I ran net price calculators like suggested....

[nancy in nj]

Also, you definitely don't have to put your dd in public school to boost her admission chances at any of the schools you mentioned, with the possible exception of Wake Forest.  Chapel Hill definitely does not penalize homeschoolers....my dd's work study job her freshman year was with the admission department yield team, doing recruiting events for other high stats NC students.  They were fully aware that she had  been homeschooled,  and her job involved interacting with high stats NC applicants from all types of schools.  The admissions departments at all the NC state schools are used to dealing with homeschoolers, and it is really not a big deal, assuming she is a competitive applicant.  

 

The only problems I have observed locally are situations in which the family has no idea what a rigorous schedule or competitive applicant looks like and bases their standards on the reality of the parents' high school years without any awareness that the expectations have changed. (For example, a student applying to NC State's engineering school, with no Calculus or Physics during high school, no SAT II math 2 scores, avg for NC state SAT/ACT math scores--not realizing that the engineering school math scores should be much higher than the overall NC State average).  Guaranteed, these are not folks who hang out on the WTM board at all!

 

I definitely hear you on the difficulty of finding safety schools.  Really, if your dd is competitive for Emory and Duke, then you are fairly safe with UNC and NC State as 2 safeties, assuming she would not be applying to NC State's engineering school.  Chances are she will get into one or the other.  Looking at some less competitive NC state schools is an option....the issue, of course, is whether your dd would be happy at a school with less accomplished peers.  Yes, I know that there are accomplished kids at every school, but the fact is that in NC, most top students go to Chapel Hill or NC State or head off to private schools or out-of-state flagships.  My dd thrives on having high-achieving peers, so less competitive state schools wouldn't have worked for her.  The other suggestion is to eliminate your geographic restrictions and cast a wide net--we definitely would have taken this path if my dd did not have serious health issues preventing it.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Then you are fairly safe with UNC and NC State as 2 safeties, assuming she would not be applying to NC State's engineering school.  Chances are she will get into one or the other.  Looking at some less competitive NC state schools is an option....the issue, of course, is whether your dd would be happy at a school with less accomplished peers.  Yes, I know that there are accomplished kids at every school, but the fact is that in NC, most top students go to Chapel Hill or NC State or head off to private schools or out-of-state flagships.  My dd thrives on having high-achieving peers, so less competitive state schools wouldn't have worked for her.  The other suggestion is to eliminate your geographic restrictions and cast a wide net--we definitely would have taken this path if my dd did not have serious health issues preventing it.

 

 

She isn't interested in engineering.  I have no idea why.  She loves math but she always shuns the idea of engineering.  I think she could get into NC State as a safety as long as she isn't looking at a competitive program.  She is more likely to go into accounting than engineering.  *If* she can get into a school where simply the education and connections from being there can get you places (internships, etc), she'd probably make the gamble and be an English/creative writing major.  I do have concern with the peer group at a non-competitive school.  She is very bright and not in the way that means testing well but not loving education.  She LOVES to learn.  She is always learning, always discussing, always researching.  She yearns for higher ed not to get a job or for the college "experience", she wants to learn more and be around people who also love to learn.  She doesn't really have that IRL here.  Her peers could care less about the things that interest her :(

[raptor_dad]

again....bad wording, I edited.  I just mean the over-the-top competitive stuff that you hear about for those who get big merit scholarships.  We won't have that.  One of the main reasons...money, money, money.

 

DD gets catalog after catalog in the mail about summer programs and she drools but we just can't.  She is limited because of finances.  We can't produce a transcript where she has "done" a lot...all we can do is show who she is and her academics.  She mentors a group of middle school girls, she is a self taught artist (and she is talented), she is taking AP classes and she will take some SAT sub tests for validity but other than that we don't have anything big and merit worthy.  If that makes sense?  She has great standardized tests grades.  That's about it.

 

ETA - I wrote this before your last reply. 

 

If you are in NC, you might check out http://www.summerventures.org. I did that back in the 80s and it was comparable to TIP/CTY in quality but free. I have no idea if they are homeschool friendly but if you have good test scores it might be an option. For me, a free 4 week residential math/science camp was huge...  It is for rising juniors and seniors but this years deadline has passed, so it may be too late :(

[Tsuga]

She isn't interested in engineering.  I have no idea why.  She loves math but she always shuns the idea of engineering.  I think she could get into NC State as a safety as long as she isn't looking at a competitive program.  She is more likely to go into accounting than engineering.  *If* she can get into a school where simply the education and connections from being there can get you places (internships, etc), she'd probably make the gamble and be an English/creative writing major.  I do have concern with the peer group at a non-competitive school.  She is very bright and not in the way that means testing well but not loving education.  She LOVES to learn.  She is always learning, always discussing, always researching.  She yearns for higher ed not to get a job or for the college "experience", she wants to learn more and be around people who also love to learn.  She doesn't really have that IRL here.  Her peers could care less about the things that interest her :(

 

Totally off-topic but your DD might like analytic philosophy / pre-law or analytic philosophy / analytics for a major. You get to learn about everything and anything and it's in high demand. Very rigorous courses, but learning focused. And phil majors and stats majors score extremely high on the GRE. It might be a nice balance for a well-rounded intellect.

[katilac]

I do worry to some extent about vast amounts of institutional financial aid, simply because it's reevaluated year after year. I don't know how likely it is that there would be a big change from one year to the next, but I do prefer merit aid that spells out it is renewable for four years as long as you meet the requirements.