Where did your white, unhooked, non-super star, lower middle income son attend college?

Parents Forum
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<p>I think your son has excellent stats and I can’t help but think there is a good option out there for him. I am hoping that he is accepted at UCLA and UCSD and some of the other choices people have suggested.</p>

<p>I think this is likely to work out this year, but in the event that he does not have a good option, a gap year could be a better solution than starting at a CC after he graduates. This is because most merit aid is for incoming freshmen and attending CC , even one class, after he graduates would make him a transfer. This would give him a chance to expand his options by taking more SAT 2s if needed and applying to schools like Alabama and other options with earlier deadlines.</p>

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<p>I read through this thread, I am surprised no one mentioned Oberlin. It has great music program and probably with less drinking culture. Swarthmore is another good choice. Those schools provide need based aid.</p>

<p>Every college has drinking culture. If your son wants it he will find it. At the same time if he shouldn’t be drinking or has no desire to, he will be able to find his own tribe no matter where he is. Substance free dorm doesn’t mean those students do not drink, they just can’t drink (or do drugs) at the dorm. As far as I know, my kids didn’t party in their rooms, they went out.</p>

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<p>Being a White guy must be so hard…lmao, try being an Asian.</p>

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<p>Re: LACs and diabetes. Just wanted to chime in and say my S is at an East Coast LAC and is diabetic. He doesn’t drink and he does not find this hinders his social life. He has not had difficultly storing supplies, changing pump sites, etc. And the one time he actually did have a crisis, his friends and the college staff were very supportive. </p>

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<p>How much can your son earn/save over the summer?
Can he work part-time during the school year for pocket money?</p>

<p>(whoever you work for sure gives a generous NMF Corporate award, $6k. Is that every year? My H’s company only gave our sons $2500 per year (one was NMF, and the other got the NM special scholarship))</p>

<p>Your son should also apply to UA- Huntsville. I think he’d get a free ride or near-free-ride for his stats. It’s is not a rah rah big school like Bama. It is located in Cummings Research Park where all the big Techie companies are. It is strong in STEM. UA-H is a rather quiet lovely campus located in a lovely city and the international airport is only 5 minutes away.</p>

<p>I think he should also still apply to Bama. Yes, he’s past the deadline, but with his stats and a nice email to Mary Spiegel, he would likely still get the full tuition plus 2500 per year. Bama has done that before to high stats kids. Yes, Bama is a rah rah school with a party rep, but seriously, the STEM students are located in the NE part of campus, away from all that stuff, and few engineering students go Greek…they just don’t have the time or interest. Both of my kids were STEM at Bama and were serious students. They still had many friends like them.</p>

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<p>Two other school you might want to look into are Vanberbilt (they have excellent FA) and Wake Forest. I’m not sure about how good Wake’s FA is but run the NPC for both schools. </p>

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<p>I don’t think this kid is planning to major in music…is he? </p>

<p>Did you look at University of Rochester?</p>

<p>I think you may find that many schools offer full tuition scholarships (merit) to some degree, and/or need based aid that is good. For those merit scholarship schools, full tuition is far more common than a complete free ride (please don’t think I’m saying that full tuition awards are common…they too are not plentiful). So…you would still be on the hook for those room/ board costs. For need based aid, schools cannot award you need based aid to pay for your EFC. So you will be on the hook for that too.</p>

<p>Folks are recommending schools in Boston. I can tell you first hand…room and board for my son was >$10,000 a year in Boston…and he graduated in 2007. He rented off campus in a great location (but substandard house) for $800 a month…got a single bedroom for that. The same place is well over $1200 a month now. It’s expensive real estate.</p>

<p>Did you look at schools like AZ or Whittier? Or Loyala Marymount? Did he apply to any of the Claremont Colleges? </p>

<p>Do a search for,the thread here about the URM with a low GPA, but high SAT and see where he applied. He also,was a CA resident. Money was a huge concern. He got several affordable acceptances.</p>

<p>ETA…stop comparing your finances to anyone else’s. Concentrate on what you need, and forget about whether you are middle class or lower, or whatever. It really doesn’t matter what others have…or don’t have.</p>

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<p>

Agree. I think these are great suggestions for him, especially St. Olaf. I’d add Lawrence (where, if he wanted, he could do a dual degree in cello and something else) and Hendrix, where with his stats he could compete for the full-ride Hays scholarship.</p>

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<p>You don’t need to be a music major to appreciate Oberlin and Swarthmore. My daughter’s friend at Swarthmore is a philosophy (or poli sci) major with music minor.</p>

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<p>Is it possible for him not to graduate if you don’t get the right school/financial aid package? Since he’s homeschooled, can he remain a h.s. student but take all his classes at a cc, and then reopen all the schools being suggested now, with deadlines passed, for the following school year?</p>

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<p>I seem to remember that the colleges in so cal that meet full need are each of the Claremont colleges and occidental. I had posted in the fin aid forum and reponders attached lists of colleges that meet full need. Try to look up that post. (Sorry, on my cell phone so I can’t do it). I seems that you won’t be able to get your specific major choices, though.</p>

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<p>I’m curious about his GPA: who graded him? Are those CC/college grades only?</p>

<p>Conventional wisdom says that homeschoolers should take more SATIIs or AP exams to validate the level of their preparation. I would have suggested 4 of the former, from what I’ve read. With a 730 in Math II, I doubt it is worth taking it again. Taking something else might be a better idea.</p>

<p>Since your S is only now recovering from the vision issue that was holding him back, he sounds to me like an ideal candidate for a gap year. If he could apply next year with 4 good SATIIs and some nice AP scores, he might be in a better position for some of the true meets-need schools.</p>

<p>I really think he should apply to St Olaf and Carleton at least. Swarthmore, Haverford, Bowdoin, Bates, Grinnell would be good choices also. Colgate and Hamilton are weird choices for someone who wants to avoid partying. </p>

<p>Try running the NPCs on those schools. Most of them will have deadlines of Jan 1st, and a few a couple weeks later. He has plenty of time to apply. </p>

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<p>Not the OP, but my kids’ GPAs are a composite of DE class grades, outsourced teachers’ grades (like AoPS or private tutors like my dd’s Russian tutor), and my grades. That is the norm for most homeschoolers.</p>

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<p>LOL, DrCharisma, I never asked anyone to feel sorry for my son because he’s a white male. My original question was simply asking parents where their kid got in with good aid.</p>

<p>Some good suggestions here. The gap year if nothing works out idea is a good one.</p>

<p>He did apply to U Rochester and Northeastern. Tufts gaps us a lot. St Olaf’s gaps us.</p>

<p>CMC seems like a great choice, but because they really do focus on poli sci, govt, etc., I think they must really be looking for those kinds of students, not musical creative designers-at least that’s what I pick up when I read their mission statement. Do you think it’s still worth applying as a media/English/music/CS major? It’s an easy application with just one essay, and he can probably email his Arts Supplements, as they have been very friendly to work with.</p>

<p>My son will have four SAT II scores, but probably only three will be decent. He took the Italian one, but has only had one semester of college Italian. But yes, if he took a gap year, he could do tests again and presumably get higher scores. </p>

<p>Still apply to both Alabama schools? Ok, I’ll tell him that. He’s ambivalent right now-he knows he’s looking for affordability, but he’s growing weary of writing so many essays. He’s a good writer, but had actually hoped to get a little vacation. I gently remind him that he cannot have it both ways.</p>

<p>Vandy-yes, they gave my oldest son phenomenal aid. Just not sure of any majors there. My son would not apply to Peabody. We can look at majors together.</p>

<p>He might be a music major, butt that is not his first choice. He would prefer to continue to do music for pleasure (and side money) rather than a career, but it is a major of consideration.</p>

<p>@13thFloor‌ , I would love to know where your son is. Would you PM me? Thank you.</p>

<p>Here are the LACs I thought would be better fits in terms of atmosphere (I don’t wish to apologize for these choices, but they are not as way liberal as some of the others suggested; again, my son has stated he wants a more balanced school politically): Wash & Lee, Trinity, Hamilton, Conn College, & Davidson (but application is more intense).</p>

<p>The other issue is the fact that one of his strongest recommenders is mailing her recs (his college English teacher) because she has an old, slow computer, and she doesn’t check email very often, so I’m not sure we could get envelopes to her in time for her to email recs. My son already gave her four envelopes before class was over for his reachy reach schools. She is invited to the Common App, but couldn’t upload her letter. He does still have two other teacher recs and three “other” recs, but hers would be better to have than one other one.</p>

<p>Sorry! I totally don’t mean to complain. This whole thing began when I saw that what we were hoping would be a viable option, wasn’t, because of the lower scholarship offered. My son emailed UTD last night. We’ll see what he hears back.</p>

<p>He is accepted to Purdue, and I really like Purdue for him, but of course we won’t know the aid for a while until after I file FAFSA. His other schools are SDSMT, Missouri S&T, and U of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He needs to fill out scholarship info at UCCS. Initial scholarship amounts for the other schools wasn’t enough. Missouri has a very small 1k per year scholarship he can apply to (which he will), but that wouldn’t be enough. </p>

<p>twoinanddone, I had suggested early on that he not graduate, but at this point, he’ll have none of that. It wouldn’t hurt him, and he’s now more involved with his college mates and musician friends than with his homeschooled co-op friends, but he is planning on walking with the other 20 seniors at his co-op in May. Course <em>I</em> don’t necessary need to graduate him, but it’s not ideal.</p>

<p>Didn’t look at schools in Az. Thought about ASU as they have Industrial Design, but didn’t see the money there because he was not a finalist.</p>

<p>Yes, the Corporate NM Scholarship is based on income; the lowest amount per year would have been 2K per year, but because of our income, our oldest got the highest amount, 6K. And yes, it’s a company that is very well off. I’m not counting on it, though. Apparently, when my oldest got it, the local company had never heard of anyone local getting it.</p>

<p>Ugh-too long. Appreciate all the thoughts, truly!</p>

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<p>If this student does not major in music, he needs to be certain that playing In a school ensemble is something that non-majors can do. At some places…yes. At others no. And some places, like Oberlin, non-majors cannot play on the conservatory orchestra, but I think there are ensembles for non-majors as well. </p>

<p>At University of Rochester, the non-majors cannot play in the Eastman ensembles, but UR has nice ensembles also.</p>

<p>lawrence is a great choice…allows students of all majors to audition and play in any ensemble. </p>

<p>My daughter was not a music major…but wanted to play in the college orchestra and continue lessons. This was THE hardest criteria of hers to fill. For every college of interest, she contacted the music department chair, orchestra director, and private instructor on her instrument to find out what they would allow her to do. I would suggest the OP do the same.</p>

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<p>@Consolation‌ , you’re right about the LACs. I find that the schools that seem to fit in terms of philosophy and balance are the worst partying schools. The ones that swing way left (remember who we are-a fairly conservative Christian family) seem more balanced in terms of drug/alcohol use. </p>

<p>Yes, as @Mom2aphysicsgeek‌ stated, most of my sons grades have actually come from outside sources such as community college, AoPS, online classes, and co-op teachers. He actually has precious few “mommy” grades, just because he’s always needed outside accountability.</p>

<p>And yes, because of the recent eye surgery, a gap year does make sense. He did not do APs because there is no way he could have done all that reading. He was accommodated in his honors co-op classes by not having to do as many readings and he didn’t get as much credit for his college worldview class as others did. Post surgery has been a dramatic upswing in his ability to read massive amounts of material.</p>

<p>My thought on the gap year was to wait and see how it all plays out, and then make a decision in April.</p>

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<p>Thumper, I know my son contacted the orchestra director at UR and he said he’d be happy to have my son in his orchestras, but he hasn’t contacted anyone else. That was my concern about Vanderbilt. Seems only music majors can do the really fun stuff-but my son could always form his own quartet.</p>

<p>Good idea. We will dig deeper.</p>

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<p>Perhaps check out New College in Florida. Markets itself as a “public honors college” with reasonable tuition. Has a good reputation and I understand attracts the more serious minded applicants who are not interested in a party scene. </p>

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<p>You said his interests are “game design, followed by things like industrial design, product design, music, visual arts, arts& technology, CS, and ME.” When you look at smaller schools, do they meet these wants? </p>

<p>AP isn’t necessarily a big issue when he has that many cc credits. What can matter is his actual class choices at cc and in the home school program. Some kids test their boundaries when h-schooled Many are quite impressive as individuals.</p>

<p>IMO, other than academics, a match to a college’s personality is important. That’s more than drinking or partying hard. It’s the “what else” they offer. Clubs, activities, visiting lecturers, access to research opps, etc. And for him, as we’re saying, real music and performance opportunities. (Sometimes, that includes off campus, same as church.) That’s the active part of them finding like minded friends. And some fulfilment.</p>

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<p>In my opinion, you should start wrapping your head around the fact that any aid offered your son will include $5k + @ year in loans. Your idea of need and the schools’ idea may vary. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest completing the CSS profile ASAP and getting set to file taxes directly after year end.<br>
Secondly, your son’s fabulous GPA was earned with accommodations. Not sure how the colleges will view those grades. Most of top LACs view GPA in the context of the high school offerings. Since this is your sons first year without accommodations the LACs may want to see real results.
Many of the CSUs offer preference to students residing inside their service area. He should be able to get into your local CSU. With Cal grant, pell grant and federal loans this should be doable price tag–at least it is for other low income kids.
Have you looked at Cal Luthern? Or possibly RIT?</p>