Mary writes:

Our daughter has been a B+ student, but this fall of her senior year, she
had gotten C+’s in Honors Eng & Honors Spanish. She’s applying to some top
schools. We are all wrestling with whether she should now apply to an
easier to get into college. Thanks for your ideas.

Dear Mary,

Thanks for writing. Without knowing specifics, I would say that applying to a number of safety schools is always a good idea. It only costs time if you can get a fee waiver, and may end up being essential if more ambitious choices don’t work out.

There are a number of metrics used in determining a safety school, but one (perhaps overly) simple way may be to check the 25th-75th percentile SAT/ACT and GPA (two important factors taken into account by admissions committees, the former of which can be found in the U.S. News college ranking). If your daughter’s scores fall at or below the 25th percentile, you could consider it a reach school; if they exceed or match the 75th percentile, you could consider it a safety school and if they are somewhere in the middle, a match.

This is by no means a scientific calculation, but may be a useful metric to follow.

If your daughter is not applying to any school for which she exceeds the 75th percentile for both SAT and GPA, you may want to strongly consider adding one or more true safety schools to the equation.

Thanks for writing. I wish you and your daughter the best of luck.

Anne writes:

My oldest son is a transfer student… He missed the Sept. deadline and also the fafsa deadline but wants to attend in January as his first semester there.(he has been accepted) The school for out of state students is more expensive than we can afford and he needs financial aid. Is there a way to still apply for fafsa at this late date for the new semester?
Thank you for your time.
Anne

Dear Anne,

While it is generally important to file your application on time, some schools will still award financial aid after the deadline. File as soon as possible and contact the transfer school’s financial aid department, explain your situation, and see what they can do for you — they will almost certainly try to be acomodating. If that doesn’t work out, he could put off starting and get some interesting work experience in the meantime.

Good luck!

Peter, a high school junior from NYC, writes:

“I’m starting to look into where I want to go to college and I’m trying to decide what’s better, bigger or smaller. Thanks.”

Well, Peter, the first question on College Chat and I can’t even give you a definite answer! That’s because one isn’t necessarily better than the other. It a matter of individual preference. While some students might thrive in a small, inimate environment, some might feel at home in the middle of a bustling, city-like campus. For others, it might not make a difference.

Most likely, however, deciding whether to attend a large or small school is a crucial decision. You have to ask yourself a few important questions:

• Would I mind seeing the same people day after day after day–no matter where I am on campus?
• Would I be bothered walking around campus and not seeing a familiar face?
• Was my high school large or small? Did I feel comfortable in that size school, or would I have preferred it to have more/less students?
• Would I feel uncomfortable with professors knowing my name, or be bothered if they didn’t?

Also, visit one or two large campuses, a couple small ones, and a few in between to get a better idea of where you feel most at home. Visiting is the single best way to determine your preference–aside from, or course, attending!

It also might be a good idea to do an overnight visit if that’s an option (many overnight programs are only available for seniors or even admitted students, though, so it might not be).

Good luck, and feel free to ask for advice again in the future.

P.S. You might also want to refer to last month’s College Chat article, College Visits.