My son is a HS Junior and I’m trying to help narrow the list of schools for him to consider based on what we can afford. So, if a school’s net price is over the threshold, I don’t think it’s worth wasting time considering.
Using net price calculators, I’ve created a list of schools that we could easily afford and others that would be tough to pull off, but possibly worth it. Based on our EFC, we don’t qualify for need-based aid from the majority of schools, so anything offered would be merit-based. The problem is some schools advertise how much they award based on GPA and test scores, but I’m not sure what criteria is used to calculate GPA.
According to his HS transcript my son has a 3.8 unweighted GPA, which includes all of his classes, including phys ed and band. I’ve read that many, if not most, schools strip out these classes and only calculate GPA based on core curriculum. When calculated that way, his GPA is 3.6. Running the NPC for University of Tennesee (OOS) for example, returns $12,500 in scholarships for GPA of 3.8 while a 3.6 is $0. For us, that’s the difference between affordable or not even considering applying. It’s a similar story for plenty of other schools as well.
So, should I go the conservative route and use the lower GPA to estimate? Does it make sense to reach out to each school’s finance department with this question? In your experience would they offer up this information? I don’t want my son to go through the trouble of visiting/applying to schools he’s interested in only to find out we can’t afford them. And on the contrary, I’d hate to cross schools off the list if it turns out we could have afforded them after all.