I just did the NU myintuition calculator. It gives a net COA range between $42,800 and $74,500 for the scenario I ran It asked a few questions fewer than NU’s NPC, which gives a net COA of $68K based on the same information, and I expect that the NPC is closer to what the student would actually see in their FA offer (I’ve not heard of a general accuracy problem with NU’s NPC.)
The large range of estimated COA that MyIntuition provides is not helpful for many families, and is why people should not use it. Another big problem with MyIntuition is it doesn’t ask for student financials, which are hit at a much higher rate than parental income/assets…so if the kid has income, savings or is the beneciary of a trust, that could be quite a surprise when receiving an actual FA offer. Lastly, MyIntuition results would not be compelling as a source when talking with a given school’s FA department, whereas the NPC is. I can’t think of any instance where it would make sense for a family to do both MyIntuition and NPCs for all schools, so just choose the more accurate and helpful NPC.
So for OP, here are the NPCs for the schools they listed:
There may be a preference for biology, chemistry, and physics as well.
There is a recent thread from a US citizen living outside the US who applied ED to Northwestern, but got admitted with a net price unaffordably higher than what Northwestern’s NPC (the actual one, not MyIntuition) gave before applying.
So it looks like MyIntuition may be more optimistic than Northwestern’s actual NPC, and Northwestern’s actual NPC may be too optimistic relative to actual financial aid in some cases.
Yep, but that doesn’t seem to be a common issue. (I’ve worked with dozens of NU students, and obviously frequent CC and Reddit.) So, that one example does not mean that people should use MyIntuition or not rely on NU’s NPC.
Was not recommending MyIntuition, since it is generally less reliable than the college’s own NPC. But Northwestern’s NPC seems to have accuracy issues for some students (and MyIntuition would likely be even worse in accuracy for those same students).
The OP wrote this. In the next almost year, they can tease out costs and what will work for their family.
In this thread, they are asking for chances to four very competitive and reach colleges. They already have the TX instate options.
I’ll go back to what I said previously…this student should continue to do as well as they can in high school…as they have been. At the end of junior year, and with a retake of the SAT, there will be more info to provide chances. I say…wait. But remember…reaches will continue to be…reaches.
It is common to change majors even after starting university. Both daughters for example started university with one major and then ended up graduating with a different major.
On the other hand, knowing what majors might be possible can help suggest what classes are good ones to make sure are on the list for high school, and can be a guide in budgeting and maybe picking universities to consider.
There are several paths that a potential biology major might take. Medical school is one. Biotech research is another. A switch to some completely unrelated major is also likely.
If medical school is a realistic possibility, then it is a good plan to budget for the potential of 8 years of university. For other possible paths, if a master’s degree is a possible option, then it might still be a good idea to budget for a possible 6 years of university (master’s degrees are usually not funded).
Is your daughter intending to take chemistry at some point? It is my understanding that biology majors will also need to take at least some chemistry in university. One daughter got her bachelor’s degree in biology and has taken multiple chemistry and biochemistry classes in university. Some of these were among the most challenging classes that she has taken so far.
I have never heard of students applying to university during their junior year of high school. It is common for students to send in multiple EA (early action) applications near the beginning of their senior year of high school. These might be due for example in November, but you should check each university’s web site. Students might or might not send in one single Early Decision (ED) application. The problem with this is that if accepted then you are committed to attending. The only valid reason to turn down an ED admission is that you just can’t afford it – but if affordability is an issue most of us usually recommend applying to many schools EA and/or RD (regular decision) and then compare multiple offers before deciding where to go.
These schools are reaches for pretty much every very strong student. In the absence of a Nobel Prize, or a building on campus named after your family, rejection is more likely than acceptance at these schools even for the strongest students.
Have you run the Net Price Calculators for these schools? If not, then you should either run them, or plan on spending somewhere around about $400,000 for a bachelor’s degree. My guess is that by the time that your daughter gets a bachelor’s degree the total cost at these schools, in the absence of financial aid, could be a bit over $400,000. If a student goes on to medical school, then it is probably possible for a student who is currently a junior in high school to spend something like $900,000 by the time that they are called “doctor”.
By the way, I have a daughter who is on track to be called “doctor” this coming May. We do have some familiarity with the financial aspects of this, although in her case she is studying veterinary medicine. We were cautious with regard to spending for the bachelor’s degree which allowed us to help a bit with the cost of the DVM.
You have some great public universities in-state in Texas. Since we live about as far away from you as we could while still being in the contiguous 48 states, we are only familiar with Texas A&M and UT Austin, but they are both universities that would provide a great education at least for a bachelor’s and probably for most graduate degrees as well.
“Diversity” narrows it down to nearly any university in the country (and a lot of universities elsewhere). Stanford definitely has an attractive campus. I am not as familiar with the others on your list. A 1310 SAT is indeed low for the schools that you mentioned in your original post, although there is time to do some studying and at least try to get this up.
One thing for your daughter to do is to think about what sort of school would be most comfortable for her. Does she want a large school or a smaller school? One daughter for example came from a small high school and wanted to attend a small university. Does she want to be in a city (eg, NYU) or a more suburban location (eg Stanford) or a small town?
And at the risk of repeating myself, a student can get a great education at any one of a wide variety of universities. There are many hundreds of colleges and universities that can provide a great education while providing very good opportunities for internships, research, medical shadowing, or other opportunities, and you have in-state public universities which are way above average on a long list of excellent schools in the US.
My daughter got a 1350 on her first SAT, then a 1490 & 1480 on the next two after taking 1 semester of pre-calculus and studying the practice tests in CollegeBoard on the specific subsections she was weaker on. Her superscore is a 1500 (760 math, 740 English). She just received an email from CollegeBoard to be an SAT Tutor (she declined bc she has a heavy AP workload this year and wants to finish strong, but I thought that was pretty cool
Your student is a junior and will not be applying to schools until August and into the fall of senior year. Some schools such as Pitt may open a little earlier. You did not miss anything.
The schools that you reference are reaches for almost everybody. I also think it’s early - a lot can happen between now and August.
Congrats on your daughter’s accomplishments! My advice is to enjoy HS and continue doing her best work (without creating stress). She is fortunate to be an auto admit to outstanding schools.
There are many great schools for biology majors. Good luck!
Congratulations to your D on her many accomplishments so far in high school! She looks like she has been well prepared for success in college!
As she’s thinking about what kind of a college experience she would like, it might be helpful to have her think about these questions:
What size school does she prefer?
What size classes does she prefer?
What kind of weather does she prefer? What kind of weather does she prefer to avoid?
Does she prefer urban/suburban/college town/remote campuses?
Are there particular interests outside of an academic major that she wants to pursue?
How does she feel about significant enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports?
Are there states/regions that she would prefer (or prefer to avoid)?
Are there any other factors (such as religion or politics) that would influence her preferences?
What kind of vibe of students would she hope to be able to find on campus?
Would she like to be a star in her environment where lots of special opportunities are presented to her? Or would she prefer an environment where she’s always having to hustle to try and keep up with others and needing to compete for opportunities of interest? Or something else altogether?
What kind of campus life would she find exciting/interesting? Is this intercollegiate sports, or a variety of lectures, music recitals and concerts, people hanging out on campus just having fun with movie nights, game nights, etc? Is it having tons of entertainment options every night or is it having the types of entertainment she prefers, even if it’s a more limited selection?
If you can give us more information about your D’s preferences, it would help in offering suggestions of schools she may want to investigate that could be a good fit.
What was her her selection index from the PSAT this fall? The last few years Texas has had a cutoff of 220 or 221 (source). If she becomes a National Merit Semi-Finalist there are some really interesting options that open up and even more options if she becomes a Finalist. For instance, U. of Tulsa offers a full ride to NMSF students. I think the school is now between 1/4 and 1/3 NMSF, so there’s a strong academic cohort there, and I’ve only heard good things about it from people who have visited.
Anyway, looking forward to learning more about your D’s preferences so we can try and be more helpful!
Keep the faith.