My neighbor’s daughter eventually improved her ACT from 25 to 28 after several tries, and she ended up at UMichigan after being taken off the waitlist. They are OOS and paying full tuition.
This is a very informative post. My S had a 30 ACT.
Accepted
Fairfield 25k merit
Univ of Scranton 19k merit honors college
Syracuse univ 25 k merit honors college
Bryant univ 25 k merit honors college
UCONN 15 k merit
SUNY Bing
Villanova
Northeastern
Waitlisted
Bucknell
Lehigh
NYU
Colgate
Denied
Boston college
Johns Hopkins
My DS also had a 30 ACT (with subscores ranging from 25 to 35). He did not take the SAT or any of the subject tests. He had a 4.0 wGPA, 3.8 uw, excellent rigor (including 6 AP classes by the end of junior year, with scores of 4 and 5), and excellent recommendations. Good ECs, including over 400 volunteer hours.
We live in a state with a flagship that is considered one of the best in the country and at which he is a double legacy. We think he would have had a good chance at admission if he had applied ED, but probably a crapshoot in RD. However, he really wanted to go to a SLAC. Money was an issue for us–we determined we could pay ~$30k/year but knew we wouldn’t qualify for much if any FA. So we ignored reaches and focused on SLACs where we knew he would be a good candidate for merit aid. He applied EA to the schools that offered that option and received acceptances before the RD application for our flagship was due, so ended up not applying to the flagship at all.
He was accepted everywhere he applied:
Earlham $30k merit
Kalamazoo $25k merit
Lawrence $25k merit
Wooster $24k merit
Clark $20k merit
Mary Washington $7k merit
UNC-Asheville
SUNY Geneseo
We spoke with a college counselor to find out which schools offer the most merit aid. Our daughter graduated with an unweighted gpa of 3.95, SAT 1775, and ACT of 29. She applied to 8 schools, was accepted at all and was offered just under $500K in merit aid from 5 schools (average about $100K from each of the five). She was offered money from Fordham (in NYC), Loyola Marymount (in LA), Chapman (in Orange County), Willamette University (in Salem, Oregon), and University of San Francisco. She was also accepted at Emerson (in Boston), American University (in DC), and the University of Washington (Seattle campus). She opted for Chapman and while she loved her program, could not spend another day, let alone three more years in Orange, CA. She will be transferring to either Seattle University (where she has been offered generous transfer Merit Aid), University of San Francisco (who offered merit aid but less than last year), and still waiting on the University of Washington (which is extremely difficult to transfer into as an out of state Sophmore from a four year–even with a 4.0gpa.). The lesson she learned is that the location is very important, she needs to be in a city. So if she had to do it over she would have gone to either USF or the University of Washington. It’s important you love where you live, not just the school.
Good info @pdwm56, but I have never ever seen someone display merit aid offers as a total sum. Not sure why, but it made me chuckle. My guess is Bay Area? lol.
Pdwm56, I’m glad you mentioned transfer scholarships. I’ve seen posters on cc say they are few and far between but I know I was given one when I transferred and my former college still gives them.
This should be cross-posted to the scholarship/fin aid forum some how.
It’s pretty clear that for a family willing to pay 30K-40K (essentially in-state costs; at least at the more expensive publics) and has a kid with decent stats, there will likely be a lot of affordable options among LACs outside the very top.
@pdwm56 what did she dislike about Chapman? You mention big city but LA/OC is a very large city. Chapman may not be in the hub of it all but there is a lot to do within a short drive of campus.
That said, I noticed that your daughter isn’t Caucasian. Did that factor in at all? My children aren’t Caucasian and after we toured Chapman, the first comment out of their mouths was “it is really white here.” For a California school, it definitely lacks diversity.
No, just sharing the results of her applications. Her college counselor recommended applying to Catholic universities because they tend to be very generous. She did not qualify for need based aid, so she asked which schools would offer the most merit aid. No we don’t live in the bay area but rural Washington state and she went to public school. Played sports but did not opt to play in college and did quite a bit of community service.
She really didn’t like the lack of diversity at the school. She thought because her high school was predominantly white, it would be ok. But she found many of the students to be very entitled, to the point that some were disruptive in some of her classes. The lack of respect some students had for professors was appalling. One of the biggest issues being in Orange is the lack of public transportation. Orange is suburban, it’s a charming town but there isn’t much to do for college students without a car. LA is a long train ride from Orange and even then, LA is so spread out, it’s not very walkable. The other issues with being in Orange is the climate; it was hotter and more polluted than she anticipated. The school insists that all freshman live in triple students in rooms that are for the most part designed for two. It’s not a bad school but she found it wasn’t as academically challenging as she expected either. It was a good learning experience for her. She grew up a great deal, learned to really be on her own and has a much better idea about what she needs and wants in a school now.
I live local to Chapman and always thought of it as a very second tier school. We didn’t even consider it.I guess it has gotten better!
For students wanting to study film, Chapman has for many years been ranked in the top 10 (Dodge College of Media Arts). I think it was 7th on the list last year? Anyway, yep, you need very good scores to get in to Dodge at Chapman, and many of the other schools there, too. The Los Angeles Times recently called Chapman’s new Musco Center for the Arts (opened this spring) the finest opera house in the western USA. If you live locally, you need to check it out! We were blown away.
Yes, our daughter was in the Dodge and was a double major with Poli Sci. Her high school gpa was 3.95.