Of course you should send it off and take your shot at your dream school. If you don’t you will always wonder what could have been.
With that said people are giving you sound advice to prepare for the worst and recalibrate your list to ensure success. You have achieved a lot and your upward trajectory may help you catch someone’s interest for a reach. None the less I would agree with the advise to narrow and focus your list while finding a few safeties you love.
Good luck with Brown but k ow their are other schools that share its “uniqueness” while being slightly easier to gain admission. Also you mention Howard U as a match? Did you fail to mention you are a URM?
One doesn’t need to be URM to attend Howard, but to have a genuine interest in African American history and culture. Also, I’m guessing OP is eyeing the scholarships.
One would imagine such a student would also apply to Spelman due to a similar focus, prestige, and merit scholarships.
What’s weird is a student interested in Brown AND Dartmouth as those are polar opposite, but not Wesleyan, Bard, Oberlin.
^re Howard- I am well aware of the schools strong academic curriculum and history as well as the fact that approximately 10% of Howard’s students are not URM but wanted to ensure we were giving fully informed advise to the OP.
I would also throw Vassar as an option if Brown is the dream.
I guess I should explain further because you guys are so helpful. My family has a lot of debt but high income but they are willing to help pay IF I get into a very highly ranked school (the reason there are so many reaches) because if i get into one then I will have assistance. I took Dartmouth off (I wasn’t really interested but it was another school my parents would help to pay for attendance to). I’ll research Vassar for sure. My biggest goals (as in MYOS’s post) is to find colleges that will give full rides/tuition or good merit for my stats. I know my list is messed up and haphazard which is why I’ve sought help on here. I’m honestly just very frazzled and stressed by this whole process because the fact of the matter is I don’t care too much where I end up as long as 1. it’s a good school 2. i don’t have to pay much/loans 3. its not highly religious. I have little to no preferences about anything else and everywhere I’ve checked has philosophy as a major.
Long story short they’re likely paying to send my brother to Harvard and I’m left to pay my own way unless I get into a school of similar caliber at which point I warrant the same consideration.
I really think you need to work with your parents to clarify the economics and then get back to us before we can give you really useful information.
If your parents only consider “high ranked” to be an IVY or similarly ranked school, you have a problem. Even kids with the highest stats and perfect scores have real trouble getting into those schools. You can read endless stories here on CC about kids with 1550+ SAT scores, awards and 4.0 unweighted GPAs getting rejected from every single IVY AND some schools on the tier below that as well.
When you say that your parents won’t pay anything, do they understand that you cannot borrow more then the federal loan limit? For freshmen year that $5,500. That won’t pay for a year a college. Please talk to them and work out a plan for what happens when you don’t get into a high ranked school. They may be confused about how much you are allowed to borrow.
If they flat out refuse to pay anything unless you get into an IVY school, then they are basically telling you that they don’t want you to go to college. Find out what their thoughts and limits are and get back to us.
They know how much I’m allowed to borrow. They have very unrealistic expectations for admissions and getting into top ranked schools (I already know that I will not), and are slightly deluded in the idea that no matter what I will be able to pay my own way which is just not true. I only figured out a month ago that they had used my college fund (which had been made since I was a child and had thousands of dollars that I had completely thought I had)to send my brother to Harvard and that I now have 0$ of their assistance for my education. I have talked to them countless times about help and loans and even having them do small amounts but no luck. When I don’t get into a top ranked school OR get a full ride it isn’t even a conversation for them. There is no if. They shut me down and I’ll probably end up on the street trying to work my way through community college.
That’s also why my list has come undone because until a month ago I thought I had the means to go.
OP - I’m so sorry that your parents are being so unrealistic. Can you get your school GC involved in talking to them about the realities of financial aid? Ivies or no money is ridiculous and unnecessarily punitive.
A week or so ago I went into the office in tears because of all the stress so the principle and 3 concerned teachers all contacted my parents and not a budge. They expect the same of me as my brother and it’s just not possible. I just don’t know what to do.
What a terrible situation. I’m so sorry you are going through this. Do you have a specific cuttoff for what schools they consider “good enough?” Is it only Ivies? Top 10, top 50? What about liberal arts colleges. For example, if you get into Brandeis which is in the top 50, would they pay full tuition?
Not full tuition but enough to keep me in there. Top 50 is about where it ends, a bit before that. They like Mass so they are slightly more lenient about schools there like Brandies.
@iiMimic - It may help to approach your parents logically since a lot has changed since they went to college. UConn is not free. Without merit aid, you are likely looking at >$30,000 in total COA. If that is your financial safety, there may be lots of highly endowed colleges and universities that can compete with that after you run their net price calculators. For example, at Wesleyan, which many people view as a credible alternative to Brown, a family earning 100k a yr jointly between two parents, could conceivably wind up with a COA very similar to UConn.
If you run the figures yourself- even preliminarily - and present them to your parents, you may impress them with your seriousness and may even be a little surprised by what you find.
I made an entire powerpoint :(. We filled out the FAFSA together and they know how much it’s going to cost they just magically expect me to get into a top school or get full merit aid. I just went to visit Wesleyan 2 hours ago (its only 30 min from my house) and I really like it. Thank you for the suggestion (and whoever suggested it previously).
actually, they don’t even do that: they raided your college fund to pay for his college fees. what piggy bank would they raid to pay for your ‘top school’ fees?
Sometimes (definitely not always!!) when parents are doing things that seem illogical or unfair there is an underlying piece. For example, I have seen parents do exactly this (tell a younger child that they weren’t getting any money b/c the kid didn’t get into a ‘good enough’ school- irl there just wasn’t the money but pride kept the parents from admitting it to the kid). Not saying this is true for you, OP- it’s one of many possible explanations for choices that don’t seem to be fair / sensible.
Either way, all you can do is play the cards you are dealt. Your college budget is effectively $5.5K unless they change their view. That means a 3-prong strategy:
ID colleges paths that you could finance on your own. These are few and hard. Check out Berea for a start. Look at the CCs that you can commute to & find out about their articulation agreements with your in-state university. Look for their policy on CLEP exams and AP credit to figure out how many credits you can test out of. Look at the full-scholarship links here on CC and look for places where your stats can give you tuition, room & board (UA-Huntsville is a usual example).
ID some reach colleges that your parents would (in theory) pay ‘enough to keep you in school for’ and that you would actually like to go to
Some good matchier/safer colleges that your parents might- if the alternative was having you live at home and go to CC- pay for. Look for ones where your stats are solidly in the top 25% and who are known for good merit aid, such as UVt, Centre and Transylvania colleges in KY, Gordon College (MA), Juniata ¶, UC- Boulder
Thank you very much! I’m doing everything I can to keep myself above CC but I’ll accept that as a route if my other options don’t work out. I know there are many potential explanations so I’m not working on changing their minds, only on what I can do to help myself. I’ll check out those other schools you recommended.
OP, I am sorry you are in this situation and your responses are well thought out and reasonable. Some good suggestions from posters for you so far.
Adding some other low tuition schools, such as Berea. Fit at any of these is very specific, so do good research. Deep Springs (two years, many students go on to T20 schools, open to female students for the last year or two), all the US Service Academies, Warren Wilson. Good luck.
I am SO sorry you’re in this situation.
What year is your brother? Can he help?
Berea won’t work: it’s limited to kids whose family income is below 65k.
Gordon won’t work: very religious.
Lots of EA deadlines are tomorrow or November 15.
Apply to Agnes Scott (Nov 1) and do ALL possible essays for ALL scholarships you qualify for. Same for Mount Holyoke. (Hoping Seven sisters will be prestigious enough! After all we these sister’s brothers went to Princeton, Amherst…)
Will try and think quickly, will get back to the thread.