Does your DS like Chapel Hill? DD has been on that campus so much so she should know if she would like it, right? She finds it too crowded and she has a horrible sense of direction and thinks it is the worst campus in the world to navigate :lol: So many kids love CH, but she just really would rather go to State or Furman or Wake or somewhere else.

She is definitely applying, She is even putting her name in for Park and Goodnight. She knows that she is unlikely to get those and she knows that unless a magic fairy pops up and reduces our cost, we simply can't pay for her to be there. It is one of the schools that with her stats is a safety for admissions (only because we are in state) but we can't dare think of it as a financial safety. DD isn't a school snob, she just knows that finances are a big deal. She was excited about UAH. She will apply as a financial safety. The school she just doesn't want to go to is Chapel Hill. She just hates it. Because of her stats, she is in state, and she has so many contacts there being on campus so much, I truly would be shocked for her to get turned away and it is financially doable for us but she just truly hates it :(

The reason she is aiming for the more selective schools is because of price and not name. Our state flagship that she doesn't want to go to is a fantastic, top ranked school. She simply doesn't like it. It was the only school where I could see a fairly good safety for admissions and finances. It is actually a very selective school but because she is in state and already on a student board and well within their stats, I would be shocked for her to be turned down. I didn't look in detail at state schools because of the OOS cost being so high. I was planning to look at them more if she got NMSF but I wasn't aware that some of them offer similar aid to high stats kids who didn't make NM. One of her favorite schools is NC State but the cost is simply too high. The EFC is over 1.5 times the price for us as Rice or Duke, etc. On top of that, they are counting less for personal expenses, books, and travel.

So frustrating. The only reason DD wants to get into a full need met school (hopefully one without loans) is because our parent contribution is actually too high but by taking on the 5,500 student loan, I think we can cover the difference. The schools where they max out her 5,500 loan and then expect for us to pay a hefty-for-us parent contribution is not going to work. They may offer us parent loans but we simply cannot take them. DH refuses. We have 7,000 in retirement. That is all. We need to start saving for retirement after our kids are out of college and we can't do that if we are saddled with loans from 4 kids.

I've always used the calculator on the school's site - the one created with their own guidelines. Are those not accurate either :wacko:

No ma'am. She had surgery just before the test and was still in rough shape. She was still in the top 1% but was two points shy of our state cut off.

I never said that Rice or Emory would be a full ride. We would pay sacrificially for our family, but it is still cheaper than most other options, including her preferred state school. It is about equal to the state school that she doesn't want to apply to.

Every time I look at UAH, I always think that DS would do well there more than DD but I may require her to apply just as a financial back up. I called and it is automatic. All we would pay is food and books. You can't beat that and being research centered, I am sure their bio program is good. Maybe not the english program though.

She wants to double in Bio and English. UAH is the ideal size that DD is looking for and the honors college seems like a neat choice.

I have a difficult time seeing her drop from a school ranked #38 to #418. Yet, UAH is guaranteed full tuition and housing, I even called to confirm. That's hard not to keep in your back pocket, right?

The UAH app seems to just be a form - no grades, no essays, nothing. Am I seeing this right?

Please tell me more about the Alabama schools. I do see that she would have an automatic tuition and board at Huntsville and that would be a great back up plan. How many of these scholarships do they give? It doesn't seem to me that it is automatic but it seems another scholarship where you compete. Does anyone know which school/schools dd should consider most? Would love to know any thoughts/opinions on any of them :)

We happen to hit that narrow window. For a state school, we aren't on welfare so there isn't much aid but we are still low enough in income that the expensive need-met schools end up cheaper for us than a state school.

We are on the low end of income for the exclusive schools. For some reason, our state school doesn't see that as a problem - every time I run a NPC for a state school they are close to full ticket. I can't see that our state schools have merit aid except for a few very difficult to get full rides that go to kids whose parents had the $ to pay for them to set up a charity in Africa or something similar (a stretch maybe, but not too much). I know that some states offer great merit aid but I am not in one of those states.

I had a friend who went there but he dropped because the debt was piling on him. You might want to double check the financial end for sure. Doesn't Alabama Hunstville have a great aerospace engineering program? Maybe I am thinking of the wrong school?

Her ACT is a 35 (2330 SAT) 4 points higher than Emory's average and 3 points higher than Rice's average but I know without a doubt that this is in no way a guarantee. She is a creative, strong writer so her essays are great. Also, being first generation is a positive for the harder to get into schools. She is an AP Scholar with Distinction because of the amount of AP's she has taken and her scores on them and she has won several writing and science awards. I just know that all of this is no guarantee at these particular schools so dropping the one school that I feel will be a safety financially and for admissions is hard for me. I am not a risk taker though. All I can hope is that those other schools will end up with good aid in the end :confused1:

Seriously??? You all completely failed to just go with this and comfort me :lol: :lol: :lol: I apologize if I left the wrong impression. I wasn't saying that she is only applying to schools with such low admittance rates. What I was trying to say was that the only schools we are sure she can afford are schools with low admission's rates. It seems like there are schools where she will get in and schools we can afford and not many schools fall into both categories at once. She is applying to four schools where she should get in without a problem. I just can't guarantee them financially for her. She is well above the stats for 3 of them so they anticipate she will get nice merit aid.

She just hates it so much. She's been on campus a good bit for nights at a time because she is VP for a state-wide literary magazine board that meets there and she just really, really, really doesn't want to go. She is a super strong/high stats student. So I keep telling myself that this is going.to.be.ok. While I like the idea of having one financial safety that she is 99% likely to get into because we are in state, this is going to be ok, right? The other schools on her list that are great financially are schools like Emory, Rice, etc. where admittance is not a guarantee. Surely she'll get into one of them though, right? :confused1: I am just looking for someone to comfort me really. Just foolishly tell me that this will not be a decision she regrets. :crying: She is skipping it because she hates these particular essays and she wants to hone in and do better on the schools she cares about. Just to answer that question.

Thanks ya'll, I submitted the Fafsa. Once it processes, I can go back and add schools. I am almost done with the CSS profile. I just want to check a few extra things. Thanks :)

Thanks, Chris. This is exactly what I wanted to know. We keep a detailed budget so I know what we paid but when we didn't reach the federal deduction limit I threw out receipts. ugh

Yes, one or a million - it is just one thing to do I suppose :coolgleamA:

Is there a reason to go ahead and submit this far ahead of things? Thanks :)

My brother just graduated last spring and I can tell you that he loved it. It has a strong pre-med program, several of his friends were pre-med. Large christian organizations on campus, I am not sure about the actual percentage of students getting into med school but I bet you can call the admissions office and ask?

9 out of 11 of the schools on dd's list require it :confused1:

Almost all of the schools require CSS and I started into that one last night too and I feel so confused by it. agh!