I am currently a senior in high school. My top 3 schools are Georgetown, American, and George Washington University. I want to major in IR and I knew going to school in D.C. was the best place for it. All three have been my dream schools, but now I’m starting to realize I might just have to go to my in-state university…my mom makes 61K/yr and my dad is retired and receives about $1-2K pensions. I feel as if, Georgetown especially, I shouldn’t even bother with these schools anymore as they are extremely expensive and additionally no scholarships would help me significantly in reducing the cost of attending. Should I still bother applying or face reality and just stay in-state?
First…I’m guessing your dad’'s pension is that amount per month…right?
Those three schools are pricey. It is possible you might get some need based aid…or merit at American.
How much can your family pay per year for you to attend college?
Look for the Net Price Calculator at each website, and ask your parents to help you run them. The results will give you three a reasonable notion of what each place is likely to cost your family. When you have those figures, you can sit down together and talk about what is reasonable to pay. Then all of you together can determine which colleges and universities are worth applying to.
Is that your dad’s monthly pension?
Those schools use CSS profile, so they will count everything.
WHAT are your parents saying about how much they’ll spend each year on college?
What are your stats?
What is your instate choice(s)
You may not be able to afford G’town and others, but maybe your stats will make another school affordable.
It is hard not to get your hopes up for schools like this but unfortunately sometimes you just have to apply to see how much they will give you. The NPC gives a decent indicator but you will only know true amounts if you apply. 95 percent of kids are in your boat with financial restrictions. Unfortunately most kids cannot attend schools they wish to attend due to costs. There are many options to get a college degree. You will find one that will fit your budget. Everyone has to work within their budget.
That is not great advice. The NPCs are a good benchmark, unless your parents are divorced, own a small business, own rental properties, or there are family trusts. In those cases you will usually get less aid than the calculator shows. So if the calculator does not look affordable, and the school isn’t one that gives much or any merit aid, take it off your list.
I would not dismiss a school based just on the NPC, but running the NPCs is good place to start. Once you run the NPC, contact the school and see if all available merit aid is included in the calculator, if they can walk you through what you might expect, if they have experience with those in your financial situation.
The COAs are a sticker shock, but not all students pay the COA. Dig deeper.
I’d really work with those three favorite schools, but be prepared to walk away if they are just not affordable. Have some affordable schools picked too; there are a lot of schools near state capitals, and you can get internships there too.
There are loads of great schools for IR, and most of them have semester-long programs in DC, or summer internship help to get a job in DC, or fantastic alumni networks in DC who can help young graduates get launched.
Or not DC specific at all- they are great launching pads for a career with the UN or another NGO; they have well regarded programs which lead to jobs at the State Department, CIA; or have fantastic programs to get a job with a multinational company in a wide range of functions.
You need to cast a wider net if these schools are unaffordable, but you don’t need to trade down in quality.
As long as you understand it’s shooting for the moon, why not go ahead and apply? It sounds like you have an affordable in-state option in hand, so I think you should pursue your dream. A few fees, a fee essays…why spend your life wondering what might have been?
Just try to keep your feet on the ground and know that in the end, you can only do what is affordable.
I don’t think anyone should be recommending that this student just take a flyer on applying. They should run the net price calculator to see what it looks like. It is a waste of application time and money to apply to schools that are unaffordable, but the OP can run the calculators to see what need based aid might look like.
Contrary to the OP’s initial assumption, Georgetown actually would likely give the best need based aid of the 3 if the OP can get in.
OP, another school to consider is Dickinson. They meet 96% of need (per their calculation, of course, like all schools), have strong IR, and have a very good semester in DC program.
Apply but don’t get your hopes up. Apply to many more realistic options.
I would not agree that the NPC is the be-all and end-all. If there is room on the student’s college list, there’s no harm in a few wild cards. It’s up to the student if it’s worth the time and money (and maybe their parents if they are paying the fees, but many students can pay the fees themselves).
The original post posits “settling” for in state based on estimates and preconceived notions vs. applying to some dream schools, knowing the likelihood of it working out is slim. I think there is room for the dream schools and maybe after this discussion OP will also add in some sorta-dreamish more likely financial possibilities too.
My rule of thumb is that if the NPC is within 5-10K of the budget, then go ahead and apply but ONLY if the student understands and agrees that if the aid isn’t adequate, he or she will have to walk away. With my D15, some schools were more generous than the NPC predicted, others less so.