<p>Ok, you guys will probably get on me (rightly so, perhaps), but I get a lot of my info from Niche and from talking with my son at MIT. I am glad to know I am wrong. It may be too late to throw out a bunch of LAC apps, but we will look closely at various majors at the LACs we’ve discussed.</p>
<p>He seems to be ok with being far from home-at least he would prefer to be away from home. Not sure how far is too far, but he said he didn’t want to limit apps by location.</p>
<p>Yes, Pell Grant was probably 1K or a little less.</p>
<p>Oh, and Washington & Lee sounds good, too. My son’s gotten lots of info in the mail from them, Trinity, and some others.</p>
<p>Not too late, but you’re getting close. If you trust your son and he’s got good common sense and knows what he wants and what he doesn’t, he’ll be fine. Yes, the diabetes is a concern, but thousands of other diabetic college students have handled it. His dorm room, no matter what college he attends or what kind of dorm he lives in, should always be a safe place for him.</p>
<p>After my son’s $6000 a year NM Corporate Scholarship, my son pays about $3200 a year (That covers tuition, room, board and fees). Without the scholarship,the package would include loans and work study to cover that $6000.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t base everything on the UTD AES award-- they might have been looking for something else that day, but there isn’t anything to say he’s out of the running at all schools immediately. If you haven’t looked already for one or two in-the-bag safeties (in addition to the LACs, which I agree he’d be a good fit at, especially those that meet full need), there are several full rides here he should qualify for: <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a>.</p>
<p>That being said, even the meet-full-need LACs may include some loans in the package if your son’s accepted. A lot of schools are adding in loans (capped at some number that won’t exceed the Stafford limit) to the package that are in addition to the family EFC, workstudy, and summer contribution.</p>
<p>Have you called the financial aid people at UTD? I wonder if there could be an error–that perhaps they put him into the wrong level scholarship. It wouldn’t hurt to ask if you think something doesn’t match up. (I think they go pretty much by the numbers. Was there an optional essay for the application? Did he write one? It seems that he has a good story considering how well he has done in spite of his various challenges.)</p>
<p>You may want to ask the campuses directly. The CSUs you mention are not very specific on their web sites about how outside scholarships are handled with respect to financial aid awards. However, UCSD replaces unmet need, loans, and work study first with outside scholarships, before reducing grants, according to <a href=“Scholarships”>https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/financial-aid/types/scholarships/</a> .</p>
<p>So, are you all saying that Niche is totally unreliable?</p>
<p>At UCSD, we qualify for the Blue Gold program, so I am assuming that’s legit and that my son would get free tuition.</p>
<p>That’s a good idea to call UTD. It’s not strictly by the numbers, but the general stats of students receiving the higher level last year was around 1410 M+CR.</p>
<p>I know the ropes enough to have him write essays whenever possible. My mantra is optional isn’t. :-)</p>
<p>Most posters on these forums are parents or students in much higher income families than that, presumably because the population of college-ready high school students is heavily tilted toward those from higher income families (even more so for those who have a realistic chance at highly selective colleges that are the subjects of discussion on these forums).</p>
<p>While I understand that you want to have options I think your son is likely to be accepted to UCSD. Have you seen their common data set? Look at page four of the pdf and compare it to your son’s stats. </p>
<p>Right, ucb. San Diego is an incredibly diverse city and yes, our income is above average overall. But in CC terms, as I said, some people here consider middle class to be 120K. We are not lacking for anything. We just don’t have spare income for college expenses. We are still committed to hoemschooling our youngest who has some special needs, but as he gets older and my dh’s new work hours settle in, we are hoping I will pick up some extra income.</p>
<p>AlbionGirl, the biggest issue is that my son is an independent homeschooler. Cal States and UCs, while they do admit homeschoolers, they are still very much “in the box” type schools, so no, it is definitely not a given that he will get into UCSD.</p>
<p>As I stated upthread (I think), we have a young friend who was an early admit to SDSU with a 1740 SAT. My son has heard nothing with his 2230 SAT. My son’s GPA is higher than the other young man. </p>
<p>It’s just a reality of schools that are not particularly holistic.</p>
<p>I.e. this means that, even at colleges with “average” levels of drinking, binge drinking is quite common. What may be more important for a student who is not into drinking is whether other social opportunities exist at the school, so that s/he can do something else and ignore the thursday to sunday drinking parties instead of having nothing else to do and feeling socially isolated (this may be why small rural colleges tend to have more of a drinking problem, due to fewer other things to do).</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus , yes, this is what I’ve been trying to determine-what other opportunities do non-drinkers (and I’m not assuming my son will never drink, but it wouldn’t be terribly wise to do it heavily or often) have. Our young friend at Penn in the sub-free dorm had a wonderful time doing all sorts of great activities on and off campus, and they didn’t involve drinking. I think that is what my son has seen when he visited my oldest at MIT and that was really appealing to him. He saw kids having a blast without heavy partying, and that is what he seems to want. (Not to say MIT does not have its heavy partying-it most certainly does)</p>
<p>It does seem as if he should qualify for the higher level award at UTD. (Just checked their AES page. . .) Do ask to make sure. (I thought they were trying to get more OOS students, and more students with an interest in ATEC.) </p>
<p>And I was even in contact with them making sure they had all the documentation from me, the GC-transcripts, CC transcripts, counselor letter, etc.-and they specifically said they didn’t want SAT II scores.</p>
<p>Ok, I will call them after the new year, as they’re probably on break now. Or should my son call them? I’ve written appeals letters to MIT before, so I guess it should be ok for me to contact them.</p>
<p>To answer your question, my kids have gotten great need-based aid at LACs associated with heavy drinking and all around preppy elitism. In each case, they found their tribe without too much difficulty. Like you, minimizing debt was a priority. </p>
<p>Actually, I think you have the perfect situation financially and should take advantage of the 100% need met schools. With his stats he is likely to match into most of them. The only schools I know well are in the Northeast: Amherst, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Skidmore, Wesleyan…there are many. As for the drinking, it is also a concern of mine and I agree that the profiles of these schools lend themselves to a drinking culture, but mostly because of their geographic areas and weather. For Boston maybe Tufts, Boston University, Northeastern?</p>