Chance/Match me! T30s, Northeast/mid-Atlantic schools [History Major, 4.6 GPA, 33 ACT (superscore), <$40k, divorced parents]

Chance Me / Match Me
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(I drafted this before Georgetown EA decisions came out but decided to post it anyway to get opinions on other schools)

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: Northeast
  • Type of high school: mid-size private school
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Black, female
  • Other special factors: First-gen American, single parent household

Intended Major(s)
History with possible minor in Spanish

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: School only gives weighted
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.6 (weighted 4.0 scale: honors classes add 0.5, AP classes add 1.0)
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t make this public, but definitely top 1-5%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 32 ACT (33 super score)

Coursework
(My school only let us take APs starting junior year and limited it to 2 that year)
11th: AP Art History (5), AP Calculus AB (3)
12th (currently taking): AP European History, AP Statistics, AP Spanish, AP Environmental Science
10 honors

Awards
National Spanish Exam Gold Award
State Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish
NHS/National Spanish Honor Society
African American Recognition (from College Board)
Some track & field conference championships

Extracurriculars

  • Youth Council - appointed to 2 year term by state governor, elected as a committee chair
  • School Council rep all 4 years of HS, elected President for senior year
  • co-leader of Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising team that raised over $30k in 6 weeks (LLS Student of the Year, March 2022)
  • Helped organize 2 charity outreaches in Nigeria in summer 2021 (charity is run by family members so idk if that diminishes the accomplishment)
  • Played varsity soccer all 4 years + team captain senior year
  • Run varsity track & field all 4 years
  • Member of choir all 4 years, accepted into auditioned advanced choir in 11th grade
  • Worked as a summer camp counselor all 4 years
  • Chosen by faculty as an admissions ambassador for my school

Essays/LORs/Other
LORs: 9/10 written by 10th/11th grade humanities teacher, 8/10 written by 11th grade literature teacher
No clue how strong my essays are but I’ll say 6 or 7 out of 10

Cost Constraints / Budget
Ideally can afford around $25-30k per year, absolute max is around $40k

Schools
Not sure what schools are safeties/targets so I took my best guess

  • Safety : None as of now (Please suggest some!)
  • Likely : Need suggestions as well
  • Match: UMD College Park (applied EA), GWU (RD), William & Mary (RD)
  • Reach: Georgetown (accepted EA!), Johns Hopkins (RD), Dartmouth (RD), Brown (RD), UVA (applied EA), University of Richmond (applied EA)
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Well, no need for safeties or liklies now.

I take it Georgetown isn’t your 1st choice?

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Is Georgetown going to be affordable, and do you like the school…and would be happy to attend. If so…your safety school is fulfilled!

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It’s definitely one of my top choices, but they don’t give out merit/academic scholarships, and my family can’t afford 88k (!) per year, so I want to have other options in case I don’t get enough aid.

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I like the school and it’s one of my top 3 choices (along with Brown and UVA) but I’m worried they won’t give me enough aid, so I’d like some other options.

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Normally I’d ask you to give an UW GPA - you just take the grades at 4,3,2,1 - you don’t add the .5/1 and it’s that simple.

But you got into Gtown - so we know you have the academic chops.

So what does the NPC say ? That will help you understand the funds.

So you don’t share your state so I can surmise you’ll get into GW, UMD, and W&M but that doesn’t tell me it’s affordable. GA and W&M will most certainly be above budget as will D if not from Maryland.

If Gtown is $88k, then the reaches likely won’t be good either.

So that tells me you need a 100% definite - meaning Alabama, Ms State, Ole Miss, Truman State, W Carolina and there will be others.

And likely to meet your budget Arizona, Miami Ohio, potentially a SUNY like Geneseo, maybe even Bing. And what’s your home state ? It’s school as well.

When you have a strict budget, you need assured cost schools.

Hopefully Gtown gets you there and you should have run the NPC b4 applying.

But if you end up a full pay family, you will need to quickly pivot. Those are some names I provided. There will be more as well.

In school selection, budget should be the first consideration - ahead of brand name.

Good luck.

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Is this because your parent incomes and assets can’t support more…or is this because this is all your parents have agreed to spend.

The net price calculators can provide at least an estimate of your net costs.

Are your parents divorced? Do they own real estate in addition to your primary residence? Are they self employed or do they own a business? If NO to all, the NPCs should be fairly accurate…or at least close.

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I did the Gtown NPC today, it said my expected family contribution would be about 42k, which my mom has said is doable. I’d still like to explore other options, though.

I can’t share my state because my ECs will dox me, but my state schools would definitely be affordable. Not all of the schools on my list are like Gtown who doesn’t give any type of academic/merit scholarship, so I want to explore my options.

I agree that budget should be a big part of school selection, but I also have to take into account so many other factors. Location, distance from home, culture of the school, etc.

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You wouldn’t be doxed but that you know it’s affordable at home and applied is what matters.

Location, distance and culture are important - well culture is but the other two are important to you - so that’s great.

But nothing matters if it’s not affordable.

So Gtown appears to be - but hopefully you knew that b4 you applied and hopefully the others you applied to also show a “doable” financial number.

That’s first and foremost before you pick any other schools to apply.

I hope the Gtown # comes as you think (or better). But also check off campus prices (living) and if you read reviews, many Gtown kids eat off campus (parents complain abuot added expense)- the food is not rated well.

Best of luck.

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I live in a single parent household and my other parent isn’t involved. My mom makes $250-300k a year, but I have 2 older siblings (1 is doing his PhD at Penn and the other is going to nursing school while still living at home). Gtown NPC said that my EFC would 42k, which is doable.

Honestly, with her income, my mom can afford to put more than $40k per year toward my education and I have a good amount in my 529. However, she’s getting close to retirement age and a lengthy/expensive divorce already put her under a lot of financial strain, so I’d rather not go far above that. Not to mention I plan on going to law school so I’d like to save as much as possible for that.

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If going to law school, the where you go will matter little if at all. So save $$. And if your mom makes $250-300K a year, I find it hard to believe Gtown will be $42K.

But I hope so for your sake.

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Just wondering…GT is a Profile school. Wondering if they will still consider multiple kids in undergrad school when computing institutional need based aid. Or…move their NPC hasn’t yet been updated with the FAFSA changes.

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I explained more in another reply but she went through a long + expensive divorce that caused a lot of financial strain. Had to buy a new house in our expensive COL area, etc. And both my older siblings still rely on her. I’m definitely not set on Gtown though, I understand that money is a huge factor. Thanks for the advice!

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Understood and I hope it’s right for your sake - but I’d be surprised - no matter the circumstance.

But you have GMU - and you can always pivot to a NMF school up to when they allow.

Hopefully you’ll know soon enough.

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Your sibling in undergrad school might be considered by GT when they compute institutional need based aid. No one really knows if the Profile schools will continue to count multiple siblings in college as a metric. But the PhD kid…very unlikely that any college will consider this student in that metric.

Buying a house in a HCL area won’t affect your need based aid…except maybe in a positive way because you will have less home equity in that primary residence.

Since your parents are divorced, the net price calculator should NOT be viewed as accurate…unless it specifically asks whether parents are married or divorced. I believe GT requires the non-custodial parent Profile, so that parent income and assets will be considered as well.

When you did the NPC, did you indicate three in college? Did it ask if your parents were divorced?

Please don’t view this NPC result as accurate, it might not be given your divorced parent status.

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It did ask whether my parents were divorced but didn’t differentiate between 2 separate incomes/assets - it just kept asking about my parents. I was able to put down info about my 2 siblings still being in school, so maybe that helped a bit :woman_shrugging:

Also, what is a “Profile school” if you don’t mind me asking?

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And GWU, and William and Mary

The Profile is an additional financial aid application form used by some colleges. These schools you listed use the Profile in addition to the FAFSA to determine institutional need based aid. And IIRC, they all require the non-custodial parent to complete a form providing their info also.

It sounds like you NEED financial aid to attend any of these colleges. Did you NOT complete the Profile yet? You need to check the deadlines for the above schools to make sure they require this form. And the FAFSA (which isn’t available for filing…yet). You will be using information from the 2022 tax year for the 2024-2025 forms. The above listed colleges require both the FAFSA AND the Profile. And most likely the non-custodial parent form.

Here is what I found…but you need to check for yourself. You also need to check to see if the non-custodial parent form is required…and make sure your custodial parent form is submitted in time for the non-custodial parent to complete and send theirs.

George Washington University - by January 5
Johns Hopkins- by January 15
Georgetown, Dartmouth, Brown, Richmond- by Feb 1
University of Virginia, william and Mary- by March 1

You need to check the financial aid websites for all of your colleges for deadlines and required submissions. If you are missing anything, your financial aid application will be incomplete and will not be considered.

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Ohhh do you mean the CSS Profile? I completed that back in mid-November because Richmond requires it for EA applicants requesting aid. It asked me a question about my non-custodial parent and I said something along the lines of “I have no contact with this parent” then they didn’t ask me anymore questions about them.

I’ve already created a FAFSA account so I’ll be ready to complete it once it comes out on December 31st.

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Did you request a non-custodial parent waiver? If not…you need to do this at all schools requiring the non-custodial parent form. Some schools will grant this and others won’t. But unless I’m missing something…you need to provide documentation to EACH college regarding your non-custodial parent.

If all you needed to do was say “I don’t have contact with this person” many folks would just do that. Clearly, this is not the case.

Please check your colleges. It would be awful to have an incomplete financial aid submission…

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