<p>As long as the thread that connects these schools is your D likes them, it looks good to me. </p>
<p>Unless you have some sort of odd asset/debt/income balance the EFC calculator at finaid.org (institutional methodology. . .not federal) should spit out a fairly reliable number for you. If it is around 17,000 she could add a few more highly selective schools, like Carleton and Colgate, and then trim from both ends of the list as she visits more and thinks more about what she wants. If it is closer to 37,000 you might want to add College of Wooster, Kenyon and Lawrence; maybe Franklin & Marshall, a college that does a good job prepping kids for med school and gives good merit aid, and per above, trim the list from both ends. </p>
<p>Also, other than the work involved, 12 schools she likes may be an okay number to apply to, particularly if financial issues are very important. </p>
<p>BTW. . .I’m with the poster that cocked an eye at Ursinus and Hobart/Wm Smith. What if she decides not to go to med school?</p>
<p>“CC Parents Who Think Mudge-ella will get into Her Reaches”</p>
<p>I think the chance of Cur’s daughter getting into any college in America is high. The finaid factor is what puts this issue under double indemnity. She can get in, but will the money come through? That I wouldn’t even venture a guess. And therefore feel that the list should be longer rather than over-edited.</p>
Odd does not begin to describe the financial “goulash” that is my life. LOL. $17k is everything cuts my way.$37K is all the same issues cut against me. “Adcom/FA training schools” will use my forms as case histories for generations to come. I fully expect some to simply throw up their hands and say “ugghhh, this is too hard. It’s much easier to reject her.”</p>
<p>Cur…just a few more thoughts (besides giant steps that is). In real estate people always look for “comps.” Well, I know a comp for your daughter (except that this girl was overseas for elementary and middle schools). Top of class, 1570, rural Texas school, musician, wants bio-engineering-science. Quiet, thoughtful, a bit socially reticent (okay maybe not a comp on these counts). She was just accepted to Rice, Duke, Wash U, UT (of course), JHU and U Rochester. The family was looking for merit money and she got a very nice scholarship at Rice.</p>
<p>The reason I mention her though is that she was in line for a free ride at Rochester. She didn’t receive it, though she was a finalist. It might be a good school for your daughter as well, if she wants a bit bigger than a large LAC. IT appeals to a lot of kids with a math/science bent. I have the feeling the student population is “conventional”…and middle of the road to a large extent. There is the Eastman school of Music right there, and it has a very traditional campus in a not too overwhelming northern city. It is a tad cold in the winter, however. Just a thought. All the other LAC’s I would consider have been named.</p>
<p>U of Rochester was daughter’s first choice for most of last year but after accepted students’ visits, she decided to attend her previous first choice, Mount Holyoke. Rochester is nice, but make sure that the merit money is enough to make you walk away from the school that was the better fit. The merit aid my child was offered didn’t justify passing on a great LAC.</p>
<p>I believe Mudge-ella is very interested in playing basketball competitively at college, which adds another wrinkle to her list.
I, too, believe she can get into any of these schools, a comprehensive, well done list.</p>
<p>“Cangel dons her witch doctress mask, shakes her rattlesnake rattle, rolls her eyes, and begins chanting mysteriously - Dart-muth, Dart-muth”</p>
<p>The question about financial aid Curmudge raised is interesting, a few schools, dartmouth is one, have a fairly comprehensive online calculator that gives you an idea of what the finances at that school would - the Curmudgeonly family’s problem is that so many of her list gives merit aid, it will be hard to pin down figures this early. Will colleges give FA readings early?</p>
<p>Has anyone said this yet? I believe she should apply to more reach schools. If I were you, I would go back to the list (she seems to like LACs, so start there, even maybe with USNews as a backdrop) and, based on whatever factors she can now identify, eliminate those that clearly don’t make it. </p>
<p>Check out some programs that may be offered at universities as well. Your D has enough interests and from your description seems to be a very well-balanced individual - she may well be able to thrive at a larger school and benefit from the greater resources they typically offer.</p>
<p>My stepdaughter went to Williams - she was one of those “love at first sight” types - looked at the gorgeous mountains, checked out the crew team, saw the ice-skating rink, and was hooked. Forced, manipulated, cajoled her parents into paying for it (no finaid - they could easily afford it at the time, but they were somewhat reluctant to do so). She had a marvelous four years, loved the kids and the athletic nature of the school. Classes were hard but she said the profs were almost uniformly great. No regrets.</p>
<p>I would absoulutely call Fin Aid office (try to pick a relatively slow time) at her top school(s) and see if they would be willing to help “ballpark” the aid. I would explain that your financial circumstances are bizarre… the school is your D’s dream school, but you don’t want to “set her up” if it is a financial impossibility.</p>
<p>All they can do is say no. At best you could get a lot of insight into their thinking and an early sense of the possibilities.</p>
<p>SBmom or others, when do you think a relatively slow time might be (for asking for FA help in calculating estimated aid)? I would think that it would be this summer,maybe? I’m not sure.</p>
<p>curmudgeon - Let’s see: Top student, great kid, basketball player from rural Texas with a taste for biting sarcasm (pun intended). I’d say she’s a shoo-in at most competitive colleges in the Northeast! Williams sounds perfect, but there are many wonderful rural LACs that would love to have her. </p>
<p>Our family’s experience suggests that FA varies greatly from one school to the next. Private school FA offers to D ranged from 15% of EFC to 120%. I’d usually say 12 applications is overkill, but you may need that many to get three to five financial matches. As for the GC, let him have his cow. Oh, and add my name to the list of posters recommending SCEA at her top choice school. Worked for us!</p>
<p>I am guessing summer or early in the fall-- but maybe you should call right now and ask (a) would it be possible and (b) when is a time that would be the least stressful on you?</p>
I would have a stroke. Seems like you and I have the same accountant. How did you like your audits? LOL. Ours in 99-2001 wasn’t that bad but that one in 95, WooHoo!-now that one was a ro-de-o from Hell.</p>
<p>Seriously, how can that be? 15% to 120% of EFC. Mercy. Maybe I do need 15 schools.</p>
<p>Have you checked into St Lawrence, Lawrence U or Kenyon? These three strike me as the match/safety level for your D and they all have hearty/snowy environment, moderate politics, smart serious kids, D-3 athletics, & good social options…</p>
<p>Lawrence merit appears to max out at $10k, and Kenyon has 12 half-tuition scholarships above $10k, while St. Lawrence has scholarships up to $15k. Certainly these are not chicken-feed by any means but compared with the possible awards at the schools on D’s list, plus the fact that some start well below the costs of these three, makes them relatively less appealing financially.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Lawrence U start closer to $30K in costs?</p>
<p>Anyway, for example: what if EFC at Lawrence is $17K, plus $10K merit aid? I guess it is almost impossible to rule out a school unless you talk to Fin Aid.</p>
<p>SBmom, unfortunately Lawrence and most other schools work like this-EFC of $20K on a COA of $35,000. Your merit award of $10k comes off COA so then you have a COA of $25K and an efc of $20 = $5,000 in need aid that they package with either grants or loans and work-study (self-help). Merit does not come off of EFC. So the parents still come up with the $20K as before. (Thanks jamimom, see -I do listen to you.)</p>
<p>BTW, Lawrence’s COA is $33,507 plus transportation.</p>
<p>As I have already noted, I wouldn’t trust the EFCs or calculators either, even those done by the schools themselves. Our financial situation was/is a pretty simple one - a standard, non-fluctuating government salary, and a very small business with predictable income. Inexpensive home. No two kids in college at the same time. The offers from “need-blind” (doesn’t exist) 100%-of-need schools varied quite widely, from low to high $48k over four years, with loan amounts from $0 to $17.9k. Most of these schools belong to the same association claiming to use the same methodology.</p>
<p>I wish we’d kept the calculators and then looked at the awards - I have a suspicion that, even at the same schools, they varied quite widely.</p>
<p>curmudgeon - The 120% of EFC school was D’s SCEA, and the 15% college obviously (and mistakedly) had our family pegged for BIG BUCKS. By the way, I don’t consider loans to be FA. Parents can borrow the entire cost of college in a PLUS loan. What is the practical difference between “I had to borrow the total cost of college” and “I only borrowed the amount of the EFC – the rest I borrowed from the college?”</p>
<p>I can’t say for certain why some colleges offered so little in the way of grants and scholarships, but here are some things that may have contributed:
We live in a wealthy state (and by inference might be wealthy)
D attends private high school (on scholarship but they didn’t know)
CSS/Profile EFC amount varies from college to college
Retirement plans were included as assets (colleges can optionally request retirement plan data as part of the CSS/Profile)
College assumed summer earnings beyond amount supplied on FAFSA, and applied 100% of these summer earnings toward the EFC
The college has an unusually small endowment
The college didn’t want her that much
The college (incorrectly) perceived that D wasn’t really interested in attending.</p>
<p>All items except #5 are conjecture of course. The 15% FA offer was so far beneath need that we didn’t even bother to contest it. So I don’t know for certain what the actual analysis was.</p>