My D18 is a very good student who, I feel, has a reasonable chance of admission to these schools-33 ACT 4.3wGPA from CA
Any feedback at all is appreciated --including accuracy of net price calculators and ease of dealing with the FA (especially as it might apply to study abroad).
Our D, who is currently a sophomore at the University of Richmond (UR) where she applied ED, also applied to and was accepted EA at Tulane.
From our experience, the FAFSA EFC provides a much more accurate prediction than the net price calculators of what our D’s actual price will be at UR. Although UR also requires the CSS PROFILE to apply for their own institutional need-based aid, the net price we pay is fairly close to the FAFSA and CSS PROFILE EFC estimates.
A word of caution. We live in a high cost area and since you’re in CA, presumably you do, too. UR guarantees to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need, but it’s according to their formula based on the CSS PROFILE. They don’t take into account that people like us who live in higher cost of living areas generally have higher incomes, but also pay much more for everything. Their financial aid offers also include Federal loans as part of the package.
UR offers a $2,000 Summer Study abroad scholarship, but our D hasn’t applied for one yet.
Although Tulane offered our D a renewable $20K “Academic Achievement Award” with her admission which would have made her actual cost of attendance at Tulane less than UR, we really liked the UR campus and small class sizes and felt our D would be a better fit there. UR didn’t offer her an academic award, just need based aid.
@ARTCC , thanks for your feedback.
Yes we live in the Bay Area and housing costs, as well as home equity, really give the illusion that everyone here is at least moderately affluent.That said, some schools can still be very generous for middle income families. They are rare, though.
Are you and your daughter happy with UR?
Would you change anything if you could?
It’s a long way to go for a visit for us, but we might consider ED2 there so a visit is a must.
We appreciate any feedback-especially the cons-so as to have a realistic idea of an actual student’s experience.
You’re welcome. Suggest you review Troy Onink’s excellent article on how financial aid is calculated for FAFSA and CSS PROFILE at http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2017/01/08/2017-guide-to-college-financial-aid-the-fafsa-and-css-profile/#641b0fc74ccb . We found this to be the most helpful in understanding this very complex process.
Only 40 percent of UR students qualify for need-based aid. What this means is that the balance are Americans from wealthy families who are paying the full sticker price (except for those on merit scholarships) and foreign students.
The suburban campus is very beautiful. We live a long way from Virginia so our daughter flies to and from college. The Richmond airport, about a 30 minute drive from campus, is quite convenient and served by the major airlines.
There is a local storage company that services the campus with pick-ups and deliveries so she places her belongings in summer storage with them for a reasonable fee when she flies home for the Summer. There is a shuttle that takes students to local shopping centers and the airport and our daughter also uses Uber and Lyft to get around, so she doesn’t need her own car at all.
The fraternities and sororities are all nonresidential, but our D is not interested in Greek life. I was initially concerned about some of the stories in the media about alleged sexual assaults there and how the Title IX investigations were handled there. Although our D reported that there was a big problem with underage drinking in her freshman year dorm, she hasn’t experienced any problems. She said if girls avoid the underage drinking and the fraternity parties, the campus is very safe.
She has made some good friends there from around the US as well as international students. She really likes the quality of her professors. There are no teaching assistants there, so all of the instruction is from actual faculty and the class sizes are small. Students don’t declare majors until their sophomore year, which is good since many students aren’t sure what they want to major in when they arrive.
When my D and I visited the campus and took the guided college tour, I asked the tour guide the same question you did–what would you change if you could? The guide didn’t really have an answer for me.
Now that our D is nearly halfway through her college experience there, I wish they had more success in their alcohol abuse and sexual assault awareness education programs. On more than one occasion, our D reported underage students in her dorm being taken away in an ambulance for alcohol poisoning. The administration is trying, but I think these problems are a reflection of society as a whole, not just UR.
UR has several great orientation programs for incoming freshmen and their parents. In addition to (or as a replacement) to the general orientation program, our D and we participated in their Roadmap to Success orientation program. We arrived several days earlier than usual and we were able to help our D move into her dorm with a lot less people on campus.
The Roadmap program had lots of fun activities for the participating students which were divided into small groups based on their interests while the parents had a separate program where we were able to hear from the UR President, deans of the colleges, and participate in our own small group seminars that we chose to attend. This something that a small to medium size college like UR can offer. Although we also stayed for the general orientation program, most of the topics were covered in Roadmap, so we wouldn’t have missed much if we had left after Roadmap.
We highly recommend that you visit the campus while classes are in session if you can. My D and I walked the campus on our own the afternoon we arrived in Richmond and participated in the formal admissions office presentation and guided tour the next morning.
Our D was able to sit-in on a couple actual classes, experience the academic environment, and see the kinds of students that attend there. Not all of the colleges we visited offered that opportunity.
Because they use an admissions panel to score applicants, we suggest you schedule an office call for you and your D with the Deans of Admissions if you can while you are there. He was in a meeting during the formal admissions office presentation when we visited so we didn’t have a chance to hear him speak to the assembled group. After our campus tour concluded, on a whim I requested an office call with him and much to our delight and surprise, he agreed to meet with my D and me. He gave us lots of good information about the admissions process, and most importantly, he got to learn about our D. He also recommended that our D meet with a UR admissions rep, if possible when one visits our area, which our D did. The regional admission reps also are members of the admissions panel, so our D was able to meet and speak with two of the panel members in person before they reviewed her application.