Thank you!! I will go back and look again.
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All the talk of schools on the list has me just a little stressed. Currently my daughter has two. One is the one she’s applying to early decision and one is our state flagship that she really doesn’t want to go to but knows that financially it would be a really good idea. She is 100% going to get in to that one, and my husband works for the university system so she gets a significant discount on tuition plus I actually think she would be fine there, probably most of her friends will end up there. And they offer all the programs she’s interested in.
The school she REALLY wants to go to is Smith. She’s in the 75th percentile for stats, and I know she’ll have a strong essay and her recommendations should be solid, but their acceptance rate keeps dropping every year. So it’s far from a sure thing. In fact, her number is on Collegevine put her at about 60 to 65% chance with ED. And I suspect that’s looking at last year‘s numbers, and every year they are acceptance percentage drops significantly. The numbers for smith are NOT good enough to only consider that school for sure.
So just 2. In reality.
She may throw the following schools and application after the early decision result comes out if it’s a rejection:
University of Hawaii at Manoa
George Washington University
Loyola, Maryland
NYU
Fordham
BC
Columbia
Barnard
Wellesley
Literally, none of them are affordable even with need based aid according to the NPC, and most of them are extremely difficult for her to get into so it’ll be her last ditch effort to not attend the state flagship in the hopes that one of them gives her an acceptance and some free money.
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Is Smith affordable?
That film thread is current. It seems to refresh each year around this time with another crop of film applicants.
I had a film kid go through this in 2021-2022 and another in 2024-2025 and used that thread both times.
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Yes, crazy right? They must calculate their financial aid a little bit differently. It’s only like a $5000 a year difference but it’s enough to make the difference especially factoring in yearly tuition increases.
Some NPC’s for the other schools are even 25k higher. I don’t know if it’s how some schools take equity into account or something else.
It’s hard to believe there isn’t even one school similar to Smith that would come out with similar aid numbers. Have you tried a chance me thread?
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What does she want to study?
Why Smith? I mean, she seems to prefer women’s colleges if Barnard and Wellesley are are on her list – but have you looked at others? Mt. Holyoke? Bryn Mawr? Simmons? Agnes Scott? Surely there are some affordable ones out there that aren’t also quite so reachy?
Is it the location or the all-women or the majors offered or something else that’s attracting her?
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I have not officially tried a chance me thread, but I went through almost every school in the Northeast and ran the npc. I had a massive spreadsheet with every NPC of every school that she was even remotely considering. She’s particular, unfortunately.. but even not counting how particular she is, I ran the NPC on even the schools that she hadn’t looked at. I think I ran the NPC on every single school in every city of the northeast. Many hours of my life I’ll never get back lol. You would think that inputting the exact same numbers into all the “meet full need” schools would result in the same cost after aid. And it definitely doesn’t.
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I think it’s a combination of the vibe on campus and Northampton as well as being in all girls school and the open curriculum and the curriculum that they offer. She absolutely loved the city. We ended up spending three days there just exploring the area around the campus.
I ran the numbers for quite a few of the schools you’ve listed and most of them don’t come close, but I am going to take a second look. I wish I could have an inside look at how they run their calculations because I feel like if I just knew what the differences are between the schools I could more easily know which schools we would be able to afford without going through the steps for the NPC on each website. I don’t know if that makes sense but I feel like there is a secret formula each School uses and it’s a mystery until you run the calculator.
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From what I remember from when D19 was applying, GWU is not generous with aid. NYU meets financial need now, but merit is very stingy. There is a smallish amount for as I recall the top something % (10%? Less now maybe as their meets-need policy has changed?) of the freshmen in each school, but you don’t know if you’re in the top x% until everyone’s in. I did however meet one parent at admitted students day whose kid had been offered a full ride -he’d been an MIT hopeful and as I recall he actually got admitted there, but they were finding it hard to turn down free college.(I’m not sure what their final decision was.) Fordham was her accidental acceptance (she thought she’d pulled the app after her ED admit but it hadn’t gone through) and she was surprised to get some merit with her not-stellar GPA from them (and especially as she didn’t bother doing the optional “why Fordham” essay …). So there may be something there. She wasn’t looking at any of the others on that list so no other insights from me. I would however say that those are a lot of supplements to write for what might mostly be unaffordable schools…
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Does she like any schools that give merit? My S23 has a very good friend at Bryn Mawr and the merit made it affordable. Of course I know it’s not the same as Smith. But maybe there are some less reachy schools that would be acceptable that have a chance at giving merit in addition to need-based aid?
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Yeah, the NPC for all of those schools is pretty out of reach for us. Some are closer than others but NYU for example, is extremely out of reach.
At the very least, she has agreed to at least apply to the in-state flagship. I do actually think she would be fine there, but it would be a rough first semester because I’m sure she would have to come to terms with going to the school that she initially didn’t want to go to. I think she’s starting to at least come around to it being a possibility. She’s got a friend who spent last year as a freshman there and they have a very similar personality so I think she’s learning that it wouldn’t be so bad. This friend absolutely loves it and attends the honors college.
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Bryn mawr- That’s another one that she has on the potential list, but it’s very hard to get her excited to even look at any other schools now that her heart is set on Smith.
She really wants something that’s in a walkable area with public transportation. And so many in that type of area are expensive. Boston schools are all very expensive even with generous aid. New York schools are the same. Washington DC schools, etc., etc..
She’s looking at humanities. Every school under the sun offers the types of programs she’s looking at. English and history, languages, government, civics. It’s still kind of a nebulous area of focus, but I’m sure she’ll eventually find her way. I think that’s why she also liked Smith. Curriculum that allows her to explore all her areas of interest. Plus they offer Korean language which isn’t a must, but it’s definitely on her list of things that would be nice.
I do think it might be helpful to do a chance me post. I have seen some of these posts be really helpful when there is a budget number to meet, and especially when there are other strong constraints or preferences such as walkability, etc.
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I’ll post one! Thank you
This is pretty much my D26. ED1 school, state flagship EA. If ED1 fails, she’ll have to grovel to see if she can score support for an ED2 roster spot.
Since none of that backup list meets NPC— that’s a lot of work for not much reward. 
do any of the other 5 college consortium schools work for NPC? Thinking Mount Holyoke especially — I know ids not as exciting a town but it has some of the same advantages
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Smith does fit a very particular kind of experience–the terrific town with fun bookstores, restaurants, music venues right there across from campus, the open curriculum, the house system, very queer-friendly. It was the only women’s college my D22 was interested in and that had a lot to do with its location and overall vibe. She was accepted Regular Decision, and if I remember right, Smith values demonstrated interest, so I would encourage your D to form a relationship with her local admissions rep. My D22 emailed her rep a few times over the course of the application season to ask questions, to thank her for her help at our tour, that kind of thing. Applying ED is the truest form of interest, so she will have that, but a familiar name in the app pile has to help!
For additional schools, would the University of Vermont/Burlington be an interesting choice for your D26? I know it’s not the same type of environment, but the college town is super fun, and it’s a lovely campus and left-leaning type of place. Or maybe UMass Amherst is a decent, additional backup? It offers Korean. I don’t recall if you mentioned Washington University in St. Louis, but they offer Korean and a walkable neighborhood
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OK, so I’m plugging away at S26’s college spreadsheet, inputting deadlines, links to programs, etc. And I see this on University of Colorado, Boulder’s admissions site, regarding the average ACT scores of accepted students:
ACT Composite:
30 - 34
Math, English and Reading (Science not considered)
Why would Science not be considered, if you submit with Science? This seems silly to me, but also materially important, as S26 got a 36 on Science, (and 36 Math, 36 Reading, 30 English).
Do you all suppose this means they will recalculate his composite score without Science?
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Yes
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