If DC will attend school out-of-state, is it best to go public or private?

[Anonymous]

We live in MD. Daughter is interested in James Madison U and College of William and Mary (this will be a TOUGH sale). She's also interested in exploring options in Pennsylvania: Villanova, University of Pittsburgh, LeHigh.

If we are destined to pay out-of-state rates, is it best to go public or private? The goal is finding an institution that will offer the most "free money". Daughter takes AP courses, has a 3.5-3.7 GPA (I'm guessing, but it's in this range) and scored a 1530 on the SAT (she didn't study, she just wanted to "test" it out. Will study and take again in the fall..hoping for a score in the 1700's).

[Anonymous]

This will depend largely on your financial profile and other hooks your DD has (URM maybe?). I don't think private or public will make that much difference. I suspect you will do better farther away though where schools might be looking for geographic diversity. A MD student in Pennsylvania or Virginia is a dime a dozen, but if you look in Michigan, or Ohio, or Minnesota for example you might have better luck. With okay grades and not great scores you need to be looking for some other hook just to get in, much less get scholarship money.

[Anonymous]

I agree with some earlier posters that the costs would be pretty much the same for private vs. public. If you really want her to get money -- you should invest in a prep course to have her try to get higher SAT scores. Did you mean 1530 for 2 sections or 3 sections? Big difference. If just 2 -- you can expect money; if 3 -- she should try again.

Good luck. Ask the high school counselor for scholarship ideas.

[Anonymous]

Maybe your free money can come in the way of financial aid. But my DD, with a 3.5 GPA and 1200 (on Math and CR) from a VA public often mentioned here got zero money anywhere and was not accepted to JMU (you'll have better luck OOS). Our DD ended up at an OOS public that has a much better national reputation/ranking (according to any ranking we could find) than JMU. We pay $32-35,000 all things considered. She's very happy, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

it's going to depend school by school. Generalizations are just that, and when it come down to your child's specific situation at a specific school, generalizations mean bumpkiss. My daughter got bucketloads of money from a school in Wisconsin, nothing from a school in Indiana, some from a school in Vermont (all privates). The school in Indiana had the largest endowment of the 3, but the one in Wisconsin had a specific scholarship that my daughter qualified for.

[Anonymous]

Your daughter sounds like a good candidate for the ACT. Many of the schools you mention will look at the highest scores on either test. She'd be iffy at all these schools unless she can pull up the test scores well over 1700.

[Anonymous]

With the grades/sat scores you posted, most of those schools really seem like a reach unless you're an URM.

[Anonymous]

Agree that without a hook, JMU, W&M, Villanova, Lehigh and Pitt are (varying degrees of, but still) way out of reach for SAT scores in the 1100 range (for Math + CR) and 3.6ish GPA.

[Anonymous]

OP are you talking weighted or unweighted GPA? How many APs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that without a hook, JMU, W&M, Villanova, Lehigh and Pitt are (varying degrees of, but still) way out of reach for SAT scores in the 1100 range (for Math + CR) and 3.6ish GPA.

You don't necessarily need a 3.6 to get into JMU, Villanova or Pitt, but it would be tough with those SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that without a hook, JMU, W&M, Villanova, Lehigh and Pitt are (varying degrees of, but still) way out of reach for SAT scores in the 1100 range (for Math + CR) and 3.6ish GPA.

You don't necessarily need a 3.6 to get into JMU, Villanova or Pitt, but it would be tough with those SATs.

Based on DD's experience a year ago, it would be impossible to get into those schools with 1100 range SATs and 3.7 GPA.

[Anonymous]

Well, Pitt's tuition for an out of state student is between $24k and $27k (depending on major). Room and board is just under $10k. So call it $35k a year to attend.

Villanova's tuition alone is $42k. So is Lehigh's. So yeah, I'd say it's worth at least exploring the public's, even as an out of state student. They'd have to offer you $15-18k more in "free" money than Pitt to make the cost comparable. Unless you are impoverished, or qualify for very targeted scholarship money, it seems unlikely with middle of the road grades and SAT scores.

She could also consider some of the smaller state schools in PA, tuition there is more like $14,000 for out of state students and the colleges are different sizes and different environments so she could find one that fits her.
http://www.passhe.edu/Pages/map.aspx

[Anonymous]

bump - anyone want to add to this..I'm looking down the same path...

[Anonymous]

I just went through the process with DD. With OP’s DDs GPA and test scores I’d concentrate on finding a college that will accept her and then try to get money. I don’t think any of the OP listed colleges would accept her daughter. 500's in the SATs is really low. I agree with PP, try the ACT. Hate to sound harsh, but getting shut out would be awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe your free money can come in the way of financial aid. But my DD, with a 3.5 GPA and 1200 (on Math and CR) from a VA public often mentioned here got zero money anywhere and was not accepted to JMU (you'll have better luck OOS). Our DD ended up at an OOS public that has a much better national reputation/ranking (according to any ranking we could find) than JMU. We pay $32-35,000 all things considered. She's very happy, FWIW.

This is exactly our case with DS.