Safety and Targets for 3.7 weighted quirky bright not good test taker NJ white boy?

Parent Cafe
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I agree with others that you need to pay attention to the cost of university. You do not want a surprise during March and April of senior year when you are looking at 6 or 8 acceptances and nothing but the in-state public university is affordable. Worst still of course is if nothing is affordable. I would run the NPC on schools that you are considering and see whether they are likely to be affordable. Remember that there will be some increase in prices over time. Also, many students do not graduate in four years, and financial aid generally does run out after four years.

The public schools in New Jersey seem like obvious ones to consider.

I agree with @JHS that there are some schools in Canada that seem like they might be a fit, and that might be relatively affordable. The three that @JHS mentions are excellent, but are large and relatively stressful. Somewhere like Concordia (in Montreal) or Dalhousie (in Halifax) might be a bit less academically stressful and are still very good schools. I think of them as very roughly on the same approximate academic level as Rutgers. Why you would go there rather than Rutgers is not obvious.

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@mom2and husband received a year end bonus, however, it was not an apples to applies thing, and something that’s impossible to predict year to year. We could’ve made it work, but we could not justify spending that much for an undergraduate degree. And it would’ve involved redirecting retirement money for a while and taking out loans. I don’t know financial info about d’s friends who are transferring. I know one is still deciding whether or not to go back; her family’s income supposedly dropped (I believe they retired), but they did move to another state and perhaps had extra income from a house sale. I can’t imagine the majority of her friends who had a decline in FA all had increases in income. Also, the COA at Roch has increased significantly and will continue to do so. According to our FA paperwork, they anticipate COA for 2020 to be $82k and then $85k for 2021.

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Here is the Fairtest list of schools that are test-optional or de-emphasize testing: https://www.fairtest.org/university/optional

The list is quite amazing and includes many top schools. One caveat: if you need merit aid, he may need to submit scores. And a 1300 is not bad at all, so for some schools he would want to submit. (3.7 GPA isn’t bad either)

He should consider submitting a music supplement, with music resume, a recording, letters of recommendation from teacher and/or director, etc. It can help, though violin is less needed than, say, French horn :slight_smile:

Does he have accommodations at school or for standardized testing? Is he on medication?

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@BktoNJ Please do not be “that parent” who has to explain to their kid in the Spring that you cannot afford the schools to which he was accepted. Run the numbers on the FAFSA and check out the net price calculators (NPCs) at schools of interest to see what it would cost your family before applying. If you have an uncomplicated family situation (no divorce, no rental properties or significant real estate investments, no family business with fluctuating income), you should get fairly accurate estimates.

Without knowledge of your family’s finances and what you feel you are able to pay, there is no accurate way to advise you. I am going to write this assuming that you are full pay and chasing merit scholarships. If you are eligible for need-based aid, then that probably will open other possibilities. However, be mindful of the fact that need-based aid and merit aid generally does not “stack,” meaning that if your child qualifies for 30K of need-based aid and your child gets a merit scholarship of 30K, it simply replaces the need-based aid.

I recently helped a family member in NJ with her college search. SATs were 100 points lower than your child’s, unweighted GPA was 3.8+, class rank about 15th percentile. Custodial parent is very low income and assets but there is a non-custodial parent that earns a good salary but refused to contribute. In this instance, the least expensive option was Rutgers-NB.

While Rutgers and other state schools run approximately 30K inclusive per year, it is unlikely that your child will do better at out of state public schools (few of which offer need-based aid to out of state students) and where merit based aid is highly competitive. For example, U of Del for the student described above would have cost 60K per year. If you are a full-pay family, expect a best case scenario at target LACs of 40K or more, although if you are lucky, you might be able to get it down to low 30s.

My recommendation is that you look at Colleges that Change Lives schools (CTCL, google it), where students like your child can often qualify for significant merit aid. Take a look at some of the PA schools like Allegheny, Ursinus, Susquehanna, Dickinson and Muhlenberg. Ithaca College would also be a good option and you can get a pre-read on merit and need-based aid through their NPC. Previously suggested options like Denison, Lawrence, Wooster, and St Olaf are also CTCL schools. In state, he might get enough aid at Monmouth University to make it comparable to Rutgers. U of Maine has a reciprocity program - if your child gets in, he pays what his in-state flagship would cost. Finally, check out the stats of this year’s acceptances to Rutgers. Your son’s stats appear to be a match, but it is becoming more competitive every year. If he is interested, I recommend that he apply by the early (non-binding) deadline which is around Nov. 1 or thereabouts.

https://admissions.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/media/Documents/2019_AdmissionsProfile.pdf

Best of luck to you! When we first went through this process a couple of years ago with our eldest child, it was bewildering. The sticker shock and the increasingly competitive nature of admissions were real eye openers.

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NJ tuition in state at Rutgers and most of the schools run about $13,000 for a full year. I think full costs you see on the websites end up being higher than what you actually pay. I know many kids at Rowan (my own included), Ramapo and Rutgers and none pay over $30k/year. Engineering may be a bit higher, but he would likely get at least some merit from an in-state option. Living off campus this year at Rowan, we have no merit, we’re well under $20k for the entire year
I get many kids don’t want to stay in state, and I don’t consider the NJ state schools “cheap” by any means, but for the quality of education and compared to other schools, it’s not completely out of whack.

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Rutgers is on par with plenty of state schools.

Also to the OP, there is a reason plenty of people are asking about financial info. People on the board have gone through this process. They understand that what you can pay is one of the most important variables in the process.

If you tell people on this board I can pay $20K a year and here are my kid’s stats and here is what he/she wants to study and this is the location we are comfortable with the people here can give you 5-10 options in a matter of minutes.

I know a family that had a budget, but let their child apply to many OOS schools and the child got in, but did not have the stats to make the budget work. The child had quite a disappointing Spring in her Senior year. She got into many schools, but the money didn’t work.

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Look at Penn state, Pitt, Trmple. Or the Illinois ones. I’ve heard Va is getting up there too even for instate. And some Colorado state schools.

One of my kids went to an OOS public school, and though it was nearly double the cost of what we would have paid in state, it was still a good $20k or more cheaper than the private school options. Private schools are running $60 to $80k+ these days. I think all of the ones I listed as Fairtest examples were in that range and that was back some years.

I suspect that merit awards are hard to come by if you don’t submit test scores because a lot of the scholarships weight that component heavily in deciding to offer merit money. I speculate that need aware schools might take the lack of test scores into account too, but I have no evidence. But then if the scores are so low that they are an anchor to the chances of acceptance, it’s not like the kid is in the running for merit anyways. Frankly, I don’t think OP’s son is that lacking in his test scores. For my one kid, it was a no brainer to leave them off when we could. And yet, he got into schools where they were sent, so ???

Absolutely agree that OP should establish how much is available for college and run NPCs for each school, and if the costs don’t meet affordability standards, it’s not a viable choice.

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@compmom thanks. Yeah, violin is his thing, oh well and won’t be swayed. Yes to some accommodation, whether that continues is very much up in the air. Yes to medication. It’s been a godsend. Without it he’s on a different track entirely.

@mamaedefamilia These are great suggestions. CTCL was our first dip into these waters and many of those schools are on the currently large list.

For everyone else who’s talking about money: I hear you very clearly. I just joined this forum. It’s a little weird to share everything about my family, my kid’s accomplishments and deficits AND my family’s finances. I get now that advice is limited without considering cost. I think we will be able to make most outcomes work though have lived long enough to know that nothing is certain.

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Penn State, Pitt, and Temple (a) are all comparatively expensive, both in state and out, without merit money, and (b) for the first two, 1300 SATs/3.7 WGPA would be well into their bottom quartiles. Temple has gone test-optional in recent years; it is worth thinking about.

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It should not be a difficult calculation to find the unweighted GPA from his record. For each semester of academic course (English, math, history, social studies, science, foreign language, art, music, electives like computer science, PLTW courses, etc.) give A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 0. Add up these values, and divide by the number of courses.

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How about Clark University in Worcester?

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I think Penn State (~$17k) and UIUC (~$15k) have Rutgers ($14k) beat for tuition. Other states are pretty close too (Colorado is almost $14k for engineers).

Don’t take the sticker price as a given either. Sometimes there is aid, or local scholarships that bring the price down, and you won’t have to pay as much for transportation if he stays instate.

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@BktoNJ I recommend looking at Ursinus, outside of Philly. Your son’s stats may qualify him for their gateway scholarship, currently $35k per year. https://www.ursinus.edu/offices/student-financial-services/grants-scholarships-loans/ursinus-gateway-scholarship/
They also offer smaller amounts of merit for lower stats. It is a CTCL college, with lots of great opportunities.

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My daughter was a good student but not a great tester either and got some nice Merit at York College – nice campus and she is really enjoying is there. She is nursing and I think Engineering is their next biggest major.

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Don’t know about the financial aid, but to me, everything OP writes points to Goucher as a contender to look into.

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I think there is too much advice here pointing you to test optional schools. I don’t think your GPA is high enough to go that route. If he can swing a 1300 SAT, without too much stress, I think that’s going to support his grades and application, not hurt it.
I think, for urban schools, Temple is an underrated one. Also Univ of Minnesota.

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Wow @taverngirl. I thought that $70K+ COAs were excessive, over $80K is just unbelievable. Hope she likes her new school.

A few years ago a friend’s son was choosing between Georgetown and UVA out of state. The difference in COA was less than $10K per year.

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“they anticipate COA for 2020 to be $82k and then $85k for 2021.”
Wow! We need a button to click for “the information is very helpful, but I do not like it at all”.

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@inthegarden We looked at Goucher pretty carefully on paper, and while we wanted to love it, we have a bunch of reservations. We love the emphasis on study abroad, but the relatively low graduation rate for such a small school rings alarm bells, also recent slashes to offerings of majors including Math, Physics, Music, German and some other typical LAC majors. It seems that they are in a contraction mode. Student reviews were also mediocre on line. Anyone have current experience there?

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Goucher receives good reviews in my neck of the woods. We knew someone who almost transferred there from Wellesley.

Has something changed about Goucher in the last few years?