Need help keeping us realistic. We understand that many of these schools are high reaches but want to ensure that she will have some choices atleast in addition to UT and A& M. Would appreciate any thoughts on if these are enough or if we should add 1 or 2 more as safeties and which ones folks would suggest.
Daughter has 4.58 W(will probably go up to 4.63 or so after second semester of junior year is factored in) and 3.95 UW will be around top 5% in her class. Has a SAT score of 2370 and PSAT score of 1500 (am hoping she will be National Merit Semi Finalist). She has taken 6 AP exams till now with 5’s in all of them. Her senior year course load is as follows : AP Bio, AP Chem, Calc BC, Lit, AP Gov (sem 1), AP Eco (Sem 2), Choir and Health. We are in TX. EC’s consisted of doing a research project in summer and the other regular ones with volunteering with teaching and such (nothing major). We had a medical issue with our other child which had us pull older one out of all EC’s as she was entering high school. Wants to do computer science or computer eng (pref science) and may go the med route after that. We will be full pay at most colleges but would prefer not to. Ideally looking for around 15-20K in aid with around mid 100’s income level but can swing the full pay if needed. Location is not really an issue though would prefer the coasts.
Current college list is as follows :
Case Western
Columbia
Cornell
Georgia tech
MIT
Stanford
USC
Vanderbilt
Wellesley
Yale
UT
A & M
Would appreciate thoughts or comments.
Thank You very much
With Wellesley on your list (which doesn’t provide merit aid) I’d suggest strongly considering Bryn Mawr, which does provide some merit aid. Your daughter has strong stats so is likely to get some merit aid at schools that offer it. Many of the schools on your list don’t. Bryn Mawr has its own CS department but its also in a Bi-College consortium with Haverford which has a very solid CS department of its own. Your daughter would be able to take classes on both campuses and even major at either. Additionally, it is part of the larger Quaker consortium which includes UPenn and Swarthmore. The campus is lovely, too.
I would suggest amping up the number of schools that offer merit aid on your daughter’s list if that is a financial goal for your family.
Are you happy with UT and A&M as safeties? With her stats she should get in both. Case Western should be a low match, too - but may think they are merely a back-up / safety for your D. Do you plan to demonstrate real interest? She should be NM with that PSAT score. I believe USC gives 1/2 tuition for NM finalists - She certainly has the stats for all of the rest and will most likely get into at least some - but there are always stories about kids with similar stats who are shut out. A lot will depend on her essays, recommendations and how she shapes her narrative. She will have A LOT of essays to write with all of the supplement apps - have her start now and really spend time on them all. Does she plan to play the ED / EA card? Good luck - and keep us posted!
You write “deally looking for around 15-20K in aid with around mid 100’s income level but can swing the full pay if needed.”
So what is your budget exactly? Does that mean you could afford Columbia/Harvard, etc at about $45,000 a year after they gave you maybe 10-15,000 in need based aid?
Or does that mean you could afford UT only IF you got $15-20K in aid from them?
Do you know your EFC and do you have a budget for how much you can pay?
UT will most likely be full pay for you guys. Stinks that they got rid of NMF but it is what it is. COA $27K per year estimated unless she got one of the coveted, rare and highly competitive “40 Acres Scholarships.” It would definitely be something you couldn’t bank on for sure.
Read the admissions forum for engineering at UT for last year. There were a few tippy top Val/perfect SAT combos who didn’t get into engineering and were admitted to UT into another major. Crazy! We had no idea.
Texas A&M offers full tuition for NMF so that one would fit your budget.
You would get zero merit aid at Columbia of course. We have a family member there who was also a NMF and they are full pay @ $65,000/year. Zero merit aid. Depending on where your income is in the mid 100’s you might get some need based aid…maybe 10-20K?
Same for MIT, Yale, etc. with the need based aid.
Vanderbilt has some competitive merit scholarships so that would be interesting to play your odds on that one.
Still a rookie playing the odds but just from what we’ve learned on here: balance out that list. You should add some pure financial safeties. She would get a full ride at Alabama and OU and a few others that give full NMF.
@doschicos : Wellesley is one we disagreed with but she wanted to apply to it so let her apply. I am thinking as the time progresses I will maybe remove 1 or 2 from the list and replace with a few others that I get from this thread that are likely to give merit(hopefully).
Alternatively may get her to add 1 or 2 with merit in there so we have a few choices. My thoughts were that we would hopefully get some merit at Case and USC (NM , hoping she gets to finalist). GT we visited and both of us liked it, also looking at their degree plan she would go in with 15-18 credits and we can afford the GT fees. Not sure how likely she is to get into those or any of the schools for that matter. However were planning on applying EA to GT and MIT and then can tweak the list based on what comes about from those decisions.
We can go full pay though it is something we are trying to avoid but if she gets into MIT for example do not mind paying full if that makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to respond
@carachel2 : Ideal budget is between 150K-200K. If we get the 15-20K from them we can swing it. Visited Alabama last week and liked it and still debating that one. May add that one. UT , I understand that situation that she may not get computer science and that will suck but are hoping that between UT and GT she will hopefully get at least into one of those two. Also the others if she can get in we can def do a budget upto 200.
@TryntoFigureOut …I just looked at one of your other threads where you mentioned you didn’t realize full pay for MIT and other similar schools would be $60-70,000 per year.
Were you able to tour and meet with people this summer? How did it go? Did you get a better understanding of how much would be “full pay” for you guys?
We have a family friend who finished at Case and loved it and she just finished her first year at UTSW Medical School. She said Case absolutely prepared her in every way. She got about $20-25K in merit aid there so they were still full pay for the rest at about $40K per year.
Good luck! You are asking all the right questions.
Edited to add: If she even is interested in medical school, it would be a huge massive gift to her to save that $$ and have her graduate medical school debt free. I am surrounded by MD friends and family who have $200-300,000 in debt.
@carachel2 : EFC differs based on what they do with the real estate equity but have seen anywhere from high 40’s to high 50’s though we are looking for those that will keep us under 50.
@carachel2 : Thank You. We only visited Bama and GT. Unfortunately kid was at summer program so we could not tour the other schools but you are correct , once we realized fully pay is around 65-70 depending on travel and all other associated costs am trying to give her a balance. We have spoken about schools where we will absolutely spend the money if she can get in like MIT or for the others on the list they will have to bring it down to the under 50K level. She also understands that means she will be on the hook for med school if she does go that route.
@carachel2 : We both liked Georgia Tech. Personally am hoping if she is able to get in there then she will go in with 15-18 credits , so she can finish within the 4 years or earlier. Also their study abroad is In state tuition so my personal choice would be GT so that she would still come in around 150K for cost and allows us to contribute 50-100K to her med school but we have laid out all the various options for her so she can make a choice on which route she wants to go. Thank You again for taking the time to respond and all the encouragement that folks offer on this site. Helps first timers like us who have never done this get some ideas on how to proeed
Have you done the EFCs for Yale/Columbia income of 150Ks would get you 20K+ need-based but if you have a lot of assets (having 1 parent over 50 helps) it could get lower.
Did you look at Rice, WUSTL, Harvey Mudd and Chicago which all have merit though tough to get.
@4gulls : She is planning EA at MIT and GT. Since both are EA schools we were hoping it would give us an idea and personally am hoping she gets the acceptance from GT. Have had her begin on essays so hopefully she will have them drafted soon. UT we are happy with as a safety , A & M her visit was not that great but she is mentally prepared to go there if she gets shut out from all the other schools. Maybe any folks with GT experience can comment on what they have seen but are hoping that GT/Case are both low reaches and she can get in . She will be happy at either UT or GT and is realistic about the possibility of being shut out of the other schools on the list.
@Dolemite : Yale was around there but Columbia seemed to give us a lot less which is why it was surprising. May have to do with asset base. We own our home and read that depending on how they treat equity in home it may vary. Looked at Rice but have heard that for Texas kids is a lot harder because they try to restrict class size from Texas. U Chicago we removed in favor of Yale because too many negative things about U Chicago and also Chicago as a town did not appeal to her. Harvey Mudd she has not thought of much as yet, and WUSTL her friends sister got in last year but did not get any aid so she passed on that because of that.
Did you visit Yale/New Haven? As far as Ivy League goes Princeton/Harvard give the most aid.
You could also look at Smith with a 20K and 25K scholarship she’d be in good shape to get and it comes with mentorship. Fordham has a NMF and other aid but the location might not be desirable if Hyde Park was eliminated
You need to demonstrate interest at Case as someone mentioned - did you visit? The campus is nice but go west a bit and it’s not that great.
No we did not visit Case. However I have written to their admissions dept and d will be corresponding with their admissions rep from their response. We explained we were unable to visit but that she wants to apply and was requesting to meet with any current Alumni in our region. Not sure if that would be enough but hoping that would show that she were interested. Hoping her conversations where the admissions rep offered to talk with d on phone and also when she visits their school will show she is interested
I highly recommend that all communication come from your daughter. They need to perceive her as an independent young person capable of handling things on her own.
EA isn’t binding so I don’t see how it would other than not all scholarships are awarded that early with the full scholly’s notified by 4/1 and replacing any previously awarded aid.
I assume you know you need to apply by 12/1 to USC for merit consideration.