<p>I bet we are overestimating, but by accident rather than design. I’m trying to get more granular with it now. Over the weekend, i ran NPCs and am still trying to figure it all out. Need to rerun them with the much higher income we have for 2014. Also, I need to look at our real expectations for COA for each school and run those numbers. I think. Newbie to all of this. Many thanks!!</p>
<p>Whew - I’m glad I misunderstood. I thought your D was a senior and you had no options. We’ll be on this road together, dyiu13. I was really nervous with D (class of 13), but it all worked out, and she’s at RIT. We don’t come anywhere near the cost of our in-state publics. But yes, it would be much cheaper if she lived at home and went to “our” school. I have a S, class of 2016. I’m compulsively researching TE schools that offer what he wants - our current list includes RIT, Syracuse, Pitt, Mercer, and one state school (George Mason). I think Pitt will be the big reach for TE. You’re doing the right thing researching early - I think families that do this have a much greater success rate with TE. </p>
<p>Updating my earlier post- DD got TE at american so pretty happy that at least one school pulled thru for TE!</p>
<p>Congrats! What a great town for college. 
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<p>Congrats myjanda!</p>
<p>@mamaduck I saw that you used early action/decision to get into college for your daughter. I was thinking I would do this to possibly improve my chances with TE, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Did you have to go through your liaison or explicitly mention it on the app?
Also thank you for linking me to this forum!</p>
<p>@brad I contacted the liaison at the school she wanted to go to and made SURE that not getting TE would count as “insufficient financial aid” which is an escape clause in their binding early decision. This school let you know about TE before the early decision payment deadline. So, after talking to the importing school’s liaison in the fall, she applied in October ED, was notified in December of acceptance to the school, and was awarded TE in January. It was a lovely spring.</p>
<p>Some schools (Muhlenberg comes to mind) award TE almost exclusively to ED applicants so they know it goes to students who are truly “in love” with the school. Read the overviews at the Tuition Exchange website to see if any schools you’re interested in operate that way.</p>
<p>Of course, with early action, it doesn’t matter. You will probably get your acceptance to the university early, but be notified of TE with everyone else. But, you aren’t bound to anything. I would recommend doing early action with TE because they TE deadline is usually quite early, and your exporting school (where your parent works) will need to send information to all the schools you apply to. Again, check the individual school overview on the TE website.</p>
<p>It seems that going for TE means that our kids must advance their college planning calendar/timeline. For example, I think my kid will have to have her apps (essays, LOR, test scores, etc.) ready to go by Sept. She probably should make sure to visit any targeted schools by the end of summer of her rising senior year. Any insight or recommendations? </p>
<p>That’s what we did with kid #1, and plan to do with kid #2. Our home school discourages more than 5 or so applications too, since they have to send paperwork to each of those schools. Therefore we felt we really needed a targeted list. We started visiting schools fall of Junior year, and the last school was October of senior year (but it was pretty low on the list and eliminated after the visit and we just happened to be traveling nearby). She already had her safety (which she liked a lot) in hand by then. There were schools she walked on the campus and knew immediately that she did not like them, so it was nice indeed to cross those off. </p>
<p>Yep, visits done before senior year. Applications for TE submitted by Sept 15. </p>
<p>same here application to TE was in september. applications to the TE colleges all done by November 1 (early action for some, but no early decision). results are good so far with 3 of 5 colleges offering TE. employer is still the least expensive though, even living on campus.</p>
<p>We are doing TE for my daughter and one thing I would strongly encourage you to do is to find out who is the specific TE person at each school your child is applying to. (Often it’s someone in the Registrar’s or Enrollment and not Admissions). Then call this individual and ask all your questions like “when do you prefer that my child has her application in? How many slots do you have? What percentage of TE applicants to your school actually get in? What do you like to see from a TE applicant – just that he or she meets minimum requirements or do you prefer that they be at the top of this list?” I called every school we were interested in and found the people at the other end to be absolutely delightful. And I found out lots of goodies that I might not have known previously – like whether it includes tuition for Junior Year Abroad, etc.<br>
My dream is to have my daughter start applications the first week in September and to be DONE by end of October, including knowing where she is going. We also found out that many schools will let your kid know earlier that they are accepted if you are doing TE, so you don’t have to wait until the actual deadlines that you hear.</p>
<p>I’m just now feeling brave enough to start looking at schools not on our TE list. All in theory at this point, as we have no scores and her GPA is wacky due to various high schools attended and differing grading practices. She might be transferring once again, too. She’s going to need AP, CLEP, SAT II, or dual-enrollment “proof” of her performance. We will see. I believe stats will be low given LDs and related issues/experiences. So, no competitive schools are likely, from what I can imagine at this point. But, at least we have a timeline and plan now for TE. THANKS! </p>