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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]
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.[/quote]
Ouch.  And yes, I am new to college admissions.  I'm relieved that my kid is perfectly content with the state flagship.  I really just didn't want to sell my kid short by doing a one and done application to the state school without seeing what else might work for us.   All of the ivies seem to think that we can afford something in the $30k-$40k neighborhood.  To me, that feels like a huge stretch and a bad ROI compared to the expected nearly free ride at the state school.  The UC schools are definitely a no go, as they would give minimal or no aid and be more expensive than the ivies.  I know almost nothing about SLACs.  [/quote]

Here's the thing:
My Test Optional /3.85uw (private) kid got into several of the schools listed above (Northwestern, MI, UCLA, Vanderbilt and USC).....not from California either. Full pay.
The key was outstanding ECs and a tight "fit to major" narrative; stellar LOR. And a humanities major.[/quote]

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