I would take UNC off the list or at least put it to the side for now.
Between the OOS caps, the fact that they receive over 40,000 OOS applications from very strong applicants, and the fact that your daughter is aiming for one of the big merit awards….it is really a long shot.
Have you used the NPC? If it shows an affordable cost I would be more inclined to keep it on, but it is still a super reach.
UNC places a very high value on giving back to the community. One large merit award recipient started a mental health awareness club in her HS and then helped the club branch out to schools all over the country.
If NC is a state she is interested in, I would look at NC State and some of the other UNC campuses.
It’s currently a bit under $45K for tuition, fees, room and board….before merit. It’s a fine school.
W Carolina will crush the # as it’s an NC Promise school - so low 20s I believe. There’s four but this is the most traditional of the schools.
App State is underrated and is also under $45K.
We saw a student recently earn the Brinkley-Lane full ride at East Carolina (choosing it over UMD). And UNCC has the Levine award.
I know OP said S Carolina is a good state. Not sure about North Carolina but it’s loaded with under $45K opportunities - not named UNC or NC State.
Academicky - no - but even at top schools, not everyone is academicky. And the trade off is price point - and most, if not all, will have Honors Colleges - and if you get a program like Brinkley Lane or Levine (still, brutally hard), there will be academic enrichment for sure.
Close to NC - Coastal Carolina, with tuition, room and board is currently under $45K before merit. JMU is right over - but there’s merit.
When we talk about reaches - some of these like UNCC and ECU are reaches - for the full rides - but not financial reaches with a $45K budget.
So maybe that’s another category - in addition to the financial reaches with the home run scholarships?
With my older top student we did the following: 10 apps total. 1 assured good local in-state (UMD), and 9 reaches/targets. We had simiar financial constraints. She got immediately accepted into 2 (UMD and CWRU both with merit.) Got into CMU with ridiculously small FA, weightlisted buy eventually accepted into GaTech and Umich. Denied at 5 others. That gave her all she needed : bragging list that she got in but we couldn’t afford (Umich and CMU) and school to attend-GaTech.
With youngest we made Big mistake. She applied after consulting with this site to 21 schools. People were saying that we need more merit assured schools and aiming lower is necessary for good merit. She was premed and we were looking for merit aid. We were applying almost exclusively for LACS. Dd wrote smth like 25+ essays and was almost burned. In retrospective she could totally skip most safeties. 10 schools are plenty if you know your child and your goals. (Do not believe strangers. They mean well, but all kids look the same on CC.) Some schools we had never visited. It was a huge waste.
I think one knows how to build a list. When one isn’t applying to “assured” merit schools, there’s an unknown - and that’s why people say more - to give you more chances.
If you would have said - we’d be ok at St. Mary’s or Maryland as our LAC, then yes you don’t need too many.
And when you say - some you never visited. Sometimes you don’t have a choice and can’t but if you can, it can help eliminate some. We applied to some and then visited and two I can think of - Miami and U Denver came right off. And we saw Elon and JMU in time to not apply.
So every situation is different - but when you have a budget and only want schools that don’t tell you up front what you’ll get, there is always some level of risk involved. Of course, there are always schools that people can apply to very late - that are still looking for bodies - to meet their goals.
In the end, no matter the student, they’re only attending one - regardless of how many admits they get.
Determining the number of schools to apply to when you are seeking significant merit is not an exact science. It really depends on the student’s grit etc and whether they have identified a true safety. Unless the school gives guaranteed merit, you just never know how it is going to work out during any particular year.
This student is also asking about top awards to reach schools, which was the original question.
While most will eventually cut down the list, that final number will look different for everybody.
I don’t think 21 schools is excessive for those seeking significant merit who are willing to do the work.
If I remember correctly your daughter had UMD as her safety, but she/you did not like UMD for premed due to it being way too competitive, and if she ended up going she was planning to change her career path to something in the field of psychology. IMO UMD, while an excellent school, was not the right safety for your daughter.
I think if a student has a safety that they like, then it might not be necessary to apply to 21 schools. I may be wrong, but I don’t think this was true for your daughter. Did she have an LAC as an affordable safety (maybe I forgot)?
I remember it came down to a big scholarship at Gettysburg and Rhodes. Because the student didn’t want to take an MCAT, there were also schools with LECOM involved and that’s where the student ended up. I can’t remember if that was the plan from day one or they fell into it later.
But let’s say they applied to 8 or 10 - would these two have been on the list? One doesn’t know, etc.
In the end, kids can only go to one - but I agree, UMD might not have been right. Perhaps St. Mary’s would have been right, etc.
I actually went to UNCW for a year and had a great experience. It’s on her list of safeties for her to narrow down. Has it begun feeling a little less commuterish in the last 20 years? I rented a room in a gorgeous victorian downtown but had a 15 minutes drive to campus, and I’m not sure how it would feel as a freshman.
I don’t think it is a big commuter school, although people who live off campus may be regarded as commuters. My daughter had a roommate at a summer research position who attended UNC Wilmington (not from the area) and liked it very much, did not feel it was a commuter school, etc.
It actually looks like it could be a nice safety.
If she decides to keep UNC-CH on the list, keep in mind that they place a lot of importance on giving back to the community.
I totally get not liking a school but to your point, you had UMD and a bunch of LACs, etc. We’ll see if mom search eng comments.
I think, looking back, one can always say - i didn’t need that many.
My kid who toyed with WashU and Purdue and ended up at Alabama said - why did i apply to 15 - i could have applied for one. Once i visited, there was no where else. Well, you didn’t want to visit til friends dragged you senior year
In the end, a college search is stressful and it’s easy to look back to see how one would adapt after the fact - but it’s like over dressing in an interview - it may not help you but it certainly won’t hurt you (if you apply to what is perceived as too many).
I think it is easy to say you applied to too many…once the results come in. The problem with needing significant merit is that one never knows ahead of time how it will turn out.
And the student is succeeding at Rhodes from what I understand - so in that case, the process worked. The biggest complaint I’ve heard so far is cost of flights to Memphis. Well, if that’s the biggest complaint, then it all worked out!!!
To bring us back to OP’s situation, barring a merit aid chart/pre-read/NPC that indicates the merit aid package, the only way to know what the exact package a school will provide is to apply and see what happens. And rarely will the “lottery ticket” big scholarship offers be known ahead of time, even at schools that give a good sense of the likely minimum merit aid package.
If looking for Big Money™ or guaranteed low prices or some combination thereof, below are some schools that OP’s family may want to look into, several of which have already been mentioned. Outside of the SUNYs, they generally all have full tuition merit scholarships available, and some have full rides. They are sorted by my guesses as to your D’s chances for admission.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Loyola Maryland: About 3900 undergrads at this Jesuit institution (that’s also part of the Baltimore consortium with Johns Hopkins, Goucher, and other area schools)
Siena (NY): About 3500 undergrads within relatively close proximity of the NY State House and strong history options.
SUNY New Paltz: About 6900 undergrads with popular history and poli sci majors, in a cute town, and potentially in a more palatable location than Binghamton or Geneseo.
U. at Albany (NY): About 13k undergrads at this school in the state capital
Likely (60-79%)
Providence (RI): About 4200 undergrads at this Jesuit school that’s about 2 miles from the RI State House.
Rutgers (NJ): About 38k undergrads
U. of Maryland – College Park: About 31k undergrads at this school just outside of D.C.
U. of Pittsburgh: About 26k undergrads (if the app is submitted early)
U. of Rochester (NY): About 6600 undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
George Washington (D.C.): About 12k undergrads at this very urban campus.
Lehigh (PA ): About 5900 undergrads, and being a non-STEM major might be a boost here.
Lower Probability (20-39%)
College of the Holy Cross (MA): About 3100 undergrads at this Jesuit college, leaning towards toss-up.
Rhodes was # 1 on the list from the beginning. Rhodes, UMD and Juniata, and NSU came from my own list to cover LECOM and DO at NSU.
Then people gave ideas. We added St.Mary’s, Ursinus, Furman, Washington and Lee, Lafayette, Hobart + William Smith, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Muhlenberg. Daughter added Richmond. We had Cincinnati, CWRU. Smth else… in the end choice was between Rhodes (LECOM), NSU (DO with MCAT) and Gettysburg (School that really wanted DD and we loved it too.) She was accepted into 17 out if 21, waitlisted at 2. We could cut without any loss Ursinus, Furman, Cincinnati, Hobart and William, Lafayette, Richmond, there was some other school thay we never visited.
If Rhodes was #1, why were so many added? Was it because there was no assured price at Rhodes?
I know now you say they are buying kids in under $40K - but I don’t believe you knew that when applying. Is that correct?
I think a lot of schools have gotten very aggressive this last year or two - which isn’t a good sign - because many are throwing around $$ they don’t have - but some revenue is better than none I suppose. I’m afraid it will catch up with many of these schools.
I didn’t think UMD was a safety only because you/D didn’t like it (too big, too competitive) and she planned to change her career path if she attended. It had nothing to do with not getting in.
I agree with AustinNut’s list of acceptances. What is unclear right now is merit. Although this info is old, here is what my daughter received- from the above list of schools. It could be better now, or worse, who knows.
Pitt- full tuition, interviewed for r/b and did not receive
Rochester- ended up not applying, but nominated by the HS for the Bausch and Lomb award. Rochester would not state the value- said “it depends.”
