My school has a college seminar and my AP lang class will be doing our essays after the exams, but I already have a few drafts written. I’m really trying to be ahead of the game so I have time to do my applications well 
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Thank you for making us aware of that. I hope that doesn’t happen again.
If you have a savings account with hundreds of thousands of dollars, then colleges will be expecting that money to be used and it will count in any need-based calculations that a college does. If your budget is dependent upon contributions from your grandfather, I would urge him to either include specifications in his will, or to create a 529 with you as the intended beneficiary, and/or to do whatever is legally appropriate to ensure that those funds continue to go to your education if anything happens to him.
With respect to the waiver, your mom’s status may make you eligible, I’m unsure. Perhaps @kelsmom wants to weigh in with her expertise in financial aid with respect to your situation?
Do not forget that applying to colleges has a cost beyond the application fee. Many colleges, particularly those with low admission rates, will require many supplementals that are customized for each school. Some schools might have 7-8 supplementals. Multiply that by the number of schools you apply to, and you realize that there is significant risk of burnout as well as a burden to complete while you are taking all of your senior year classes and doing all of your regular activities as well. So take into account the time and effort that applications require and not just the cost.
My other piece of advice is to be really reflective about how you react to rejection. For some people, it’s like a fuel that makes them want to be even more awesome wherever they land to prove those who did not say “yes” what a big mistake they made. For people like that, a reach-heavy list can be a reasonable decision. For most people, however, rejection is a mental and emotional blow. I find that most people do better with more acceptances than rejections, but it is very much dependent on the makeup of that particular individual. Some serious introspection and talking with some trusted people who know you well can perhaps give some insight on how to best balance your list between schools that are likely vs. unlikely to grant you an admission.
ETA: And several folks were making some of these very points while I was writing!
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Sorry— I thought I said already! I did 2 years also at a rigorous private day school. I transferred out not because of the academic state of the school but rather for other reasons that relate to my family stuff. So I don’t think it looks as bad as a public school would because I was still receiving a college prep education and I was still enrolled in many honors classes.
Ok. I thought public. My bad
Where do kids with your profile attend from there because that’s a baseline…
And correctt or not, you shy from STEM rigor ? Is that right ?
Just trying to ensure we all understand.
We are trying to help you.
You’ve done so much. No one can be super human.
What you do, where you go, will be enough. Don’t forget that.
They will no doubt be proud. Please re read the last. I added to it.
You cannot control who accepts you. You can control what you do there !!
My grandfather has his legal affairs in order, with my mom being the primary recipient of the money. I’m not sure how the savings account stuff works because my mom is the one who did all of the NPCs but I trust that she entered the information correctly. I already get financial aid at my boarding school so there is some kind of technicality that makes me eligible, I am not sure as I am bad with finances. I’m really not too worried about application fatigue because I just really love to write, plain and simple. It is not something that I get bored of ever. When I applied for BS, I received 4 waitlists and 2 rejections, so I’m pretty accustomed to not receiving good news on decision dates. My school that I’m at now, I got off of the waitlist by some ridiculous odds. I don’t expect to get into Penn or Brown or any of the other really hard schools on my list at all. Penn has been my dream for a very long time, I grew up very enveloped in its culture, due to my Philadelphia-born family and all of my neighbors growing up went there by some weird coincidence. It took me about a year and a half before I decided that I would even apply because I was so unconfident with myself. I still know I more than likely will not get in, but it’s the kind of thing that I feel like if I don’t even bother applying to these schools, I would a hard time living with myself knowing that I didn’t even bother trying. I’ve checked the Common Data Sets for all of my uber-reach schools, and I do know, their top % of students with my GPA is usually less than 5-10%. This being said, I have defied so many odds in my academic journey that I just wanna give it one last hurrah and shoot my shot to everywhere I have an interest as long as I am able.
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My old school was very wealthy so I am not sure where I stand in this. I know students who have around my (3.4ish because I’m expecting my UW to go up) GPA but less ECs and lower test score than I have who have gotten into schools like USC, NEU, UMiami, and UT Austin. It was a good school matriculation-wise and my current school is similar, though a little bit more of a crapshoot. I know a girl with a perfect application (4.0, 1600, etc) who got rejected from all of the ivies she applied to, but one of my closest friends got into T10 with a 4.0 (W though, she’s in a lot of APs so UW is probably somewhere in the higher 3 range), 14s SAT, and pretty good ECs. She’s one of the hardest working and most deserving people I know, but so was my friend who also got rejected from the same schools that my friend got into. 5-7 kids go to ivies each year, probably about 15 more to other T25s. I’ve seen students with similar profiles (low gpa, high scores) go T25, which makes me hopeful. I’m also retaking the SAT probably once or twice more just to get my math up a little bit more which I’m not sure if it’ll do much but yeah
You are smart and you are curious and there is no better time to stop being bad with finances than NOW when you and your mom are contemplating the most expensive purchase you will ever make besides a house (depending on where you end up living).
Boarding schools have enormous discretion in how they award their funds. Some colleges do- and others do not. Worth learning about how each of the schools on your “I’m serious” list think about both merit and need based aid. There are some very generous schools where you will likely not get even $500 more than what their formula says you are getting (and the formula will take into account money in your own name, a home if your mom owns instead of rents, etc.) And there are other schools where your aid can be comprised of both what you are eligible for based on your need, AND an award based on your stats, how much they want you, etc.
You can learn all this stuff in a matter of days by putting your terrific research skills to work. I know smart and capable kids who get into some of the schools on your list but even with aid they cannot afford to attend. They also thought they were bad with finances, but it is a hard and painful lesson to realize that with some homework they could have avoided the sad “I’m in but what good does it do me” situation. I’m sure your mom has been prudent and frugal- but even having a brokerage account that in her mind is mentally “My retirement” vs. having it appropriately titled as an IRA or 401K “legal” retirement account can make a big difference in your aid package.
You are tired of hearing us all say the same thing. But the adults in the room know lots of kids who have massive disappointment in April of their senior year- not because of their rejections, but because of their acceptances.
Good luck. Some of the financial stuff is VERY interesting- and everything you learn will help other kids too!
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My mom is pretty well-put on this stuff. Her savings is a 401K i am certain of this. We have no assets. No car, no house, no stocks. We live with another family member and pay a share of the utilities and a bit in “rent.” I expect to receive a bit of merit aid at some schools because of my SAT. When I say I’m not with the financials, I mean I’m not really sure about exactly what my mom plans to do. The idea that I have now is that my mom will contribute the same amount she pays towards my current education, my grandpa will likely contribute the same amount, and that combined will be enough to cover most of the tuition even without aid. It would be only cutting into the savings slightly. I plan to get a job when I’m in college to lessen this burden a little bit more, because I really don’t want to feel like a bum leeching off of their parents for an English degree. my close family’s literal only focus in my life is my education. I’m not saying this to be selfish, but every time I’ve had this talk with my family members it has been the answer I received. I am an only child and also the only child in my extended family under 25 or so. My mom really regrets where she went to college (she did it to cut back on costs) and she’s been preparing for a very long time a method on ensuring that I’ll be able to attend somewhere for a price that’s reasonable to us. I get that it probably seems misinformed to outsiders because you guys are mostly parents of kids who have been to college and have gone through that, but my mom had me very late compared to her siblings, and they have all graduated college 4-5 years ago so we’ve been exposed to the reality of paying tuitions for a while which is why i guess my mom is so sure of herself in this respect.
Actually wait ignore what i said about 401k idk if its the right one but it is like legally a retirement account i know that much but it might be the other kind
You’re very fortunate that your mom has been saving for a long time and places a lot of value on providing you with an enjoyable college experience.
What kind of college experience are you hoping for? Looking at your list, it was pretty eclectic, and people might be able to provide better suggestions if we know more about what’s important to you in a college.
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I hope she’s not raiding her 401k.
And this is what @blossom is talking about. Some schools have automerit based on gpa and test. I put one below. Others don’t. They decide willy nilly. Others have no merit at all - much of your list.
So when one has a price point and lower grades - you are right - swing for the fences. But more important than a home run is a single. That’s an assured in that’s affordable and you know will be in. NPC is no assurance. Many come back here - they didn’t meet the NoC price. Or I’m well above average and they rejected me. It’s possibly due to need.
Drexel does not assure to meet need. It’s over $80k. Will you get in ? Likely. Will they hit cost. Hopefully but not assuredly.
Some schools give everyone merit - which is marketing money. They know to get a butt in seat, they have to buy kids. Whether that kid is you I don’t know.
Not suggesting the school linked but it’s an example of a type you need. It’s $38k all in and you’d get $16k so it’s low 20s. You know this in advance. They spell it out. There’s some in the NE but less. Some are SUNYs but you said no. When you have a budget, you can be picky to a point but not with safeties. Millersville, Salisbury, Christopher Newport, Mary Washington - all have auto merit. URI isn’t auto but gives $3-17k and is highly likely to give. But why it’s a true safety is tuition, room and board is $51k
A 401k means she likely has no current money to pay. So she’s lessening her retirement. I don’t know how much she has but on paper it’s a terrible idea.
Please get more educated. She wants what’s best for you but you also want her to have money to last through retirement.
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My list is pretty eclectic because I am also very similar to that as a person. I’m very spontaneous and I am really open to anything except for the kind of stereotypical greek life southern type of deal. I’m really social and I don’t usually have a hard time finding people in any setting, and I can be both super academically serious but i am also a person who places a strong focus on humor and having fun and being happy. I really don’t care where I go as long as it’s a blue state and somewhere cold and not in the pacific NW.
As I understand it, you are asking us to chance you for ~25 colleges. IMHO, none of your reaches are realistic generally because they are crap shoots for everyone, but specifically in your case because not all of them sound like good fits. You come across in your posts as quirky and lively and most of those places are very buttoned-down, and frankly rather cliquish. Your targets are your sweet spot; they are all over the place in terms of size and location, but the thing that they share in common is the probability that you would be able to eventually find your peep.
As far as the whole affordability discussion is concerned, just be aware that even if your mother is willing to blow all her savings on college expenses (assuming she is a pensioner), a couple hundred grand will only go so far.
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I don’t know if it’s a 401k or some other thing. My mom gets mad every time I talk to her about it and she just tells me she will pay for college. My grandpa is very well off and has a few million dollars between all of his accounts and he will probably pay a lot of it if i don’t get any FA in a worst case scenario
Her pension is around 45k, and she gets like 20k in social security annually. We pay 25k for boarding school and it’s fine because we don’t really have living costs. My grandpa is the guy with the big bucks who through some kind of magical means will pass the money to my tuition. My mom gets very mad at me and starts screaming and saying “we can talk about this later” every time I try to bring it up so I am just taking her word for it because I do not want to have 5 billion arguments. Out of my reaches, the only one I really truly love is UPenn but also Most likely never happening. I’m a little bit cliquey too when it comes down to the right people, but I’ve always been very much a floater so I’m not insanely concerned about that stuff
So, how can we help?
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I guess I just would want to know if there is anything in my power that I can do from here aside from just saying “no you will not go there you will go to University of Northeast western Southern wyoming.” Obviously I am fine with going to a safety if it comes to it but i would really like to improve my chances even a little bit— whether that be my major choice, any ecs i could pursue from this point, improving my test scores, yada yada
Have you thought about Illinois or Minnesota? St. Olaf is a forum favorite, in part because it has a really friendly and intellectually engaged student body. It has about 3100 undergrads and is probably a toss-up for you, perhaps a likely based on what you’ve indicated about the high schools you’ve attended. If you’re open to Minnesota, Gustavus Adolphus (about 2k undergrads) would be a likely or extremely likely admit, and Macalester (about 2100 undergrads) would probably be a lower probability admit.
I would strongly urge you to prioritize the order in which you apply to schools. I’m going to quote myself from this post in terms of my thoughts of how you might want to prioritize:
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You can be the best you that you can be in school - and be in a couple clubs - and done.
That’s it.
That’s your part. You don’t control the schools.
I just want to share this with you - top English per capital PhD feeders - this is per capita and I tried to stay in your area.
Hampshire - think has financial issues - not sure about need/merit - #2 per capita
Sarah Lawrence - #8
Beloit - #15 - yes it’s midwest but you’d get HUGE merit and it’s well regarded.
Kalamazoo - closer than Beloit - huge merit - you’d be low 40s worst case - open curriculum - #29 in sending to English PhD
Wheaton before outside of Providence - huge merit - #43 in PhD feeding.
The point here and yes Williams and Vassar are on the list - but they aren’t the only - lots more great schools than you and mom realize!!!
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The best way to make sure to avoid going to a “Safety” you don’t like is to make sure to apply to at least a couple “Likelies” you really do like.
The practical question is whether you can identify some Likelies like that in light of the various constraints that you have suggested, such as region and the filtering your mom appears to be doing.
I say this not to be critical of you for having such constraints so far. I just see a lot of kids online who once they get their offers are very upset that they didn’t get admitted to any colleges they actually like, and it becomes clear that they didn’t apply to any Likely colleges that would have been affordable good fits for them. So even if you mostly want to take shots at colleges that are not Likely, it seems worth the investment of time and effort to make sure you do have at least two really suitable Likelies. Even if that would require some flexibility on issues like region.
That said, if your counselor says you are good, we really are in no position to second-guess that advice.
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