(just figured out how to quote)
Did the net price calculator ask for stats? Would love to know merit possibilities, but the NPC only asked for financials when I ran it.
Welcome @Mom22CA!
Merit aid/feels good enough/good enough programâŠthat is jumping right into midst of CCâs âcan of worms.â 
(prestige vs merit)
Our kids are merit kids. We cannot afford our expected parental contribution, so our kids pursue scholarships over ranking. Regardless to what posters on CC post, our kids have thrived at their undergrad Us and have gone on to have excellent careers.
Our experience with merit scholarship kids is that universities offer special programs and opportunities to support these students. Our kids have had excellent mentoring from their professors. Internships, research, etc have all been available. They graduate with having received excellent guidance toward career/grad school development.
None have been hampered by the lower ranking of their U. Exactly the opposite. (No matter the hype to the contrary.)
How much merit aid are you looking for? If you are willing to share stats, people can offer recommendations.
Welcome @mom22ca
Another thing to consider, and I think @Mom2aphysicsgeek touched on it is, the big fish in a small pond vs. a small fish in a big pond.
@jdhMom The NEU net price calculator uses the College Board âNPCâ which I always found to be quite excellent in giving a very accurate cost estimate. So, âyesâ, it does (itâs actually a black box, so I am not sure exactly how it is calculated). When it asked you: âWould you like to sign-in using your College Board account?â, I said âYesâ, because all our information is already stored in the College Board app, including financials, test scores, and GPA. Iâm not sure what it asks if you answer âNoâ to the question of logging in to the CB account, but I assume it basically asks the same questions, with a section for GPA, test scores, etc.
tl;dr Bottom line, if you create an Account (say âYesâ) to CB and go through the NPC, it will incorporate stats into your Net Price calculation for NEU.
Welcome @Mom22CA
Yes, our kids seem to have grown up overnight!
@mom22ca: re: computer science â my kiddo attended an all day âhackathonâ sponsored by our midwest state flagship yesterday. He wants to study â SO HE SAYS- computer engineering and we wanted him to attend this to see if he liked the atmosphere, the projects.
I sat in on the opening remarks. It sounded like the computer science/engineering department at this school can not get enough kids to fill demand; average starting salaries are 70-80 even in our flat fly=over state, lots of internships opps, lots of recruiting from well-known companies all over the country.
I donât know the intricacies between the different majors of software engineering, computer science, computer engineering etc. etc. â but it sounds like the job market is good right now. They are hard majors, itâs not easy. I guess we are like the poster Mom2aphysicsgeek - we are going for merit. At this point we are pleased with the prices and opportunities at our state school. (but s20 is also throwing in his name at some big-time schools) and looking at some auto scholarships at other schools. )
lots to consider in college admissions. Glad you are here â ask lots of questions! there are some very very helpful people; plus no politics or debating allowed.
I know I have seen on here some people who have applied to the University of Minnesota. My daughter sent her application in yesterday and said there was no application fee. Does that sound right or did she goof something up?
The application fee to Minnesota is $55 if you apply directly through them. I have no idea how the Common App works. Once she can log into the application tracker it will let her know if anything is missing. DS thought his application was complete a month ago and when the tracker went live last week realized the SRAR wasnât actually submitted and they were waiting on that.
@bigmacbeth @jdhMom
About CollegeBoardâs NPC and if it takes scores/GPA into consideration; bigmacbeth said:
If CB account is not linked - NO - CBâs NPC does not ask for GPA/test scores etc (at least for Northeast). It asks the generic NPC questions about family income/assets and comes up with a EFC. Guess we have to link the CB account to see any merit aid possibilities (I havenât yet tried with CB account linking).
@Nicki20 I think the U of MN waives the application fee for some students; maybe an answer to one of the questions (or your state of residence?) led the system to determine you didnât have to pay.
For us, using the Golden Gopher app, it led us right to the payment page after submitting the other stuff. It would have been hard to miss, I think.
I agree about checking the tracker. Once she gets an email with her student ID number, sheâll be able to get her login information and check the application tracker to see if itâs showing the fee as missing or not.
Good luck!
Thank for the replies. She did the common app and we are OOS(Illinois). She is waiting on recommendations on her other schools so I was on her case about submitting the ones she could.
@Nicki20 We, too, are IL. The application fee was waived for D20 as well.
@hs2020dad I guess Iâm not sure why D20 would get a result including merit if it did not take into account stats. Her CB account had all that information saved, so I didnât have to go through those questions when I went through the motions for NEU. I would suggest creating a CB account since so many other schools use it for their NPC as well.
Iâm not happy at all. I just got a bill from our HS for $300 for the AP Calc class because âwe chose to enroll in a PACC credit courseâ. What good is dual enrollment at a college weâre not attending? Especially since he can get credit at any of the schools he applied to by scoring high enough on the AP test? This is our first AP class (the school only offers 5), so Iâm wondering if they do this with all of them?
Iâm not understanding either. I, with my little knowledge, have never heard of AP as part of dual enrollment. We have dual enrollment through our CC and those classes can receive credit at various 4 year institutions but not all.
I donât get it either and have been waiting all morning for the school to email me back.
This is what their website has for a description of PACC
Students who enroll in these courses are concurrently enrolled in [Redacted] University. The courses are held at [HS] and taught by [HS] instructors, and if students earn a C or better in the class, they receive college credit from [Redacted] University at a significantly discounted price per credit. Upon completing these requirements, students would have a [Redacted] University transcript showing these credits.
AP Literature and Composition - 3 credits
Political Science - 3 credits
AP U.S. History - 3 credits per semester (or 6 credits for the year)
AP Calculus AB - 4 credits
AP Calculus BC - 4 credits
Honors Human Biology - 4 credits
And this is what they have written for AP Classes:
These rigorous courses are held at [HS], and students prepare for the AP exams in May. Depending on the studentâs score and the college or university that the student attends, college placement or credits may be awarded.
AP U.S. History
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
AP Literature and Composition
AP Language and Composition
AP Physics
Iâm not getting what the advantage of the dual enrollment is at all, unless you know youâre going to that school and donât want to risk not doing well enough on the AP exam.
Many colleges accept dual enrollment credits but it does seem redundant to also have the DE student take a class as AP, unless the high school just wants to cover all bases. Not sure why it costs $300 though?
Because the University charges $75/credit tuition for dual enrollment students.
Aha. Thatâs unfortunate. Hopefully you wont also have to pay for books on top of that and the AP test fees.
@cshell2 - that was confusing - but I am reading same as you. Seems like the dual credit will give guaranteed credit at the named university. This âmaybeâ useful even if the student donât go to the named univ (?)
Some students at DS20âs HS take college courses beyond AP, they are not dual enrollment and separate from HS - but they do get a college transcript for that course. We know that it is accepted at many colleges (based on previous students).
At your HS, seems like school is marketing it in a similar way: take the courses as dual credit at 300 and book a guaranteed credit at the named univ and potentially many more universities (sorry - when I said marketing above, donât mean that as a snide comment on HS - but it just seemed like a money grab or maybe I am not understanding it correctly). Pls do update us, interesting to know about this ânewâ practice.
Iâm digging a little deeper and PACC is a program just this University has. Itâs not like PSEO where you take the class at the college and get credit for high school.
https://www.smumn.edu/admission/undergraduate/college-credit-in-high-school/pacc
They pointed out the advantage to be what I thought. No worry about the exam. Plus, they get to register before incoming freshman with no credit at SMU and they are eligible for a special scholarship if they continue there.
But, unless my kid did something I donât know about in class, we never signed up for anything like this. We just wanted AP Calc.