Each college can have its own definition of “need”. Promises to “meet full need” mean little or nothing without context of how the college defines “need”.
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@blueberriesforsal Do you have any feedback re: OP’s earlier question about whether a motivated Whitman student who wants to do Semester In The West has reasonable assurance of being able to get into that program? I have not specifically heard about students being turned away but beyond that I had no basis for a response; maybe you have impressions about this?
I’d guess Williams’ low figure reflects their healthy endowment. If that’s the case then maybe look at Grinnell which also has an endowment disproportionate to its size. I’ve never been there so don’t know how outdoorsy its students are, but it has excellent academics and a crunchy culture.
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Yes but at some schools personal might be $4500. At others $1k. There is some controllable in these amounts. On the flipside, when you go to a wealthy kid school on high need, you might be left out of things the wealthy kids are doing. And if you are traveling to Boone a few times a year - that large cost too - getting there as it’s not near any large airports.
So here’s my question - if the Cal States are not affordable, because you’re not a Pell family, then what’s the true plan. All these other schools are nice in theory but highly unlikely - because they’re over your budget.
Is it go to community college for two years and save or is there a four year near home ? Or is to go to a school like UAH or Ms State or like cost school with a small loan?
And how do transport costs impact - are they over the $15k because you will have flights multiple times a year to the East.
And while we’ve seen big packages at Skidmore, they are upfront about this -
Need aware schools, like Skidmore, do manage their financial aid budgets via admissions decisions, but we meet 100% of demonstrated need for all accepted applicants.
So I’ve yet to see the fail safe that is most important. I’m not sure, short of CC, one exists is the issue.
I wonder if there may also be a data hole here. Namely as the more highly rejective/selective a school is, the less likely they offer any merit aid at all.
So the schools with lower acceptance rates that you’ve plugged in are indeed giving you a pretty accurate NPC as merit aid won’t be something that factors in much at all once they read the student’s complete application. They just don’t give much merit.
Whereas the schools with the higher acceptance rates would be adding merit aid if your student is “higher stats” than the majority of their accepted students’ stats, and thus lowering that NPC number once they see your student’s application.
I asked my student; they said it can be considered competitive, but you do have a strong opportunity for acceptance when you declare your major earlier (rather than at the deadline, which is the end of Sophmore year). Declaring early is key as once a student has declared their major, they sit down with their major advisor to map their four year plan, during which they can illustrate how/why Semester in the West would align with their mapped plan of classes and goals.
(Prior to declaring a major, Whitman students have a primary advisor that they meet with, who’s assigned to them before they begin registering for first year classes. As the student later prepares to declare their major, they approach a faculty member in that department to ask them to be their major advisor. My student is doing a dual major, and thus has two major advisors, one in each field of study, and my student meets with them both individually and together about their class plan, and their prospective research and thesis for next year.)
Prospective Semester in the West students apply in the fall for the program commencing the following fall semester.
They select students for fit with the program, from many different majors as well as combined and dual majors, and some demonstrated interest in environmental issues is essential. They also weigh academic merit, an application essay, a letter of personal recommendation from a faculty member, and a personal interview.
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Only schools that require CCS take larger families into account.
Just noting that colleges will not necessarily “stack” merit, meaning simply add it to need aid. Sometimes it first subtracts out of need grants, sometimes first any loans and work study (which can still be useful) and then need grants, and so on.
That being said, private colleges with discretionary merit can basically offer students they like whatever they think might get them, and sometimes it is even negotiable. So I do think it can be reasonable to sort of shotgun a healthy list of schools where realistic merit is possible and see if any offers come in big enough.
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Some of these might stack merit on top of need-based aid. I know that Kenyon, St. Olaf, Cornell (Iowa),and Colorado College all offer merit awards (and maybe others on your list, too) that could bring the COA down. It would probably help to know whether those awards would be stacked on top of need.
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That’s an important clarification! Yes, some LACs do stack merit, using it as a discretionary sweetener when the student is someone they particularly want to attract, some do not.
The student’s stats relative to the school, and how selective/rejective the school is tend to be the indicator for knowing when that “please come, here’s an extra discount just for you” may be put forward, or not.
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One way to know might be - beyond asking - if you are in the NPC and it asks for stats - run with the actual stats - and then change them to a 3.0 and 1000 SAT - and see if it changes. If it does, it’s stacking.
But to validate, a call would be best.
I would add the University of Nevada, Reno, which is 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe and has a new campus on the lake. It’s fairly inexpensive and has pretty good merit aid. The application is free.
I think you should also consider the Claremont Colleges, which are much like a mid-size university socially and academically. My extremely outdoorsy kid attends one and has spent weekends and holidays around Baldy, the beach, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Big Sur, Mammoth, the Grand Canyon, and Zion. The 5Cs also have a solid, shared outdoors club.
IME, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Pomona all have fantastic financial aid and generally offer fairly similar packages. Bowdoin is also similar but was a smidge more than the first four. Williams, Pomona, and Bowdoin are the most outdoorsy.
Dartmouth is great but it was the only school whose actual financial aid package was substantially more than the NPC for us. Skidmore is also cool, but be warned that it has a reputation for waitlisting kids with need who do not apply ED, with my kid being one data point. YMMV for both schools.
Whitman sounds great, but it would have cost us more than any of the schools above. Again, YMMV.
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How are any of these going to be under $15k year? (Or almost any school for that matter.) Will you be eligible for that much in FA.
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Ye. We already have two kids in college and they were able to get that much financial aid. We still make the same salary so we hope to find a college with D27 can also get generous aid.
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