Yes, but if she has a few NY safeties, she could send those other apps to the private reaches, to see what she could get. She definitely has the stats, esp if she becomes NMF.
I think it’s well worth it to apply to some of those schools, provided you have some good safeties.
Have you played around with the financial aid calculators of private universities that offer need-based aid only? If your family makes less than 30K annually, rents an apartment, and has less than 5K in the bank, I can’t see how you wouldn’t qualify for a lot of need-based aid. Vassar, Bard, Princeton, Brown, Harvard, Hamilton, Colgate, and Tufts spring to mind immediately and are within 5 hours of the city. Given your stats, I don’t see the harm in aiming high for at least a few of those 7 private schools.
^Right! Using any of the 7 for HYP?
@ucbalumnus Temple would be affordable for me based on its NPC price, so I’m definitely considering having it as a safety.
@sybbie719 Yes, I understand that and I am trying to do the same thing. Thanks for the advice! For Northeastern, I think they offer an automatic large merit scholarship to NMFs that could make it affordable for me combined with FA. Would it be bad to assume NMF status (and thus getting the scholarship if accepted) since I do not even know if I’m a NMSF yet? I have a 223 PSAT so it’s likely based on past NY data but I would really hate to get accepted to a school but not be able to afford it. Also, SUNYs are public so they do not count in the private school limit.
@4kidsdad @NoCook Okay, but URochester and Northeastern are not affordable for my family based on NPC price and I think it’s better to base it off of that.
@mommdc Yes, I will definitely be applying to a few SUNYs. I’ve only run the NPC for one so far but it had a very affordable price so hopefully the same is true for others as well. As for the privates, is there a good way of determining my chances at large merit scholarships? I will try visit some schools but there’s a big chance I won’t get to see all the schools I end up applying to due to financial and time concerns. I am not an URM. [please see the last section also!]
@midatlmom Wow, thank you for all of the advice. I’ll definitely take it into consideration. May I ask why you believe U Rochester is likely to award me with significant money? I’m really not sure if I should apply to it at all right now because it’s NPC price is more than double what I can afford, and I would need one of its larger (largest?) merit scholarships to attend. [please see the last section also!]
@midatlmom @mommdc @mamaedefamilia @Madison85 I will definitely be applying to some affordable, full need schools. All of the reaches I’m considering are affordable options, and I think I will apply to around 3 (is that a good number?). I still need to narrow down my choices but some of the ones I’m considering are schools you guys have mentioned. However, I understand that there’s a very large chance I won’t be accepted to them, which is why I need to be financially realistic with all the schools I apply to.
As long as you have some public safeties, Temple, SUNY and some full need met privates, you can direct the remaining private school apps to the schools you like the best and have a good chance at merit and FA, even if you don’t know how much you will get.
In Post #6 you say you will apply to Gates Millennium, but in a recent post you say you are not an URM. I will cut/paste that info below.
The GMS 2016 Application will open on August 1, 2015. To be eligible for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program students must:
Be African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander or Hispanic American;
Be Citizens, legal permanent residents or nationals of the United States;
Have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on an unweighted 4.0 scale or earned a GED;
Have demonstrated leadership abilities through participation in community service, extracurricular or other activities;
Meet Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria;
Enroll for the first time at a U.S. located , accredited college or university (with the exception of students concurrently pursuing a high school diploma) in the fall as a full-time, degree seeking, first year student;
Not sure you saw my latest reply on the other thread with more details about how to apply my algorithm
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18763944/#Comment_18763944
Sounds like Rochester isn’t a safety because of the NPC. It’s a great school, but I’ve found their admissions department to be pretty borderline incompetent, so it wouldn’t surprise me if their financial aid office is too. It might be worth calling them and talking to somebody because there is probably a bug in their software.
I assume the OP is Asian.
And I agree with CRDad - you should speak with someone in financial aid at Rochester. Their merit aid is not generally as good as some other schools, but I find it difficult to believe with a family income of under $30,000, you wouldn’t be classified as a full need candidate.