http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria.html is a sticky thread in the “College Admissions” section. But some of the information may be old, so check college web sites to verify.
@ucbalumnus Thank you so much! 
@MomtoAndrew2018 I didn’t read through the whole thread but there is lots of great information on this thread from last year’s graduating class:
Periodically the OP gathered up statistics of who got in where and what kind of financial/merit package they got.
Here is another thread on the topic of auto-admit/guaranteed admission. Check the links to see if the requirements for automatic admission and merit-based aid have changed:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
The most basic auto-admit is the local community college - usually those are open admission (except for nursing or other selective programs) for any high school graduate. Also, a fair number of state Us (like the ones in Iowa mentioned above) publish the GPA and SAT/ACT score that will guarantee admission. One of my nephews went to Iowa State for just that reason. He had the GPA and ACT score required, and was one-and-done before Thanksgiving.
D applied to 20 schools fishing for merit aid and attempting to improve Ivy League admission chances. In hindsight while it was okay to apply to a lot of schools for merit aid, I think getting a lot of $25k/year merit offers was meaningless if she did not seriously consider attending. For the Ivy League or most selective schools it is better to apply to a few with strong supplemental essays than to apply to a lot of most selective schools with more superficial applications
Making a bit progress. Here is the updated list (of 17 schools) as of today. Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful inputs and helpful advice so far!
Reach (U Roc and BU are dropped, Case is added)
Case Western (apply EA)
Purdue (apply EA)
U Illinois - UC (apply EA)
VT
Pitts
U Maryland
Match
UMass Amherst (apply EA, top choice)
Ohio State (apply EA)
North Carolina SU (apply EA)
Binghamton (apply EA)
Penn State
Michigan SU
RIT
Syracuse
Safety:
UVM (apply EA)
Rutgers (apply EA)
UConn
The plan (for now) is to applying EA to 9 schools as mentioned above. All 9 schools are on Common App! Yay. Depending on the EA outcome, we will re-evaluate the rest of the schools and choose which ones to apply for RD.
hi,
I punched in your numbers for Nebraska and it spit out a $14.5K per year merit scholarship, leaving a total of about $21K per year.
http://admissions.unl.edu/cost.aspx
if he automatically qualifies for the scholarship then it’s safe to assume he will be admitted.
@Wien2NC Wow. That is great to know. And thanks SO much for doing the works for me!
Ok, I have a question about ACT.
First of all, how do admissions evaluate ACT section scores? In particular, there is a “Science” section that is not in SAT. So how is that section score evaluated in comparison to applicants submitting SAT scores?
Reason I ask, is that S is a bit taken back by the Science section. He thinks he will need to brush up on what he learned in his first and second year Chemistry, Physics and Biology courses. I don’t think this is true at all (judging from my quick peek at the sample ACT science questions). Any thoughts?
well, you should still run it yourself since i just guessed at some of your data.
some (or most) of your OOS publics look like they could run close to $50K / year. instead of shooting for a few thousand in merit aid to shave a bit off of a large number, why not try some great STEM publics that cost much less to begin with? Minnesota COA is about $38K / year.
https://twin-cities.umn.edu/admissions-aid
Iowa State is under $35K per year
http://financialaid.iastate.edu/cost/cost-of-attendance.php
and you could still get merit aid which would save you even more $$$
The ACT science section does is not curriculum-based (i.e., it does not presuppose classes in Bio, Chem, or Physics.).
What it does require is the ability to read graphs and interpret data.
There is no formula for correlating individual sections (or lack thereof) of the SAT with the ACT and vice versa. Admissions looks at the composite score. I’d imagine that for STEM majors, they probably would look at the individual Math and Science section scores.
@Wien2NC I totally get your points. S has a preference for schools on the east coast and that is why we have only focused in this region and gone as far as midwest. I don’t know much about U Minnesota and Iowa State and will need to research both. I have to say though the COAs are quite appealing to my wallet!
For calculating NPC, I stay on the conservative side and used the highest EFC I’ve gotten: 55k.
For Iowa State, COA = 33k
For U Minnesota Twin Cities, I got COA = 36k
NPCs for schools on our current list:
Pitts 45k
U Maryland 47k
Case Western 57k
Umass Amherst 30k
UIUC 46k
Binghamton 40k
NCSU 40k
OSU 44k
Michigan SU 51k
Purdue 42k
RIT 53k
PSU 51k
Syracuse 57k
UVM 55k
Rutgers 47k
UConn 52k
VT 42k
@LoveTheBard Thank you for confirming this. This is very encouraging to know. S is a bright kid and I feel this could very well be the test he should go with!
ACT science is data analysis and reading comprehension, I think there have been some more science based questions in the last couple of years where knowledge was helpful, but the answers are still in the data. Since it is strategy, get him to look at the various resources for that. Some schools do consider only parts of the ACT, you have to dredge through that school by school. What is his current score make up? Math? (SAT though, right?)
Re Uminn TC/CSE. has an average SAT of over 1400. It is quite selective and competitive and has no direct entry to major. Tuition is on the rise. Look at the tuition increases planned in the coming years. It soon won’t be the bargain it was 2 years ago etc.
CWRU must be a school that loves some love back. so many high stats kids are WL because it is a potential safety with potential merit, and the application is free. I am not sure how it applies to kids with lower scores though. It might be safer in that group that isn’t applying for merit or safety and is full pay.
@Sybylla Thank you!
S got 650 for both SAT Math and English. This is with little SAT prep. He has been studying for SATs this summer for the August test date. I have a feeling he will get a better score (or perhaps I am shooting myself in the foot…)
@Sybylla We added CWRU and other ‘reach’ schools with the expectation that S’s chances are slim to none, much less merit aid. I would be more than happy to ‘full pay’ any of those schools if he could get in!
Two things that came to mind when quickly re-reading this thread (my apologies if I am either repeating myself or repeating someone else):
- I understand and agree with UMass Amherst being high on his list. However, how about UMass Lowell as a backup? It would seem to be safer than Amherst at least for CS (although with his stats I would aim for Amherst also as a first choice).
- In hearing about "CS being a difficult major to get into" I am wondering about Math as a major with CS as a minor as an alternative. I might be biased here since I loved Math.
@DadTwoGirls No need to apologize! I appreciate all the inputs.
Lowell is 30 mins from home and to S, that is too close to home. It also has a vibe of a commuter school. The campus is…not pretty. S has done two summer camps there and just does not love the school.
As for Math as a major - that is an interesting thought. I know S does not want to teach or go into academia, but I can totally see it being a good path towards transferring into CS and Engineering later.
@MomtoAndrew2018 - The ACT takes a lot of practice and is easy to self-study for. It’s pretty fast-paced, but very predictable. Have you son do a LOT of practice tests in real-time conditions.
My D is a Math/CS double. Math was not a consideration when she was choosing a college, she was focused on science. As she progressed, it became apparent that math was her forte but she doesn’t want to teach either. Turns out there are a good many other jobs for math majors, more so than the Bio or Chem major she was originally interested in. Throw CS in there and the opportunities seem endless. FWIW, the CS came about after her first year in research, again not something she had even explored before.