Feeling guilty....should I feel this way? HELP

Schmoomcgoo
Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:47:54 +0000

Carbonbeach, you’ve gotten lots of great advice. The only thing I would add is to recommend your daughter apply to a lot of schools, like 3-5 reaches, 3-5 matches, and 3-5 safeties, assuming she can identify that many schools that fulfill the criteria regarding FAFSA that also are acceptable to her. IMO many are pennywise and pound foolish when it comes to application fees. If the average fee is $60 and one applies to 12 schools and sends SAT scores to all of them, the total cost of applying is about $700. It may seem like a lot, but the odds of receiving a aid offers are better with more applications, IMO. In my daughter’s case, she applied to 11 schools and was accepted at 7 (with pretty similar stats to your D’s and strong but not stellar SAT’s). She received offers of better than half total costs at one safety and one match and about half total costs at another safety on merit alone–with no need. One of the remaining schools that offered her no aid was a match known for good merit money. The other three were state universities where few out of staters are accepted, much less offered aid. I would bet that if she chooses her schools wisely, and writes some great essays, your daughter can snag a full-ride at a lesser state school, a decent offer from your in-state flagship, and a variety of offers from privates.