I went to Willamette, in Salem, Oregon and it really fits your list–expect that it’s definitely NOT medium-sized. Has she considered CalPoly Humbolt??
Chat GPT is likely very wrong. No chance UVM or Arizona as examples and I’m guessing others. They have a $15k price tag.
Humboldt on their list and mentioned upthread.
3 Likes
This system appears to have undervalued this student’s capacity to gain admission to highly selective colleges that meet financial need.
1 Like
OK, I have gotten through the NPCs of a number of schools, and no surprise they all over the place and as I learned with my older kids, the most selective schools are the best price. Perhaps this gives insight into why students from families of a certain income have to apply to a lot of reach schools. Of course, we would LOVE to find a target school that meets these lower prices (but is that just completely unrealistic??)
Putting in the same financial info - here is what we got from most to least expensive so far (total costs/year including room and board):
Kenyon - $46,000
App State - $45,000
St. Olaf - $45,000
Univ of Montana - $40,000
UC Davis - $34,000
Cornell (Iowa) - $30,000
Hendrix - $29,000
Whitman - $25,000
Humboldt State - $24,000
Hamilton - $23,000
Bowdoin - $20,000
Colorado College - $20,000
Carleton - $17,000
Skidmore - $14,000
Dartmouth - $12,000
Williams - $7,600
3 Likes
Where would you draw the financial feasibility line in this list?
So if $15k is the limit, then Skidmore, Dartmouth, and Williams are the affordable ones in the list.
NPCs tend to be a bit conservative so I think you could apply to anything up to $20k and hope they come in lower, knowing they might not.
It’s odd though - that Skid would be but again, another poster found $4K. I think the cheap OOS schools - are going to be the Southern - like a W Carolina is low 20s b4 merit. Alabama would be 28K off for this student. UAH will be slightly under $20K The NPCs might be showing all costs but I just look at direct costs. UAH is a tad under $40K. The merit would be $19K…or $21K if somehow they see a 4.0 - maybe it’s weighted.
Central Michigan was $28.3K this year. $8,250 was merit - so $20K ish. The last two years are a tad more. It’s in reach.
Mississippi State is is $42250 this year. $21K is auto merit.
So these types and there’s more - get you closer.
I don’t know if you get free CA tuition but the Davis says you don’t. Humboldt too - that tells me you’re a not full pay, but higher pay family (per the colleges) but holding to a tight budget.
WIth a 3.98, rigor and a 34, you should definitely apply to hail mary (full ride types) but add in less competitive schools - i noted ECU and UNCC - I mean, you can find hiking most everywhere. Plus the W&L, Davidsons of the world and others that have freebies. There’s many Stamps Schools - but again, you have to be the creme de la creme to win - but maybe, perhaps they’re easier at an Ole Miss or LSU than Georgia Tech, etc.
Or maybe the student has to start at a CC - I know it’s not ideal but then you save up for the last two years?
U Montana shows COA of $37,492 so not sure where you got $40K. See link below. But tuition room and board is a tad over $28K. It’s why I don’t like COA - the non direct items - schools throw in crazy #s - they’re not the same school to school so I use direct.
There is also $18K off for OOS - but that might be substitutional with WUE - you’d have to call and ask.
I think some schools - won’t be $15K - that’s room and board - but maybe your estimates are over inflated - but again, I’m using just tuition, fees, room and board.
I have recently been running NPCs to try to get a sense of where we may stand in a few years and also got widely varied results like this (our range was from $12k to $73k!!). From what I can tell, the schools that came back especially high were placing a higher emphasis on home equity. Kenyon also came back as one of our highest which surprised me because I have seen it come in low for a lot of people previously (I guess the combination of merit/aid may be a factor there?).
For what it’s worth, Smith, Wellesley, Colby, Yale, Harvard, and Princeton came in lower than Bowdoin in the calculations I ran and Davidson came in at similar numbers to Bowdoin. Brown, Cornell, and Middlebury were up there towards the high end with Kenyon for our calculations.
2 Likes
Agree, that Kenyon figure is a head scratcher. If they claim to meet “100% of demonstrated financial aid” why the discrepancy between what you actually need and what they think you need? Or do they recalculate once the student is admitted?
Possibly also some even above $20K if they also have robust merit.
But the more actually below budget with just need, the better.
1 Like
Yes, with my S24 I think we had offers from around $4,000 to $60,000! It’s crazy how they calculate differently.
I think another difference might be counting siblings and siblings in college. I know some schools still take that into account and others don’t. We are a larger family.
1 Like
You’re assuming the student has need to meet the budget. That might simply be an amount the family wants to pay - like I’m full pay but only wanted t pay $50K so set a budget.
Given the costs at UCD and Humboldt, I’m guessing they don’t have that level of need (except for the most aggressive). If they had that high of need, the UC tuition and Cal State would be free.
On the other hand, they are looking at all costs, direct and indirect - so the direct figure is likely much (but not to $15K) less.
1 Like
Maybe they don’t take siblings in college into account and other schools do?
1 Like
Did any of the NPCs ask for academic information? Some will, and will indicate how much merit aid they are likely to provide. Also, save all your NPCs so that if a school’s price comes back higher than the NPC, you can have a conversation based on the results you’ve already gotten.
Another thing is that you may want to keep track of whether the schools offer any full ride or full tuition scholarships that your D could apply for. There’s obviously no guarantee that she would get one, but if there is one available, then that could be a route to affordability. App State, for instance, does have a big scholarship available.
3 Likes
I can totally see siblings making a difference for a lot of people. In our case, the figures I was getting were all with no siblings in college. The ranges are truly wild though! It was a good lesson for me to see that you really can’t assume anything one way or the other because they all treat income and assets so differently!
3 Likes
This is another good point to bring up. I would only look at the school-billed costs that you get on the NPC and not the COA (Cost of Attendance). Why? Because some schools are much more generous than others in budgeting for things like books, allowance, travel, etc, even if they’re in the same geographic location. If you only look at the direct-billed costs, then you can truly compare apples to apples on the NPCs.
Yes she will definitely be applying for the full scholarship at App State. She has not been there, but knows a few people who go there and loves everything she hears. It seems like a great fit. I don’t know if she is competitive enough to get this type of scholarship, but can’t hurt to try!
3 Likes
in addition to Whitman, which seems perfect, Carleton, st. Olaf’s, Dickinson, Union (NY), St. Lawrence, Middlebuty, and Bowdoin all have active outdoors clubs and are the same size as others on your list of schools she likes. St. Olaf’s is very good for cost and St. Lawrence is a high probability to give her money.
1 Like
The non direct costs are not $0, even if the actual cost differs from the college estimate.