@Houston1021 – question: If a schools need based offer leaves you with your EFC to pay; do they usually cough up more $$ just to keep a student on board?
D was prohibited from applying to schools like Vandy because we absolutely don’t have our EFC. But I do give college planning sessions and this question comes up-- so I would really like to know if this truly happens. From what I’ve heard on CC, unless there are extenuating circumstances like medical bills, job loss, etc, there will likely not be too much negotiation, right?
2 years back one kid got Columbia ED, but didn’t withdrew his applications to other schools and got Stanford. I think his excuse was he changed his mind about major (Chem vs CS). I heard that Columbia made him pay one semester fees. I am not sure if it’s accurate.
@socalmom007 – absolutely they do! It is the most affordable option for a vast number of kids. At our local state U-- a lot of the kids can go almost for free. Some of them are super high stat amazing kids whose financial circumstances do not allow for the CC experience of finding fit and prestige.
S sent an email to admission rep and told her he was enrolling. Sending in deposit. He discussed the situation with his college counselor, not his high school counselor…Moving forward. Thanks for all the support…
Local colleges are a huge option here in the Northeast as the expense is so high for college. Very few kids can afford the $60K plus per year cost of private here. The only option for middle class families are the local state schools. An even larger number will commute to school as the cost to board is too much for many families.
One has to attend where they can afford. It makes no difference how smart of how high your stats are. Just a fact of life. If all you can afford is the local CC, then that is where you go even if your valedictorian.
@MassDaD68 - exactly. Working hard and having amazing stats doesn’t automatically create a situation that provides affordable options. LOTS Of kids go to schools others consider “beneath” them. That whole idea that one “deserves” a more elite college because they are high stats or whatever just makes my skin crawl.
Is there a school where they would find a more like minded crowd? Absolutely. Do they “deserve” it as an award? No.
I guess I just can’t see spending the tuition for a sub par education like my D17 would get at CSUN or CSULA, I just don’t find them to be good quality schools for her stats. If she could get into UCLA, it would be amazing… yet, she cannot. Typically from our high school you need to be in the top 1% to be admitted to UCLA. Now in state publics? For sure! California is a huge state with many good options, and D17 has been accepted at our favorite, but our local CSU or UC? No.
Thanks for all the congrats for D getting the Likely Letter from Columbia. She’s flying back from Houston where she was at Rice’s VISION programming the past couple of days. We’ll have to debrief once she gets back home. This really came out of no where but it’s nice to know now. Columbia is on the edge of affordability so she’ll eventually end up choosing between almost full ride to somethign like this once all acceptances are in. There is an outside scholarship that could make all of this easier.
@Dolemite - had your D done SOAR as well? Is VISION for accepted students? If so, I think I missed that news if your daughter was accepted – congrats! How did she like Rice? My daughter liked it quite a bit, but still no word…
@robNNN, D17 is doing USC Explore on the 27th/28th (there were two sets of dates, if memory serves).
So perhaps what I should have said and didn’t is that for many people “fit” is a luxury. I did not take my audience here at CC into consideration when I wrote my previous post. My experience and that of my family is that you don’t have to go to the perfect school to have a great experience. My D14 applied to 6 schools based on her intended major which was “vocational” - athletic training (many students do choose pre-professional tracks and it is a viable and desirable option for them).
She ended up choosing our state university which she had not visited or showed any interest in. She has found her tribe and excelled in a wonderful way. Her bumps along the road were not connected to her choice of school. I am proud of her for being the kind of mature, positive young woman who can “bloom where she is planted.” That being said, college is a big expense and if you can afford to be choosey and it matters to you that the fit is perfect then go for it!
I have no issues with making smart informed choices, I do think the obsession with “fit” and micro analyzing everything borders on the ridiculous. My D17 is extremely high stats, comes from one of the best private schools in the country and is well prepared and qualified for any college out there. Like everyone else who is applying to the top colleges she has about a 6% chance of getting in. She has been accepted to two schools and we are considering one of them, which she has never seen and never shown interest in - her college counselor put it on her list. If she does not get into another school during the RD round she’ll end up there or UConn and she’ll figure it out, and that to me is an important part of growing up and maturing. Not a slight on your kids, I just have the expectation that my kids will make an imperfect situation perfect for them.
@socalmom007 – yes-- but you can afford different options. I’m just saying lots of kids cannot afford the option they “deserve” or is a better fit. That’s all I’m saying.
My D was able to attend the school she is at precisely because of her high stats. Because she was able to get a scholarship that made it affordable for us.
And we would be missing out on a $4,000 state grant if she went OOS, and distance from home would be double as well.
Otherwise she would have had to commute, or take out a lot more loans, but since she is looking at loans for pharmacy school, that would not have been a good situation.
Oh no, I get it! It has just never occurred to me that the kids would live at home and go to what I consider a sub par univerity. All that being said, the CSU my daughter was accepted to Thursday- Cal Poly SLO, is by far our most economical option at just over 20k a year, plus it is excellent. At 3 hours from home I like the proximity. Sweet Jesus how I hope she ends up there! The UC’s would be great too, those come in at around 32k a year, right at the same range as all of the privates she’s been accepted to so far with scholarship.
My son had more middling stats, around a 3.0. Given the choice of a lower CSU commuter school, we opted to look out of state for him at WUE schools. The WUE program makes Northern Arizona University reasonably affordable for us and he’ll get more of a real college experience than a Cal State commuter school.
@VickiSoCal@socalmom007 et al – the Los Angeles region is exactly that! Our closest UC is also UCLA, basically unobtainable, and the next near is…I guess? …UCSB which from what I understand aint no slouch either. I’m glad my D17 focused 100% of LACs because if she had her heart set on UCLA that same heart would have been broken!
