Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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@RightCoaster if you are looking at high cost privates, with 2 kids in school, it can make a significant difference.

We have a high EFC, for some schools (state) having 2 will make no difference. For others, it can be significant, especially over time.

I’ve run all the NPC’s with 1 kid and with 2 as I really really struggle with the sticker price on these schools. We will have 2 in school in 2 years and technically in our mind will have 2 in school for S17’s freshman year though we aren’t allowed to “claim” my stepdaughter with FAFSA. It remains to be seen whether a CSS profile school will count her or not since we do pay 50% of her college expenses.

Regardless of whether we can pay our EFC (we cannot), even if we could in general I wouldn’t want to. I just can’t see any of these being worth the sticker price. Granted none of these are ivies but there are some more selective schools on here and highly regarded ones. As I look at our list, (a mix of in state, OOS and LAC’s) I see the following using the school provided NPC’s for merit but adjusting for 2016 published tuition, fees, etc.

Annual COA with only 1 kid in school before merit $21,500 - $69,420
Annual COA with only 1 kid in school with merit $21,500 - $54,788
Annual COA with 2 kids in school after merit $21,500 - $46,766

The discounts vary considerably. The high end 69K school without merit and only 1 kid? At 2 kids it comes down to 36k. The 54K merit school comes down to 33K. So yeah, to me it’s worth filling out all the ugly paperwork. Even if we do end up at the cheapest option because S may well love it the most.:).

Now, that said, if you run the NPC’s and don’t see any hope of anything at 1 or 2 kids and it’s a competitive OOS school you may improve your odds of admittance by being full pay. You can check on need blind and need aware to confirm. It is anecdotal but many seem to feel that it ups the chances.

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Oh well, at least I’m not the only one falling behind! D is doing two finals today, two tomorrow, one on Thursday and done! Although she’s not out of the woods study-wise until after the June 4 SAT.

@MotherOfDragons Ooh, great parenting skills on display! I’m glad your D got there in time for the nitty gritty stuff. My D11 worked at our ren faire last summer selling drums. Part of her job during slow times was to dance (accompanied by a drum of course) to bring attention to the shop and draw customers in. She was invited to dance informally with one of the bands a few times which was great fun for her.

@eandesmom I would have made the same decision. That is so cool for your S!

@thermom My D17 is very enthusiastic. We even listen to a couple of admissions podcasts together on the way to school (her choice!) I think S18 will be a different story. I like the advice from @mtrosemom and I think that’s what I’ll do with S18 if he doesn’t seem to care. We have two excellent publics nearby and he should be auto-admit – problem solved!

And regarding Naviance, my D has the exact same thing with the school showing her 10th grade PSAT instead of 11th (and the difference in scores is huge!) Luckily we can edit, which I never would have known if not for this thread.

@novicemom23kids Welcome! I see no reason to add in reaches as long as your D is so happy with schools where she’ll most certainly get in. Regarding essays, the most common “rule” I hear is that the essay needs to show who the kid is, not just what s/he does. I followed the link that is always sitting at the top of the CC forums with the “25 Tips” and found the essay section there informative. My plan is to get a book about writing the essay, but not have D read it (at least until after a few drafts), but for me to read it so I can give her hints I think she’ll find useful without overwhelming her.

@2muchquan I’d recommend Khan Academy for algebra review and test prep in general. Analysis-paralysis is a frequent topic at my board game meet-up. One time the host specifically chose games known to cause it and called the event “AP-ness.” Yes, she did that on purpose! And because I’m really behind, I can reply to a third comment from you! D loved Oregon Tech when we visited – it had her desired program and is a small school. It was the second school we visited (after our local which she is dead-set against). I thought it looked kind of like an office park even though the visit was very good. Now that she’s seen a lot of colleges that fi

@dfbdfb At my D’s school the official rule is you have to have 90% or over for an A. But if you have have between an 89 and 90 it is the teachers discretion to bump it up. D got an A via this rule last year and another this year from her nice teachers. No 4.0 though thanks to AP Chem. Big congrats to your D!

@srk2017 D’s school doesn’t do + or - at all, so it’s pretty straightforward. I like it that way!

@RightCoaster When D and I were talking with the University of Rochester adcom, we mentioned that we would definitely not qualify for any aid from the FAFSA. He strongly encouraged us to fill out the FAFSA and CSS Profile which many private schools use. He said that people are often surprised that they do get some unexpected need-based aid. Being one of those “donut-hole” families, we will definitely do this. OTOH, at an admissions seminar, the presenter said that schools do separate out those asking for aid from those not. And that for those asking they will (sneakily!) look at hints for how much aid you might need based on school, address, etc. I had no idea! In your case, it seems doubtful you’d get anything even with the CSS and you might benefit from being in the no-need pile.

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Thanks for all of the Boston suggestions.

In the end, we found a hotel on Hotwire that we can live with for the Hotwire price. (Although we did manage to resist the huge 56% discount on one hotel. $1590 to only $693 per night. :open_mouth: )

We will try to live on the T. As @MotherOfDragons said, if she is going there, she is going to have to learn to live on the T.

Right now we are lining up visits at BU (the main target) and BC. We will probably add a few more and do a few walkthroughs on our own. I’ll try to report back when we return.

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Thanks again @eandesmom. I appreciate the effort.

Now you are confusing and frightening me with this CSS profile ( i just googled this).

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@Midwest67 Thanks so much. D is looking at Gatton for business, so there are more than a few options for LLPs. Also good info on the insurance stuff. Our insurance has both HMO and PPO options, but I haven’t even started to look at whether or not it would be sufficient in Kentucky.

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@snoozn I think there is something to be said for being in the " no aid needed" pile at some schools. Somebody needs to pay to keep the lights on and grass mowed.

@Dave_N You’ll get along fine on the T system. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on those schools. FWIW, my son likes BU a lot, and he did not like BC at all. His reasoning ( not mine): BU had all sorts of people, BC had a bunch of preppy wearing sort of pretentious kids. He also liked that BU was closer to the action and liked dorms better. Thought biz school was better than BC’s.

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LOL @RightCoaster no effort other than looking at the Scary Spreadsheet of Over Analyzation and Ridiculous Metrics

Yeah, I am dreading the Profile. Especially the schools where they want the NCP to fill it out as well. Unfortunately to make those schools affordable (or a remote chance at it) we will have to. Even if it’s just the 2 kid scenario when you talk about up to 66K saved for those 2 “for sure” years…yeah, I’ll fill it out. Not looking forward to it though.

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We pretty much gave up the idea of touring colleges this summer. Due to ECs he couldn’t visit any during school year. Also, we are looking @ both BS/MD and traditional 4 year programs. So tough to figure out which ones to visit inshort time span. If he gets admissions in his top choice schools we will visit before settling on the college.

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I don’t know that we will tour any this summer either. Many of the schools on our list will either be at the NACAC fair in July or the CTCL one in August. The rest are simply too far and likely too expensive to justify a trip pre-acceptance so we will have to show interest in other ways if any remain on the list.

Depending on how the 2 summer fairs go, it may dictate a late august driving trip but it is more likely to be early October when the state schools nearby those we would drive to, will also be in session.

Kind of depressing though somewhat unrelated. Over the past 3 years, 78% of our HS all stayed in-state. How boring is that!

I also think something wacky has happened with our Naviance in terms of updating. Across the board there is a LOT more data for the class of 2014 than 15 or 16. I can’t imagine that less kids really applied to all these schools those 2 years but consistently it’s a much bigger application pool in 2014. Which makes me wonder if the school is really lax on self reporting or updating. Guess we will find out next year.

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Congrats on all the great junior year grades!

Schools that fell off the list (never were #1) after visiting:

Tufts and Northwestern (DS just didn’t feel they were a match - very subjective impression, hard to pin down why, he said “it didn’t feel like they were marketing to me” maybe because he sensed a more pre-professional vibe than he wants. Who knows if there’s any validity to this impression viz. what it would really be like to go there, but these are expensive reach schools anyway, so no arguments from me).

Yale (it was raining/dreary when we visited, and DS didn’t like the campus & surrounding parts of New Haven. Obviously a super reach school anyway, so I didn’t push back too hard or try to get him to look at pictures of campus in better weather or anything).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, MIT made a strong positive impression during the visit (DS: “Mom, this is better than Disney World!”). Luckily, he understands that it’s a long shot, but boy does it tug at my heart strings. I’m pretty sure that in my day, a kid with his transcript/grades and scores would have had a really good chance at MIT.

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@eandesmom (and anyone else with knowledge about this): How do these big college fairs work? I’d love to hear what the experience of attending was like for anyone who has been to one!

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@Dave_N if your D is interested in business try to check out Babson and perhaps Bentley while you are in town. Less urban, but both offer excellent business programs.

@rightcoaster DH was also reluctant to fill out the FAFSA & CSS but we did it anyways because during the two years we have two in college we may qualify for something (anything, please!). We are trying to get through without taking out loans and without reducing our retirement allocation by using what we’ve saved and supplementing from general income. Those two years are going to be a challenge, for sure. I say “well done” to you for having it all in the bank!

@2muchquan, Agree about Tulane’s merit aid - they can be very generous. I’d keep checking their admissions page - maybe they’ll hold an info session in your neck of the woods.

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@262mom, our big college fair (mainly western schools) asked that the kids preregister. Then a sheet with the kids info and a bar code could be printed. The day of the fair we checked in (and got a cool bag), got a floor map, and entered a room with rows of tables. Each college had a booth (table or tables depending on how much they spent to participate) and you went from table to table and talked to the representative at each table. If you wanted to be on their mailing list you had them scan the bar code. This was also one way of demonstrating interest. Most schools had the basic propaganda, brochures etc., that you could pick up there. The rep was usually happy to answer specific questions about programs, majors, cost, scholarships, and the like, but sometimes it took awhile to get to the front of the line. Our particular fair had no breakout sessions where they talked about specifics like the common app, testing, etc. It was good for S to see the types and numbers of schools in the region. Some of the information at the fair helped him week out specific schools for whatever reason (weather, average student stats.) We used some of the information from the fairs to determine if it was worth visiting. For S, visits make a difference.

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Catching up after a very busy week. So many topics, so many thoughts. I know this is late but congrats to your son @srk2017, what an amazing accomplishment!

After much thought and debate, we have decided to tour a handful of schools this summer even though they are not in session. We are already going to be in the southeast and I don’t foresee him having the time this fall, so we might as well go for it. I’m thinking this part of the country is too far from home for ds, but he may decide it’s okay.

ETA: Fafsa, we will fill it out just in case they want to give us free money. :slight_smile:

The health insurance discussion reminded me to add another tab to the spreadsheet: Close to campus hospitals and urgent care. Very important for those of us with kids who have chronic health issues. There is a health clinic on campus for DD14 but she only goes there for very basic tests as they don’t have a great track record at quickly diagnosing health issues. DD’s bf was misdiagnosed and ended up being hospitalized for mono. He coughed up blood for a week and lost 20 pounds that he could ill afford to lose. He is just one case in many. So if your child has medical concerns, you may want to locate the nearest hospital. Ds is an asthmatic - attending school in the boonies is not an option for him.

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@262mom the NACAC one (I’ve never been to one before) is structured exactly as @mtrosemom outlined above. I am really not sure how helpful it will be but as 2 of the OOS ones will be there, it may help justify a visit, or not. I don’t know why I typed summer though as the NACAC one isn’t until late October and it’s likely we will have seen one of them before that. So we may blow it off unless the list of schools grows. It is a 2 day event, although both days are half days.

The CTCL one is structured differently. This is all I know about it:

A 30-minute information session, and a college fair begins immediately afterwards, lasting approximately 1.5 hours. This program is offered to the public free of charge. No pre-registration is required.

Unlike the NACAC one there are several we are interested in knowing more about and most, not easy to visit so I am hoping it will be helpful but with a potential of 8 that have some level of interest and only 90 minutes we probably need to focus first on the 3 or so that I think (and it will be “we” by the fair lol) that are the best fit, hard to visit, and with the best financial potential to be workable. Of the 8, 3 are relatively local, 1 we have seen and the other 2 locals can wait. The other 3 are just not as likely to be affordable or are as good of a fit (seemingly at the moment). If we can visit with them all, great but I cannot see how doable that really is under the time limitations.

For my S as well, visits are critical but I don’t want to fly out of state or beyond driving distance if it doesn’t really really make sense

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D did one of the big college fairs at her school. There is another big one coming up in our area that we’ll probably attend. We will not do any more visits. Once she’s gotten admissions decisions, we will visit those still in contention. Just trying to save money.

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Thanks, @eandesmom and @mtrosemom - very helpful information! I didn’t really know about these kinds of fairs, but just looked up the ones you mentioned. We live a few hours away from the closest cities that host them, but if there are some schools on S’s list that we haven’t been able to visit, this might a good option to consider.

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@eandesmom - The fair we went to was a NACAC fair. I couldn’t remember the name. We did that one twice. Once with D15 and last fall with S. I believe the CTCLs fair is smaller and more intimate and provides more in depth info. We were never able to go because they didn’t come close enough to us. For D, the CTCL fair would have been more useful than the NACAC. For S, the NACAC is more useful because S doesn’t want to go to a LAC.

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There is an Oregon private college week this summer that while I am not a fan of summer visits, would allow us to hit a lot of schools and if we did 4, get all those app fees waived. Unfortunately it overlaps with S’s summer academic class, some of those schools will be at CTCL so that’s better than nothing (and a long drive in off season lol).

@262mom there are also Jesuit college fairs. There was one last week here I know. S will not consider any Jesuit (or religious affiliated schools unless he is guaranteed zero theology classes) but there are some lovely options and decent merit. I might have made him go anyway but he had a conflict. I plan to take S19 to that fair when it is his turn, versus driving all over, at least as a starting point.

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@dfbdfb Mind sharing why George Mason fell off the list?

@snoozn Admissions podcasts? Please share!