scholarship. Case was also generous. CM, MIT and Vassar awarded him need based aid.
The two repeat schools both turned him down, but by this time he was ready to move on and with all the good news he hardly noticed the rejections."</p>
<p>"What about teacher recommendations? I have a day to get those in if they aren't Common App."</p>
<p>The Jan 1 deadline for applications is for YOUR part of the application, not for the entire application- teacher recommendation forms, transcripts, SAT Scores etc. All those should be done mailed/ submitted asap of course. So should you decide to, it will not be too late to apply to additional colleges over the Xmas break. But, if you have to ask a teacher for a new last minute recommendation , I would give them as much advance warning as possible, and offer to have the forms delivered to their home over the Xmas break, along with profuse expressions of thanks. Some grovelling may also be in order.
Colleges admissions offices know they will be receiving a flood of mail in the first few weeks of Jan. and as long as your file is complete by the end of Jan it should be OK. Every year, parts of applications end up being misfiled, lost, not received, etc. and have to be replaced with a copy. So getting some parts of the application in after Jan 1 will not doom your chances.</p>
<p>Firstly, the forms should be already filled out, if its a Common App school, and the letter has been written as well. It would take them 15 minutes max to finish another recommendation. I don't think they would be so open to dropping stuff off or being bothered over the beak, so I won't worry about it.</p>
<p>Also, can anyone corroborate (not that I don't trust you, but its nice having multiple sources confirming the truth.</p>
<p>Finally, I read somewhere that Bowdoin might be a good backup/reasonably assured match because they want high profile males (assumably, what I would fit). I looked at Bowdoin, and the loan-free financial aid and NMS scholarships both looked appealing, as if I could afford to go there. Naturally, I don't want to get excited over untrue information, so could someone confirm that as well?</p>
<p>Bowdoin is not a safety for anyone, even "hooked" applicants. Bowdoin's FA is very generous, but you will still need to pay that 20k EFC--no way around it at a need-only school. Still, no loans means that you can take out loans to pay the EFC instead of on top of the EFC. I haven't heard anything about Bowdoin wanting high-stat males, but if it is true, I would consider it a match.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What are you looking to be corroborated?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That having the teachers send in recommendations after January 1st will not negatively impact me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Bowdoin is not a safety for anyone, even "hooked" applicants. Bowdoin's FA is very generous, but you will still need to pay that 20k EFC--no way around it at a need-only school. Still, no loans means that you can take out loans to pay the EFC instead of on top of the EFC. I haven't heard anything about Bowdoin wanting high-stat males, but if it is true, I would consider it a match.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At other need only schools, I would be looking at much more than to cover what the EFC does not. What do you mean by that statement?</p>
<p>Re: teacher recs, that is what I've heard but I can't corroborate with more than hearsay.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I understand your financial situation and limitations. Can you spell them out for me?</p>
<ol>
<li>What are your federal and institutional EFCs? There are lots of calculators to figure this, I'm partial to Amherst's.</li>
<li>How much can your family -afford- to pay per year? Do not include loans.</li>
<li>Are you willing to take on any loans at all? If so, what is the maximum amount for you and your parents, respectively? Keep in mind that if you are not willing to take ANY loans, you will have to seriously compromise on selection criteria. Be as flexible as possible.</li>
</ol>
<p>I am not interested in bellyaching about assets and unfair formulas; I happen to agree, but both of us still have to deal with reality.</p>
<p>Okay, that sounds good. Its not much different than a letter getting lost, and I can't control a teacher's actions anyways.</p>
<ol>
<li>Federal is 15k, Yale and Princeton have me at 6-8k.</li>
<li>10k preferably, although it may be able to be bumped up to 12-14k if absolutely necessary.</li>
<li>Not really. I guess maybe 2500-5000 in loans, but getting into debt isn't appealing, and I would prefer not to if at all possible.</li>
</ol>
<p>How much can negotiations overcome the unfair formulas? Can you show them your house or something, or your history of purchases, and convince them that you've been saving for college rather than spending everything you make in a year?</p>
<p>"Its not much different than a letter getting lost, and I can't control a teacher's actions anyways."
Exactly. But do what ever you can to help the teachers to get them done asap.</p>
<p>"How much can negotiations overcome the unfair formulas?"
Not very much, but first of all you have to be accepted. Then you can "appeal" a financial aid offer. Hint: You do NOT ever use the word "negotiate" with college financial aid offices. Bottom line- It all boils down to how much the college wants you as a student, and the top colleges have plenty of students who are willing to take you place if you can't afford to go there. You may not like this, but at the top colleges the fact is you are not "negotiating" from a position of strength- i.e. you have something they want. Instead, top colleges have something you want -the opportunity to matriculate at their college. Now for lower tier colleges that want hi stat kids, or colleges that are trying to climb the rankings, like USC, you have more to offer them. That's the way the FA game is played.</p>
<p>"Can you show them your house or something, or your history of purchases, and convince them that you've been saving for college rather than spending everything you make in a year?"
All that can go into a letter of appeal, once you have been accepted. Different colleges use different formulas regarding how much home equity, and other expenses they take into account in calculating the FA packages. But don't count on them being much different from the FA calculators, unless your family has some extraordinary, unexpected expenses such as major medical bills, or such.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale and Princeton have VERY generous FA formulas. Can you give me the institutional number from Amherst or Williams? I believe Amherst takes a standard (well, as much as anything is standard) amount of home equity into consideration. It appears that you can barely afford your federal EFC of 15k, which doesn't account for equity, so the institutional may be out of your reach. Remember that student loans don't count toward paying EFC; that's entirely up to your parents unless you take on further private loans.</li>
</ol>
<p>Edit: According to Amherst, my Federal EFC is 17,000 for my parents, and their institutional is 13,000. This is excluding what they state my contribution should be.</p>
<p>(Also, TY at melnoparkmom for the answers.)</p>
<p>So take that highest number--17k--and try to make it work. Is it possible at all? If you could make it work by really squeezing, and your family is willing to do so, then need-based aid will be sufficient. If it's impossible, you need to look at significant merit-based aid (which I would recommend regardless because even if 17k barely works, it will be nice to have cheaper options).</p>
<p>Lets see. I think we have 116k in a reserve fund, but I'm almost certain my parents wanted some of that for retirement. Conceivably, I could get 14k out of that a year, plus 2-3k from my parent's income (as I think, between reduced computer usage, gasoline usage, light usage, and food consumption, it would balance.</p>
<p>That being said, I would love to not have to do that. I know there are local scholarships in my area, which I think everyone applies to, and are worth a decent amount. I could get at least 2k from them, I would think, based on my grades and SAT score, and writing ability. Are there other scholarships that are available outside of schools that would be worth pursuing? Also, how guaranteed or how safe would I be to get a Rochester full-tuition/half-tuition merit aid? Really, the only thing holding me back from applying there as my final school is the cost, which without that aid is prohibitive. Does my NMSF status make them more inclined to go above what their FA calculator tells me they will give me?</p>
<p>Full/half-tuition merit at Rochester is a solid reach (maybe low reach for half-tuition)--as is that size of aid at any top-50 school. NMSF really means nothing, but a high SAT score (which will help rankings) -may- help in getting preferentially-packaged FA. It all depends on how much the school wants you.</p>
<p>My totally unexpert recommendation would be to shoot for the stars in need-based schools at many levels (for merit aid, go up AT LEAST one reach/match/safety level from your academic place) and also research merit schools specifically.</p>
<p>My SAT score is 2350, if that means anything. I'm already shooting for the stars in terms of need-based schools (have 6 in the top 15 universities/LACs). I've settled on our state university's honor college as a mega safety, and am trying to find something in the Rochester range.</p>
<p>On a side note: doesn't Rochester really want top students, because it helps them move up in rankings?</p>
<p>^ Yes. But since you're basically still counting on merit aid at Rochester (merit-within-need), it's not anywhere close to a safety. You need to find some solid match schools with merit aid that allows for -comfortable- affordability. That is a huge college search in itself.</p>
<p>Certainly. If you can find a college that is acceptable to you and also guarantees a substantial NMF scholarship, then it will be a safety. But as most significant NMF scholarships are awarded to large state universities, it's not as easy as it sounds.</p>