I am confused by “NM.” You’re from New Mexico - is that what you mean by NM, or are you referring to National Merit (students who score highly on that exam)? If you are talking geographically, it might avoid confusion to spell out the state name.</p>
<p>But that means nothing when they have candidates from the rest of the country applying. In addition, Barnard is not at a loss of attracting Hispanic students from their own back yard and around New York City.</p>
<p>OP, 'since sybbie719 has checked in, I STRONGLY suggest you listen to her, as she knows more about College acceptances, particularly at NE colleges, than most anyone else.</p>
<p>“I am confused by “NM.” You’re from New Mexico - is that what you mean by NM, or are you referring to National Merit (students who score highly on that exam)? If you are talking geographically, it might avoid confusion to spell out the state name.”</p>
<p>I think OP said 1980 was sophomore year SAT, so should be higher by senior year, likely to be in range for some of the schools they’re considering.</p>
<p>“She will have to bring up her SAT’s considerably to have a decent chance at many colleges.”
The scores I listed were from her sophmore year so we’ll she how she does this year.</p>
<p>“Now if you did NOT apply for FA, that may swing an admissions decision in her favor over another more qualified student needing FA, especially if she were to apply ED somewhere.”</p>
<p>Hmmm…this is interesting. We have not applied for any FA and she hasn’t applied anywhere since she is still a junior. Your comment about not applying for FA at all is something I need to inquire on. Thanks for the heads up!</p>
<p>OP, 'since sybbie719 has checked in, I STRONGLY suggest you listen to her, as she knows more about College acceptances, particularly at NE colleges, than most anyone else. </p>
<p>Any information/comments are greatly appreciated at this stage of the process. Thanks!</p>
<p>Just for money part, rich kids and poor kids are better to go to ivys or 100% need meet private schools. Middle class kids have to find merit scholarships to reduce tuition.</p>
<p>Welcome to the parents forum on CC. Since you have already stated and other parents have confirmed that with $200k in income and rental properties, you are going to pretty much be a full freight payer at the ivies and at schools that only give need based FA. Your goal would be to cast a wide net of schools where your daughter would be a strong candidate for merit money.</p>
<p>What does her unweighted GPA break out to. What does her SAT CR/Math break out to? I agree with Menloparkmom that you should be checking out USC and Kat who has been through this process with 5 very accomplished kids on her suggestion about the University of New Mexico.</p>
<p>“Hmmm…this is interesting. We have not applied for any FA and she hasn’t applied anywhere since she is still a junior. Your comment about not applying for FA at all is something I need to inquire on. Thanks for the heads up!”</p>
<p>One more heads up- the other side of that coin is that at many colleges, if you DON’T apply for FA when your DD is applying, you MAY not be able to apply for FA later! But if you anticipate your income will stay at the 200K+ range while shes’ in college, then its worth some serious thought.</p>
<p>What does her unweighted GPA break out to. I need to check with her since she is volunteering at church right now.</p>
<p>What does her SAT CR/Math break out to? The SAT score of 1980 was at the end of her sophmore year. We still don’t have the scores for the test she took last week.</p>
<p>“I agree with Menloparkmom that you should be checking out USC” I agree, ultimately it is up to her. </p>
<p>and Kat who has been through this process with 5 very accomplished kids on her suggestion about the University of New Mexico.
My daughter has told me repeatedly that she has worked “way to hard” to go to the University of New Mexico. (Personally I like UNM and and work with MANY graduates from there) She really wants to go back East. In fact during her Spring break the middle of March, we will be going on campus visits back East to both Ivy and non-Ivy league schools for 6 days (Saturday included).</p>
<p>One more heads up- the other side of that coin is that at many colleges, if you DON’T apply for FA when your DD is applying, you MAY not be able to apply for FA later! But if you anticipate your income will stay at the 200K+ range while shes’ in college, then its worth some serious thought. </p>
<p>Well then I will have to apply for FA since we will retire a year after she is in college. Salary range will drop way down since all we’ll have is a pension and rental income.</p>
<p>If she might be a National Merit Finalist, then I recommend you add Northeastern University in Boston onto your list of schools to look while on the East coast. They give up a substantial amount of merit aid to NMFs. My son is there on a NMF university scholarship and it covers his tuition.</p>
<p>Apply for FA, but with your income I can tell you you’re expected contribution is not going to qualify for aid at Needs based only schools. We have an adjusted income of 130K a year and almost no assets not to mention rental income and we still have an EFC of close to 50K a year. I’m really wondering what people in our situation do. We do have retirement savings… not enough due to bad stock market choices in the past… and we’re close to retirement age. I was a bit surprised at how much they expect us to pay given a mortgage etc… nearly half of our before tax income per year!</p>
<p>We are looking seriously at any schools that give merit aid. That’s about the best you can do when you’re not rich enough to pay full price but not poor enough to get much need based aid.</p>
<p>However, the harsh reality is that she is going where her grades and her money will take her. Since you have already stated that you are reluctant to paying 50k per year for college, you and mom need to sit down and have a talk with her about how much you realistically expect to pay/borrow for her education. You need to start from a bottoms up approach and hone in on a safety school.<br>
This is one where your daughter is most likely to gain acceptance (if she can get in rolling admissions, then it is all good)</p>
<p>If it is the only school that she is accepted, she would be happy to attend</p>
<p>It has the major that she is interested in although I would not live and die by this because students change their mind. This would be more important for students who definitively know what they are doing.</p>
<p>Is a financially feasible option for your family. </p>
<p>IF UNM is your in-state school, then she needs to toss an application there.</p>
<p>One of the challenges that your daughter is going to face is that even in the world of URM admissions, schools are not at a loss for young minority women. If you had a son, then we would be having a different conversation. In addition, even in URM admissions, students are bringing their “A” game to the table.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you read through the following thread:</p>
<p>There is a big gap between University of New Mexico and the Ivies/top 10 universities. You need to make a choice between:</p>
<ul>
<li>Accept the fact that you are going to be paying full fare if she gets into a top university/Ivy. Spend yours/her visit and application time and energy on those schools, but deal with the fact that it is going to hit your pocketbook hard. There are no easy answers if you haven’t been saving big time over the years. She still needs to apply to matches/safeties just in case – but you can choose to not spend much time on that search process. But be prepared for her to have a tough decision to make if she doesn’t really like her matches/safeties, and doesn’t get admitted to any of her top choices.</li>
</ul>
<p>or…</p>
<ul>
<li>Change your focus. Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges book. Peruse it for colleges that fit her desire in terms of strength of major, size, location, merit aid availability. Review the college confidential threads for the colleges that fit her criteria to narrow down your list. Plan your college visits around a list of matches/safeties from this process. You may need to take a couple of trips (I figure we spent several thousand $ on travel D1’s search, but given that we knocked over $60,000 of the total bill due to merit aid received, it was a great investment). We combined some visits with family vacations over the 18 months leading up to application time, too. Anybody can find a bunch of reach schools they would love to attend. It takes hard work and focus to find matches and safeties you D would love to attend. Don’t let anyone else (other students and parents, well meaning relatives) knock you off your plan (“but she is so smart, surely she can get a scholarship to <fill in=”" ivy="" here="">".). Ignore them. Do what you need to for your daughter to get a great education at a price your family can afford.</fill></li>
</ul>
<p>intparent is absolutely correct and gives some good advice. If you know already that you cannot or will not pay the full freight for her to attend schools that only give need based (no merit financial aid) having them on her list of schools to visit is going to put you in a no win situation. S</p>
<p>She is going to fall in love with those schools and feel that nothing else will do and you will not move from your position that your are not going to pay over 200k for her to attend. If you are looking to “discount” the cost of attending by having her get merit $$, then you need to make sure that you have schools on your list to visit where she would be a viable candidate for merit money.</p>
<p>in our time:
Full pay with small grant for competitive application.
on much less income, less assets, but high ugma. We paid a lot in taxes and so did DS because of the Ugma and tax rules then in place.
We took much higher risks in the Ugma and lost 50% of ugma in. 2000 and 2001-2003. IOWl, the UGMA was enough for Full tuition at time of college considerations but lost 50% in market adjustments.</p>
<p>we invested on day 1, expecting to pay taxes, and only the hope DS would deserve our hard work and GAMBLE.</p>