Rising Sophomore and I am really worried about one thing with admissions...
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Anonymous
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My DS is doing very well in high school and wants to apply to in-state science and engineering programs. No standardized test scores yet but excellent GPA, some extracurriculars, etc. We are upper middle class and DH and I both have undergraduate degrees from SLACs and grad degrees from LACs. We have been saving for college since he was a baby and have enough saved for his undergraduate goals. We cannot afford undergrad programs like the ones that we attended. The cost has skyrocketed too much and we cannot do it without risking our retirement savings, which we will not do. We do not want to be a burden on our kids when we are old.
Is our DS going to be put into a LAC/SLAC admissions bucket just because we have degrees from those places? I keep reading about students with excellent GPAs and high test scores getting WL by the in state programs. DH will not inherit anything and I have already received my inheritance and put it all towards my DS's 529. We do not expect to receive any financial aid based on net priced calculators. We are already getting pressured by DH's family and my more distant relatives to ask for gifts from my family for private college and I will not do this. I have no reason to believe that they have the ability to help and I don't want to ask. |
Anonymous
| Hunt for merit aid after your son has a score on the books. College Confidential would be a good place to start. |
Anonymous
Huh? You think state schools don't admit kids with parents who went to private colleges??? |
Anonymous
| congratulations, you're the donut hole family that people on this board claim doesn't exist. We're in the same position, would could stretch to afford to send DDs to the SLAC we attended, but it would mean liquidating a lifetime of savings in addition to 529s. They will have to go instate or to a school that offers merit. |
Anonymous
| Is your DC in a public or private HS? |
Anonymous
If OP or spouse received significant merit aid, yes they keep records and no, their DC will not receive merit aid. It’s not an entitlement. |
Anonymous
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OP, my best advice to you is to take a deep breath, and try really hard to buy into the panic or the doom and gloom you read on this forum.
Your kid will get into a state school. The in state schools will not care one iota about what kind of college you and your DH attended. Start embracing the concept NOW that there is only one or two "acceptable" schools for your kid to attend, and that anything else is a huge disappointment. Yes, it is possible that you kid might not get into the "flagship" state school, but that does not mean that they won't have a successful life. Also, as some have pointed out, there are some instances where the costs at some privates can be close to the in-state. Pull up come colleges, and run the cost calculators, plugging in your estimated numbers. It will help you get a better sense. It will be fine--truly! 
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Anonymous
| No one is going to know or care where you went to college so I don’t see how that enters into it. |
Anonymous
| Wow OP - what other completely unnecessary things do you worry about? |
Anonymous
| In state and merit. You will be fine. Hire a good college consultant to get college merit aid. |
Anonymous
I also do not understand your concern. Who would be putting them into a LAC bucket?? The schools that your kid applies to don't even know where you went, unless he tells them. |
Anonymous
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very strange post... in state schools certainly do accept kids like your son, and even OOS state schools will, which are going to be less expensive in general and maybe have merit offerings as well.
where you went to school means nothing... and there are literally options for every price range imaginable. |
Anonymous
| OP here- he goes to an unknown private school. Max amount of honors courses permitted. Not big 3. We enrolled him because of the pandemic and now he wants to stay. It’s cheap enough that even if we withdrew him and sent him to neighborhood public, saving that amount each year would not make the difference between public in state and private. |
Anonymous
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Also OP- college applications ask where your parents went and what degrees they have.
They want this information for some reason. |
Anonymous
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OP stop just stop.
There are tons of instate schools and tons of schools that give merit. Public and private. You are being ridiculous or a troll. Nothing wrong at all with an in-state school. Why in the world would you think they care about SLAC's or what school you went to? Instate schools are data-driven, GPA and SAT or ACT that's it. Your bigger issue is the private he is at. Where do those students go to college? What schools does that private track too? |