Hi all, I’m looking for college recommendations and general advice for my younger sister (she’s now finishing her junior year in high school).
Quick stats:
-max 3-4 hours from NYC (unless there REALLY is a good fit)
-costing max $20k/year (with room and board)
-high EFC
~1200 SAT (2 parts)
83/100 unweighted GPA, mix of honors classes/otherwise
-lower scores in math/science
-a bit lost career-wise, leaning towards marketing or social work? Definitely more towards the humanities.
-ideally good support for internships.
-mix of generally artsy ECs (school play, poetry club, playing piano/violin)
She had been extremely interested in studying at FIT as a marketing major up until 6 months ago (and really, it would’ve been a perfect fit for our requirements), but she has since decided that the people there seem too superficial for her.
My parents are concerned about costs. We likely won’t get financial aid, and she probably (?) won’t qualify for scholarships. We’ve been looking at SUNYs but are unsure which would be a good fit for her. We also have started looking at CUNYs but are less familiar with them in general.
Thank you for reading, and I appreciate any help you can offer!
Oh right! I should’ve thought of New Paltz. I have a few friends who went there, and it seems like it would be a good fit.
Any thoughts on Hunter? Her guidance counselor recently recommended it to her, but we’re pretty unfamiliar with it. One of my other sisters has a friend who goes there, so we’ll be asking her, too.
Hunter doesn’t have dorms for most students. I think Macauley and nursing students get preference and living in Manhattan is expensive, so take that into consideration. She could look into CUNY Queens College, which has dorms which are only about 10 years old and which offers a free bus to the railroad/subway into Manhattan. It’s a pretty campus that actually looks like it’s not in the middle of NYC. My D was going to be in the first year of dorms but she opted to go to a way upstate SUNY instead. My H grew up about 10 minutes away from Queens College. It’s a nice area and a very good school.
New Paltz is a good program as well. My D has a friend who is now working as a social worker after graduating from NP.
SUNY Purchase is another option, but you need to look at the programs offered.
Cool, thank you for the tips! Definitely interesting to hear that about CUNY Queens - a school with access the city minus Manhattan’s prices (shudder).
Manhattan college would be an academic fit but I’m not sure in terms of costs. Same for Muhlenberg which would be a great fit but is unlikely to be within budget.
Marist is about 1h30 from NYC.
All three are worth looking into in case she could get a full tuition scholarship due to something in her profile.
(Won’t she be retaking the SAT?)
Within budget, excellent for Humanities but further away than desired: SUNY Geneseo.
Seconding SUNY New Paltz.
If you don’t qualify for financial aid, your best and possibly only choice are the SUNYs and CUNYs. I also recommend your sister look at New Paltz. Its a lovely school and should meet all her requirements.
Hmm, good suggestions. Still definitely need to pick out stretch goals for her.
Thoughts about her retaking the SAT? I’m not fully sure what her plans are (studying abroad right now), but I didn’t think she had put much thought into taking it again/studying more - I think she is quite busy right now (she has her ECs and works at a local pizzeria a fair amount), and there’s a slight worry that a higher score combined with her GPA would make her seem lazy (though she spends a LOT of time on homework). Is that perhaps an unfounded fear?
And any thoughts on Geneseo’s location? I think my family visited it for my older brother around 10 years ago and thought it didn’t have much going on.
SUNYs are FAFSA schools. That means the income of the custodial parent is considered for financial aid. @sybbie719, does the Excelsior use the income of both or just the custodial parent?
One of my friends took her D up to see Geneseo about 10 years ago. On the way into the town, their car rolled off the road and into a ditch. Once they were pulled out, they turned around and went back home. The D went to SUNY Buffalo. My friend jokes that the ditch was the most exciting thing about the town. However, unless things have changed, the student may not get into Geneseo. My D didn’t, with a 1260 SAT and similar GPA, but she got a merit award at the SUNY she did attend.
My D hated New Paltz when we visited. She thought the town was too much like the one we live in and she thought the admissions people were stuck up (I agreed). However, the kids I know who did attend NP uniformly loved it. I think my D just needed to be further away from home.
New Paltz was one of the colleges we visited a couple years ago. My son thought the staff was very friendly and he loved the town. It has a relaxed, artsy vibe. The train to Manhattan is about 15 minutes away, so that might be a draw for your sister. Geneseo is probably a little farther away than she wants.
SAT score are ok. It is the GPA that is low New Palrz, Geneseo, Queens,Hunter and Marist. Due to their popularity and the large number of applications they receive, especially from NYC kids all of those schools will be a stretch for some one with a 83 GPA (B-) average.
Student gpa is low for these schools even for EOP.
While they are further from the city, her chances would be better at Oneonta, Cortland, Potsdam, brockport,fredonia and Plattsburgh.