4.0 Student Aiming For MHC + Bryn Mawr [CA resident, <$15k from single parent + relatives]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

US Citizen
Northern California
Alternative public high school (transferred from regular public school Junior year)

Cost Constraints / Budget
I don’t have a hard limit because my dad is adamant that he can “figure it out”, but he’s a single parent living in a very expensive city. $30k after aid is probably the very most we could do, but that’s total; including loans, work/study, etc. Out of pocket only is like $15k, and that’s with help from relatives.

Intended Major(s)
Biology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, Sociology, Microbiology (depends on school)

Test Scores
Applying test-optional to all schools

GPA
4.0 UW/4.0 W
Top 10% but no numerical rank

HS coursework

  • English: 4 years
  • Math: 3 years done, currently in a 4th year (Stats & Prob)
  • Science: Bio, Physics, currently in Chem
  • History and Social Studies: 2 years, taking college Psych right now
  • Language other than English: Spanish, 2 years (school doesn’t offer 3)
  • Visual or performing arts: 2 years, doing a 3rd year now
  • Other academic courses: Economics, American Democracy, Ethnic Studies
    (A note: I’m meeting with my counselor in a few days, but my current high school might have accelerated classes, if that makes any difference. We’re on a quarter system and get 5 credits per class per quarter (4x a year), as opposed to 5 credits per class per semester (2x a year))

Awards
No awards aside from Honor Roll Freshman and Sophomore year

Extracurriculars

  • Current paid internship in school wellness center (focus is on educating students about mental health, relationships, and resources to get help)
  • Interscholastic Equestrian Association
  • Riding/training horses
  • First ever Editor-in-Chief of prior school’s newspaper
  • Book Club
  • GSA
  • Q Group
  • School Yearbook (Editor)
  • Bird Watching Club
  • Activism and Advocacy Club
  • Dungeons and Dragons Club
  • I also spend every summer up at my grandmother’s ranch helping out due to her medical issues. She lives 2+ hours away which is why I can only get up there during the summer.

Essays/LORs
I’m currently working on my personal statement (CommonApp) that focuses on how I’ve struggled with my identity as a Jewish person, and how trying to resolve that has made me revisit some preconceived notions about identity and what makes a person’s culture. I’m going to do all of the supplemental essays as well.

For the two “core subject” letters I’m getting them from my English and History teachers. I’m also getting an additional one from my Principal (she and I are close, she’s one of my advisors and I’m in a club that she runs). I may have to get one from my Chemistry teacher as well, because my English teacher is rumoured to use ChatGPT in LoRs (he has fairly lax rules about using it, so…yeah. I only found out about the rumours after I asked him, else I wouldn’t have).

Schools

Reach:

  • Wellesley College
  • Case Western Reserve University
    (Both of the above are kind of “shoot for the stars” applications more so than they are actually possible)

Target/Hard Target (depending on my confidence):

  • Mount Holyoke College
  • Bryn Mawr College
    (These are my goal schools; they’re both exactly what I’m looking for)

Safety:

  • St. Olaf College
  • Knox College
  • UC Merced (9% ELC guarantee)

A bit more info: My dad is my only provider, and while he makes $144k a year, we also happen to rent in one of the most expensive cities in the world. We have run the Net Price Calculator for every school on this list and determined that, based on the number they gave us, we can afford it. UC Merced would not be on the list (the UC estimator wants me to pay full price despite being in-state) were it not for the admission guarantee.

Thanks, and good luck to all of my fellow seniors. May you attend a quality and affordable school!

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Have you run the NPC for Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke?

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Yep. Bryn Mawr’s estimated cost is 19K and MHC’s is 30K (so pushing it, but they also vastly overestimated my parent contribution which I might be able to appeal if I get in).

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Don’t assume you can “appeal” - find schools that work budget wise.

If they both do as shown, then great.

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Is your other parent alive? If so, many private schools want both parents’ finances for financial aid even if they are divorced or separated. https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatinginstitutions.aspx indicates that CWRU, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and St. Olaf require both parents’ finances. If that applies to you, then you need to include both of their finances when using the net price calculators at those schools.

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My mom’s alive, but I have not lived or had any contact with her for years due to abuse. I’m working on getting a social worker to substantiate my CSS noncustodial parent waiver.

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Overall your list seems sensible to me as long as you are being strict with affordability. Just some suggestions to consider.

Did you look at Scripps? Seems like a fairly obvious one to consider in light of your other schools. Possibly Agnes Scott as well.

For some more easier admits with merit (which might help on affordability) . . . St Olaf is a good choice, but some others to possibly consider:

Earlham is quite strong in your areas, including a reasonably popular Neuroscience major. I note it is on the smaller side, which can be a pro or con. It was founded by Quakers, like Bryn Mawr and Haverford, and in fact is actually older than Bryn Mawr (but not Haverford). It was also one of the earliest few US higher educational college to be coed:

Allegheny also has a popular and well-regarded Neuroscience major, and more merit than Earlham. It is in a recreational area about 1.5 hours north of Pittsburgh (closer to Erie, a little farther to Cleveland), and it is well-connected for things like internships and such:

Ursinus is yet another along those lines, and it is just outside of Philly:

Knox of course is a good LAC in general, but I don’t think its Bio/Neuroscience majors are quite as robust as the above options (plus St Olaf).

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I can’t express how helpful these recommendations are, thank you so much. I’ve been struggling to find information on LACs that aren’t Amherst or Pomona, so this is invaluable.

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https://www.csac.ca.gov/middle-class-scholarship
Do you know about the Middle Class Scholarahip for UC and CSUs for California residents? Make sure you fill out the Fafsa. It sounds like you income would qualify you.

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If you are interested, I think it can be helpful to consider these per capita PhD feeders lists. Here for example is Bio:

The per capita versions (on the right) help identify at least some of the stronger LACs. I wouldn’t take those rankings too strictly, and of course you may not be interested in a PhD yourself. But at least roughly, if an LAC is doing well in this measure, it likely means it is a reasonably popular area among students, and at least some of those students are getting great research opportunities as undergrads, and so on.

Not coincidentally, Earlham, Allegheny, and Ursinus (along with St Olaf and Mt Holyoke off your list) are all in the top 18 on that list. And then in addition, I confirmed they had popular Neuroscience as well, which you can do through the NCES College Navigator.

Like, here is Earlham:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=earlham&s=all&id=150455#programs

Again small school, so only 140 graduating seniors in that report. Of those, 38 had a primary major in Bio of some sort, which is 27% overall. Quite high! 9 were then specifically in Neuroscience, 6.4%, again quite high.

Just to show you another, Allegheny:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=allegheny+college&s=all&id=210669#programs

78/369 in Bio of some sort (21%) and 18 in Neuro (4.95). Not quite as high as Earlham, but still quite good.

I added a bit about Knox, and just to give you an idea of why I did not necessarily see Knox in the same category: first, wasn’t on that PhD feeders list, and second:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=knox&s=all&id=146427#programs

27/243 in Bio generally, 11.1%, 4 in Neuro, 1.6%. Not that you should automatically strike Knox, this just helps illustrate that these are not necessarily areas of relative strength for Knox in the way they are for Earlham, Allegheny, and so on.

I’m also tossing in information I happen to know for one reason or another about these specific colleges, but that is just sort of random (what I have learned/retained about specific colleges over time).

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Yes, however it only covers up to 40% of tuition and reduces based on other forms of financial aid. I was really banking on it until I realized that it reduces.

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Thank you, those stats and that link is helpful. I’m not really gunning for Knox, I’m mostly applying as a safety net in case I get rejected across the board elsewhere. I just don’t want to be presumptuous and assume that I’m an auto admit for St. Olaf and the like.

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Look into Rhodes College in Memphis.

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Have you compared the net price calculator at Smith vs. Mount Holyoke? Similar schools in the same area, but the formula used for aid is slightly different. Based on the calculations you’ve gotten already, you may find that Smith comes out cheaper than MHC, so that’s worth checking and considering.

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That’s a good idea! Also, I think in your described circumstances, you should likely be hunting the best possible financial offers you can get from a college that would also work well for you academically.

And you really don’t know with a lot of these colleges what might happen–people are sometimes really pleasantly surprised with some of their offers. So giving yourself multiple opportunities to be pleasantly surprised is a good strategy.

In that sense the whole Safety/Likely way of thinking isn’t really capturing what might matter to you personally, at least not if that is defined just in terms of admission. You might think of these more like financial Matches/Targets in the sense you realistically might, but also might not, get a financial offer that would be surprisingly competitive.

Of course maybe you will get a great offer from Bryn Mawr or MHC that you like even better. But I think in your circumstances that maybe something like 3-5 applications similar in appeal to St Olaf (and including St Olaf) would help maximize the chances you are able to choose between some great offers.

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You sound similar to my daughter in many ways! She is interested in Bio & STEM, is in GSA, rides horses and into advocacy. On her list, she really likes Oberlin- great riding program and strong science departments. She also visited Brandeis recently and liked the campus- it’s a very inclusive, diverse school w/around a third of the students being Jewish and has great research opportunities. Both would be target schools for you. Another one my kid is going to check out is Dickinson in PA, it’s inclusive, friendly and has a big riding team. If you’d like to ride on an IHSA team in college, be aware that Bryn Mawr no longer has an active riding club (bummer) but I believe there are barns close to the school. If you love Case Western definitely demonstrate interest- attend webinars and such- they really pay attention to that stuff (my son got deferred from CWRU and into a t10 school- but he didn’t do any of their webinars nor visit!) St. Olaf is a very pretty campus, but again- they don’t have an IHSA riding team, but they do have a riding club that does some trail rides. Knox is a wonderful school, I know many people who have attended and loved it- but know that it will be a hike (meaning multiple plane rides) from northern CA- the closest airports are smaller ones, about 40 minutes away from the campus. Just something to think about since it’s far from you! I agree with checking out Earlham and Scripps. Kalamazoo College in MI is another strong STEM liberal arts college that might check some boxes for you. Good luck- you’ve got this!

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Thank you so much! I looked into your recommendations and they all seem to fit what I’m looking for, environment/academics/financial-wise.

I hope that your daughter ends up at a great school :slight_smile:

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I can tell you have a great head on your shoulders and it sounds like you prefer a LAC. I’ll just share our family experience receiving the MCS for the past 3 years. We have a junior at Berkeley and a household income almost exactly the same as what you mentioned. My child has received the Middle Class Scholarship each year. This year MCS is covering 54% of tuition and fees and our son is receiving an additional need based scholarship covering 12% of tuition and fees - total 66% tuition and fees covered . All we did was fill out the fafsa. Our total cost at Berkeley is about $25K this year and last. (First year was higher living in dorms and paying for required meal plan). You might be pleasantly surprised at some of the aid you are offered. I hope you find some great options that save you lots of $. Good luck!

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I had no idea that the MCS could cover >40%, but that’s great! I’d really like to go to a UC and stay close to my family (Davis was my dream school until the Estimator incident, and after I toured I realized just how many people 35k is :face_with_spiral_eyes:) but with the uncertainty of cost it feels irresponsible to simply hope. I’ve heard that Merced can be very generous with aid though so fingers crossed. And congrats to your kid for making it into Cal! That’s no easy feat.

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You can see if one UC has an honors program - these typically involve a special dorm and smaller classes. Living learning communities can also make things a bit less overwhelming.

Csu Chico has a good Honors program. Sonoma State has the Hutchins program.
Both CSUs are relatively residential and the programs allow students to foster tighter knit relationships.
Both would be safeties for you.

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