What do you all think about this list?

<p>I’m not sure about Stanford but some of the early action schools that only allow you to apply one place do let you apply to state universities. So it’s possible he could apply to Stanford and ASU. </p>

<p>New College of Florida would be a safe bet for him. He will almost certainly get in, and - at least this past year - their automatic scholarship for out-of-state students was $15k, bringing the maximum cost of attendance to about $25k per annum for out-of-state. It is tiny, and does not issue letter grades, so that some anxiety issues will be ameliorated. I also like the Claremont Colleges as potential schools for your son. </p>

<p>Is he a National Merit Semi Finalist? That means a it more $$ at ASU/Barrett and Alabama, I believe, maybe a few other places too.</p>

<p>I love the idea of a block plan but can’t get D to consider ay of those schools because of where they are located. One class at a time seems far less stressful to me than juggling 4-5 at once.</p>

<p>I think Chris just missed the National Merit award. His score was 209 and I think it has to be 213 for AZ. I’m actually kind of surprised about that because he is pretty bright and he’s normally a very good test taker. But maybe he had an off day that day. :(</p>

<p>I just want to put in another plug for Westminster College. DD and I visited, she loved the honors class she attended, the campus is in a great neighborhood and it seems like winter sports such as snowboarding are a big part of the culture. Friendly place and generous scholarship opportunities.</p>

<p>Sounds good, we will check it out! Thanks! :)</p>

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<p>Stanford’s REA has various exceptions, according to <a href=“Page Not Found : Stanford University”>Page Not Found : Stanford University; .</p>

<p>ASU appears to be covered by at least one of the exceptions (public school).</p>

<p>If Tulane specifies an early deadline for scholarships, that falls into another of Stanford’s exceptions. Be aware that Tulane has both EA and SCEA, where SCEA is single choice with no exceptions (it expresses a higher “level of applicant’s interest” which Tulane considers).</p>

<p>He would definitely get some good merit aid at The University of Denver! They are very good with merit aid and with his credentials he should be an excellent candidate for the aid there!</p>

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<p>UCB will expect you to pay EFC plus $23k per year. So, if your EFC is $20k, then you would essentially be a full-pay ($43k) because any “need” would get covered with a student loan and work-study. I don’t think UCB is a hotbed of political activism like it was. </p>

<p>Don’t discount the big publics. Many have excellent honors college that will have many top students like him. </p>

<p>If you are worried about Bama, keep in mind that the top 30% of the school has an ACT 30+. Those kids would be in his classes, especially if he chooses an “academic major” which I suspect he would. Bama also has an excellent law school with an amazing employment rate for new law grads (something like 96% of law grads get jobs within a short time after graduation. Bama also has MANY OOS students. Last year’s frosh class was 60% OOS, and likely this year’s class is as well. The school is approaching 50% OOS with a good number coming from the NE and Calif (Calif is #5 state that sends kids to Bama!)</p>

<p>Look at Bama’s honors college and its three honors programs. </p>

<p><a href=“http://honors.ua.edu”>http://honors.ua.edu</a></p>

<p>Your son would get free tuition, remaining costs would be about $15k per year (that would be for the honors dorm…private bedrooms that are in 4 bedroom/2bath suites with kitchenettes and living rooms.</p>

<p>Also, the school is gorgeous!</p>

<p><a href=“The Capstone of Higher Education: Bama by Drone on Vimeo”>http://vimeo.com/104625184&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYeT-40jLE&sns=em”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYeT-40jLE&sns=em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sounds like your son would be in the College of Arts and Sciences</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFxGS0pjP1o&sns=em”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFxGS0pjP1o&sns=em&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Tulane has the same SCEA exceptions as Stanford btw! If another public university requires you too apply early fit scholarship, you can apply to Tulane and that other university.</p>

<p>Also, you’re required to apply to Tulane early for full tuition scholarships, but are still considered for other merit scholarships regardless of when you apply. Always wondered if that fits Stanford’s exception rule?</p>

<p>I somehow missed that you are residents of AZ also. ASU has a scholarship estimator: <a href=“https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator”>https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator&lt;/a&gt;. With his stats he should get the highest award of $9500. So his total cost including living books etc is $12,351 per year (this year, it could rise of course). If he’s in Barrett, which he should be, that’s an extra $1k. Barrett students are supposed to live on campus the first two years, although they can get waivers for financial hardship. If he applies they will undoubtedly start recruiting him for Barrett. If he’s lucky he will get invited to one of the “rubber chicken” dinners where they do the hard sell (I know about them but haven’t been to one; I’m waiting with baited breath for my DS to be invited to one this fall). </p>

<p>It’s not that I’m completely sold on ASU, but I wouldn’t consider a large public in another state when Barrett is right here and it’s pretty affordable. </p>

<p>Tulane seems to have added SCEA exceptions, but they are more limited than Stanford’s:
<a href=“Application Instructions | Undergraduate Admission”>Application Instructions | Undergraduate Admission;
For example, the “early deadline for scholarship” exception is limited to your home state public flagship (does Tulane consider ASU (as opposed to UA) the flagship of Arizona?). For Stanford, this exception extends to any school, and early application to any public school is allowed.</p>

<p>I think question of whether ASU or U of A is the flagship could start a war. In the past it was unquestionably U of A but ASU has really come up in the world. Of course, who knows what Tulane thinks.</p>

<p>Great ideas! I think what we are going to do is to apply early action to Tulane and ASU and maybe even a few others. I’m starting to become more and more interested in University of Miami, University of Denver and Colorado College, so perhaps applying early to those would also be a good idea…is it ok to apply early to a bunch of schools? We are going to avoid anything binding or that forces us to only apply to that one school, so we will just apply to Stanford regular decision. I’m not sure applying early to Stanford would make a big difference anyways since it is really a reach for everyone, including Chris.</p>

<p>If all of the other EA schools fall into Stanford’s REA exceptions, then he can go ahead and apply Stanford REA.</p>

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<p>In that case, Berkeley probably won’t work for you at all. Stanford might not, either (little or no merit aid)…although if you’re going to get adequate need-based aid anywhere, Stanford would be among the most generous. Colorado College is need-aware in admissions but does seem to give pretty good n-b aid to the students it admits. It also offers some merit scholarships, including a very small number of full tuition or full ride scholarships (<a href=“Scholarships - Colorado College”>http://www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/financialaid/scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;). </p>

<p>The Kiplinger’s site has information about merit and need-based aid. Click-sort on the last 3 columns (especially “Avg
non-need-based aid”) to see how much merit money is given and the average debt at graduation. At selective private colleges that offer it, many merit awards seem to be in the form of $5K-$20K discounts to full-pay students, to entice them away from even more selective schools that don’t offer it. Competition will be stiff for the few full-tuition or full-ride scholarships available.
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=prv_univ&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=prv_univ&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts&state_code[]=ALL&id[]=none&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Claremont McKenna (LA-area) offers bigger average awards than Colorado College. Then there’s Davidson College, a highly-ranked LAC in a fairly warm weather state (NC). Davidson awarded merit aid to 22 freshmen in 2013-14 (according to its Common Data Set). The average award was $19,384. Among warm weather private research universities, the ones that award the most merit aid include Tulane, the University of Miami, Wake Forest, The University of Southern California, and Vanderbilt. Oh, and Duke. The competition would be intense for one of the big merit awards from Duke (<a href=“http://ousf.duke.edu/merit-scholarship-programs”>http://ousf.duke.edu/merit-scholarship-programs&lt;/a&gt;), but if you’re thinking of Stanford, it might make more sense to consider Duke for the long-shot chance at big merit money.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that if you get both need-based and merit aid, the merit aid usually will offset need (not stack on top of a need-based grant). So to reduce your net cost, the merit award would have to be greater than your covered need. For example, suppose the COA is $60K and your Expected Family Contribution is $40K. If you get a $10K merit award, it won’t be applied to your EFC to reduce your contribution to $30K. More likely, you’ll get the $10K in merit plus $10K in need-based aid…and you’ll still owe $40K. </p>

<p>If you are looking for Merit aid, take Stanford off the list now. </p>

<p>Ok thanks a bunch! This is GREAT info! </p>

<p>My understanding about Stanford is that cost of tuition is generally pretty low for most families that are not super-wealthy, factoring in need-based aid…is that wrong? When I ran the net price calculator for Stanford it came back with a cost of attendance around $11,000 per year, which is definitely in the range I’m looking for. (But keep in mind my financial situation is complicated and variable, so I’m not certain this will be accurate.) Of course getting in to Stanford is a big reach, but there is no harm in trying…While we are at it, we will probably apply to Duke and Vanderbilt as well, just to see what they come back with since they are both good schools in warm enough locations. Davidson sounds interesting too and I need to research it more. Chris’ college counselor has mentioned it several times as well, so it should probably go on the list too.</p>

<p>It sounds like I can pretty much eliminate UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, since public CA schools won’t have any merit aid for him, and with out-of-state fees added on, even if we received a small amount of need-based aid, the price would still be very high. Does anyone know of any good private schools in California that are <em>not</em> in the LA area, that might offer some merit aid? He would really like to be in the San Francisco area.</p>

<p>This is really so hard! I want to help pick the best school for him, but it has to be affordable! ASU is always a top option in the back of my mind (and we will definitely be applying early there, to try and get a good offer), I’m just afraid he might feel a little bored, hanging out in his own backyard for the next four years, when his scores are probably good enough to get him into a school that he might find more interesting, even if it’s only because it’s in a new place with new people! (He has expressed that he’d like to go somewhere different, though he is <em>willing</em> to go to ASU if it turns out to make the most sense financially.) I think Tulane and University of Miami would both be more interesting environments for him (with great weather) so I have high hopes for those two. And the Denver schools would be great too. I think we are just going to have to apply to a bunch of schools and see what they come back with!</p>

<p>Everyone’s help is so amazing, thank you so much for all your thoughts! :)</p>

<p>Maybe Santa Clara University or University of the Pacific?</p>

<p>University of the Pacific is in Stockton, a long drive from anything interesting that one normally associates with the “San Francisco area”. Santa Clara University is near San Jose, though San Francisco is an hour or so train ride away. University of San Francisco is in San Francisco, of course. SCU and USF are both Catholic schools.</p>