Please go back and talk to your family in more detail and get a clear understanding of what they will contribute per year. Every year, strong applicants come onto CC in the spring of senior year, anxious and stressed because either, they got into their “dream” school and their family has finally faced the reality that they cannot simply borrow enough to pay for it, or they got into a school they are excited about but their family doesn’t think it is prestigious enough to borrow heavily to fund and says they won’t pay. Both situations are heartbreaking to watch unfold, and were entirely preventable with good communication before applications were made.
Students can borrow $5500 1st year, $6500 second year and $7500 3rd and 4th year. Beyond that, if a student is relying on loans, it is parental borrowing. Especially with so many families facing economic uncertainty in the pandemic, please talk with your family about specific numbers – what can they fund out of college savings and current income and what, if any, are they prepared to borrow for your education. And understand if they see parameters around that – will they only borrow for an Ivy league or T20 school.
You will undoubtedly have a strong application. Please take the time to understand the financial parameters of your application process in advance so that you don’t find yourself disappointed in the spring.
You might want to add to your list schools that offer merit as well as need-based aid as you’re a great candidate for merit. If your parents are able to pay full price, then you’re not a good candidate for need-based aid. You’d do best to ensure that you know what sort of aid a school offers as part of your application strategy.
You can research this by going to COLLEGE DATA and clicking on the MONEY MATTERS tab for each school that interests you. You can see whether they offer merit. Often it includes average award amounts. That can help you budget. Not all schools disclose.
The wisdom on this forum for how to get merit is to be in the top 25% of a college’s applicant pool.
I read above that you don’t identify as female. If you did, (and I’m not saying that you should–this is just an example) then many women’s colleges, some of the best in the country, offer excellent merit, like Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley and Bryn Mawr. Other women’s or traditionally women’s colleges do NOT: Barnard, Vassar for example. So you’d be able to suss this out through College Data. It’s not at all “one size fits all” for any category of school.
Many of the top colleges do no offer a lot of merit, but do offer need-based aid. See how this might affect your strategy? Basically you’d want to look maybe down the rankings list and check this factor carefully
I would run the Net Price Calculator for a few schools with your parents so they can see the results. Ask them if they’re willing/able to pay whatever number the calculator spits out. Sometimes parents think that high stats = lots of merit aid, and that’s not always true. If they can’t give you a dollar amount they’re comfortable paying, I’d err on the side of caution and find schools that offer guaranteed merit for your stats.
I would tread very carefully in assuming that college in the UK is your backup plan. It may or may not be affordable for your family; exchange rates fluctuate, the cost of travel back and forth fluctuates, it is a VERY different experience (as in- you can’t change your major…) than college in the US. AND- applying in the UK is a completely different timeframe… and of course, there is no visiting campus in the age of Covid.
Are you sure that’s a viable plan?
Agree with everyone else- you need to START with finances, not end with them. If your parents think you will need aid (either need or merit) to afford any of the colleges on your list, you need to run the numbers now and take off anything that’s not affordable. There is no financial aid fairy… you either have the money saved, or your parents can finance it out of their current salaries, or you borrow. And there are limits on what you can (and should) borrow. If what a college NPC tells you that you’ll get in aid is not enough for what you need- take it off the list. Don’t waste the time or money on an admissions that will not be affordable.
Thanks for you reply! I realize that I may have come off as a little naive in my post. I have been researching schools for the past two years, both in the US and the UK. I have a wealth of knowledge on how admissions and finances work in both systems. My sister studies in the UK, my family is from there, and I am very aware of the differences between the systems. I have talked to admissions officers and am pretty confident in my decision to apply to schools across the pond. I meet the entry requirements at the schools I am applying to and expect to get some conditional and unconditional offers. I’ve been focusing my studies in history because I know UK schools only care about academic performance and skills. I can afford a degree in the UK without financial aid, and expect to take out some loans, though not much. My UK plan is viable.
Any particular reason you didn’t include Princeton in your original list? It would seem to represent a close academic match to several of those you selected.
Do you have anything to say about Princeton?