I’m willing to venture out of my comfort zone in all aspects if it means getting a great education. That’s what I value most.
I have both UTDallas and UBama Tuscaloosa on the ready for submission. I look over them to refine areas. Will be submitting soon. Where should I go next other than UTK (not open)?
I was planning options for plan B if I don’t become a finalist as well. I know I can only apply ED to one college, but is it worth applying ED to somewhere like Vanderbilt or Rice (that doesn’t increase admission chance by a lot) than somewhere like Haverford? Should I ensure the highest chance of admission possible among my QB choices by choosing one I like that has a good ED acceptance rate? Or, would that be dangerous given my financial situation, since it would bind me to that school and I would be in the dark on how they would define my need? Just a thought, wanted to see what you guys thought.
On a lowkey level of thinking… I wonder where the colleges get funding for generous grants. I wonder why some choose to have a tight grip on their money compared those who let it flow freely throughout campus…
Some private colleges are old and have had a long history of successful alumni who give back + longtime good investments + patents/research. All of that generates revenue that is given back through financial aid. Other private colleges have very little endowment and barely manage to keep going, thanks to students’ tuition, so they rely on students paying full costs or nearly full costs except for a handful who receive a scholarship.
Among public universities, some receive good funding from the State, some States have excellent financial aid for their residents, others offer scholarships for stats, some other states offer little financial aid and/or fund their universities poorly. Look at what’s happening in Anchorage right now or the Bright Futures program in Florida or Cal Grants in California. Finally, most states have realized that to be attractive to investors and businesses, they need a highly educated workforce. In the 21st century, many jobs will depend on a college degree (certificate, associate, bachelor), yet their population is not commonly well-educated so they try to attract excellent students from elsewhere since once students leave a state they tend to stay in their new region (which is why BF or Excelsior exist, as otherwise talent would just go elsewhere): through its scholarship program, Alabama has successfully managed to attract excellent students from many states, including Illinois, New Jersey, and California.
There’s such a thing as ED1 and ED2; I don’t think you can apply ED1 if you apply through QB but you could apply ED2. Look up which universities have ED2 among the colleges on your QB list.
You can be released from an ED contract if the financial aid is not adequate.
Why do some families buy BMWs and some take the public bus? Not every college has sufficient funds to give generous grants. Harvard, for example, has $38 BILLION. University of Alabama has $1.4B. Tennessee Tech University has $67 million. Here’s the latest data on college endowments:
file:///Users/admin/Downloads/2018%20Endowment%20Market%20Values–Final.pdf
You are still allowed to apply ED1 to some QB schools following the match. My D19 wasn’t matched and she actually received an email invitation to roll her app over to ED at Penn, but she’d already rolled it over to ED1 at Haverford. It was a simple emailed request- no extra info or work required, and she was accepted ED a week after the match round concluded. She also got her FA letter the very next day with enough time to fix a error on their part and speak to the FA office multiple times before the acceptance deadline, which they also offered to extend to decide if the package would work for us.
With extensive research, you can of course encounter figures that appear favorable and which therefore might be tempting. Vanderbilt, for example, accepts 25% of transfer applicants, which might offer a relatively accommodating avenue for some into that school. As an opinion, however, I recommend you concentrate on the essential attributes of your range of potential choices and continue to emphasize those that most generally appeal to you.
Even highly resourced colleges may, as a matter of philosophy, want students to be invested in their educations. For this reason, they may choose not to incentivize attendance through grants beyond need or unconditional no-loan policies. However, these colleges may be very generous in ways that may seem less obvious, such as through egalitarian need-blind admission policies or in funding for summer research projects.
University of Chicago is an example of a school that has aggressively gone after applicants. They give merit money as well as meeting full need. When they say full need, they mean FAFSA defines ( or close to it) instead of the more restrictive PROFILE A lot of kids have family business and NCP situations that cut into aid awards. Vanderbilt, too, has opened up financial aid eligibility and amounts by not requiring NCP financials.
Some schools spend more of their endowment and other funds on keeping tuition down, merit awards, rather than financial aid. Rice has lower tuition than peer schools, not a such a gap as it once did but you can see the tuition cost differences .
Alabama, I understand , decided to use some of that Crimson Tide money to pull in some academic talent as well as the top national football talent. That’s why the money. There used to be more of these merit awards, but once a school is on a roll in getting more such kids, they pull the money when they don’t need it to entice the strong student. Pitt and Temple are examples. It’s great to get in on these schools while the money is there. UT Dallas and UAlabama are in that place right now. Rice and Hopkins have started some campaigns to better finance those students needing aid.
Does this mean it’s okay to have some more selective schools on my QB list? I just want to organize it in a way that may reap a slightly higher chance of me getting a match. I have some schools on there that have a slightly higher acceptance rate, such as Haverford, Hamilton, Emory, Grinnell, Davidson, and recently added WashU. I want UChicago to be one of my top choices because I feel I would fit strongly with the academically intense atmosphere (I work hard and hardly party) and I support their policies towards speech. I actually did some research on it last night, and I really like it. It’s up there with Rice, Vandy, and Haverford to me. There’s a good few clubs I’m also interested in there, but the only thing that concerns me about putting it on my list is how selective it is. Princeton caught my eye but does the same thing, except it’s even MORE selective. Is it worth it to put it on my list if my chances are slim with the college?
I think that’s a good idea, but the only thing is I didn’t want to waste spots for “more likely” colleges in case I didn’t match with anything else. Then again, I’m kind of running low on schools that really catch my eye in the QB partner list. I have two spaces left.
If you are selected as a QB finalist, you can rank colleges (up to 12, I believe) in order of your preference. You’ll be matched with ONE college you rank highest that also chooses you. It could be your #1 college, your #12 college, or it could be none of the 12 you ranked. Let’s say you rank in this order:
Chicago
Princeton
Hamilton
Haverford
Grinnell
Emory
Davidson
WashU
Macalaster
Northwestern
Columbia
Yale
If Chicago chooses you as a match, congrats—you’ve matched with your top-ranked school, and you’re going to Chicago. If Chicago says no to your application, but Princeton chooses you, you’re going to Princeton. If Princeton doesn’t choose you, but Hamilton does, then you are going to Hamilton. And so on, down the list. If none of your ranked colleges chooses you, you have not matched for the guaranteed four-year full scholarship, but you can still apply regular decision as a QB scholar to any of these schools and other QB schools.
Bottom line: Through QB, you get TWELVE chances at an ED application. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to play the selection-odds game. If you like UChicago the most, rank it first. Nothing to lose. You won’t lose your chance at other “less selective”* schools because you’ll still have those schools on your list!
*I put that in quotes because 1-these are all highly selective schools, and 2-we can’t apply the general selectivity rate to QB because we don’t know if its the same.
All colleges will consider you the same and don’t know when they decide whether you ranked them 1st or not. So there’s no downside to ranking Princeton and UChicago as long as you rank roughly half universities and half LACs that are the best fit.
I know this is straying a little off financial aid, but I’ll get back to aid in a few posts. Are there any pointers as to how colleges decide if you’re a “match” for them? I guess they look at your application the same as they would any other, right?
You are over-thinking this. Don’t do that. Put your best foot forward. Don’t talk about Princeton’s library in your Chicago application, and don’t say how much you dream of going to a small liberal arts school in the mountains on your Northwestern application.