URM 2.5 GPA 2100 SAT and We're Going For It

Parents Forum
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<p>I feel sort of like we have sent you over the edge… never heard of CBU Tennessee, and not sure you should just be picking colleges by mailings… remember that they only tell you the good stuff in the marketing materials! I feel like you should sit down and get your SON to make a list of criteria he wants in a college.</p>

<ul>
<li>What majors does he want to have available?</li>
<li>Does he prefer urban, suburban, or rural environments?</li>
<li>What size college feels right to him?</li>
<li>What extra curricular activities does he want to participate in?</li>
<li>How does he feel about greek life and big-time sports programs?</li>
<li>Is he okay with being far from home, or does he want to stay relatively close?</li>
</ul>

<p>You will want to address what you can afford to pay, and what the net price calculators show you. A college like CBU Tennessee pretty certainly won’t meet financial aid need.</p>

<p>Then you need to find schools where his stats make sense that fit his criteria. This is hard when test scores are out of whack with grades like his are, plus he has URM status. I would look for some schools where the average GPA is maybe around a 3.0 – I think with his high test scores and URM status, that may offset the lower GPA. Those are probably match schools. Try to find 4-5 of those. Some of the UCs or CSs might be on that list. Then a few reaches (3 max), and a couple of schools you KNOW he will get into and you KNOW you can pay for.</p>

<p>Sorry – I am sure you feel like you have been working and re-working his list. But this is the right place to start. Some of his current schools will probably stay on his list, and some will drop off. Maybe you will add a few not on there now.</p>

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<p>Christian Brothers University came up when my daughter looked at Rhodes. They share different things with Rhodes and University of Memphis . Lots of internships with St. Judes Hospital and all kinds of internship opportunity in Memphis including FedEx. Definitely check it out. When we were there a whole bus of kids from a school in Pittsburgh was touring the civil rights trail and there is so much in Memphis. Rhodes was one of the top picks for my daughter and part of it was all of the collaboration with the other schools. Also if your son is interested in ROTC (a great way to pay for education) they can piggy back on the University of Memphis. You might want to look there as well as it has a college of engineering as well as other science tracks. And when you visit you have to go to Beal Street and eat fried pickles at BB Kings.</p>

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<p>One other comment, I notice in your original post that you mentioned Penn State is “son’s pick”. If you mean first choice on the list, okay. If you mean the other schools were put on the list by you, and he just put that one on, that is really a sign that you need to rework the list more from his viewpoint. A lot of kids have ONE parent choice on the list, I think it is reasonable to ask a kid to apply to one school that their parents want them to leave on their list (in fact, my D2 is at the “parent choice” school on her list!). And I also think parents should be able to veto schools based on net price calculator results and other reasons (eg, just cuz a girlfriend is going there is NOT a reason to put a school on the list). But if he doesn’t feel some ownership of the list, he isn’t going to feel like he owns the education, either.</p>

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<p>

I didn’t read all the posts but keep in mind how the UCs actually compute GPA. If his major issue was 9th grade he might have a higher UC GPA than you think - </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>[University</a> of California - Statewide path](<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/admissions-index/index.html]University”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/admissions-index/index.html)</p>

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<p>@ intparent - Haha! Yes! You guys have sent me over the edge! LOL. Its okay though. Like I said, I really do appreciate the advice. </p>

<p>I didn’t just fall for the pretty mailing. I looked at the schools website and collegeboard stats as well. Its small and regional, so not a lot of other info I could find. Just curious if anyone knew anything about it! :)</p>

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<p>A friend of mine toured CBU with her D recently…seemed very nice.</p>

<p>What is your situation? Can you pay a lot towards college? If not, are you running the NPC’s on these websites? What does CBU’s NPC say?</p>

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<p>One thing odd about CBU’s web site is that the pictures of students it uses make it look like a predominantly white school, with a few black people here and there. [Christian</a> Brothers University Students - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1459]Christian”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1459) says that the school is 48% white and 37% black. That is odd in that most colleges seem to go out of their way to show racial and ethnic diversity in pictures of students, even if their students really are not that racially or ethnically diverse.</p>

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<p>Slymlady- Take a look at Oklahoma Christian University :)</p>

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<p>If your child is in the LAUSD, I assume you’ll need financial aid. So, a good way to start is to look at colleges that meet 100% need. Many are very selective, but not all.</p>

<p>Other colleges may not meet need, even if your son has high stats for them.
I’ve run NPC’s with a first gen, URM kid recently and depending on college his EFC went from $141 to $26,500. His family makes $37,600…</p>

<p>This is using the basic formula: geographic distance + stats -> 400+ miles and top 25% OR meets 100% need definitely yields the best results.</p>

<p>(It’s kind of shocking to see some of the net prices are highest at Christian/Catholic schools.)</p>

<p>What is your son’s junior-senior GPA? I think it’s very important here. But if you highlight junior-senior GPA (and make sure guidance counselor does too - more stuff for the bullet point list :p) it’d give us an idea of his academic abilities.
To find matches, use 3.2 for GPA.</p>

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<p>If the family needs a lot of FA, then when looking at these various privates like CBU, etc, the mom really needs to run the NPCs. Those schools will gap.</p>

<p>I ran the NPC on CBU’s website with the student’s stats and there is a scholarship award of about $12k if the Math + CR is about a 1400. (is it?) And, if the family’s EFC is 0, then the net cost after grants and full Stafford loans is about $12,000 per year. Since the student would be traveling between Calif and Memphis, I don’t see the ability to cut back much of “net cost”. </p>

<p>Slymlady…how much can you pay each year?</p>

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<p>There are a LOT of schools between a small Christian university and the Ivies. </p>

<p>Does this student qualify for the Calgrant? Does he NEED significant financial aid to attend college? If he applies to a Profile school requiring the non-custodial parent Profile, will the dad complete and submit the form?</p>

<p>I agree that the college list should be comprised of schools that are the kiddo’s choice. Let HIM look at those postcards. When they came into our house, they were nicely placed on the kiddos’ desks or bed. The kids decided whether or not to include the on the list.</p>

<p>Remember also, your son is probably receiving mailings from schools because of his very fine SAT score. Some will be attainable for admissions and some won’t. The schools do not know about his academic history when they send these mailings.</p>

<p>I would suggest that you look at an OLD thread by momfromtexas. It is a CC classic. She found full ride scholarships for both of her kiddos. Many of the awards on the thread no longer exist, but the strategy for gaining acceptance with excellent merit awards is timeless.</p>

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<p>^^^ Here’s the link to MomofTexas’s post mentioned by Thumper1: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>"There are a LOT of schools between a small Christian university and the Ivies. "</p>

<p>True, but even CBU happens to give a good bit of aid to a 0 EFC student, yet there is still a gap. The NPC that I used showed a $12k merit, a $5k grant for being from Calif (?), a $5500 Pell Grant, and a $5500 loan. And the total COA is lowish for a private ($40k per year). </p>

<p>So, yes, while there are other non-elite privates, many will leave a gap of $12k or more since most don’t meet need…and low income students are the most likely the ones to get gapped because need is so large.</p>

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<p>Yes, I am running NPC’s on all schools (100% need schools gave the most attractive numbers, unfortunately they are the most selective. Hence the dilemma and the “go for it” attitude.).</p>

<p>We will not qualify for pell grants. Stats will likely keep him out of Cal Grants. Can possibly squeeze under the UC Blue & Gold (Im taking advantage of all shelters to qualify).
FA is important. 12-15k out of pocket will be tough but not impossible.</p>

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<p>Op- California has a new middle class scholarship. I know you said you are not middle class but it could potentially make up some of the gap for your student not getting Cal Grant A. Read here for more info:
<a href=“http://www.csac.ca.gov/pubs/forms/grnt_frm/middle_class_scholarship_faqs.pdf[/url]”>http://www.csac.ca.gov/pubs/forms/grnt_frm/middle_class_scholarship_faqs.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A couple more things:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Did you son fill out his guarantee paperwork for the UC’s.?</p></li>
<li><p>A good book for both your son and you to read is “Is there an Engineer inside you?” You can get it on Amazon. It may help answer some of the questions raised in this thread as well as help your son focus on whether he should major in Engineering.</p></li>
<li><p>Where does your son stand in terms of completing his applications? The best scholarships and the better admission rates are in the early rounds such as early action. Those deadlines are coming up. With the Common App problems and the usual crashing of the UC application system before to give your son a few extra days to apply before the deadline as his actual deadline. </p></li>
<li><p>Have your son use something like GoogleDocs to write his essays and never draft within an application. Better to sue templates or create new Google Docs that you cut and paste from. Google Docs is great because it can be shared; you can park it in a cloud and you can see revisions. It has made essay writing much easier for my daughter. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>CBU is on the road trying to drum up interest in their school. In our area they offered to take counselors out to a fancy dinner recently.</p>

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<p>I’m digging back in the thread for this, but I would like to let you know that many HBCUs have an excellent reputation outside of the African American community. I’m white and am very impressed when someone tells me that they attended Howard, or Morehouse, or Spellman…So, don’t rule out HBCUs based on that alone. Your son may thrive in a culture that actively celebrates and nurtures African American excellence, so give them a shot.</p>

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<p>Did you do the NPC on CBU’s website? Sounds like you’d get the same aid, just minus the Pell Grant…so after loans the cost would be about $17k…which sounds like it may be beyond the budget? </p>

<p>As for sheltering for Blue and Gold…would you be able to do that for four straight years? Keep in mind that qualifying for B&G also means demonstrating need, so if you have assets that affect need, then that could be an issue.</p>

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<p>As a single mom of 5 URM kiddos with a high financial need we’ve been through this a few times. Some had higher SAT scores, others had high GPAs, all different combos. And I do understand the concern of just having your child graduate no less attend a four year college.</p>

<p>We left CA 10 years because they were all in high school or about to be and I just could not afford UC or Cal State tuition. Oldest attended SLO until she transfered to our new state uni. She wanted one with a vet school. Three of the five are boys and wanting them to be excited about college wasn’t easy but eventually they worked through it. But I had to bring them together as a team to get it to work.</p>

<p>So you have some perspective as far as what constitutes “lesser schools” or perceived lower quality of education, kiddos in our family attended and graduated from HBCUs, Ivies (turned down Cornell), service academy (both boys were accepted to West Point, USNA and the Air Force academy), in-state flagship (UNC), OOS publics with academic and athletic scholies. So we have seen it all.</p>

<p>One son applied to 34 schools, for undergrad. Same son applied to 24 med schools. Again we have seen a ton, and all different types of financial aid packages…varying up to $20,000 differential PER YEAR, all from 100% need met schools. Son did not just apply to schools but to many outside scholies including ROTC (all 3 branches), he was leaving no stone unturned. He ended up turning down MIT, Cal Tech, Harvard, all 3 academies, Penn’s M&T program… He went with the best “fit” combined with the best financial aid package, they made it impossible to say no.</p>

<p>His stats were different however. Pushing a 2300 with a 4.0 unweighted, 5.3 weighted and 17 APs. 3 season varsity athlete, captain of all 3 teams. Medical research during the summers. And he too attended the local public from the wrong side of the tracks. Literally. We live in the rural south where the town is still divided by the tracks, and kiddos were all on free and reduced lunch.</p>

<p>Schools are looking to what your son can bring to the campus. Depspte your son’s adversity what has he done with the opportunities he has been given? a magnet school? An an ivy-graduated stepdad? To whom much has been given much is expected.</p>

<p>I recommended the specific HBCU because of the fit and your description of what you thought he would want AND need. As mentioned up thread an ABET engineering school is the benchmark for engineering. The money at this particular one is plentiful not just for tuition/costs but for research. When I said son was mech e I should have said rocket and propulsion engineer…</p>

<p>It is a small school only 4000 students but with research opportunities from the UNC system. Take a look.</p>

<p>Again, I speak from experience, after being on here forever the posters here just want to help your son succeed with the least amount of anguish possible. Having reaches are great, but if you are picking one I don’t know that Cornell would be the one I would pick for any of my kiddos.</p>

<p>I would be looking for schools were he would really come into his own and like my kiddos have an alma mater that they love and truly grow. He needs to be as excited about this as you are. And honestly if you really feel he could hold his own at a more selective school than he ends up at due to the 9th grade grades then there are other ways to strategically make that happen. As suggested to choose a school were he would spend a year or two and then transfer. Princeton is the only one that takes no transfers and the service academies.</p>

<p>Good luck, and keep asking questions.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>One caveat – applying to 34 schools would require pretty much a full time effort for weeks to get through all the financial aid applications. Every single college has a different way of applying – beyond the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, many college have:</p>

<ul>
<li>Their own specific deadlines, gotta track 'em all</li>
<li>Their own additional forms they want filled out</li>
<li>Each college seems to want different tax forms. Especially if you have a business or any trusts, you will jump through widely varying hoops.</li>
<li>If you are divorced, a lot of the effort is time two.</li>
<li>Colleges want the tax forms in a variety of formats. Some want paper copies mailed, some use iDoc (don’t be fooled by the “i”, it is not a nice electronic process but a very painful manual way to submit tax forms), some wanted faxes, at least one wanted a scanned & emailed copy in our case.</li>
</ul>

<p>We don’t live in California, and I am guessing at least there is some consistency within your state system. But FA applications for 34 schools would have made me jump off a cliff…</p>

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<p>Jumping off a cliff, soooooo middle daughter’s athletic scholie was for swim and dive D1, dive as in tower…for funsies she cliff dives…</p>

<p>Now that was stressful to watch.</p>

<p>Kat</p>