Help with school list! (what to do when kid has no preferences...)

MTmom2017
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 00:16:26 +0000

Adding this for your lists: Make sure that you can realistically afford the schools on your lists. Go ahead and do the FAFSA as soon as possible - it will give your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). I’ve had 2 go through this process MT D1 worked with a coach, knew what she wanted & they made her list. The coach included an important factor - what we could afford (and at the time our S was also in college, which made a difference). Acting D2 didn’t want to use a coach, so we made a list ticking her boxes (which will be different for every kid!). What we failed to do was carefully check full costs (some websites show tuition but room & board, etc. are separate - do the cost calculators!). She is smart & had good grades/scores. She didn’t audition at NYU or CM because we knew they were “expensive” and not known for giving a lot of scholarship money. She ultimately had to turn down a couple of top programs (and decline a couple of WLs - often the money is gone by the time kids come off WLs) because our EFC was WAY more than we could actually afford. When you get acceptances, you get a list of financial awards but that includes parent loans. Since our EFC was so high, our parent loans over 4 years would have been crippling (husband is close to retirement). With D1 we were able to negotiate more money at her school (this does work sometimes!) but for D2, even after negotiating, she didn’t get enough to help overall. Don’t make the mistake we did - make sure the schools on your lists work with your finances!