Match my rising NC Senior: 4.0/1420/31 for Neuroscience <$30K

Welcome to CC. It sounds like she has accomplished a lot and will certainly have some good choices to compare next spring if she creates a balanced list of colleges to apply to that you can afford.

For colleges that others recommend here, you can run the net price calculator for each school to see if it gets you below $30,000 per year. Some colleges will just use FAFSA and more prestigious colleges also require the CSS application. Each college then has their own formula to get to what they believe a family can afford. Some may be right at $30,000, others may take home equity and other factors into play with CSS and tell you your family can afford $70,000. Make sure she knows your budget.

You have instate options that she should be encouraged to apply to that will be in budget. There are out of state public’s that will offer merit, but they are probably not the ones with as much prestige as some of your own in state options.

Trying to match merit opportunities within budget with a level of prestige requires a balanced list and probably fine tuning some of her wants v. needs.

Her AP scores are great. Those can help save money at colleges that give credits for courses.

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