Smaller school with merit aid for Jewish girl B+/A- premed [really 3.95 unweighted HS GPA]

Why not apply to both? Is it because you are going to exceed the common app limit?

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Once again, you are extrapolating from a tiny dataset and trying to find some sort of meaning in that.

I do NOT live in NY, and Bing is by far the most popular out of state choice for kids in my area, followed by UMD and Delaware. I cannot think of a single kid who went to Miami in the last ten years- but there were a few about 15 years ago as I recall. They wanted a preppy/frat environment, which is definitely not Bing, Delaware, UMD, Rutgers, U Conn, U Mass
 they could have found it at Penn State which a lot of kids find too big (and parents find too expensive for a state school).

Do not use your kids HS as proof of ANYTHING- you keep posting about what happens at one HS in the US as if “wisdom” can be found by the behavior of a bunch of 17 year olds.

Jewish life is significantly more robust at Bing than at Miami- with options for everyone ranging from “secular but highly identified” to orthodox/graduate of a day school and a year spent in Israel studying at a yeshiva after HS. This is not the case at Miami- even for kids from Ohio who know the place very well.

So it’s great that you’re learning more about some options- but don’t cut schools from the list for capricious reasons. Bing is a more “academic” environment than some of the schools on your list; a stronger student body, etc. Kids in my area who cannot get into Bing end up in some of the schools you guys are considering. They are nice kids- but not operating at the academic level your D has shown, and they are certainly not med school material.

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Great points.

OP, you specified in your title that your daughter is Jewish, and it’s clearly an important consideration for her. I’m not Jewish, but my son hangs out with plenty of Jewish kids. There is no question that if your kid wants an active Jewish community, she will get that at Bing. I really don’t know much about Miami’s Jewish community, but why not apply to both and see what happens?

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I have now 20 schools on the list
 Something like 3 safety, 10 matches (most have size 2-3 K) and 7 reaches. Only reaches (but Washington and Lee and Tulane) are schools with good size (about 5K). Safety will provide enough money. Matches are the ones that most likely will provide some merit. I do not want to shrink neither list of matches not reaches. About half of the schools have EA. I think we have OK balance and done with the search. We may revise something after EA will be released. There is no way that DD will have 0 choices with this list.

It appears as though from your message that only safeties will provide enough money. Does your family plan on increasing its budget to pay for matches or reaches?

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Bing 4/8/22

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If the school requires zero extra work to apply, why wouldn’t you put both?

This is what you’re missing - if your goal is merit aid, you need more, not less schools. You need schools that at least have the potential of making your # even if it is unlikely - as Miami is. Many of us have successfully chased merit - and you need a strategy. Limiting apps is the opposite of what you should do. You need to have more apps - but all schools that will offer at least a possibility of achieving your price.

Miami - just for admittance (not Honors) takes little effort other than answering its section of the common app- and $50 - which they gave back to us after attending the tour.

Frankly, even if you pay a lot in app fees, it’s still worth spending hundreds extra
because you’re looking for that one school that just comes out - crazy cheap!!

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Bearing in mind what you said above, is a school like Tulane going to be affordable without merit? Being frank, I doubt she would get much, if any, merit aid at either Tulane or W & L. Be wary of spending money on apps for colleges that are unaffordable. Apps are something like $80 a pop. Sounds like she needs a pretty big merit award to make the college affordable.

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Nope. But I am sure she will have at least 5 choices in the end. We will see.

Five affordable choices? Or just five choices?

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She needs half ride (tuition) as I mentioned many times. If half will be provided, she is in. If not, she is out. For most private schools half is 30k. Then work will provide about 19K. That would leave 11K of tuition + 14k of room and board (very rough estimate).
About half schools on our list have 0 app fee (some have no fee, others waived them after visit)

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I haven’t read all 1000 responses to this thread.

So you mean she needs $30,000? She is not going to get that at Tulane.
I’m sorry if that comes across as too blunt, but it won’t happen. Not at Tulane anyway.

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5 affordable choices I hope (given comparison to other students that I know from our area with similar stats this year.) Worst case scenario - 3 safety. I will let you know how many choices she will get. I expect success rate like at least 70% acceptances. 30% with good merit.

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I am not sure that she will be even accepted to Tulane. Tulane have our friend only 5K. I am fully aware of the situation.

Good merit and enough merit aren’t the same.

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Have you looked at this thread?

As a parent who encouraged my own kid back in the day to apply to a school that we later realized was not going to happen, I suggest you avoid that trap if possible. False hope isn’t worth the application fee. Just being honest.

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Does your daughter know this?

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Absolutely. That is why we do not have LOVE list. We have only HATE list and OK list.

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Thanks about pre-read. I have heard about it for Dickinson. But was not aware about other schools. Tulane has 0 fee, and no false hope.

Are you saying that she is applying to schools on her hate list? Or is that the list of schools she is definitely not applying to?