Very high stats kid - which schools should we be considering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the rude responses?

Anyway, it will help if you can give some indications of preferences with respect to class size, geography, and career ambitions beyond the biochem major. Any other color you can lend makes it easier to narrow down potential matches.

I seriously don't know what the deal is with the rude replies.
Kid is at least for now planning on medical research. Western USA. I'm not sure about class size. Kid attends a small school and will probably be shell shocked by a huge college. But kid is also quirky and worried that they won't find friends at a smaller school.

[Anonymous]

Why aren’t you using your college counselor from school as your resource? This is what they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid with similar stats. Whats your budget? We had an annual budget of $50k. CS student from NOVA had the following 8 schools to decide from. Estimated COA per yea after merit or if none was offered:
WM: $40k
UMD: $45K
Ohio St: $45k
UMN: $30K
Pitt: $55k
BU: $60K
CWRU: $55K
Lehigh: $50k

Annual max budget is around $30k. Beyond that, it would be a better ROI to attend the state flagship. HHI is around $150k. Kid is the oldest sibling.

[Anonymous]

Find schools that appeal, then run the net price calculator for your family’s finances. What I paid will not be the same as what you would pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why aren’t you using your college counselor from school as your resource? This is what they do.

Yes. You've repeated this about 4 times. The college counselor is new and not great. So I'm crowdsourcing.

[Anonymous]

If you are looking for NMF full ride at a smaller school, check out the University of Tulsa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the rude responses?

Anyway, it will help if you can give some indications of preferences with respect to class size, geography, and career ambitions beyond the biochem major. Any other color you can lend makes it easier to narrow down potential matches.

Troll fail and/or clueless naive parent post = rude responses on DCUM

[Anonymous]

DP. Just to reiterate, OP, have you already used the Net Price Calculators to verify that top schools are not affordable (without merit)?

[Anonymous]

At $150k, kid would get substantial financial aid at a top Ivy if they can get in. Worth a flier, but far from a certainty.

[Anonymous]

UT Dallas would also be a full ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. Just to reiterate, OP, have you already used the Net Price Calculators to verify that top schools are not affordable (without merit)?

I did for Stanford, and it was a little out of range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. Just to reiterate, OP, have you already used the Net Price Calculators to verify that top schools are not affordable (without merit)?

I did for Stanford, and it was a little out of range.

Try Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the rude responses?

Anyway, it will help if you can give some indications of preferences with respect to class size, geography, and career ambitions beyond the biochem major. Any other color you can lend makes it easier to narrow down potential matches.

Troll fail and/or clueless naive parent post = rude responses on DCUM

OP here, and that's sad. I am a clueless parent. We assumed that my kid would just be attending the state U and didn't look much higher. It was completely unexpected that the kid would end up with such high stats. I'm exactly the type that people should help without being jerks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s with all the rude responses?

Anyway, it will help if you can give some indications of preferences with respect to class size, geography, and career ambitions beyond the biochem major. Any other color you can lend makes it easier to narrow down potential matches.

I seriously don't know what the deal is with the rude replies.
Kid is at least for now planning on medical research. Western USA. I'm not sure about class size. Kid attends a small school and will probably be shell shocked by a huge college. But kid is also quirky and worried that they won't find friends at a smaller school.

go for a SLAC out west then, below T75. They will probably give decent merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As you may be aware, few T20-T50s offer big merit. They are reaches without the financial aspect. The big merit scholarships are super reaches. The lower you look in ranking, the more big merit becomes a possibility.

For T20s, there are big scholarships offered to a few students at Duke, Vandy, WashU. Not sure about others. When you expand to T50, there are big scholarships of varying sizes at places like BC (full tuition, very hard to get), full or half tuition at BU, etc. So, you need to be clear to your student about what would be affordable if a top scholarship came through - can you afford the 20k room and board if there was a full tuition scholarship on the table.

It makes sense to give these merit scholarships a shot, though I'd be planning on one of the NMF full rides, and booking a trip to Tuscaloosa at this point, sell the Alabama experience. I have relatives who attended for the big money and loved it.

Thanks for being the one person willing to give a helpful response. We 100% assumed that we would not be able to afford any top schools, and that the state flagship would be our only affordable and decent enough option. I didn't want to sell my kid short, so I wanted to see what else might be on the table. At least for us, there's no point in applying at all if we're unlikely to be able to afford attending.

I'll still probably ask the moderator to delete this thread. This forum is rough.

PP. Ignore the rude responses - that is very typical for this forum.

Do try the Net Price Calculators at some top schools to see if they'd give enough need-based aid. You might, or might not, be pleasantly surprised. Hard for anyone to guess because your assets also impact the college's need calculation.

Since you may be new to the world of college admissions, just to add something about keeping admission expectations realistic, my kid had 3.98/1570 and was outright rejected from: Brown, Columbia, Vandy, Georgetown, USC, UCLA/UCB/UCSD, and BU. Waitlisted Northwestern, Tufts, Michigan, NYU, Northeastern. We can comfortably afford full pay and did not apply for financial aid anywhere. Planning to attend safety state flagship unless one of the waitlists comes through. What might have made a difference: binding Early Decision (ED), which my kid did not do. If you end up finding that top schools may be affordable with need-based aid, and your kid ends up having a top choice among them, then ED is the way to go.