I thought she was more concerned with maximizing admission chances than wot maximizing non-merit aid, since non-merit aid seems very unlikely given her family’s financial status.
@MMRose its very confusing. Really…
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Yes- great suggestions…!
We are all here chiming in to help this young person navigate the process.
The OP mentioned financial need, and also that they are considering UCONN. I made a couple of similar-to-UCONN suggestions, as far as safeties and likely generous aid.
F&M is out of the picture becuase it’s next to my dad’s house, but I’ll look at a lot of the other schools.
The problem with a lot of LACs is the lack of diversity 
. If there’s merit though I might have to just deal with it
Like she just emailed a representative and interned?
What would I do if I’m applying to an HBCU?
Why though?
I think if it’s like T20 or something she’ll take the hit. Her priorities are
I appreciated your suggestions. It was after that I decided I wanted to rule out rural, big schools. I’m sorry.
I don’t know the details as to how.
I do know that she interned for a politician during undergrad and she worked in DC after graduation.
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I hope I didn’t mis-speak before but yup, don’t apply to FA at T20 and DO apply to colleges on your list to maximize odds of merit&be sure you get the federal loans at least.
You want to make sure you have some affordable acceptances (since the odds of getting into a T20 are very very low).
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LAC + diverse + not rural + far away = Occidental College
(Since you’ve been thinking about the west coast…)
Not quite as reachy as Scripps, and more urban. Does give some merit. Decent diversity: <50% white, 8% Black.
Has some interesting programs:
plus the usual suspects (poli sci, sociology, etc)
(Barack Obama attended Oxy - not sure if that would be positive, negative, or neutral to your family members…)
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Howard = Kamala Harris
Oxy = Barack Obama
Your mom can’t object 
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Unless the church in question mandates different political leanings and casts these two out of favor… so I wasn’t sure…
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I’ll def try and do this then. Thank you.
My mom picks and chooses her beliefs
Love that he’s black
Hates him because of gay marriage and abortion
I think she’ll like hearing that Obama went though. I talked to my mom just now and she wants me to get into a good undergrad but she pretty much wants me to go HYPSM for grad school. That’s another bridge to cross when I’m older and I really dont have to do anything by that point
Thank you for the suggestion thought it looks good.
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Again, go-along to get-along is your new BFF.
Mom- “it’s really important that you go to Harvard or some other prestigious place for grad school”.
Rosechild- “Mom, you are so right. It’s fantastic that you are so invested in my education”.
Just keep affirming her and kicking that can down the road.
Mom- “Those HBCU’s are tricky. It’s great that they are supportive of Black people’s career ambitions but they are too liberal”.
Rosechild- “Mom, I reached out to the woman at Howard who runs the Traditional Values organization and she’s going to put me on the mailing list. They have really neat programs”.
Mom- “you need to be within a few hours from home so I can see you whenever I need to”.
Rosechild- “oh wow Mom, I emailed the pastor at (fill in the blank college) and he knows several people from our church and he runs a Sunday evening devotion at his house for students and I know I’ll meet a lot of people there”.
You can do this. It’s good practice for your grownup life. I had a boss who sounds just like your mom. She would have an anxiety attack if someone was late coming back from lunch (“what if someone important phones and needs an update on a project and you aren’t here?”) and the only way to manage her was kicking that can, kicking the can. Why trigger a confrontation if you can satisfy her need for control with a soothing half-truth?
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For now…your job is to finish HS and find a college that you like. Everything else will fall into place.
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Lots of good options have been suggested. The schools you like are all good undergrads that are well worth considering!
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Yeah but I don’t know her definition of “good” if Howard is the bare mininium/last resort
It’ll be okay I’ll figure it out
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Hopefully