She will have 2 SL scores and 1 AP score this year and has 1 AP (5) from last year. Bs will happen especially in classes that she isn’t as strong. The additional effort to reach for that A would take away from activities and things she likes to do and those things are important too. I’m pretty sure her GPA is lower than other students not in the IB program at her school (which is definitely the hardest program at the school) so if a school doesn’t truly consider strength of schedule the list will probably need to change to make sure there are some great less selective schools she will like.
That’s another thing we’ve been thinking about. Some of the schools we looked into such as Miami of Ohio seem to have merit based on GPA ranges. They value AP and HL IB classes the same and at her school the IB classes are significantly harder. Finding a school that doesn’t have these merit boxes might be the best.
I do think they take rigor into account, but recalculate grades since different high school have different weighting systems. Two of daughters got a B freshman year (honors English), ended being the only one, but no 4.0 possible.
I disagree. Yes Miami and others not on your list…Bama, Arizona, Mizzou have the ‘ranges’ which don’t account for merit. But Miami, for example, is holistic and they give you a range. My daughters year (last), most got $21k…the range was 50%+. They do weight gpa so it’s an easy win.
My concern for you is your list is all city-ish schools and Miami is anything but. Less than an hour to Cincy and Dayton, but we were disappointed in the immediate surrounds…only because my daughter wanted a suburban/ urban. We are at the one ‘recommended’ restaurant. The bagel and deli. The campus is lovely however, like a large W&M. And kids seem to love it there.
Yea you need to have some schools where you stand out. But a school with a table like Miami works for you too…you’ll get a nice chunk of $$ as you are well above the norm whereas at other schools you aren’t.
Appreciate the insight on Miami. The location is a concern. It’s on a maybe apply without a visit list before applying because for some reason (need to dig down why) it’s ranked (collegevine) very high for pre-med. We’ve looked at the ranges and the way they weight the GPAs (IB HL is the same as AP and IB SL is the same as honors) and her GPA will likely be in the second range. Still a possible large amount just not the highest range.
This should not keep her from applying to highly competitive schools, IF she brings something that they want. If she is an URM, or has a particular talent/skill that they want, they’ll overlook the occasional B, especially from freshman year.
OOS, UMass gives a maximum merit of 16K/yr now, I think. I bet that UConn is similar. It still leaves you with a cost of over 35K/yr plus insurance. Depending upon your need, you could do better at a private college that gives good financial aid.
Your daughter is very competitive for Case Western, Northeastern, Rochester, WFU, and GWU.
Only chance for Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois is if she applies ED and writes essays which refer specifically to Northwestern.
CMU is unlikely unless she has outstanding math scores & grades.
Georgetown admissions is complex & was detailed on this website 2 or 3 years ago. Elite New England boarding schools tend to get a lot of students admitted to Georgetown.
Tufts is possible as is Vanderbilt (Vandy loves high standardized test scores).
I’m sure there are…especially most every public. It’s simply trying to answer is Tufts need blind or aware which was the question asked. Based on an extensive chat on another thread and their low level of anyone getting $$, just trying to show or provide evidence they are need aware.
Can you confirm which Tufts is ? That’s the only question at hand.
Nonetheless they have no merit so a cost conscious full pay family should look elsewhere ( assuming $350k or what it will cost is out of range).
You do not have to go to lists of dubious accuracy (like the one claiming that only 105 colleges are need-blind) or forum chatter, when a Tufts web page says that it is need-aware.
Yes, that was the cost that merit brought tuition down to by many northeast schools, private and public, that they applied to. Scranton and Quinnipiac were about the same, Temple’s cost a little lower, Saint Joe’s in Philly down to about $20,000. Pitt gave only $8000, UMD $3000. Bentley was too much after merit. SUNY Bing brought costs down to $28,500.
But the colleges can’t know that if the GC doesn’t tell them. If the school uses the same grading system for IB and AP, then that really isn’t going to come out except in the LOR.