Bowdoin doesn’t have Greek Life. They do have 8 or 9 ‘houses’, where mostly sophomores live. These houses host parties and events, but they are open to all students, even though each student (via their frosh dorm) is affiliated with one of the houses.
I agree hkim will be successful and achieve his goals at any of the schools on his list, even though none of them are ‘perfect’.
@Mwfan1921 , thanks, I misunderstood that.
My understanding was that the purpose of the single “race” thread was to confine discussions about race-based admissions trends and advantages/disadvantages in one place so that people’s various grievances don’t poison other discussions. But this thread is past all that and discussing the merits of different institutions and settings. I don’t see anything wrong with including racial diversity, as well as economic diversity, in such a discussion. I agree that it’s only one factor, and not one that OP has strongly emphasized in his own thinking; but I think the perspectives offered here have been well-articulated and potentially very valuable. OP can take what helps him and disregard what doesn’t.
I plugged Grinnell before seeing the almost-simultaneous post stating that it was out of the running, so, apologies for that.
Having multiple excellent choices to debate is a pretty great place to be - any one of these options would have looked pretty amazing at this time last year! So, it’s a hard decision, but there’s no wrong decision - OP will figure out what’s right for him.
If discussing a college’s racial demographics and climate is a basis for shutting down a CC thread advising a student on which of his wonderful offers to accept, then that really does a disservice to the diversity of the community of parents and experts and the students we seek to assist. Perhaps it is due to my junior status with less than 100 posts, but I have a hard time imagining that any reasonable moderator would seek to ban all talk of race broadly except for a thread devoted to race and affirmative action in admissions. To suggest that all talk of race must be confined solely to that thread not only draws a false equivalence between the two topics (race in affirmative action and racial demographics/climate of a specific university), it also adopts a normative stance hostile to what is perceived to be unacceptable “race talk.” If that is the norm of CollegeConfidential and this thread specifically, I guess I’d like to know that.
But such a race-hostile stance would run completely counter to the norms of elite institutions, including the norms of institutions that comprise HKim’s finalist group. I sit on a board with top administrators and faculty who set and execute admissions policy at Harvard, Brown, University of Michigan, Rutgers-Newark, NYU, USC to name a few. I can assure you that elite higher ed leaders embrace racial demographics, racial diversity, and racial climate as salient policy concerns for their institutions. If higher ed leaders completely accept that these are legitimate factors for students to consider when selecting a college, why would CC seek to censor such considerations when directly advising students?
This thread reflects the best that CC has to offer. @HKimPOSSIBLE reached out last year around this time in the depths of his despair, having faced rejection from all the colleges to which he applied due to his immigration status. The kindness, generosity and DIVERSITY of advice and wisdom offered and his gracious acceptance of the range of experience and expertise has reaped a thrilling result, with an enviable number of full-ride offers from outstanding elite institutions. It is truly the “diversity bonus” in action as described by University of Michigan scholar, Scott Page. Cognitive diversity benefits complex decision making because our collective differences contribute more in combination than our individual talents. I hope we will continue the diversity bonus method of this thread throughout CC to embrace our diversity and differences as a strength, not liabilities that must be silenced or confined to a single thread.
“But this thread is past all that and discussing the merits of different institutions and settings.”
That’s how I saw it too, that race in admissions was the that uber thread but racial demographics (and income as well) in deciding where to go could be discussed anywhere.
Yikes so USC is freaking me out right now.
Every single Questbridge admit I talked to said their aid was awful - and I was one of the better off.
Estimated Costs (Before Loans and Work Study): $18,512
Loans and Work Study: $8,250
Estimated Total Cost of Attendance: $10,262
Something is VERY wrong here - and this isn’t just me but many of the Non-Questbridge kids as well!
I spoke with a USC Financial Aid counselor and she said that apparently The $15,400 “income” I reported seemed like just “extra money” for me to just spend…I clearly mentioned and explained everything but I have sent in an appeal explaining the situation that $15,400 is not extra spending money nor is it my income, but money from my brother to my father that is used for our living expenses.
As far as I can observe, it is political postings regarding race and affirmative action policies in college admissions that are to be limited to the designated thread.
How does it compare with what USC’s net price calculator told you when you applied?
USC, although it claims to “meet full need”, is often not as generous as many other such colleges, probably because its definition of “need” is less favorable to many students compared to other colleges making that claim.
Well, it’s a very significant difference. USC’s NPC gave me (and my other Questies) a total of ~5.5K before loans and work-study.
You may be better off with one of the more generous colleges where you’ll get no-loan aid, graduate debt-free, and not have to haggle with the financial aid department.
The problem with haggling is that even if you’re successful for this coming year, your bargaining position becomes weaker once you’re attending. You can see in the Collegedata reporting that first-year students get more generous aid than the student body as a whole. That is a red flag for what you can expect in subsequent years. https://www.collegedata.com/college/University-of-Southern-California/?tab=profile-money-tab
(And this is a tangent but I need someone to explain to me how a college can be meeting full need for only 84% of aid recipients, and yet the average percentage need met is 100%. Maybe I just cannot math today but I don’t see how that works…)
Contrast those numbers with Bowdoin, where “full-need-met” means exactly what we normally think it means. Also note that the “need-based self-help” numbers are much lower.
You should forget USC. The costs of living in So Cal are very high. USC’s aid is likely to be less than the offers you already have on the table. If other QB students say it sucks, believe them.
Is there someone at QB that can help with FA situations like this?
If USC is consistently not offering Questies enough FA, QB should rethink their partnership with USC. Make sure you communicate the difficulties you are having with USC to QB.
I’m glad you have other (probably better) options than USC.
Hi @HKimPOSSIBLE. I am so disappointed to hear of the gap in FA offered to you and your USC QB cohort. Let’s see what your FA Counselor says about your appeal–fingers crossed! This initial FA offer is discouraging though, and makes (in my mind), the Bowdoin option all the more compelling. Did you happen to let your FA Counselor know that you have these other full need offers without loans or parental contribution? If not (or perhaps to pass onto your QB cohort), I’ve PM’d you some sample wording.
Best of luck, and please keep us updated on this…
You have to remember that you did not match with USC, where all of your costs would have probably been covered.
You got a free application for being a quest bridge finalist and a Need based financial aid package with self help consisting of a loan, work study and a student contribution from summer earnings
@sybbie719 The net price calculator, as far as I know, wasn’t Questbridge specific nor did it mention anything about Questbridge.
I understand it was need-based and would have not been surprised had USC not been a full demonstrated need met school - with what they have now, I need to pay $10,000 even after loans and work-study. Before loans/WS, my total cost is just above $18,000 - larger than my family’s “income”.
The point that I am trying to make is that it a moot point talking about the package you and your other questies got if you were not matched to USC
What did USC give you as an EFC? How much did they expect you to contribute from summer earnings
Was the money that your brother gave to ti your dad, was it a student asset or a parent asset.
USC has not given its own EFC value on the award letter, nor did they provide a “How much we expect you to earn over the summer”.
My Estimated Net Cost is $18,512
Loans and Work: $8,250
Estimated Remaining Cost: $10,262
I have submitted an appeal as the USC Finaid Counselor said it may have been a misunderstanding of my reported family “income” of $15,400 as untaxed/paid on my behalf to be some kind of monetary bonus or cash extra that was given to me directly which was not the case.
But if I’m reading you right, even if they remove the $15k from your family’s income and give you a dollar for dollar reduction in your EFC, you still have to pay a little more than $3k/year, so $12k overall IF subsequent years are the same. Whereas if you go to Bowdoin or W&L, it is completely free. And if I recall correctly, there’s a free summer program at W&L, right?
To be honest, I was hoping that if you passed up the med school auto-admit opportunity, that you’d go to Bowdoin. As a low income first gen, I think it’s critical that you go to a school with good advising and with a good support system to help you handle unexpected issues. Sure, you can ferret things out on your own, but sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, so you don’t even know what questions to ask. There are people on this board who have direct experience with Bowdoin, I only know from friends’ kids. But the overall reputation is that it’s easy to get to know the profs, they have good advising, AND the kids are very accepting, collaborative and just plain nice. I just wonder if USC would provide you with the same level of support, and that’s an important question to dig into for all the schools you’re considering.
I agree. I think Bowdoin well get you where you want to go - with very little/no debt.