…for a student with 3.4 and waiting on SAT scores. Good student with strong service extracurriculars but will not get into the tip top schools. Def pell eligible. Is this a unicorn?
Thanks!
Is the 3.4 gpa unweighted, on a 4 point scale, core courses only? If not, what is that GPA?
What can/will the family pay for college per year?
You can use this database to see average need met for a given school.
I agree it seems unlikely that the student will be competitive at schools that meet full need for all. Beyond that…what major? geography? setting? Are any of the student’s in-state 4 year colleges affordable with a high likelihood of admission?
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The strong ECs are important to some colleges and being Pell eligible helps tremendously with need based aid. Colleges want someone who is going to add to their school culture on campus, so find ways to highlight ECs. The student could be offered a combination of merit and need based aid.
Are some loans okay? Some aid packages at the lesser elite colleges will include student subsidized and unsubsidized loans.
Please provide more info - home state, weighted/unweighted gpa, course rigor, first gen, ECs, etc…
Endowments at colleges allow them to meet need. Once they say they meet 100% of need, applications increase and they become more elite.
Some states let you use state scholarships at private colleges in that state, too.
3.4 unweighted. Stronger recents after a bad fresh yr, thx Covid. College prep courses but not IB or Honors. Dual enrollment senior yr. Very, very strong on service…really her passion. Catholic, if that helps.
Her SAT will likely be pretty strong but still waiting.
She’ll be able to go to directional unis in state reasonably. Will try for the flagship (U of Mn). But she’d like to go OOS. Our reciprocity states are no help with need based aid.
Right now she says classics for a major, but that changes weekly!
Thought it was worth an inquiry.
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Some loans are okay. But no PLUS loans. Willing to work PT or work study, of course.
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Don’t know about need based aid, but see Xavier in Cincinatti with service awardand classics major
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Also, although she’s Catholic, def willing to attend schools that aren’t.
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Thanks for the additional info.
Here are a few that being Catholic will help with aid, too -
St. Mary’s in Indiana - classes at Notre Dame.
U of Dayton
Loyola, New Orleans
Belmont Abbey, NC
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This may hinge on two big factors. The amount of the Pell Grant and how much the family can afford to pay per year. And of course, some luck.
Universities will generally offer larger FinAid packages to students who qualify for the full $6895 Pell amount, versus students who qualify for a $400 Pell Grant. For instance, the SEOG is a grant the federal gov’t pays directly to the school based on how many PG students are accepted in total - from that larger amount the school can apportion SEOGs as they see fit to any PG student. Our experience has shown that schools tend to provide the full SEOG amount to students who qualify for the full (or close to full) PG but nothing for students who barely qualify for the PG. That can be as much as $4000/yr and it totally at the discretion of the school.
Similarly, universities have discretionary institutional grants they can award for any reason they choose. For a school seriously intent on providing income diversity on campus, that school will direct significant institutional grant aid to some PG eligible students. You can’t predict if your student will be that student, but some schools will be more helpful than others.
Lastly, what the family can afford to pay will be a huge factor. Some PG families cannot pay anything and can barely afford to transport the student to an OOS campus. Other PG families can afford $5K-$15K/yr or even more. My son (class of '20) was a PG applicant (URM), with a GPA comparable to your daughter’s, and applied to dozens of schools. Many very generous FinAid awards fell short of what we required.
The better FinAid results ranged from OOP costs between <$2K/yr up to $12K/yr. Many schools offered aid but remained unaffordable. Virtually no OOS public university offered enough FinAid to be affordable. U New Mexico was the OOS public that offered the best finaid package. Many of the OOS publics mentioned on CC as being generous are generous only to students with very high GPAs and/or SAT/ACT scores. Very very few will provide need-based aid to average GPA OOS applicants.
During our search, I used various sources to figure out which schools were better at FinAid, which were trying to be affordable for PG students, which might provide more FinAid to attract OOS students, etc.
Feel free to PM me for more info.
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You might check out Berea in Kentucky if that kind of school is of interest.
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I’d look through the schools on the Colleges That Change Lives list – you can check out the website. https://ctcl.org/
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hmm. GPA is so important now, and OOS publics do not have extra $ to give need aid, they value stats more than need when it comes to scholarships. U of KS just discontinued their pell advantage promise, but does have a SELF scholarship for engineering students that focuses on community service and no GPA allowed. I think CTTCL mentioned by Happy1 is a good idea; scour for service and community involvement scholarships. Also - if there’s great grades freshman year at a directional, perhaps a transfer to a needs-based school would be an option?
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Any of the Jesuit colleges as they have a strong mission of service.
Xavier. The Loyola’s. Marquette. Creighton. Spring Hill. University of Detroit Mercy.
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There probably aren’t any schools with guaranteed full-need-met aid where she would be competitive. So when it comes to private colleges and universities with both need-based and merit aid, all she can do is 1) run the Net Price Calculator and see whether the results are anywhere near what she needs, and then 2) apply and see whether need+merit will get her where she needs to be, cost-wise. As already noted, colleges that explicitly value service and that give service-specific scholarships probably have the best potential.
It may turn out that staying in state would be better financially. If that’s the case, many of the Minnesota schools (even a couple of privates - and of those, Gustavus Adolphus could be worth a look for her - they do have a Classics major) participate in the National Student Exchange - so she could still spend a semester or a full year at a school in another part of the country, and pay her in-state cost: https://www.nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/
Kalamazoo College could be one to try, of the CTCL schools: Classics | Kalamazoo College – Academics Also Earlham Ancient and Classical Studies : Earlham College Another Catholic (but not Jesuit) school to look at would be St. Michael’s in VT, which shares the great college town of Burlington with UVM Classics - Saint Michael’s College - Acalog ACMS™
Another possibility to look at would be a funded gap year through a service program like Americorps. This would be consistent with her interest in community service, and it could give her a change of scene in a different part of the country, even if college may end up being back in MN. Plus, programs like City Year give some automatic scholarship money for college, and can strengthen a student’s application… and if her improving trend continues, applying with her senior year transcript complete, and senior grades included in the GPA (including the dual enrollment GPA bump) could also make her a stronger applicant.
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Much focus is on the 100% meets need schools. However, there are other schools that can’t quite say 100% but may work for you. Beloit College is an example. According to their CDS, they average 96.5% of need. You would have to run their NPC to see if it works for you.
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The thing is many NPCs don’t include merit aid/discounting. This is one reason why those who are merit hunting have to apply to relatively more schools…one doesn’t know ahead of time how much merit/discount they might get.
Some non-meet-full need schools that meet an average 90% of need (or whatever number you pick), do meet full need for some students…the ones they really want. One can’t know that unless they apply, hence the need to cast a wide net and make sure to apply to a level of schools where the student’s stats are above the 75%ile.
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Why not try for Boston College? They are need blind, but will meet What they consider to be your need. You are Catholic and your student has a lot of service ECs? Worth trying, I think.
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Unfortunately I don’t think BC is a realistic option with a 3.4 GPA.
Other less selective Jesuit colleges could be possible.
The OP can check here Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities--Jesuit Colleges and Universities and look for Jesuit colleges that are academic/geographic fits.
I might also look at Siena College in NY.
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This spreadsheet is incredibly helpful! Thanks!
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Yes, but that was mainly Freshman year and the student is improving. Try, but try for ED, better chance.