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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Our mistake was giving any weight whatsoever to the “chances calculators” (Prepscholar is one)[/b] that gave our first false hope at some schools that were frankly out of his league. Don’t even bother with those. They are worthless and misleading. Go to the common data sets of schools of interest. Note in particular the percentage from the top decile/quarter/half of high school class and in each band of SAT score. If the kid isn’t in the top ten percent of HS class and 85% of enrolled students are, then (absent a special talent or appeal) it’s a longshot. We did that analysis after the fact and it became immediately clear that my first had overshot, essentially applying to all, or nearly all, reaches. (He ended up at a mid 20’s SLAC and a great match, so no great calamity. But it was a rough couple of weeks plowing through the ‘we regret...’ emails.)

As for cost, the CDS also has number of students receiving merit aid and average amount. If you need merit aid that will tell the tale. Many technically offer merit aid but a quick look reveals that it’s offered to only one or two students. Ooh lookie, Bowdoin DOES offer merit aid...to 8 students...a thousand bucks each. Cool. [/quote]

Doesn't your school have Naviance? That was very accurate for us.[/quote]

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