I think @kac425 is looking for a shortcut to determining at what schools her student would be competitive for merit aid. As far as I know, there is none to looking at schools individually to determine whether they offer merit aid and how much and then looking at the mid-50 for those schools. I actually have already compiled a spreadsheet, which is why I told her to PM me. Happy to send you a targeted list with the stats.
** QOTD answer *. mine has literally known since she could talk–back then, the answer was “i’m going to live in the computer and marry pajama sam”. while obviously * thats not an actual career goal, its been revised and refined as she’s matured to things that people actually hire you for.
she will either be stinking rich or living in my basement forever–anyones guess, but we have to let her try.
there has never, ever been another answer. 
New QOTD: DS wants to major in physics and eventually get a PhD. Well, actually astrophysics, but he’s accepted that physics is more general and easier to land jobs in academia or out. His ideal job would be Mars colonist for SpaceX, but mom really doesn’t like that idea and would much prefer he do Earth-based things for JPL or SpaceX.
He would like to take a good amount of computer science in college and it already at a fairly advanced level, though that is difficult to quantify. Whether he does a double-major in CS depends on the university setup.
He also likes math, geology, chemistry, and engineering, but none of them at the level of wanting to major in them. More just as a tool for doing physics. He’s in an engineering program at his HS, and has learned CAD, wiring, machining, etc. But, engineering doesn’t seem to have tempted him. He wasn’t really much of a hands-on guy until the engineering program–lived mostly in his head, not his hands.
Why physics? He has seemingly always been curious about physics and math. Watching Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe” TV series when he was in 1st grade or so got him really interested in particle physics and relativity (non-mathematically, of course). His summer program just yesterday had lectures on special relativity with lots of math.
He also enjoys reading about and discussing history and politics quite a bit, so he’s not unhappy that he will need some amount of humanities courses at the colleges he’s considering.
Major: Theoretical Computer Science & Applied Mathematics. He has been taking programming courses on EdX since 8th grade, and his birthday and Christmas gifts have all been math or programming books and college textbooks, so he is fairly focused. He has been teaching himself linear algebra this summer to assist in his programming research.
His current research is in cryptography, but that could change since he only started in that last summer. He eliminates schools by drilling down on the CS faculty members. According to him, math departments are all beyond solid anywhere he likes the CS dept.
The only problem I foresee is that the list includes lottery schools and large state schools. I am not thrilled about the idea of being full-pay OOS at a school where he may not be able to finish in four years.
@kac425 – had to laugh at this, as I fear the same. “she will either be stinking rich or living in my basement forever–anyones guess, but we have to let her try.”
Last summer, son announced in a withering tone that ‘he would not consider working on Wall St’ and ‘academia pays better than it used to’ (misguided, I would say). A tour of Google’s NYC office seemed to move him off his academia bent. I have made it clear that there will be no funding for grad school, unless he decides to avail himself of a scholarship at the U/G level.
New QOTD (major)
DS wasn’t sure about Tech vs Medicine for a while, but once he realized Medicine involves lot of technology now a days, decided to go for medicine despite the long commitment. As per major, till recently was thinking of Chemistry or Biochemistry, but not first preference is Computational Biology/Bioinformatics/Systems Biology (only few schools have undergrad major).
I always wonder what the colleges do with subject test scores when they don’t require them.
We may send the scores to the schools listed in the below list (just because S17 took them and has good scores) but not to others.
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/about/institutions-using?excmpid=SM056-AL-1-tw
I also wonder what the few colleges do with an ACT score without writing when they require writing.
We will send the better ACT score without writing along with the score with writing, but do not know if it will be looked at.
@dustypig - I wouldn’t worry about majors if she’s not clear on what she wants to study. I forget what the statistics are about the percentage of undergrads that change their majors, but it’s quite high. Your D just needs to be in a place that will offer her some good choices and a fair amount of flexibility. Is she not at all interested in Santa Clara? For some reason, Santa Clara came to mind when I read your post and saw the places she yea’ed and nay’ed. From what I understand, they have just invested mega-$$ in an arts building and have a very strong CS program.
QOTD-major
S has known for a long time he wants computer science and wants the programming/software end of things. He lately has added a math double. Depending which school and what aid, he may do the extra (5th) year and get a masters.
Oh, in response to the QOTD (or one of them at least), my kiddo is into the humanities – most likely comparative literature and/or art history.
New QOTD: Political Science/IR with an ultimate goal of law school.
S19 loved rocks and declared “I want to be a miner!”
So we taught a big word to the toddler. “That is too dangerous. You should be a Geologist instead.” He still is into geology.
S17 loved trucks and big diggers on the street. So he learned to say “Construction!” at 18 months before he could say anything much. Perhaps he is into engineering.
QOTD: Waiting for the NMSF state cut offs in Sept (very safe SI) but only one school on the list provides merit money for NMF (BU) so it’s just a matter of weighing this factor when we know where he is accepted.
D17 wants some sort of Bio major (Neuro is current focus, but any will do), POSSIBLY Bio+Engin. She would like to get into Medical Research (PhD not MD) maybe Bioinformatics or Genomics but she’s not a coder, so I hope she does some coding next summer and in college, I think she’d be particularly good at it.
No idea where she came up with idea for her major, other than her teachers. I also know she’s likely to change, so no too hung up on it.
I would like her to take another one of those surveys that rate them like IJST or whatever, and sit and review the results.
@payn4ward – older son was intensely passionate about his interests and he moved from one to the next: trucks then trains, then dinosaurs. Since I knew nothing about these subject, I bought books and videos and spent time lingering at construction sites to watch impact hammers versus pile drivers. We had every type of truck you could imagine: graders, excavators, backhoes, etc, Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel, etc.
Trains did not require me to learn quite as many new terms, but dinosaurs…oh my. I still recall him sitting on a bench outside a donut shop telling a stranger, my name is XXX, I am three and three-quarters, and I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up. Same child now spends his non-working/non-school hours studying musical genres and playing video games, while younger son who had no real interests and liked Pooh, has spent the past four years teaching himself random subjects.
The point of this ramble is just a musing about how they change from toddler days to college days. I raised them both the same, encouraged their interests but never tried to suggest pursuits (other than sports, and allowed each one to decide when to pursue or drop)…but they turned out so very different than I would have expected based on their early days.
@kac425 The $4300/month for an OOS is not surprising. I have heard there are some schools that offer reciprocity to students in “neighboring” states so that’s something to look into. The way the reciprocity works is they don’t offer you the in-state tuition but give you a credit. That makes some nervous because they rather have the commitment of being given OOS tuition than a credit and run the risk of that reciprocity being pulled at some point during the four years.
@CT1417 Very similar although my boys were never much into dinosaurs.
Bob the builder and trucks onto Thomas the tank engine. We have the most obscure character trains from Thomas scene. And then endless sets of Legos, bionicles and mindstrom. Now both boys are fully into video game world.
I started selling pristine test prep books (used, though) on amazon. My next project is packaging and selling bionicles.
@CT1417, he actually said “academia pays better than it used to”. Oh dear, dear poor misguided child…
Do you have Naviance? Ours has several of those “what career would you like best” type surveys along with Myers Briggs. They are in our “About Me” and “Careers” tabs.
I was traveling for a meeting in Washington DC, and after some conversation, the taxi driver said “Oh computers… yes, I used to do programming in Fortran.” :))
I may meet a C++ programer Uber driver soon.
Major(s) - Electrical engineering & computer science - interested in being an inventor & combining software and hardware (e.g. home automation, internet of things, etc.) – at least that is current interest. Likes cybersecurity, operating systems, building and deconstructing gadgets, programming - e.g. mobile apps, some robotics etc., Always enjoys constructing things and learning how things work. Lots of self taught stuff but Coursera Stanford course (CS 106A) was an early one he took several years ago. A Maker – Arduino, Raspberry Pis - early adopter – to build things, learn some programming etc. So looking for schools that combine the teaching with the hands-on learning through labs and design/tinkering workshops etc. and that allow for some interdisciplinary studies - what would be helpful to improve upon or invent and how would people actually use them, what aesthetics matter etc? He loves his STEM courses - physics, science research, chemistry, math particularly as relates to practical, real life applications, innovations. Wish our HS had real engineering - unfortunately only intro level but building a robotics program so that’s good. Loved tour of JPL and Google NY & Cal last year, Boeing too. Has had internship with company specializing in hacking - exposing vulnerabilities in computers in cars and other devices we depend upon. Fall back is some type of IT job - network & software systems, computer hardware etc. - just a hobby at the moment.