small LAC or large state school?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>i'm planning on applying ED to an LAC in the northeast. it has awesome financial aid, i love the location, and i just love everything about it. financial aid is really important for me. i like this school especially because its first year loans are ~3500, compared to 5500+ at other schools. thing is, i just found another LAC i like and its average first year loans are ~5500, but the EFC is about $3000...compared to $6500 at my dream LAC. this is really conflicting for me, because i don't want to stretch my mom thin, like she would have to at my dream LAC. if there's another option out there thousands of dollars cheaper...then it would make sense to try to go for that one, right? they're both difficult to get into, so obviously nothing's a done deal yet. my dream LAC (i know how much CCers hate the term "dream school", but for comparison's sake) is in my dream location, too, and i know it would probably be the only opportunity i have to live there. </p>

<p>on the other hand, my state school is there, too. i do like it, but it's not at the top of my list. it's my backup, as of now, but honestly i don't even know if its completely affordable. i'd be an automatic admit to the honors college, but i feel like it's full of all the things i'm trying to avoid—huge greek culture, party school, huge lack of diversity—and i feel like i'd get really lost easily and be miserable there. it's kind of why i don't really fit into high school now. also, i never banked on having to go there, so i didn't take ANY of my honors/advanced classes for college credit and i feel like i'm gonna be stuck with tons of dull, huge gen ed classes (the LAC i'm looking at has a really interesting gen ed option/sequence). </p>

<p>TL;DR: two LACs, my #1 ED choice is $3000+ more than my second choice. financial aid is extremely important, should i even waste my time applying ED to my dream school, potentially forcing my mom into a difficult situation (she says she can do it, but i don't want to push her)? or should i go for the one that costs less? OR should i just stick with my state school? </p>

<p>also, my college list is really short because either i get into a school that meets 100% of need, or i go to my state school (if i'm lucky).</p>

2

<p>So net price of $10,000 at LAC #1, $8,500 at LAC #2? This is based on running the net price calculators, correct? What is the net price of the state university?</p>

<p>(Net price = EFC + ESC, where ESC is the expected student contribution of loans and work earnings.)</p>

<p>If you do not like your state university (or it is not affordable), you need to find a safety that you actually like and can afford. Otherwise, you could be in for a major letdown in April if LAC #1 and LAC #2 do not admit you, or their actual financial aid offers are insufficient.</p>

3

<p>After you get your acceptances and financial packages you can go back to your #1 choice and negotiate for additional aid. Of course the amount of debt that you and your family are willing to shoulder is a personal decision, but in my opinion $10,000 is not an unreasonable amount to end up with. You just have to make sure that that’s the worst case. </p>

<p>If you think you’d prefer an LAC to your state university, then my advice would be to widen your list. As I said financial offers are negotiable (and you may even get some merit aid) but you have to have other offers in order to negotiate effectively.</p>

4

<p>LAC #1 is $11,694 with 3500 in loans, + some in work study; the EFC is $6194.
LAC #2 is $9,595 with $5500 in loans and 1500 in work study; the EFC is $2595. </p>

<p>i was going to ED at #1 but obviously now i’m having doubts.
i know, i really need to find a safety…</p>

5

<p>just now seeing the second reply…</p>

<p>i wanted to ED because i had my heart set on this one and the acceptance rate is so much higher then (i know, it’s for special cases, people with hooks, etc…). my counselor said i should just go for it. i thought the aid offer there, or anywhere near that estimate, was as good as it got. the loans are much better than the LAC’s i just found, but the EFC is much higher. that’s the thing, if i got in ED, i couldn’t negotiate. but i feel like ED-ing is my only chance. am i making sense? it’s hard to explain.</p>

<p>right now i have a list of 3 LACs. i know it’s small, so i think i need to widen my criteria…</p>

6

<p>LAC #1 work study would be $2,000.</p>

<p>So LAC #2 is $2,099 less expensive. Of course, you and your family can change the mix of loan and AFC (actual family contribution):</p>

<p>LAC #1: borrow $5,500, work $2,000, AFC = $4,194
LAC #2: borrow $5,500, work $1,500, AFC = $2,595</p>

<p>LAC #1: borrow $3,500, work $2,000, AFC = $6,194
LAC #2: borrow $3,500, work $1,500, AFC = $4,595</p>

<p>Of course, they also have different amounts of work study; if the work study jobs pay the same at each, you’d have to work more at LAC #1 to use up the full work study eligibility.</p>

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<p>Finding a safety that you like and can afford should be your highest priority when making your application list.</p>

8

<p>so, to cover some of the EFC, i can take out more loans (up to 5500 max)? so at LAC 1, i could take out $2000 more in loans? i never thought of that, i thought whatever they gave you was definite. </p>

<p>before i really got into this process, i always assumed that my state flagship would be my safety just because that’s what its known for. i didn’t realize how expensive it actually is until now. there’s another less expensive state school, but it’s also a lot less appealing and it’s in the middle of nowhere. honestly, i don’t think it’s possible for me to like a safety since i can’t really choose any of them. i mean, maybe once i got there i’d start to like it…my only safety options are my state schools, if that.</p>

9

<p>The ED decision is tricky. In some cases, not all, you will get an admissions boost if you apply ED. Look at the figures of your #1 LAC to see what percentage of its class is admitted early.</p>

<p>The most important point is to understand what your family can afford. Sit down and talk to your parents. If they [or she if you’re sure that your father’s financial situation won’t be considered] are comfortable with the #1 LAC’s projected package. The package may get better but it most likely won’t get worse, so you have to have a worst case strategy that everyone can live with.</p>

<p>Without knowing what LACs you’re interested in it’s hard to advise, but as a general statement there are plenty of good colleges out there. You should be able to find safeties that appeal to you academically, socially and financially.</p>

10

<p>Hmmm, it looks like the school can limit the amount of direct loan you can borrow.</p>

<p>In any case, $3,500 is the maximum direct loan at subsidized interest rates, while $5,500 is the maximum total direct loan, for frosh year.</p>

<p>[Applying</a> for Federal Direct Loans](<a href=“http://www.direct.ed.gov/applying.html]Applying”>http://www.direct.ed.gov/applying.html)</p>

11

<p>well, LAC #1 is barnard. LAC #2, the cheaper one, is university of richmond. the other school i like is scripps, but it’s less than $1000 less than barnard, so it’s not really a potential ~replacement. </p>

<p>there really aren’t any LACs that compare to barnard, and i love it so much…that’s why i want to apply ED so much. i love the school, the nine ways of knowing sounds amazing (makes me feel better about not having any college credits), i love the fact it’s connected with columbia because it gives you the feel of a small LAC but the resources of a huge research university, i could never go to a rural women’s college, and it’s probably the only chance i’ll ever have to experience new york. most LACs are in the middle of nowhere or in tiny towns, and i hate that. also, most don’t meet need based entirely on need and not merit. </p>

<p>this year, 42.57% of ED applications were accepted to barnard, and 255 were accepted, filling 44.35% of the anticipated freshman class. the regular decision acceptance rate was 20.5%…5606 applied RD, and only 1/5 of them were accepted. the ED odds are MUCH better, right?</p>

<p>i’m first gen, mixed race (half black, does mixed race even matter?), and i’m not the best applicant. academically, i’m fine, but my ECs are weak because of some stuff i was going through. my grades never faltered, though. i want them to see how much i want to go to barnard and in the case i’m lucky enough to get accepted, i would love to know before the year is over so that i can relax and focus on getting through the year, you know? and if not, i can move on and focus on other schools. </p>

<p>the hard part now is that i know barnard isn’t the cheapest option i thought it was, but i’m still dying to go there…</p>

<p>but with safeties, the thing is, my stats aren’t tippy top enough to get huge merit scholarships anywhere. unless a school is extremely cheap or meets full need, i can’t really try to go there. even the ones who meet full need sometimes give me EFCs that are way too high, how could a much lower ranked school with a smaller endowment that meets, on average, 70-90% of need, be any better? i can’t find any safeties that aren’t state schools because i don’t think it’s possible.</p>

12

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<p>I don’t know about better, but a state school definitely could be cheaper, if not by having a lower Expected Family Contribution, then by being close enough to home that you could commute for 1 or more years.</p>

<p>In between that option and Barnard, there are quite a few other LACs and small universities that are a bit less selective, yet have decent need-based aid. Have you considered Macalester, Holy Cross, Bryn Mawr, or Smith? (Just to name a few that aren’t in the middle of nowhere.)</p>

13

<p>holy cross’ NPC calculation for me wasn’t too great. i don’t like it that much. it was on my list until a couple weeks ago. </p>

<p>macalester looks good. it’s kind of small, but i like it. i’ll look into it. </p>

<p>i like bryn mawr a lot and was considering it, but it seems kind of isolated from the schools it’s in a consortium with. </p>

<p>i never considered smith because it seems isolated from its consortium schools, too. is it? i have no idea how to figure these things out. i like it a lot, otherwise, though…i’ll look into it, too. the fact it’s less selective than barnard is really appealing, too. but my main problem is whether or not it’s isolated</p>

14

<p>You can use a mapping web site to determine commuting times (by walking and/or public transportation) between various consortium schools. It is hard to beat Barnard - Columbia or the various Claremont schools, though.</p>

<p>For safeties…</p>

<p>What is your home state, if you don’t mind mentioning it?</p>

<p>Do your stats qualify for any of the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676&lt;/a&gt; at schools you may like?</p>

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<p>Bryn Mawr is pretty far from Swarthmore and UPenn, most students never takes classes at those members of the consortium, but Haverford is less than a 10 minute bus ride away. It’s very common for students to go back and forth and some take a class on the opposite campus nearly every semester, depending on your major.</p>

16

<p>thanks for the help, everyone! i really appreciate all of it. and thanks, MrMom, for the info on Bryn Mawr! </p>

<p>so, now i’m having serious doubts about doing ED at barnard. of course i’d love to go there, but there are many other LACs in the new england area (not in nyc, though :frowning: ) that cost one or two grand less (smith’s calculator just surprised me) and that i think i’d be happy going to. since financial aid is really important, do you think i should give up early decision and cast a wide net instead? i feel like that’s more important. barnard is my number one, but i don’t want to break my mom financially or get into a sticky situation where my mom convinces me she can do it because she’s under pressure. six grand is a lot for our family, honestly. and even though i ruled out some great LACs due to them being semi-isolated women’s colleges (in a consortium, still), i think i’d much rather go to one of those than a state school. i want to leave the state sooo badly. </p>

<p>so maybe instead, my list of LACs could be something like: </p>

<p>-barnard
-scripps
-smith
-bryn mawr
-mount holyoke (fell in absolute love with it until i found that it was VERY rural, but)
-macalester
-u richmond</p>

<p>and also maybe trinity college, union college, franklin and marshall, etc? any other suggestions? the only major downside to this is that i feel like applying RD to barnard will result in a flat out rejection. i wish there was a way to let them know they’re my number one while applying RD…do you think i should just forget about ED?</p>

17

<p>oh, ALSO, ucbalumnus, my home state is missouri</p>

18

<p>Your home state has one of the cheapest public LACs around, Truman State. However, it is in a small town not near a big city. But you may want to check its net price after financial aid grants and merit scholarships for stats.</p>

19

<p>Truman State is a well-regarded regional LAC, but some students REALLY hate Kirksville. Reports are, it has no charm whatsoever, so you better like the campus.</p>

<p>I would be careful about thinking any school is a few thousand dollars cheaper or more expensive based on the on-line calculators. They aren’t meant to be that accurate.</p>

<p>Since financial consideration plays heavily here, I think ED would be a mistake. You need to see multiple FA packages in order to make the best decision. Once you have them in hand, you’ll be able to make a better decision.</p>

<p>I also think you’d be making a mistake to base a decision based on as little as $1K difference in price, but that’s my world, not yours. You really need to see the numbers from a number of schools, maybe even play them off each other. To these schools, $1K isn’t much, they’ll probably accomodate a request like that. No ED.</p>

<p>Also, since you are a low income student, and possibly several other factors come into play (URM? 1st in Family?), I don’t think you lose much at Barnard (or anywhere else) by not doing ED. They understand some students need to take cost into account.</p>

20

<p>Since money is such a consideration, make sure you consider travel and living expenses once you’re in college. Manhattan is expensive - it’s hard not to spend money there. Airfares go up around holidays. It’s often a lot cheaper to drive, even if it’s a long drive.</p>