Can more graduating/graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

Chance Me / Match Me
2816

She decided not to apply to Colgate- the vibe wasn’t right. Dickinson was a school she applied to without visiting, we visited after their incredible TE package, but unfortunately it felt a bit too pre-professional for her- it’s a beautiful campus and I was impressed with the school, though.

I thought it would be helpful for future parents to know about some of the schools she decided weren’t good fits along the way. I’ll try to go back and edit the above list with merit aid, but for reference, our HHI is under $200k. I was so surprised by how much the financial aid packages varied. For example, Hamilton, Vassar and Wesleyan are all ranked the same, need-based only- and their offers spread from $25k to $27k up to $48k! Same with Smith and MHC- both very closely ranked, very similar schools, yet their offers differed dramatically. My advice to future parents is to have your kids apply widely!

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2817

Did your families run the NPCs prior to applying? If so, how accurate were the NPCs to the offers that the schools made? I know that’s another question that families often have, as I believe the NPCs at some schools are far more accurate than at others.

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2818

I would guess the generosity of financial aid correlates strongly with the endowment per student.

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2819

I used College Raptor’s website (first result on Google for endowment/student) to pull up the endowment/student, so the reliability of this information is based on one’s trust in the accuracy of that organization’s data collection and analysis.

Of the results that @cacmom shared, here are the schools sorted by highest endowment per student to lowest.

School Endowment per Student (per College Raptor)
Smith $810,917
Hamilton $664,862
Vassar $527,784
Mount Holyoke $476,654
Wesleyan $427,458
Oberlin $378,565
Kenyon $312,998
Centre $312,174
Dickinson $270,845
Kalamazoo $221,789
Conn College $220,154
Brandeis $202,774
Wheaton (MA) $153,602

Of the schools that only offer need-based aid, it appears that your hypothesis about the endowment does seem to relate (schools sorted by lowest to highest COA):

No Merit Aid School COA for cacmom’s D
Hamilton $25,000
Vassar $27,000
Wesleyan $48,000

But when one looks at the overall COA, it’s a very different picture. With the data we have available, we don’t know whether merit aid was awarded at a school or not to know if the COA is just their need-based package or not, but the COA definitely does not relate simply to the endowment per student (schools sorted by lowest to highest COA).

School COA for cacmom’s D
Dickinson $8,000
Kenyon $20,000
Smith $21,000
Oberlin $24,700
Hamilton $25,000
Vassar $27,000
Centre $27,700
Kalamazoo $30,000
Wheaton (MA) $35,600
Brandeis $43,500
Conn College $47,400
Wesleyan $48,000
Mount Holyoke $51,500
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2820

I would tend to agree the relative generosity of need aid is often tied to the overall financial resources, which includes but is not limited to endowment per student.

Discretionary merit aid, though–it is up to each college to decide what makes sense for it strategically in terms of such aid, and how those strategies might apply to any given individual applicant is harder to guesstimate in advance than their relative need generosity (although of course that also varies by college depending on their aid formulas, at least you can use NPCs to try to understand how those variables apply in your case).

2821

D26 Results

Large-ish Bucks County PA suburban public high school - 661 graduating class

  • 3.82 UWGPA (not reported on transcript)/ 4.09 WGPA (weight 4.0 scale with +/- values)
  • 3 AP (Eng Lang, US Gov, Env Sci)
  • 7 Honors (including English(2),Biology, Geometry, History (2), Child Dev)
  • 4 DE (Education Training, Eng 12, Bio, Poli Sci)
  • 1 Summer CC course - PSYC 101
  • Math through Calculus with A/A+ results (not AP or Honors after Geometry)
  • SAT: 1200

EC’s

  • 14 year competitive dancer (outside of school)
  • Dance Teacher senior year (full ownership of Intermediate Hip-Hop class)
  • Dance Camp counselor (3 summers)
  • Restaurant Host for 3 years (continuously since age 15)
  • NHS - (only available 11/12 year at her school)
  • Wink 4 Pink - Officer Senior year
  • Sports Nite - Class Officer and Dance Captain
  • Summer Speech Therapy Internship (summer ‘25)
  • SLP Placement in District as part of Education Training course this year

Essay: Strong personal statement about the origin story that pushed her toward a career of “helping” specifically in SLP (tear jerker that showed empathy, maturity, and passion but not a me/my sibling needed speech, more abstract)

Major: Applied for Communication Sciences and Disorders or equivalent SLP undergrad prep major depending on school.

We completed many different types of visits near and far, ultimately focused applications to medium to large public schools with heavy weight on SLP grad school prep (1 exception - free app). She wanted the big school environment, sports, and school spirit. We also wanted to make sure she didn’t go to niche or specific to SLP in case she changes her mind on major.

School / Test / Result / Merit (if any)

  • Stretch (mainly due to SAT)
    • Purdue University / SAT submitted / Deferred then accepted!
    • University of Tennessee - Knoxville / SAT submitted / Deferred then WL
    • University of Central Florida / SAT submitted / Accepted to Summer start
  • Target/Match
    • Penn State University - University Park / TO / Accepted
    • University of Pittsburgh / TO / Accepted + GAP acceptance to SLP Grad program
    • James Madison / TO / Accepted
  • Likely
    • University of Rhode Island / TO / Accepted + Honors / $13K
    • University of Kentucky / TO / Accepted / $12.5K
    • University of Missouri / TO / Accepted / $20K
    • University of Kansas / TO / Accepted / $16K
    • Ole Miss / SAT Submitted / Accepted / $9K
    • University of Tampa / TO / Accepted / $12K

Attending: Penn State University - University Park fall 2026!

PSU absolutely wowed her in April 2025 with the personal attention she received after campus tour when HHD/CSD recruiter setup a one on one visit with current PSU students. I was very impressed as well that they spent that much time with her considering the number of applications received each year. I am 100% on board with her choice, and very excited for what the next few years hold for her (and us during visits!)

Good luck to future applicants.

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2822

Are these all meet-full-need schools? Presumably that makes a difference too.

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2823

I wish my columns looked as nice as yours- my post was not very pretty! I looked at a couple of her financial aid award letters, it’s hard to determine which are merit vs. need-based awards. I know at Brandeis she received $40k presidential scholarship, which it did indicate was merit based. Others don’t specify. I did include our HHI in my previous post, which will hopefully be helpful to future parents.

I don’t know about the endowment-per-student translating directly into aid- Wes’ endowment is pretty darn big, but that price tag is close to double that of Hamilton’s. I think it just comes down to institutional priorities. We did run NPCs on most of the schools she applied to- I know we did on MHC- and most came in around the $30k mark, or just under. I think taking a screenshot of your NPC is a great idea if you need to go back and re-negotiate FA offers. Overall, we were very pleased- our D26’s offers, while all over the board, were generally pretty good. A big thank you to all of the folks on here who provided great suggestions, ideas and feedback throughout the process- this forum has been incredibly helpful for our family!

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2824

Meet full need schools can vary based on their definition of “need”.

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2825

D26 Background:

  • Northern VA

  • Large public competitive HS, school doesn’t rank

  • ACT-33 superscore from two sittings (28 Math, 34 Science, 34 English, 36 Reading), reported to all schools

  • GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.3 weighted

  • AP classes – US History (5), PreCalc (5), Psych (5), World History (5). Senior year: Statistics, Gov

  • Dual Enrollment English 11 and 12

  • 4 years American Sign Language, 2 years French

  • Volleyball: Freshman, travel club, rec league (player, coach, ref)

  • Theatre: progression from ensemble as sophomore to co-lead in senior year; student reviewer in regional program, including leadership as senior

  • Volunteering: local animal shelter, youth literacy org, mental health school club

  • Hobbies: crochet (self-taught)

  • Part-time job at movie theatre, babysitting

  • Strong essay

  • Assume strong LORs (haven’t read)

  • No financial need, but filed FAFSA and CSS

  • Major: Psychology, History

  • Demonstrated interest: Visited 10 of 12 east coast schools, webinar participation for all U.S. schools

Results: accepted to all 18 schools

Reach

  • Grinnell - RD, $30k merit, COA $62k

  • Smith - RD, COA $95k

Hard Target

  • Bryn Mawr - RD, $20k merit appealed to $30k, final COA $64k ATTENDING

  • Macalester - EA, $30k merit, COA $62k

  • Mount Holyoke - RD, $20k merit appealed to $32k, final COA $61k

  • Oberlin - EA, $34k merit, COA $58k

Target

  • Brandeis - EA, $32k merit, COA $64k

  • Connecticut College - RD, $38k merit, COA $55k

  • Dickinson - RD, $47k merit, COA $43k

  • Gettysburg - EA, $49k merit, COA $43k

  • Kenyon - RD (early), $35k merit, COA $58k

  • Union - EA, $46k merit, COA $47k

Likely

  • Marist - EA, Honors/First Year Dublin, $25k merit, COA $47k

  • Muhlenberg - EA, $48k merit, COA $36k

  • University of Mary Washington (in-state)- EA, Honors, merit $8k, COA $24k

  • Wheaton (MA) - EA, Honors, $46k merit, COA $40k

  • Mount Allison (Canada) - rolling

  • Bishops (Canada) - rolling

Lessons learned: We spent a lot of time researching and visiting schools, which I think helped with building a list that really fit her.

Most helpful resources: CC, Jeff Selingo’s books, hours of digging into common data sets, CAP online tool and webinars for understanding the importance of including peer institutions in her list.

Hidden gem/the one that got away: University of Mary Washington. Beyond just the in-state pricing, every interaction with UMW was friendly, organized, positive, and student-focused. All students, faculty, and staff we met were genuine and helpful. Great pre-orientation options. She would have had TONs of credit from AP tests. But we all agreed a women’s college was the right place for her and she really wanted to leave the state.

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Where can I get in? [TX resident, top 27%, 3.8 GPA, 1300 SAT, <$50-60k, international relations or political science]
2826

These replies are so great for future kids to see who is “buying.” Congrats to all the families. And thanks for the specific details @AlliG and more.

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2827

Congrats! That’s a very well thought out list of great schools. Bryn Mawr is a fantastic school, best of luck to your daughter!

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2828

My son would never post this himself, but since it is anonymous, I will. I think it is helpful. I was always grateful reading other results threads when looking into schools with my kid.

Class of 2026. 4.0 unweighted. 7 APs, 4 DEs, 5s on all APs. His school schedule wouldn’t have allowed more but not taking more probably impacted Ivy level applications, though it was always all about UCLA for him if he got in.

1520 SAT

Rank top 10 in suburban high school of a little over 400 kids.

ECs: President and Founder of club at school (50+ members, raised a lot of money for the homeless and had drives and volunteering events);

Multi-year captain of outdoor track, indoor track and cross country. Many time all-league, all-state, national qualifier, MVP, records, league champ, etc.

Orientation leader (3 years), Anti-defamation league peer trainer (3 years), Chapter Head of Letters for Rose, UNICEF board member, School Board representative (2 years); Keep America Beautiful Ambassador, Intercultural Awareness Club Coordinator (4 years), and various jobs. Also Homecoming King, which he threw in to applications he hadn’t done yet by then (really the UCs).

His essays were really good and I think helped him. He didn’t do academic ECs and wasn’t interested in them though he knew it might hurt him at Ivies, etc.

For college, he always wanted to go to UCLA, but was considering other places after being recruited to run.

Received no need-based AID.

College results:

ACCEPTED

Pitt (honors college and merit scholarship) early action

Boston University (1/2 tuition merit scholarship) regular decision

University of Florida (honors college and merit) early action

Pepperdine (Regent Scholarship) regular decision

University of Southern California (Dean’s Scholarship) early action

UC Berkeley

UC Irvine (Honors)

UC Santa Barbara

UC San Diego

Lafayette (lot of merit) regular decision

Lehigh (lot of merit) regular decision

UCLA

Oregon (honors and a lot of merit) early action

Wesleyan regular decision

WEIGHTLISTED (didn’t accept the spot)

Brown regular decision

NYU regular decision

UVA (out of state) early action

REJECTED

Harvard regular decision

Yale regular decision

Duke regular decision

UNC (out of state) early action

Stanford restrictive early action

I think all of this was pretty predictable considering what the particular schools seem to look for, that he applied to most really hard schools in RD, along with his grades, scores, APs, extracurriculars, etc.

Going to UCLA and is thrilled.

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2829

Congrats to him - can you define the merit vs saying lots. It could help others to have a value quantified.

Thanks

He kicked butt.

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2830

Sure

Sure.

Pitt (honors college and merit scholarship) early action

Boston University (1/2 tuition merit scholarship) regular decision

University of Florida (honors college and merit) early action

Pepperdine (Regent Scholarship) regular decision

University of Southern California (Dean’s Scholarship) early action

UC Berkeley

UC Irvine (Honors)

UC Santa Barbara

UC San Diego

Lafayette (lot of merit) regular decision

Lehigh (lot of merit) regular decision

UCLA

Oregon (honors and a lot of merit) early action

Wesleyan regular decision

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MATCH ME: female STEM (math/science/pre-med not CS) with ADHD, 3.4 UW/1380 SAT [PA resident]
ISO good fit: small-ish LAC, *super strong* French program, East Coast-ish [homeschool 4.0 GPA, want significantly less than $30k]
2831

These posts were so helpful to my daughters and to me this past year. Happy to share.

Twin 1: I do not have GPA handy. Had one B in high school and carried rigorous course load with many APs. 1490 SAT. Many ECs with leadership roles, volunteering and various awards, theater and choir, varsity athlete. Strong essays and rec letters. Applied to 12 SLACs.

Carleton: Accepted and attending.

Kenyon: Accepted. Loved this school, this was number 2.

Macalester: Accepted. Also loved Mac.

St. Olaf: Loved the music program. Preferred Carleton.

Oberlin: Accepted. Loved the music program, did not get a great feel at admitted student day.

Grinnell: Admitted, did not love the campus and location

Vassar: Admitted. COA too high.

Denison: Admitted. Preferred Kenyon.

Bard: Admitted. Too remote.

Mount Holyoke: Admitted. Did not visit.

Lawrence (WI): Admitted. Did not visit.

Smith: Waitlisted.

Twin 2: All As with rigorous course load, many AP and multi-variable calculus. 34 ACT. National Merit finalist, multiple math and science awards, leadership roles in various ECs, varsity athlete. Strong essays and rec. letters. Lots of work and volunteer experience coaching and tutoring.

UIUC: Admitted as a Chancellor’s Scholar with merit. Attending.

Purdue: Admitted. This was number 2, really impressed with Purdue.

Northwestern: Admitted. COA high and preferred UIUC for engineering.

UT Austin: Admitted. Did not visit. Preferred UIUC.

Virginia Tech: Admitted. Did not visit.

Wisconsin Madison: Admitted.

Penn State: Admitted. Did not visit

Ohio State: Admitted. Did not visit.

Colorado Boulder: Admitted. Did not visit.

Georgia Tech: Waitlisted.

Michigan: Waitlisted.

Stanford: Rejected.

Both of my girls are thrilled with the schools they will be attending in the fall and I am happy to be at the end of this long journey!

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2832

Congrats!! My D22 graduates from Vassar in 2 weeks! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. It has been an amazing 4 years!

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2833

Quick update: Brandeis sent us an email with an additional $15k merit award, along with an email that included, “We know that college decisions today often evolve as priorities and opportunities change, and students may reconsider institutions they once ruled out — often because of cost. If your family initially eliminated Brandeis for that reason, we want you to know that our commitment to affordability continues to grow, supported by a historic year of fundraising and the launch of the Brandeis Plan, and we are investing in students who will shape the university’s next chapter.”

Very interesting- They’re obviously trying to fill seats, but it would’ve been nice to have that merit offer when our D26 was weighing all her options before the May 1st deadline. Brandeis was a school that we all really liked but were surprised at the high sticker price when her initial FA offer came in.

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2834

I’m typically a lurker only but wanted to share results because this thread was incredibly helpful when we started this process for my daughter.

Background

  • Small private school, no rankings
  • School ECs: mock trial, theater, HS swim team
  • Outside ECs: level 9 gymnast, gymnastics coach (job since 14), USAG certified gymnastics judge, some volunteer.

Courses & Scores

  • 98% weighted GPA

  • 33 ACT (she submitted everywhere)

  • Language all 4 years

  • Honors Courses

    • 9th – Physical Science
    • 10th – Pre-Calc
    • 12th – French IV

  • APs (10 + 2 self-study):

    • 10th - Bio, World
    • 11th - Chem, APUSH, Calc AB, English Lang
    • 12th - Physics 1, U.S Gov, Calc BC, English Lit
    • Self-study: Euro (10th) and Comparative Gov (12th) – primarily because of interest and UCAS applications
    • No APs allowed freshman year

What she wanted:

  • Relevant major/program, larger school, a campus quad in there somewhere and warmer weather (lots of schools didn’t make the list because of weather)
  • Major: mix of international relations, history, and econ – depending on the school. Thinking about law school so flexible.
  • Gymnastics – club that she could be a part of or an NCAA team she could root for.
  • Neutral on Greek life.
  • Not integrated in a city (a la George Washington), but not in middle of nowhere feel (Miami Ohio)
  • Aside from the UK schools, we put pulled the radius back in to a 10ish or less hour drive. Georgia & Indiana (initially) were two exceptions in the US based on strong International Relations majors.
  • but as can see from list she made tradeoffs based on other things she liked. Ie soft spot for Loyola Maryland even though “smaller”.

Budget: about 45k per year. She added a couple of schools that were academic & financial reaches, but with understanding that it was stretch for her to get in and/or money would have to fall from the sky. Not eligible for financial aid, so would depend on merit. She was great about the budget and appreciated us having that conversation with her early on.

US Schools – applied EA to all except Brown (RD) and William & Mary (RD). If budget wasn’t a factor might have applied to W&M ED.

 Listing merit per year/estimated coa per year

Likely/Targets/Hard Targets

  • College of Charleston $8,500/$53,500 + Honors
  • Loyola Maryland $38,000/$43,000
  • University of South Carolina $25,000/$31,000 + Capstone then Honors
  • University of Delaware $16,000/$47,000 + Honors, and potentially Global Scholars
  • American University $35,000/$49,000 + AU Cornerstone
  • University of Maryland $0/$34,000 + Scholars (in state)

Toss Up

  • University of Georgia $0/$52,000
  • William & Mary waitlisted

Reachy Reach

  • UVA waitlisted
  • Brown rejected

UK Schools via UCAS –Specific requirements and application are more academic focused. AP test scores matter for these applications. Zero concern about ECs unless they are directly relevant to academic interest and potential course at the university (UK word for major).

  • Glasgow (target) – accepted (unconditional) with 8k/year merit
  • Edinburgh (target) – accepted (unconditional)
  • Kings College (target) – accepted (unconditional)
  • London School of Economics (reach) - rejected
  • Cambridge (reach) – interview then rejected

Others on list or toured but came off before applying: Pitt (too urban and cold), Indiana University (too cold combined with far), Dickinson (too small & cold), Miami Ohio (too middle of nowhere & cold), UNC Chapel Hill (swapped in UVA as reach)

In the end it was between Kings College London, South Carolina, Georgia, American & UMD (probably in that order). Georgia & American being great for international relations, but budget for South Carolina and UMD were more aligned. She wanted to like MD as the logical / practical choice, but always had a soft spot for University of South Carolina (and liked UGA & American better than UMD). And South Carolina put on a pretty good tour.

So, then it was down to Kings College and South Carolina (so similar right? and yes, she was willing to trade weather for Kings College). Kings College was outside of budget but we had discussion based on the opportunity. But with law school $$ & GPA in mind it just didn’t make sense for her or us. With Darla School of Business for Econ (double with International Studies) + honors + $$ + warm weather…South Carolina was the winner. She could still go International Business route, but really didn’t like that they won’t let her double IB and International Studies and she wants that humanities bent included.

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2835

I will post here, primarily because our situation was a little different and it could be helpful for homeschoolers in the future.

Son, class of 2026, homeschooled his whole life.

-GPA 3.92 UW (I decided not to try to weight it). All As but for a C (79.4, sigh!) in Algebra 2.

-AP French junior year (scored 5), AP Stats & AP Art History senior year. Took French 312 at a local SLAC in fall of senior year.

-Pursued a rigorous curriculum through primarily online classes with real, meaty, intensive reading and writing. We gave him a lot of latitude in deciding what courses to pursue and when, with the caveat that he needed to get a good foundation in writing. He was the primary driver of his education, which we were able to express in the School Profile. The Course Descriptions were helpful in highlighting the depth of his studies & the booklists. College admission was not the focus or goal; we emphasized education for the love of the thing.

-Only two home-based courses both taught by me to a class—US government (I’m an attorney) & Shakespeare (I’ve got an MA in English, too!). Otherwise outsourced it all.

-Advanced in French & participated in a summer intensive where they were not permitted to speak English.

-Proficient in Spanish (took in person courses through Spanish 3, then in person conversational Spanish, then founded and led a Spanish club at our house for a year to practice further).

-Researched, wrote, and defended a senior thesis on language decolonization in Africa.

-Took the SAT once—didn’t break 1300 but was close (can’t recall exact #). We let him decide whether to re-take; he decided not.

-Very strong LOR.

-Essay about growing up on our family farm & sustainability & life changes. Heartfelt.

-Major involvement in community theatre from multiple acting roles to stage managing and directorial roles. Serves on the theatre board of directors. Sometimes he put 30-40 hours a week into theatre!

-Volunteered teaching 5th graders at our church, participated in two community choirs, did piano lessons, participated in a couple of ballet performances for our local ballet company.

-Applied RD everywhere.

-Criteria: not too far from home, good study abroad and languages departments, small size, not-too-stressful vibe, friendly students.

Results-accepted to all of these with merit ranging from $20k-$40kish

Goucher

Roanoke

UMW

Centre

Kenyon

Sewanee

Dickinson

And the outliers:

W&M: nope

W&L: nope

We were super happy with the results. The nopes are both ironically my alma maters. W&L was a poor fit socially and too close to home, so no one was sad! W&M was too big and, I thought, not the right vibe overall for him.

He is going to Dickinson and we could not be happier!!!

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