I found the information on startclass outdated as well. Not that great a website, imo.
For us again, the important data points were net cost, ranking, faculty ratio, etc… that’s easy enough to achieve on your own spreadsheet. We use the Forbes ranking for this purpose, schools are sorted according to Forbes ranking, because Forbes doesn’t differentiate between national universities, lac’s, regional universities, etc… just numbers 1-600. We have the us news rankings on there as well just for reference.
@Cubanmom3 hopefully when your D visits OSU she can get in contact with some Morrill scholars to see if the school seems smaller as part of that community.
Also if you are from Florida, your D has lots of local options as well, don’t FL NMF get a free ride to Florida publics?
@mommdc She got into UF last week and we have Fl prepaid and Bright futures so tuition and fees are paid. Surprisingly she has no interest in staying instate. Her sister is at BU on a full tuition scholarship and loves Boston so the younger one wanted to follow suit and lesve Fl
Her first choice and a full ride, lucky you! Look into the honors program and living learning communities for smaller classes and a smaller school feel.
Edit: I realized that Morrill is a living learning community - so that box is already checked.
@Cubanmom3 My d has been accepted to BU what dorm does your D like? How did you manage move in? Did you use the UPS ship, hold and deliver option. Sorry in advance for all questions. We are OOS and don’t know anyone who is attending BU.
I sent you a pm with my number feel free to call I am happy to help. Lol had the same questions last year!
@nw2this D was accepted to the Honors program and Morrill so those boxes are ticked. Honestly my main concern was the enormity of the school but I feel the Morrill program will offer lots of support. OSU was kind enough to provide a 500 travel voucher so we will be visiting soon. D and I are really just trying to carefully analyze all the options and not just be swayed by a full ride…
I’m having such regrets. My daughter applied to all competitive private schools and I’m seeing all these scholarships come through for state schools. I sure hope her private school degree is worth the money. I kind of doubt it.
@botcom S17 has spent the last two summers at BU. I’ll send you a PM.
@Istirl i understand your regrets although mine are the opposite. My kids mostly applied to instate schools and I am thinking they should have cast a wider net. They were free to apply to any school they chose but we really needed to keep the cost equal to in state tuition. I see all of these great out of state scholarships and wish they had applied more broadly. I guess this process lends itself to regrets/reflection in particular because there are so many schools and the results take so long to come in. Best of luck to your daughter.
@lstirl – did she apply to any backup schools? I remember your post about “any chances of merit scholarships?” She has a list of schools that were reach heavy, didn’t she? She has great stats, but even high stat kids need some backup.
About the Case survey: Schools have very sophisticated enrollment management software that determines the likelihood of an applicant to accept an offer, and whether they ultimately stick and succeed. I had a colleague that worked on an early commercial package that many colleges used over 15 years ago, and it sounded pretty cool back then… I can’t even imagine what it considers now. I’d guess it tracks every interaction a prospective student/applicant has with the school, from clicking through on emails, to attending tours, contacts with recruiters in high schools and college fairs, interviews, admissions open houses, coach contacts for athletes, visiting those personalized links on postcards colleges send, and probably lots more. Think about those college fairs in convention centers and mall now – years ago you just showed up. Now you register for the event and get a scannable badge, and the schools you talk to scan your badge to track that you engaged with them!
The software can then take all of those stats, combine it with data about enrolled students through graduation and workforce outcome, and then figure out the most likely applicants to accept with the highest probability to enroll and succeed.
Here’s blurb from the website of a company called Ellucian that sells this sort of software:
Case is known for turning down seemingly perfect applicants for slightly lower stats students. Yes, it’s maddening for people trying to cast a wide net looking for merit, because just being the perfect applicant isn’t enough, you’ve got to show the college a lot of love. It’s hard to show a lot of colleges a lot of love, it’s just too time consuming. And these schools know it, so they can get a pretty good read if they are one of five top schools for the applicant or one of 20.
I suspect the Case survey feeds their enrollment management software to determine why particular students that seemed like strong recruits didn’t ultimately enroll, so they can further improve their yield management.
@stencils, very helpful peek into the back stage of the college admission. Any student wishes to cast a wide net will need to leave electronic footprint at these colleges.
Off to what I think will be our last visit tomorrow. Headed to RPI (won’t hear until 3/11 for RD) tomorrow morning with S17.
@Motiv8tedmom23 - We visited RPI early January. Nice campus but was windy and cold when we visited, be prepared for that.
@LoveTheBard I know you mentioned Yale was the favorite, but what about the scholarships or aid there. Was Yale equivalent to all the other schools that were giving out so much money.
@srk2017 - Thanks for the warning. Being from New England - we are used to those conditions. We actually had temps in the 50’s this past weekend - and it’s looking like 40 or so today and tomorrow.
@fun1234 - No, Yale does not provide any merit aid, and, for better or worse, we fall into the proverbial “doughnut hole,” (too much money to qualify for FA, but not enough to comfortably pay full freight without taking a huge hit).
Ultimately, D17 will see what all the offers are, visit all of the contenders (either as an accepted student or during scholarship weekends), including Yale, and make an informed decision about all aspects of fit. The last thing we want is for her to be someplace she’s unhappy in just because of price.
Me, shopping at WalMart this morning.