Most colleges won’t “match” another college’s FA offer. And those that will would only consider it if the schools are comparable. (So you can’t take a better Fordham offer to Dartmouth and expect any movement, for example).
@yikesyikesyikes This research says otherwise: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41354100
@CaliCash that’s probably why. We don’t use naviance and we (the students) are responsible for sending our own transcripts through parchment. So I guess our counsellors would never know how many schools we applied to.
@IAmthegoat are all the schools on your list at least affordable, if you were to get accepted?
Apparently, Wall Street finds the prescreening done by the Ivy League Admissions Committees very useful.
I hope their charitable donations reflect it.
@JustOneDad I found the article to be very compelling. Kinda sad, but still compelling.
@tola15 I have the same financial status as OP. I applied for financial aid everywhere with a family income of just under 150k. My parents are willing to spend the money now, as long as I can repay them later. It will definitely be more hand-to-mouth if I were to go to a dream school of mine costing ~60k without financial aid, though.
@CaliCash I get the “kinda sad” part, but don’t know what you mean by “compelling”.
OP does not have the qualities that a top 20 school looks for in its applicants. Just another average, prestige-obsessed kid.
@intparent Could you explain your $28000 loan comment?
Also, HYPS are not the only gateway to investment banks. According to Business Insider, more alumni from NYU, LSE, Cornell, and Rutgers work at Goldman Sachs than from Princeton or Yale.
@Iamthegoat, I hope you and OP report back on April 1 with your outcomes. To make it interesting, you should list the schools you would have applied to if you had only applied to 10 as generally recommended, a good mix of reaches, matches and safeties. If you list them now, we will see how you would have fared in April. The question is, do you think you did as good a job on those 10 applying to 31 as you would have if you had only applied to the 10. Naysayers say there is no way you could have but I am interested in your self assessment.
@Matt846 I was puzzled too. Studentaid.ed.gov, for example, indicates $45k available to students whose parents are unable to obtain PLUS loans.
LOVE this! I have a S15 and I couldn’t tell someone what an investment banker does. I guess kids today are just much more money savvy, lol.
@1203southview Yes, I will if I remember. My main reaches and safeties were covered with all the UCs I applied to (all except for merced). I spent about 2 months of my UC application.
I got into UCR, my safety, and am expecting a scholarship from them in the near future. Berkeley is my reach, and UCLA is my realistic low reach/high match. The others fall somewhere between high and low match.
I additionally applied to Stanford (reach), harvey mudd (reach), Claremont McKenna (reach/low reach), and usc (high match), spending 2 months of a lot of revisions on them, too.
Then, I applied to what are more or less top 20s ( including georgia tech, cmu, and boston college) in the span of 2 weeks. I used my main ideas from the four schools I mentioned earlier to forge a main concept (I copied and pasted my goals and aspirations aka first couple paragraphs). Then, I researched the colleges to find specific programs or things I could do there and wrote about them in the final paragraphs. This made it so that I just had to write the last paragraphs for each of the supplements.
“Actually, if you count all the UCs as 1 school since its just one app, I applied to 21 schools.”
Yes, UC should be considered one app because it IS one app and there are zero supplementals unless you are Augmented later in the cycle.
@Fredjan My research spoke about Wall St as a whole. You focused on one specific firm out of dozens. That hardly negates what I said.
@JustOneDad I meant compelling in terms of “not able to be refuted and inspiring conviction”. These firms are so lazy. As an adult, you would be penalized for your shortcomings as an 18 year old. Not to mention there are some extremely bright kids who got rejected or couldn’t attend HYPS for some other unforeseen reason.
These extremely bright kids who got rejected or couldn’t attend HYPS for some reason…what about them?
@Pizzagirl Your assumptions about my lack of intelligence in my intended career are unnecessary and your snide comments and personal insults are unwarranted.
@Proudmomx3 Same to you.
This thread has clearly gone downhill, with people like @CaliCash quite literally ordering me to get a job to help pay for the $1500 that I spent applying. To all posters with similar ridiculous comments: please stop derailing the thread.
The fact of the matter is, my parents had $150,000 in income but they have a lot more in other savings/assets, which I would prefer not to discuss. I will not entertain any more questions about tuition and it is not an issue at this point.
@Baloney1011 Lol, OP. You could be a millionaire and I would advise you to do the same. Your shot gun approach (especially to the level you brought it to. I mean, 31??) is asinine. And at the end of the day, your decision will be made on what has the highest rankings. Which will you choose to use though? Forbes? US News? Princeton Review? Time? Oohhh the options are endless! =))
@Baloney1011 stay strong, I agree with you. You’ll probably be laughing all the way to the bank while the rest of us sit around judging strangers on College Confidential. You gotta do it your own way and the hell with everyone else. Good luck, and I’m genuinely interested in your results!