It looks like my 4.0UW, NMF, 34 ACT 1500 SAT kiddo will not be admitted to any reach schools nor her first choice target school. We’ve got a few left to hear from, but they are doubtful to be acceptances.
We’re left with an eclectic list for a liberal-minded, low-intensity kid who has not found her passion (likely the reason for the rejections!). She has some fantastic merit scholarship offers and has whittled down the list. Cost is an issue, so I’ve listed them in descending order of what our family’s overall cost is likely to be.
University of Oregon - her favorite - $57K/yr + $3K for honors college (Why??)
University of San Diego (doesn’t seem like her vibe, but she’d love to be in So. Cal) - $53K/yr
University of San Franciso - $45K/yr
Willamette - $41K/yr
Fordham - $29K/yr (honors program)
We’ve always got our great state school, but this is the safest option (5 minutes from home), and she wants to try getting out.
University of X - $20K/yr
She’s crossed off many places she was admitted. Her counselor encouraged her to apply to many places with NMF scholarships, but she doesn’t seem super interested in:
Lewis and Clark - $44K/yr
Arizona State - $36K/yr
University of South Carolina - $33K/yr
University Oklahoma - $24K/yr
University of Arkansas -?
University of Alabama -?
University of Arizona - ?
(she hasn’t even figured out the scholarships on these three because she is convinced they’re off the list).
We are clueless.
We’ll visit or revisit her top remaining choices this month, but I don’t know what criteria we should use now. My husband and I just applied to state school and went without much thought, so this process is new to us.
What size of school would she prefer?
Willamette is the smallest on the list, is that good or bad?
This would be one easy area to whittle it down.
Wish my older D had applied to Fordham and looks like that could be a great option.
Another way to narrow things would be for her to look at all the majors and see which ones she likes. And, make sure there are a few since she is undecided.
You said cost is an issue. What can you pay without stress or debt? Any school over that gets taken off.
I don’t see the higher cost schools as any better than the rest of the list.
Has she visited any of the schools? Most schools have online sessions for admitted students.
She should really get all the offers figured out so she can make an informed decision. Even the ones she crossed off.
Maybe apathy is a sign she’s not ready. Or maybe just back off and just listen. By the end I think my two sons were done and wanted to be left alone to think.
We always left punt and go to school later as an option. Seemed to ease the stress.
Looking at your list from a value-for-net-price standpoint, the Fordham offer stands out… and I’m having a hard time fathoming paying double that amount for UofO! How does she feel about Fordham?
That’s the thing. We don’t know - she doesn’t know. I think she may like the exciting feel of a big school, but I’m not sure she’ll succeed there. I think she thrives with some personal attention. But she is also the one who put these small schools at the top of the list! It’s hard to let a not super self-aware 18-year-old puzzle this through. But I guess that’s part of allowing them to become adults. I’m sure I’ll get better at this by the time my next two come along, right?
Based on her list, I am making the (possibly incorrect) assumption that you all live in the Pacific Northwest, or at least near the West Coast. If my assumption is correct, it seems to me that her choices fall into 3 groups: 1)Nearby flagships 2)Far away flagships 3)Private schools.
Personally, I don’t think it makes sense to pay way more for a school in one of these groups if there is a much cheaper option in the same group that is of similar quality. For example, in Group #1, why pay $60K at University of Oregon when University of X is $20K? I get that she “wants to try getting out”, but college is getting out as long as you live in the dorms. And for that extra $40K per year, you can fly her and a handful of her best buddies to France each summer and rent them a Chateau in Province, and they can sit around all summer eating bon-bons and taking private French lessons from some some dude named Jean-Luc. Like literally. So if it were me, I would tell her that if she wants a nearish flagship, that University X it must be.
Likewise in Group #2-- the far away flagships. Alabama will be free. University of Oklahoma will be $12K (not $24K if I am reading the NMF package on their website correctly --maybe even lower with stacking aid.) So limit Group 2 to those two choices, because why pay way more at Arizona State or University of S. Carolina. After all, I’m not hearing that these more expensive schools offer some sort of program or opportunity she absolutely can’t turn down.
Then in Group #3, the private schools. Seriously consider Fordham! My S22 is there on the NMF deal, and he is having a great experience. He has learned so much! It was weird for us to think of him going to college so far away, but the nice thing about NY is that there are so many direct flights. My own kid is at the LC campus, but I have heard great things about Rose Hill, and my understanding is that their honors program is really great for OOS students who might worry about homesickness, because the program is super small (~30 students) and all your core classes are with that group so it is very easy to make friends.
Back off and listen is probably good advice. She does want to go, but I think the decision feels so big.
Without stress or debt we can do up to about $45K. And I know you’re right. The higher cost schools should really be crossed off. But it’s hard when a school that causes a little stress now seems like a good fit and less expensive schools seem like a more questionable fit. I’ve said all along that she can go anywhere she gets in for “free” (under our 529+grandparent $ threshold) but now that it’s here, that doesn’t feel quite as good.
Paying anything for an honors program seems strange to me - I guess it doesn’t feel like much of an honor. The only significant benefit I see is the instant community aspect, which feels vital at a big school.
I think it feels scary. She’s never even been east of Michigan and our home city is a village compared to most cities. We will visit next month and I have all my fingers and toes crossed that it feels like a good fit!
Well Willamette could be a good fit if big cities are intimidating. It is only 1,500 students. Salem is the capital of Oregon and it is big enough to have a fair selection of restaurants etc with a nearby courthouse as well. It is also a very nice location.
Fordham seems great but my wife felt very overwhelmed by New York and we have been to Paris, San Francisco, Vegas, LA, London, Montreal etc.
Wow. You are good!! This is so insightful. (You’re likely right about Oklahoma. She has not yet submitted her finalist paperwork to them, so I was trying to calculate the number myself.)
I am dying about Jean-Luc. You are 100% correct. And University of X is probably a better school in many ways. She visited Duck Days last year with a friend and just fell in love with Eugene. And I get it! I did the same thing with Boulder, CO many many years ago. Falling in love with a place is dangerous.
Thank you so much for that info on Fordham. That was the sense I got about the honors program. It looks tight-knit, and they look like her kind of people. But it’s so faaaaaaar! I looked up the flight last night though, and again, you’re right. In a late-night imaginary emergency scenario, we could get to Fordham 18 hours faster than we could get to Eugene. We could actually drive to Eugene faster than we could get there flying.
Budget concerns start for us above about $45K a year, and I think she was hoping for more merit aid from Oregon. Her offer there was less than half of any other school, so that was disappointing.
A few admissions counselors have told us we’ve got a chance of getting some need-based aid on appeal from the private schools since we had a significant one-time boost in income in 2021 and extraordinary medical expenses, neither of which can be explained through the FAFSA. (Again, we didn’t know what we were doing!) So I think she did pretty well judging which schools would be affordable. Except for that darned Oregon.
Without getting too specific about our circumstances, the $45K a year is set aside for her education alone, and only a small portion of it can be rolled over to grad school. I do appreciate what you are saying about the costs and savings, but our situation is atypical in that way. Put another way, $40K a year is no biggie, $60K a year is a biggie.
I think I am niave because $45K a year still seems like a large amount of money to me. I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that it looks like pocket change sometimes.
Not sure why it can’t be used for grad purposes? How about other purposes ? Are you saying it’s use it for undergrad or lose it ?
Others disagree but I say college costs more than they say. Some will say yea but my kid will work. But there’s still a cost regardless of who is paying.
And it can get to be a lot - going greek for example.
Some honors programs are worth every penny. Some not at all. S20 does honors at Georgia Tech. Not worth it at all. Did it to get a better dorm freshman year. S21 at FSU loves it. Well worth it. It’s paid dividends. Do your own due diligence. But $3k is the most I’ve seen.
BTW. S20 loved Fordham. I liked Rose Hill. Great school at a great price.
If Oklahoma is a state she is interested in, I agree with @tsbna44 about University of Tulsa. I believe they are still taking rolling admissions. It is a University, but a small one, and lots of individualized attention. They are projecting that 15% of their freshman class will be National Merit Scholars, so she will be in good company. Total free ride. Tulsa is a young and hip city. University of Tulsa’s new president is a former Democratic congressman.
