Hi all,
I just started my second semester of junior year, and I've done a lot of college searching for the past few months or so. After running a couple NPCs, my parents and I have established that there's a significant gap between their EFC (full pay) and what they are willing to pay (~25k/yr, instate flagship costs).
However, they want me to give equal consideration to schools that don't offer merit (or where my stats would make merit a big reach) and to schools that do. I understand why one would visit schools regardless of merit offerings, just to get an idea of her likes and dislikes, but what's the point of spending time and money researching and applying to schools that almost certainly would be unaffordable? They're also encouraging me to look at schools where merit is more likely, but I'm afraid their current strategy is too optimistic, and that come April of 2017 I'll have a few acceptances to unaffordable schools and my state flagship.
I think I have a fairly balanced list in terms of admissions, but it would probably change when looking at it financially (eg. a high match school becomes a reach because I need enough merit money to be able to attend.) I have good but not stellar stats, and maybe they don't realize how competitive the applicant pool actually is.
When I brought this up to them, they said that I'm going about the process wrongly, and that I should apply to schools based only on fit and assume that some will not be affordable. We live in a fairly affluent area, so some more experienced parents can quite literally afford to prioritize fit over finances, and that's what they've told my parents to do. I don't know if I want to put myself through that, but maybe they're right.
Should I try to convince them to only focus on schools where merit aid is more likely to come through, or am I being too cynical about it? I'd really appreciate advice from parents who have gone through/are going through the process themselves.
Hope you're all doing well!
↧