Finding colleges that aren't the typical BS counselor recommendation

[ucbalumnus]

@CateCAParent

If you want to chase merit scholarships, there is a fantastic thread on the big board from a parent (username Kevin something) whose daughter attended a bs, but he didn’t think the counselors there could give him the help he needed to find affordable schools.

Probably this thread:

Looking for advice in Merit aid for a top 1% student

I’m sure this will come as a shock to a lot of people here but college is ridiculously expensive (yes, I’m sarcastic by nature). My daughter is graduating in 2020, and we are looking for schools to apply to, with the concern not being which colleges she will get accepted to, but instead which colleges we can afford. Most college calculators tell us our EFC is anywhere form $30K to 40K per year, which is about 1/3 of our after tax income and more than double our annual mortgage payment. There’s no way we can afford that, and there’s no way we’re taking out loans and mortgaging our (or our daughter’s) future to cover that cost. We need that number to be around $15K. Fortunately, it looks like our daughter will qualify for merit aid, so we are targeting schools with generous merit aid that also have great engineering programs (right now she’s looking to major in Chemical Engineering). I’m hoping to get advice from folks who have gotten merit aid and/or can offer suggestions on schoo…