What can/will your parents pay for college per year? I agree you have to run the NPCs with your parents, I do not recommend you run the MyIntution calculator linked above as it less accurate, because it requires much less financial data.
Most colleges have NPCs. Here are Columbia’s and Barnard’s:
If a college looks affordable per the NPC, and it is your first choice, consider applying ED. NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate beyond a primary home…are any of these these the case for you?
How and why will being Bangladeshi stand out? If OP answers the demographic questions they would likely choose Asian as their race.
Because in my view, right or wrong, it’s ethnic diversity. The population of Bangladeshi descent isn’t huge, especially if you compare to Indian American. AOs are human. To me it stands out. Maybe I’m wrong but I find it interesting.
In many ways it’s all moot. We don’t know if the OP will qualify for need aid but at 150k it won’t be a ton.
She likes ASU and wants to live home to save money so short of a full ride like the Johnson at W&L or the full ride at SMU or others she’s not going for that cheap. So she should apply apply to schools that offer at least full tuition, even if a wing and a prayer like Vandy or WUSTL bcuz the at home statement to save sort of puts OP into a corner.
I’m getting my parents to fill out the NPCs for my top colleges in this week, and we are talking to a family friend Columbia alumni to discuss their financial aid. My English teacher, who is helping out with my applications, told me that public universities provide very little financial aid, but my dad wants me to apply to UT Austin and NYU, hence why they are on my list. However, I was talking to some NYU Stern alumni that used to go to my school, and one told me that it was worth the high price tag because of the prestige and location. The other one told me otherwise because of the lack of financial aid, so I’m in a bit of a pickle.
I plan on going into consulting with my Poli Sci/Econ degree, which my counselor said was a good idea. I competed in some strategy case competitions, did well in one, and enjoyed the experience. But I do acknowledge that prestige matters for poli sci specifically.
As I mentioned in another reply here, my parents will fill out the NPCs for my top colleges in this week and meet with a Columbia alumni to discuss financial aid. I am probably going to grad school.
I looked into W&L’s poli sci and econ programs, and I like them. They also have resources for consulting, and I saw that they have many alumni that work at Mckinsey or Bain. Yes, I have seen some controversy about their Greek life and name, but I’ll take your word for it. I’ll also look into Macalester’s financial aid; their campus is really pretty, though.
LOL I had no idea it looked like an office park, but it’s ok. Also with SMU, my parents do not want me to go to Christian uni because we’re Muslim, but I personally don’t care, so I’ll check it out.
For ASU, it’s not that I can’t afford a dorm, it’s that I live like 15 minutes away, and my parents want me to stay at home because most of my family friends that went to ASU have done so. Barrett highly recommends its underclassmen students to dorm, which is a good point to use against my parents’ pleas, but I’m thinking about commuting for my upperclassmen years. We’ll see.
I know it’s not the same core curriculum as Columbia, but doesn’t Barnard require its own, called “Foundations” for their first year experience?
Also, everything you said is true. Because Columbia is doing holistic review, they are looking at not just grades, so it makes sense that people with perfect stats might not get admitted. I just hope my ECs and essays will be enough, but then again, nobody really knows because it depends on the AOs.
I was considering Hamilton, mainly because of its NY location and how pretty its campus was haha. I like their summer research fellowships, but I was hoping they could provide as much financial aid as W&L and its Johnsons Scholarship. Thank you!
My parents will fill out the NPCs of my top colleges this week to see where we fall. We do own real estate beyond our primary home, both here and in Bangladesh. Although I don’t know the specifics, I’ll talk to my parents. Do you know if it affects the NPCs drastically?
Also, I mention that I am Bangladeshi in my essays and activities.
Are you apply to NYU Stern or CAS? the “prestige” level- esp from the pov of top level consulting firms- is very different. Stern is also a tougher admit than CAS.
UT Austin is a difficult OOS admit. Don’t expect aid.
NYU does very little merit and does not meet 100%. Is it a good school. Yes? But of course someone who goes will say it’s worth the high price or they’d be diminishing their experience. Since you are cost/debt conscious and I applaud that, your time would be better spent on other schools.
Whoever said publics don’t give merit is wrong. You have to find the right publics. U of A and to a lesser extent ASU are phenomenal. U of Al, Florida State, Arkansas, UAH, U T Knoxville, Mizzou, Minnesota, UCF, LSU. Utah and New Mexico too. Wyoming, CU Boulder etc So many schools have great merit aid. Hofstra would get you close to NYC is aggressive. Many on CC talk about Fordham. But I still struggle that you want to save housing cost.
That’s why I urge you to look at W&L which, in my opinion, is superior to NYU. SMU also has full rides and forget the name, it’s not religious like that…Jews, Muslims, etc. btw the other LACs don’t have something like the Johnson which goes to 10% of students. They have other tuition only scholarships. Their endowment is huge.
Your efforts will help you get the roles you want. Yes it will be harder from ASU yet not impossible to consult which will more likely require a few years of work and an elite mba. And you’ll save a ton. With the internet, your ability to network will matter most. Going to a top school, even Harvard, is no guarantee but top schools do open the doors a bit wider. But if your parents save $200k or more…well that’s big. Good luck
It depends on how the assets are classified (investments vs a business), and for CSS Profile, each school’s proprietary formula.
Real estate beyond a primary home will have to be reported on FAFSA and CSS Profile (for your schools that require Profile). Equity in a primary home is reported on Profile but not FAFSA.
If classified as an investment, on FAFSA the net worth of the assets will be assessed at 5.64%, after an asset protection allowance. That amount is added to your EFC.
For Profile schools, run the NPCs. The degree to which schools assess the primary home and investment real estate varies, a lot. Some schools don’t assess primary home net worth, some do. Some hit investment real estate hard, up to 20%-25%. You just have to do the NPCs to see what your estimated COA us at each school.
If the real estate is considered a business, the impact to what your family is expected to pay can also vary from school to school. Follow directions closely for both the EFC estimator and NPCs, it’s a lot of detail.
For one, yes, there are two “First Year” courses that every freshman will take - a college-writing course, and a seminar - however my daughter didn’t think of those being redundant at all, because there are “many different ways to skin a cat” (or, maybe “peel a potato” for the vegetarian readers ), but she found it actually helpful to know up-front which way Columbia/Barnard wanted their papers written etc.
But Barnard’s “Foundations” (Foundations < Barnard College | Columbia University) are actually just thematic areas that one has to “touch upon” by taking any number of courses of one’s own choice; many will satisfy more than one area of “exploration”, and possibly even apply to your major/minor. While the web site might read like it’s a list of “required courses” - they are NOT.
Per example, my daughter satisfied her “Thinking Technologically and Digitally” by choosing a very applicable Computer Science class that developed an interactive experiment for a Psych lab. Typically you will find course offerings that are very much in line with your areas of interest (or related to a minor/major) that also happen to tangent one or two “foundations”.
In comparison, some colleges with a “core” curriculum mandate a rigid list of specific courses to be taken, possibly even specific pieces of literature to be studied - regardless of students’ interest in that particular course or this particular book.
Consequently, my daughter felt bad for her stressed-out Columbia College friends, majoring in Economics, who were stuck having to take THE “Music Humanities” class, while she was satisfying her “Courses in Sciences” and/or “Thinking Quantitatively and Empirically” by taking a fascinating class on planetary movements, observations and calculations.
), but she found it actually helpful to know up-front which way Columbia/Barnard wanted their papers written etc.