For colleges that are of interest, it is in your daughter’s best interest to find out what the colleges want in order to consider accommodations in college.
Also, the things contained on an IEP are not guaranteed to continue into college. Just FYI. You need to do your due diligence and see which colleges will meet your child’s needs before she gets there.
Unfortunately…
The Broome to Bing option is off the table. It appears they offered the Fall 2023 cohort of students that option as the last class. It was called the Binghamton Advantage Program. Read more about the decision here. Binghamton Advantage Program | Student Transition and Success | Binghamton University.
Bing probably has a higher yield rate these days. Of course, students can still enroll at Broome and transfer into Bing, but I’m guessing the residential Bing aspect of that program was part of the issue. They haven’t got the residential space or the need to create a path for those students.
Yes. Lots of people shape their college tours, and their child’s expectations, based upon finances and GPA/stats. You are not. You’re rolling your eyes at people who take their kids to tour schools they can’t afford, that their kids won’t get into, but you’re doing exactly what you’re criticizing!
Reality check. I don’t care how brilliant your child is, with a 2.8 she is not getting into schools with a below 50% acceptance rate. And she’s extremely unlikely to get merit money at any schools other than the struggling ones that discount everyone’s tuition, in order to try to attract the last cent that they can from anyone who is even remotely qualified and is able to pay something beyond the cost of room and board, whom they can convince to enroll.
I’m hoping that your daughter can find her passion, get the help that she needs so that she can achieve everything that is possible for her, and find fulfillment. Kids with high IQ and slow processing speed often improve as they mature, enough that they can accomplish their career aspirations.
So, the only place that you, as a NY resident with ample income, are going to find that has some students who are as bright as your daughter, that is going to come anywhere near the 20K/yr you say you can swing, will be SUNYs, and even that will require some loans. If you can afford to live and raise a family in NYC without being on public assistance (unless you’re getting substantial help from family), you are unlikely to qualify for fin aid at all, let alone enough to bring the cost of attendance below 20k/yr. If grandma is going to pay for college, you need to find out now, and how much, so that you can adjust accordingly. If your budget were 55K/yr, lesser OOS publics become possible, also 3rd tier LACs.
OOS flagships would come in around 55-60k/yr, plus she’s unlikely to get accepted to them. Forget about first and second tier LACs - they won’t take her, and they won’t give you anywhere near the fin aid you need. I have no idea why you’re going to show her anything other than SUNY or your local CUNY, because there is no way (short of her having some extraordinary, global-level achievement), that she will get into them or even if she does, get enough aid to make it possible for you. Her goal right now is to get the best grades she can, and to get the highest SAT/ACT score she can (I’m assuming she gets extended time), to try to get into the best SUNY that she can. Your safety is a nearby CUNY to which she can commute.
YOU can be that parent who evaluates schools based upon the reality of your child’s GPA and your finances! Stop the touring for now, have her concentrate on grades and test prep, and cut the coat to fit the cloth. If she’s a senior, the only thing now is this semester’s grades, and intensive SAT/ACT prep.
If she’s a junior, the same, plus it’s too early to go looking. If she can pull up her grades this year, and get a stellar test score, it might widen the field some in terms of academics, but unless you’ve got more money to work with, it’s still impossible. But if for some reason you feel you need to, she can look next Sept/Oct and still have time to put in apps, even early action.
UVM is very clear about out of state merit on their website. Their highest award gest COA out of state to about 40K. Would that be worth it (and I dont think she would qualify for their highest award, she probably would b e full pay if she got in).
I’m not sure why there’s a continued discussion of schools OP is not getting near.
.07% - seven one hundredths of a percent of UVM admits have under a 3. And a 2.8 is not barely under a 3.
So forgetting budget, merit, etc. - the parent/student have to find schools that are attainable - both safe and if they want to spring for a reach - like someone mentioned above - there were a few SUNY reaches. These aren’t nationally known name brand reaches.
And OOS schools to achieve budget have been mentioned.
It’s fruitless for OP to mention schools that there is zero or near zero chance at. A fine SAT and ECs are great but don’t get you into a great college.
There is a school out there that I know very little about, but a student I know is very happy there and he has similarities with your child — he’s from a large urban area in a blue state, very bright but neurodivergent needing supports.
He attends Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida. The college is new on the scene, established only in 1989, but it is accredited and specializes in educating students who are neurodivergent. Nonetheless, it is still fairly selective (admits 57%, I think). There are only 500 students. I have zero idea how generous the aid packages are.
I believe both Rhode Island College, and York College in Pennsylvania could be attainable for admission and cost.
I’m not sure about cost…but Keene State in NH, and Plymouth in NH are other options that likely would meet the admissions bar.
It’s easy to Google lists of colleges with high acceptance rates. I’d start there.
Apply to colleges with rolling decisions, which will give you a better idea of how her app will be perceived. Then apply EA wherever possible. Show interest at any college that considers it. You can Google Common Data Set, name of college. Look at section C7, which will indicate if they consider interest. If interest is considered, she needs to sign up for emails and open them, etc… Attend virtual tours and the like.
CC to four year is tried and true. I did that myself. It’s also more affordable. If the goal is college, anything above a safety school is icing on the cake. Compile the list from safety to reach, not vice versa. This student needs safeties, iow, colleges that accept around 80% of students.
And come in at your price point.
I think opening emails AND actually learning whatever you can about a college is important whether or not “considered interest” is important for admissions.
We’ve already got several threads running (and it’s only September) of kids who are miserable at college. Some of it is homesickness- which happens everywhere. But some of it is stuff that isn’t that hard to suss out with a moderate amount of research and effort. I feel for the kids- but if you’ve been on campus for a month and are already set to go with your transfer applications (which may or may not give you the kind of aid freshman get, and admissions is never a slam-dunk) I’d say a lot of kids are spending more time researching their hair care products (reading 500 Amazon reviews- really?) than they are learning about the colleges they are considering.
i totally agree with you, but since UVM was mentioned I wanted to point out that there is no way this will be in budget.
To answer your question about choosing schools that are affordable and appropriate for their child, and whether anybody actually does this.
Yes, we did that. My older daughter was a solid B student in HS taking mostly regular classes with a few honors classes. She attended a SUNY school because she liked them, they were affordable, and there was no good reason for us to spend 2-3x the cost to go to another state’s public given she liked SUNY.
My second did not attend SUNY, but she did attend an OOS public that she loved and that came in at an affordable cost. Not $80,000 (too costly for us). Not anywhere close. Schools were crossed off if they were not affordable. Certain schools were not applied to at all due to the NPC.
I feel that SUNY or CUNY is your best bet, but recognize that some of the smaller unknown SUNY schools are reaches. I think she does have a chance of getting into a few. You might want to also look at SUNY Cobleskill and Delhi.
OOS schools will likely not meet your cost.
If I understand your post upthread, at this point the GPA is your estimate.
I understand that NYC is lucky with quite a number of excellent, rigorous HS beside the exam-based ones - and SUNYs/CUNYs will recognize that rigor. That will be in your favor in-state.
That being said, can you calculate and post below these 3 GPAs (I know it’s a lot of work but it’llreally help in suggesting good academic safeties, likelies, matches, and reachable reaches.)
core GPA: all grades in core subjects only for grades 9-11 + any HS class taken in the 8th grade (typically if relevant it’s Algebra1, Foreign Language 1, and Bio/Living Environments), divided by the number of grades.
Core subjects are English, Math, Science, World languages, History/Social Science.
You can use % because that’s what most NYS HS use as well as SUNYs.
unweighted GPA: ALL grades received in HS (+ grades received for HS level MS classes) divided by the number of grades. You can use % too.
-weighted GPA:
Regular classes count as A:4, B:3, C:2, D:1.
For any honors class
If she got a C, count as 2.5; if a C+:2.8; B-= 3.2; B: 3.5; B+: 3.8; A-: 4.2; A: 4.5; A+: 4.8
For her AP and DE grades, add 1 point. So, if she got a B in a DE class, count it as a 4; an A is a 5.
(That’s how NC does it and why a 2nd tier university has GPAs in the 3.8-4.1 range.)
After all the calculations, what are the results
-Core GPA=
Thank you.
There is usually one of these threads for every high school class year, and they do tend to be very helpful, both in terms of sharing information and in terms of providing support and reassurance. Typically, much more interesting than the main thread for the year!
HOLLLLLYYYY MOLLY - wow this is AMAZING
Thanks so much!
Hello! In skimming this thread, I thought it might be helpful to share a link to the application experience my son had a couple of years ago. He ended high school with a 2.7 (vs. the 2.5 we thought he’d have) and lots of options for college.
The financial parameters we were using are different than what you’re currently outlining but maybe there are some additional thought starters and/or inspiration in here for you.
Best of luck in the process!
A problem with an IEP is that it ends with high school graduation. Many colleges will accept them and make the accommodations in them, but there is no way to update an IEP once you graduate from hs. A 504 plan is a ‘life’ plan and can be updated by other professionals once out of hs.
Compared to NYC, almost every school is going to seem like it is in a cornfield, but to me once you add 30k students to an area, throw in a couple of Starbucks and movie theaters and it almost becomes urban. For her, it may still not meet the requirements if she wants Broadway theaters, major sports, museums, fancy restaurants, easy international travel…we don’t know what she wants by ‘urban.’ Amherst College is small, but there are 40k people hanging around UMass and Smith and the other colleges, plus the people in those towns and it almost feels city-like. Boston is a bus ride away.
I’d start a spreadsheet and make columns for the things she can live with and those she can’t live without. All is going to be controlled by where she can get into and what it costs. My kids were very limited by cost and one went to an OOS public school that had a low cost. The other went to a very expensive private school with academic merit aid plus an athletic scholarship. So two kids with the same limit on what I could pay, but one with much better grades had more options because she could get academic merit scholarships based on her GPA and test scores. The other did get a talent scholarship, and they both got some need based aid. Neither got to go to a ‘dream school’, neither got everything she wanted (a school in California), but they were both happy with their choices.
U Maine would match her SUNY/CUNY tuition, but it isn’t going to be urban. The catholic schools often hit the sweet spot for size (4000-8000), urban locations, and often give merit aid, but she’s ruled out catholic schools. An urban school may cost more for room and board.
My D22 is a soph at UMaine… & yes basically a $$ match to SUNY for us.
I’d be happy to answer any questions 
The problem with Flagship Match deals is that they only match the full-pay in-state price; they don’t match the aid you would’ve gotten in-state, to bring it down further.
Fair enough, but the SUNY system is NOT known for giving much merit aid or scholarship $. Of course there are exceptions, but that has always been the case with SUNY. The tuition is the tuition for most in-state SUNY students.