camathmom

Just wanted to chime in here and let you know that the Ivies will meet each other's financial aid packages. Also, it was our experience that Columbia had quite good financial aid!

lcedcoffeee

It would help if you gave us a bit on your academic, extracurricular, and socio-economic background. I was admitted into the 4 Ivies I applied to and am matriculating to one of them this fall (Harvard). If you're a well-rounded applicant, your college list seems very reasonable.

NovaLynnx

No, don't put a safety on your list if you really don't want to go there. The point of a safety school is to find a school you're likely to be admitted to that you really *would* like to attend...if you don't get into your top choices. All schools on your list should be ones that you'd be content attending (as well as affordable) if you don't get into the others.

Also, don't confuse prestige with quality of education. Those schools have excellent programs - but so do many "lesser" schools. When looking at ivies, in some cases you may be paying more for the name/affiliation than a top quality education. This can still help with landing a job, but do not belittle UW - Madison, as this is an excellent school with a lot of top researchers in various fields teaching there.

If you think NYU and BU are too expensive, then the similar ivy schools will probably be, too. Especially since that indicates that your parents may not have a large amount to contribute (or perhaps do, but would prefer to save a little money).

PAGRok

NYU and BU are known to have much lower FA than the other schools. UChicago, Brown and Columbia still have amazing and nearly unmatched FA! UChicago gave me a great package that was equal to those from Pomona and Vassar.

momrath

I didn't say "that Brown, Columbia, and UChicago don't have very generous financial aid programs. " Actually, my belief is that if you qualify for need based financial aid your package will be more or less the same at all of the seven schools on your list. If you're unsure, ask your parents to use an on-line calculator to get an idea of how much you would be eligible for.

I'm aware that NYU is stingy with need based aid, but I hadn't heard that about BU.

Harvard's SCEA rules are confusing to me. Under FAQs they say that you can't apply to "another college's EA program" then later they say you can. I guess the distinction is whether the college is private or public, but I'd call them to clarify.

I also don't have a problem with the strategy of applying to one solid safety and a lot of reaches, as long as you wouldn't mind attending your safety (which appears to be true in your case).

There's nothing in your profile that would keep you out of any of your choices -- and a lot that would get you in -- but, as you know, competition is fierce. You might want to add a few academically rigorous LACs. Williams comes to mind because they especially value academics + music and because of their rural location they have a hard time attracting and matriculating Asian Americans.

harvardhopeful13

Thanks guys! It helps a lot to know that you guys had good experiences with financial aid from U Chicago, Columbia, and Brown. It makes me a lot happier to know that these schools are financially feasible, since I really feel that they each offer a unique education that is unparallelled at other institutions. In fact, regardless of what my username suggests, those schools may be an even better match for me than.

hzhao2004

My son is going to apply to all eight ivies, and I am not discouraging him.

katliamom

^^^ that is so bizarre! They're very different schools! Dartmouth and Columbia have nothing in common (except the Ivy moniker) - neither does Cornell and Brown.

PAGRok

@harvardhopeful I am glad you realize that the Ivies+ all have different feels and that you will will fit at UC, Brown and Columbia more than Harvard! Unlike @hz kid.

@hz of course you should not stop your child from applying to any schools they want, but applying to every Ivy is as ridiculous as just applying to the top 10 schools for no reason other than they are the top 10 even when the schools are highly varied in location, student body, size, and campus vibe. Actually, it's more ridiculous because the Ivies aren't all in the top 10, they are simply bunched together because of a sports conference. Studens should apply based upon fit and type of school they want, not some predetermined-by-history list of colleges who share a fancy title and sports conference and have not much in common but academic excellence and NE location.

xiggi

>>>

My son is going to apply to all eight ivies, and I am not discouraging him.<<<

If you let the schools know about this full Ivy application, they will send you a special sticker for the car. It is really prestigious as it is not public knowledge. It is green with beautiful gold accents. The A of League has been replaced by a tiger head and the last E has a dragon tail.

hzhao2004

Wow! Maybe I should do something here about my son. I have my own preferences, including quite a few non ivies. But I will let him do his research on colleges first.

PAGRok

Sorry about the rant, I was just hoping to explain well enough how strange that is. I'm sorry if it was offensive. And for some students, every Ivy could be a good fit, if the only criteria is a top notch school in the New England area, which is okay criteria for some. Most students could probably stand every school, but many will not like all of them equally.