Looking for medium to large schools in or near a city (East Coast).
Biology major (possibly pre-med).
GPA 95 weighted
PSAT 1170( took sophomore year)
SAT (will take in the fall)
Activities :
Science Olympiad
Drama Club
Winter Track
Culture Club
Boy Scouts
Awards:
Musician of the year
Working on Eagle Scout project
Other info:
Service trip to Costa Rica - Environmental clean up (2 weeks)
Service Trip to Argentina
Spanish /Medical focus (2 weeks)
What is the budget? Talk to your parents. Unless they unequivocally they can pay right on up to the $80k+ level, you should then run their income and asset numbers in some sample NPCs, to see if you qualify for financial aid. Run it for your state flagship And some random private schools. Maybe for a full need met guaranteed school like Haverford or Boston College. If you have a big gap, then you are going to have to look at pricing seriously in picking schools.
Depending on your SAT score, maybe Case Western Reserve University. Case Western is very service oriented, and freshman often work on service projects for their seminar classes.
It sounds like OP has no need at all, and $200,000 saved for college, so no way to
get financial aid with such a large 529 savings, all of it goes to the college, when its in a 529, no way to hide that money. CWRU may give you merit, but you need a good SAT score, take the biology SAT Subject exam and a Math 1 or 2 and submit those to all your schools too.
Ok, family contribution is $40-50k a year. Do you qualify for financial aid. Run Haverford’s or Vanderbilt ‘s NPC. Both generous and if they say your family on the hook for the entire $75k+ cost , then you know that without merit money, the most expensive private schools (like those two) are not affordable.
Yes, OP has a great budget to work with.
Any of your state public colleges and universities are within budget. You can go away to school if you can gain admissions to them. Whether you are a viable candidate for the more selective flagship schools will likely hinge on that test score. If you are in a state like Virginia, the flagships are highly competitive and selective and a ~1200 SAT1 score is not going to do it. Find out from your school GC what state schools that kids with your stats are good candidates for acceptance. The guidance dept would best know that stuff having dealt with years and many students going that route. Ask to see the Naviance data for your school and see where you stand.
A 1200 SAt1 doesn’t give good prospects for Case admissions , let alone merit money $200k in a 529 will count as about $12k towards parental EFC and OP says total budget is $40-50k which May mean that’s what the comb of whatever is in there along with about 6% of other parental assets but a big bite most likely out of parents current income is what will define EFC. Possible OP still qualifies for Financial aid.
Need UW GPA, courses take and on agenda, to come up with colleges that come in at or under $50k for a Male with 1200 SAT on East coast, near or in city.
Right now, Lasalle U comes to mind though its sticker price is over at around $60k. OP can take Direct Loans and I think $10K merit money is a distinct possibility
Temple, a whole other type of school would come in under $50k even for OOS. Also in Philly. St Joe’s also possible
SUNY Buffalo another possibility. Also a lot of smaller Catholic schools as well as Buff State that can come in under price point there.
Looking at Boston, a lot of the MA state schools in that city are doable under budget, even out of state. Merit in $20k range not a good chance, though Bentley could be s good pick otherwise.
In NYC area, any public university comes in under $50k. Getting sufficient merit is an issue. Catholic schools are possibilities again like Iona, St Joe’s there., Manhattan College
There is a definite pattern here. Finding private colleges near major East coast cities with a full COA ( no merit, no financial in picture) UNDER $50k is a challenge. The Catholic schools can come close, and throwing in loans and some likely merit can get you there, but this is a major challenge.
What cities do you have in mind? DoesCharlotte, NC count or Wheeling, WV? What constitutes a city? For major cities, we have Boston , NYC, Philly, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville— do we go as far west Buffalo and Pittsburgh? How about Louisville, Memphis ?
@cptofthehouse, since the PSAT was taken sophmore year, I’d guess there’s a good chance the score could improve significantly (especially if the OP had not yet completed Algebra 2, and had not prepped for the PSAT 10).
Not sure about unweighted GPA. Taken mostly honors classes first two years of HS. Yes PSAT was taken at beginning of year while also taking Alg 2/Trig. Junior year classes will be Eng 11, US History , Spanish 4, Pre-Cal and AP Bio. Plus electives (psychology, cpr/first aid, chorus). Looking mostly at ny, nj, ct, ma, pa schools. Probably won’t get any financial aid considering 529 account is generous.
Even a 200K 529 won’t exclude you from financial aid. As was pointed out earlier, less than 13K of that account will be added to your EFC. The bigger hitter is income, so if you’re making 200K/year on top of that, then yeah…probably no aid at any school. But if you’re making 100K and applyiing to schools that cost 60-70K/year and meet need, you’re still a financial aid candidate. The best bet is to run the net price calculators on the schools websites. They all have one.
My 529 is closer to 300. Annual Income is about 140. I’ve been thinking that financial aid is not possible but hopefully
it will be. Also have a twin sister who will be in college at same time.
Run NPCs at some schools. $300k 529 comes to $18k on the FAFSA EFC. PROFILE (generous fin aid private schools mostly) might look at it differently. The EFC on parental income gets cut in half if there are 2 in college at same time. I believe
“The best bet is to run the net price calculators on the schools websites. They all have one.” Some NPC’s will also ask for stats to estimate likely merit aid, so even without need based financial aid you can get a ballpark on what your net price might be. You can take a practice test (find one on the SAT/College Board website or use khan academy) to estimate your score.
OP is a rising junior. The ECs he participates in this year are the ones the adcoms will be paying the most attention to. What is he interested in? How can he make his ECs complement his academics?