<p>No, I’m not confused. My son is a National Merit Finalist. You said your kid was a National Merit Scholar. 16,000 kids make National Merit Finalist, then a subset of those kids go onto become National Merit Scholars. </p>
<p>I also encourage your son to apply to Standford and those like it as his reach schools. But the most important school he will apply to is his saftey. The wisest words I’ve ever read here are “love thy safety.” Every year kids with stats that are stellar do not get into their reaches or matches. </p>
<p>My son is not attending his safety (although he loved it!) but he had a 35ACT, 2350 SAT, 3.7 gap, good ec’s, excellent recommendations, leadership roles, etc. and was turned down by Yale and Brown. “His spot” at those schools was not hijacked by anyone. There are simply far too many highly qualified students for the very limited number of slots. To imply that your kid, or my kid, is having something stolen from them by someone of another race or with a different abilities is truly offensive to me. I hope you will reconsider your attitude, if for no other reason than you will be making the process that much less enjoyable for your own kid. </p>
<p>However, a student with a fair shot at those schools will be a very attractive prospect to a lot of other schools. He was accepted to Brandeis and UT with no merit aid. He was also accepted to George Washington, American, Northeastern and UMASS with substancial merit aid. In the fall, he starts at Northeastern. Go, Huskies!</p>
<p>I wish your family the best of luck on this journey.</p>
<p>As for East schools, it simply comes down to cash. Any private school he looks at will have to offer something. We just can’t afford it. Also, if he went “back east” we’d loose our last kid to 3000 miles. Both my wife and I are not prepared for that.</p>
<p>Ok, it’s selfish. So what about UVA, Emory, Colgate and if I had my wish Dartmouth. I still feel like I am overshooting. UCLAMOM’s comments were typical of SoCal.</p>
I’m just adding to NSM and UCLA Band Mom - I think you may not have correct information about how the UCs function. They don’t practice racial discrimination and aren’t permitted to by law. If there are more Asians than their percentage in the general population or a higher percentage of one race or the other it’s because that’s where it all falls out among the applicants’ GPAs and test scores. One isn’t given a boost or negative at a UC/CSU simply because they happened to be born of a particular race or not which IMO is as it should be. Furthermore, the UCs aren’t targeting a demographic representation of races in California - they’re targeting the top 12.5% academically of California HS students. It’s as simple as that. </p>
<p>More info you might be interested in - the UCs calculate the HS GPA themselves. This means they’ll weight certain classes like some APs/honors and not include certain non-academic courses like PE so if your son’s HS GPA doesn’t include this weighting it will when the UC calculates it. If you go to the UC Pathways website you can find more details on this. His ‘UC GPA’ may be higher than the GPA the HS states.</p>
<p>In short, California happens to have some very highly ranked and respected public universities including UCLA, UCSD, UCB and others so unless you’re opposed to public universities you and your son might want to consider them. It seems that if UVA was a consideration then these UCs would also be a consideration.</p>
<p>I think the focus at this point in the game (still early) should be on figuring out what your son wants. Of course, you should be honest and open with him about what you can afford but it’s his education so if he is set on going back east, you should at least let him explore the option and help him come up with some choices that fit his wishes and your budget. As things go along, you can narrow them down. But I don’t see how any of the other schools you listed in California would be any cheaper than sending him to the east coast schools you listed as being of interest to him. Especially good public flagship schools.</p>
<p>I know exactly how the UC’s function and could debate with factual evidence till the end of time what is wrong with the UC schools going back to the 70’s. Yes, they are good, but are they representative of society? Do they create thoughtful citizens as they are chartered to do? What is the UC philanthropy? Is there none? No payback?</p>
<p>Please, I am talking about my Son NOT UC. No more comments on that please.</p>
<p>If you’re new to the west, then how do you have this extensive knowledge of how the UC’s function? Are you an academic with a specialty in studying higher education in California? </p>
<p>And honestly, Stanford is hardly representative of society and that is the school you’ve said you most want your son to attend. </p>
<p>Finally, it’ would be ver helpful if you did an @username before your comment or else quoted the comment you’re trying to respond to, it makes the thread a little confusing.</p>
<p>NTW - as pugmadkate states, you cannot declare your son a NMS until next year if he is chosen as a subset of the NMF scholars. He is currently a “commended” student. If your son wants Stanford, have hip apply, but it would be a “reach” schools. </p>
<p>"That is the reality and I am ****ed about it. A great kid can’t get in because it was hijacked by 4.3, 2200 accompished violinists. Sounds well rounded to me… "</p>
<p>Not sure what this means… My D has a 5.0, 2380 SAT, and a violinist/athlete. Not sure what your saying about that crowd. It sounds like he can get into some very good schools on his own merits. No reason to be bitter. Your list so far is excellent!</p>
<p>I would say make sure your son really loves (or at least likes a lot) those safety schools—and there are tons of great schools that he could consider safety schools. His ACT score is great—so that should help.
Just don’t put all your love and eggs in the Stanford basket—or any specific basket! Love colleges broadly–then when those letters saying thanks but no thanks show up—he can still be really excited about the accepted letters he will be sure to recieve!</p>
<p>CATO inst approach to econ. Google on freshwater economics, and saltwater economics. There are MANY very good econ depts that your son will not be at all comfortable in, so choose carefully. OTOH there’s George Mason (in virginia), which is very good in econ, is probably pretty well wired to Cato. If you’re not too snobby about its general reputation (it ain’t bad, but not up with some of what you’ve been talking about). Also you’d be paying out of state tuition.</p>
We were just trying to help you but it appears that you have some misguided opinions on the UCs and your mind is closed on the subject and clearly don’t appreciate any input on it so I’ll exit this thread.</p>
<p>“UC schools… which I will not debate… he will not get into no matter what”</p>
<p>As a National Merit Scholar (?) with ACT 34 he might get a “free ride” at, e.g., UCR. His stats are better than our daughter’s who was accepted at a few UCs. So please don’t prevent him from applying to the UC system.</p>
<p>My son received a letter two weeks ago that he was national merit. You may be confused with confirmation of semi and finalist. They come out in the fall of senior year. Juniors that qualify for at least “semi” receive the letters at this time of year. If your student received an early letter they offered two letters to colleges of their choice to “file”.</p>
<p>Your son got a letter that says he’ll be continued in the competition. That means he’s likely Commended and <em>might</em> be named NMSF and NMF/scholar his senior year. Right now, he’s not National Merit - he’s only in the competition.</p>
<p>However, if his PSAT is - say - 220+ - then it’s likely he’ll be a NMSF in the fall in Calif. :)</p>
<p>1) Do you know how much you can pay each year for your child’s education?</p>
<p>2) Do you know if you’d qualify for any aid?</p>
<p>3) Does your son understand that he needs to apply to a few Reach Schools, a few Match Schools, and a few Financial Safeties (unless you can afford to pay $55k per year for his education). If so, then you just need one or two safeties. </p>
<p>4) And, yes, he needs to apply to a few UCs…my Italian nephews were accepted to Berkeley, UCLA, and a host of other UCs this year.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you think Harvard or Dartmouth would be more expensive than Chicago or Reed. The Ivies are, by and large, extremely wealthy institutions which means they are capable of providing massive amounts of financial aid. Here’s how it works at Yale:</p>
<p>Household income < $60,000 = free! Parents pay nothing, and students are expected to contribute $2500 a year in work-study. You also don’t have to take any loans; it’s all grants.</p>
<p>Household income < $200,000 = eligible for financial aid. If your family makes less than $200k, you won’t have to pay more than 10% of your annual income in tuition. So, say, if you make $90,000/year, you won’t pay more than $9000/year in tuition. </p>
<p>Several of my friends here actually turned down UCs (in-state, believe it or not) or LACs because Yale was significantly cheaper.</p>
<p>Consider also great Liberal Arts colleges of America where he might have more of a sense of community and close access to adults. They won’t consider him an East Coast boy therefore he is a possibly sought after state in some colleges. You have to decide if you want to accept money from a school not in Stanford’s league. You need to know your FAFSA and if you can pay it. But although my son’s are at medium sized research institutions…I am a big fan of liberal arts colleges. Colby for instance…I have a San Fran friend whose son got a fab education there…and my son at Vandy’s roommate is from LA. I love so many Liberal Arts colleges…where to begin? They do offer great ties to faculty relationships, although they offer less variety re peers sometimes.</p>