<p>Thank you. </p>
<p>I think the comments about his ACT score are getting to me. I know people mean well but my goodness. I don’t think most people really understand what private schools cost, how scarce merit aid is and, most of all, how hard it is to get into the tippy top schools.</p>
<p>I have no idea what percentage of students Yale or Princeton or MIT admitted 20 or 30 years ago but it had to have been more than they do now. </p>
<p>I need to just let this stuff go, I know that, and I’m usually really good at that. I know we did the right thing by our kid sophomore year because it worked. I need to focus on that. Focus, pmk! Thank you to my class of 2010 friends for keeping me sane(ish)!</p>
<p>PMK - have you actually run your numbers through a financial aid calculator? Before you become totally discouraged, I think you should do that for Princeton and any of your S’s other top choices - you may be pleasantly surprised. Possibly not, but you won’t know if you don’t do it. </p>
<p>Believe me, I know exactly how you feel about the Ivy thing. My D has been hearing since middle school that she belongs at an Ivy, and she is so afraid that she won’t be admitted to one. Does that mean she’s applying to all 8? Absolutely not! She’s already eliminated Yale, Penn, Columbia and Brown. She loved Dart, Harvard and Cornell, and she’s looking forward to visiting Princeton. And she does have other schools on her list, though a some of them are pretty competitive as well. Her list is still not complete, especially regarding safeties and matches. {{{{Hugs}}}} to you - you and your S will be fine.</p>
<p>S2 is making a point of putting his 9-12 UW/W on his aplication, since the transcript includes HS grades from middle school and that drops his GPA by .1 UW/.2 W. OTOH, the HS classes he took in MS helped him get into the program he attends now. Such is the tradeoff.</p>
<p>PMK (and everyone else):</p>
<p>One of the biggest lessons I took away from my 2008 DS college search was not to jump to conclusions on merit aid. It really is you never know. My 2008 son applied to and got into something like 18 schools (he was chasing his baseball dream). The merit aid ranged from 80% to zero. Most interesting were offers from schools that I consider comparable - like Lewis & Clark and University of Puget Sound. One offered nearly a 50% Merit ride and the other less than 10%. Occidental gave him zero. Note that these are all prior to any FA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the warning regarding merit aid, scualum. Something else to keep in mind - but I doubt there’s any way of knowing how the merit aid offers will turn out until you receive them - except at schools which guarantee merit awards for students with specific stats. Do schools like that even exist? LOL</p>
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<p>In my day (30 years ago) Princeton admitted 25% of its applicants. There’s no way I’d get in now!</p>
<p>limomof2: University of Alabama, Auburn and UAB, have automatic merit awards, if you have a certain gpa and test score you are guaranteed merit as long as you apply by the dec 1 deadline, amount of merit aid increases as gpa and scores increase…up to full tuition and it is available to oos students. also check UTDallas and Indiana University, (not quite as clear on criteria)</p>
<p>[Out-of-State</a> Scholarships for 2009-2010 - Types of Scholarships - Undergraduate Scholarships - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html]Out-of-State”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html)</p>
<p>[Office</a> of Undergraduate Education - The University of Texas at Dallas](<a href=“Office of Undergraduate Education - The University of Texas at Dallas”>Office of Undergraduate Education - The University of Texas at Dallas) the other good thing about UTD is that if you are awarded even 1K in merit…then you are given INSTATE tuition</p>
<p>[Automatic</a> Academic Scholarships: Types of Scholarships: Office of Scholarships: IU Bloomington](<a href=“http://scholarships.indiana.edu/automatic.html]Automatic”>http://scholarships.indiana.edu/automatic.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for that great info, parent56. I knew about Alabama’s, but didn’t realize it was guaranteed. Great deal - if I could convince my D to attend a college that far from home.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any good info about UConn? We’ll be in Cape Cod in July, and were thinking of visiting on the way home. It has the journalism program and big-time sports S is looking for, and his stats so far (depending on how he does on the June ACT) make it a match.</p>
<p>oops i forgot New College of florida also has automatic and guarantee if received by a certain date, they have a place on their website that you place in your stats and they tell you what merit you will receive</p>
<p>[New</a> College of Florida](<a href=“http://ncf.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-students]New”>http://ncf.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-students) scroll to bottom to find the calculator</p>
<p>parent56 - do you know of any colleges in the northeast that offer guaranteed merit scholarships. My D prefers to stay a little closer to home, and most of the really great merit opportunities seem to be at southern schools.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, I’m not sure if it’s guarenteed or competitive, but Northeastern does offer a full tution scholarship for NMF. In fact, that’s how it wound up on our radar. And inspite of our concerns about humanities and social sciences, it is a really good school. I’d encourage anyone to take a look at it. It’s absolutely staying on S’s list. </p>
<p>I wanted to add that I was very pleasantly surprised to run our numbers through both Princeton and Yale EFC. They would be 1/2-1/3 less expensive than if we sent him to our instate flagship, which is also a great school (UT Austin.) </p>
<p>The two schools that would be terrific fits for S that don’t offer lower EFCs than the one we come up with at college board are Brown and Vassar. But I’ve heard that a person can lead a normal life if they do not get to attend Brown or Vassar. Maybe that’s just an urban legend but fingers crossed!</p>
<p>We are in an odd position in that our 2009-2010 taxes will reflect our highest income ever. However, the same month S leaves for college, H goes off active duty. Thanks to the recession, even with H’s pension, our income is going to go down quite a bit while other expenses will go up. </p>
<p>Okay, enough complaining, even I’m getting tired of myself!</p>
<p>booklady, I did not mean to imply that you, or anyone else in past classes, could not get in today and I’m very sorry I wrote that. </p>
<p>I was just frustrated and blowing off steam but that is no excuse. I know you earned that slot at Princeton like everyone else and it’s accomplishment to be proud of for life.</p>
<p>PMK - I feel your pain on the income peaking at the wrong time. My second highest income ever was 2008. The company I worked for was acquired and in the process a bunch of compensation was accelerated into 2008. This year (2009) promises to be about 30% of last year :(</p>
<p>With one kid in college and another starting in 2010, wrong time to peak…</p>
<p>I’m glad the Princeton and Yale numbers ended up better. For my older son, private schools also ended up cheaper than in state (in my case UC). Definitely something to keep in mind for 2010.</p>
<p>PMK - I’m glad those numbers worked out well for you. I thought that might be the case as I’d heard about some happy results from those as well as Harvard’s. I haven’t done my own, I’m embarrassed to say - partly out of fear and partly because I have been known to procrastinate. </p>
<p>Thanks for mentioning NEU. Unfortunately, though my D did get her National Merit letter, she’s likely to be commended rather than NMSF/NMF.</p>
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<p>That’s an interesting question. My impression is that colleges in the northeast generally don’t give merit aid. It’s by far the part of the country where private schools are most dominant, and because of the stellar reputations of many of them, it’s seen as a desirable place to go to college by many people across the country. And it’s not just the Ivies, though they certainly lead the pack. As a result, competition for admission is fiercest in the northeast, and schools there don’t need to give merit money to attract top students. On the other hand, public higher education is relatively weak in the northeast, consequently fewer top students from low-to-middle-income families are going to see their state’s publics as highly desirable educational options. [In contrast, 6 UCs and all the members of the Big Ten are ranked among the top 30 publics by US News; among the SUNYs, Binghampton is the highest-ranked at #34, and in New England UConn is tops at #26]. As a result, the pressure for need-based aid is that much greater at the northeastern privates. On the whole, though it doesn’t benefit me, I think need-based aid is the better policy. At all but a small handful of schools, it’s a trade-off: merit aid usually comes at the cost of not providing aid to meet 100% of need for those who need it.</p>
<p>Washington College in Chestertown, Md., has a lot of merit scholarships. For example, admitted students who are NHS members automatically get a $10,000 discount every year. It’s considered a safety school for most of the CC crowd. But still, $40,000 is $40,000.</p>
<p>Link: [Washington</a> College | Financial Aid](<a href=“http://fa.washcoll.edu/scholarships.php]Washington”>http://fa.washcoll.edu/scholarships.php)</p>
<p>bclintonk - I basically agree with you. The problem with need-based aid - if you qualify for it - is that the way that need is met varies so much from school to school. I know there are schools in the northeast that offer merit aid, but I couldn’t think of one where it is guaranteed the way it is at some of the schools listed by parent 56.</p>
<p>DougBetsy - thanks for posting that link. I’ll check it out for sure.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d bump us back up to the first page.</p>
<p>Anyone start AP exams today? Ds’s first isn’t until Wednesday.</p>