<p>Momneeds…a number of the schools this OP has looked at do NOT require the CSSProfile. There is no advantage to completing it NOW with estimates. NONE. </p>
<p>In addition, delaying graduation in hopes of earning better aid packages sounds like a bad idea to me. Giving him one more year of high school or a gap year because he’s not ready for college yet makes sence. But from what you write, you feel he’s ready. In this case one more year if high school is sending the wrong message to kid who’s already experienced an unconventional education. The college application process is all about learning to play the hand you’re dealt. </p>
<p>Thumper, I disagree. I believe there is an advantage to submitting all the forms ASAP. At least that was what we were told by many (all I think) of the schools to which my kids applied. </p>
<p>I believe the op mentioned wash&lee trinity Davidson conn college Hamilton. All of which are CSS profile schools. Much of the CSS data will remain constant year to year. Getting started now will help you later. </p>
<p>Momneeds…it is important to submit your FAFSA form asap after January 1, and using estimates. This gets you in the queue for limited funding types of federal aid like SEOG, federal work study, and Perkins loans. These have limited funding per campus…and are awarded on a first come, first served basis at most schools. The do taxes asap after February 1, amend the FAFSA, link to the IRS retrieval tool, and resubmit.</p>
<p>However, beyond that…completing the Profile with estimates is NOT necessary at this time. First, it is easier to complete the Profile once your taxes have been completed. Most regular decision schools have an early decision Profile deadline in early February. Don’t miss the deadline. But submitting early isn’t necessary. But do check the deadlines!</p>
<p>Any student applying ED or EA should check for an early Profile priority deadline, and meet that. Those can be earlier than now…and should be met for ED and EA students.</p>
<p>But other than that…what did these experts tell you was the advantage of completing a Profile using estimates before January 1? Just curious.</p>
<p>Middle Class guy here. Being a low EFC family actually helps at the big aid schools, so I’m not sure were the problem lies.Also you bandy words like white and Cuban around,. Whether or not your son can gain entrance to a Cal State school has nothing to do race. I believe the stats are good enough to for admissions to a Mid UC like UCSB. $9K a year for a UCSB education must be considered good news. Good Luck.</p>
<p>My D received excellent merit aid from Univ of Montana. It was by far her best award offer. She also got good merit aid from Montana State. Both are easy apps to do in an afternoon. Her stats were nowhere near your S. She also had an unconventional transcript with no A P classes but Community College classes. She got nothing from Boulder but we don’t qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee is a very nice school. Really trying to increase its diversity and a great financial aid policy. </p>
<p>But for a kid that is interested in game design or engineering and looking for a school without much drinking. I’m sorry, I can’t see W&L being that school. In any way shape or form. </p>
<p>What about St. Michaels in Burlington VT?</p>
<p>I don’t know if it has been suggested yet, but some of the colleges on the Colleges that Change Lives list might be good fits. Not sure about the merit/financial aid aspects. </p>
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<p>Where, I wonder, are you getting your impressions of what the school’s “philosophy and balance” are? If it is from something like Sowell’s book, I think you may be getting a fairly distorted view. Sowell seems to view the mere existence of a Women’s Studies department, for example, as a strike against the ability of <em>anyone</em> on campus to think the way he considers to be “right.” :)</p>
<p>Yes, a hard-drinking, Southern school with a dominant–and very traditional in the social elitism, lack of diversity way–frat scene may be likely to have more Republicans on campus, but those hardly seem to go hand in hand with Christian values, at least as I understand them. </p>
<p>I guess it also depends on what you mean by “swing way left.” When I hear that, I think maybe Hampshire or Oberlin. Grinnell and Davidson et al would seem fairly centrist, as colleges go</p>
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<p>I have the same question. I know that OP is on the left coast, but there’s no better way to get a feel for a school’s “philosophy and balance,” not to mention atmosphere and culture, than a personal visit, possibly including an overnight and sitting in on a class or two. Trying to figure out these subjective qualities by reading books or asking for second or third-hand opinions can lead to some very skewed perceptions.</p>
<p>I’m sure it was mentioned long ago, but USC sounds perfect for game design, he has the stats, and they meet 100% need. It’s never a sure thing based on admittance rate, but hopefully he’s applied already or will consider it.</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, for better or worse, I get my info from both Niche and my older son, who seems to have friends at various schools all over the country. I had used the book, Choosing the Right College, but I don’t find it to be necessarily accurate or up to date. Regardless, my son said not to rule anything out, so we’ll look at the various suggestions.</p>
<p>I actually already filed the CSS Profile because Northeastern required it for EA. Well, of course the scores didn’t get released in time for my son to be considered for EA, so it was for naught. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know what I’m looking for when I look at the Profile. Is there supposed to be an EFC somewhere on it?</p>
<p>Consolation, correct! Being conservative and Republican have nothing to do with being a Christian, but that is for another thread in another forum. :-)</p>
<p>UCSB’s college of creative studies might be a good way to go. A friend’s S went there and did very well.
<a href=“https://ccs.ucsb.edu/”>https://ccs.ucsb.edu/</a></p>
<p>SoMuch2Learn,</p>
<p>USC was on again off again, but ultimately, my son did not complete the supplement by December 1, so he will not apply. They gapped us considerably.</p>
<p>Upthread, the point was made about getting real in terms of expecting to take out loans. Perhaps yes. I was just trying to do one last sweep of possibilities that might include less than 5K+ loans per year.</p>
<p>Re. accommodations-my son gets them at the college, but he hasn’t used them. At this point, he just informs his teachers about his diabetes and knows that extra time on math tests won’t help his brain know math better. </p>
<p>And you’re right about visiting. Won’t happen until after acceptances, tho. No money in the budget to do those things. He’s been to two campuses and both are on the list.</p>
<p>Thanks again, all. Good stuff.</p>
<p>Sorry-should have said it’s too late to apply to more UCs. He applied to UCI, UCSD and UCLA. UCI has the CS Game Design. That’s my personal favorite school, <em>if</em> my son ends up with a decent grade in his pre-calc class. This was a make or break class. There’s no way a kid with his disability should be doing what he’s done so far. (For a recap, he had a 14%ile in computation and 98%ile in reasoning on WIAT II) He works <em>so</em> hard in math and has always had tutors (brother and a friend) to help him through his classes. He finally is learning to reach out to professors, too. This has been a wonderfully hard year and he’s learned so much about self advocacy. </p>
<p>With your stats, you might qualify for Berea College. My income is approximately the same as yours. I have 5 kids, but none in college until next year. Their calculator suggested we’d be eligible. The University of Kentucky is between our house and Berea, though, and UK offers full rides for NMFs, so my son wasn’t really interested in Berea. What about Baylor?</p>
<p>OP- I know I’ve made this suggestion before but at the risk of boring you I’ll make it again-</p>
<p>You are trying to slice the onion WAY too thin.</p>
<p>1- I get a kid not wanting to be at a place like Hampshire or Bard or Evergreen which are small, somewhat “counter culture” for lack of a better term, and where a kid from far away might feel marginalized. But you are rejecting schools for not having the right vibe (or for being too drinky/druggy) based on very poor information. Every college (even BYU) will have kids who drink. So if you don’t want your son at a college with booze, he’ll need to continue being homeschooled. At every other college, he will make good choices, and at places like Swarthmore, Conn College, Oberlin, Carlton, where I think he’d find tons of other interesting things to do, it becomes a non-issue. And the political thing? Ignore it. Unless it’s a college with a Freshman class of 200 kids, all avowed liberal democrats, there will be diverse political opinions everywhere. I went to Brown back in the 70’s where the media was reporting on student protests and sit-in’s and flag burnings and god knows what every week and guess what- this was a tiny microcosm of what really went on. A couple of kids protesting and everyone else going to class, watching “Casablanca” on a tiny black and white TV in the lounge, volunteering to teach 5 year olds to read in bad inner city schools, i.e. like every other college.</p>
<p>And Vassar? I think your son would love it.</p>
<p>2- I personally think that having a kid with a chronic medical condition be far away is a mistake but this is not my child. Far away is relative- but three hour drive? four hour drive? two hour plan ride? What is your personal tolerance during an emergency?</p>
<p>3- I think you need to trade off the somewhat long list of potential majors with your need for no debt. Your son can become a game designer without majoring in game design. Your son can become virtually everything on his list without majoring in it. So to try and predict what’s going to happen in a year when he comes home for Christmas Freshman year and announces that he’s switching to the College of Agronomy… like most Freshman… so I’d let this one go. He will find something wonderful to major in. Find a college which is big and has lots of “cool stuff” and he’ll find his people.</p>
<p>4- You cannot extrapolate what will happen in the merit game from one single datapoint. First- the UTD might be an error. Second- colleges use merit as a way of shaping their class in a way that other forms of aid don’t allow them to do. Maybe the “homeschooled from California” category was oversubscribed. So let this go- and wait to see what happens.</p>
<p>5- Agree that in general, you will be far happier with the package from the “meets full need” schools than trying to predict the merit money. And if your son has a rocky year and his grades dip below some cut off- then what? You are on safer ground with need based aid. Unless your income goes up dramatically you know what you are looking at with some precision.</p>
<p>Others have posted some awesome suggestions. But if it were my kid- being near a major airport or within a drive from home would be number 1 .</p>
<p>I have to agree with the above comments. Give all your requirements, financial , selectivity , socio-political , course of study , cultural , etc. seems like continuing to home school (on line augmented with cc classes) is the ideal choice. </p>