A hopeless search for schools to apply to...

College Search & Selection
1

Hello! I’m a senior in high school and I’m stressing. I feel like time is running out for admissions and I feel like I hardly have any choices. Any college suggestions would be a great help!!!
Here are my sats:
Weighted GPA: 4.10/4.00 (thanks for the boost @1stsemestergrades) (My school doesn’t give us our unweighted GPAs, but I’d guess it’s somewhere around 3.5 or 3.6)
Act: 31 (E-35, M-27, R-34, S-27)
Illinois resident
I’ve applied to these schools and have been accepted to all of them: Mizzou, University of Iowa, UIUC, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University of Central Florida
So, I’m being kinda picky with my college decisions for someone who’s stats aren’t the best. (I think I’ve tried pretty hard in school, but my preferences are kinda ridiculous I have to admit) But, I would really love if my college had one or two of these things

  • a big school (like around 20,000 students or more)*
  • nature trails on/near it, or a national park of some sort (I love nature a lot, hiking, biking, I just can’t get enough of it)*
  • historic buildings (I also love architecture)
  • I don’t care if it’s could, but long dark winters depress me a lot and I find it hard to function without sunlight (I dang sick of these Illinois winters!!)
  • a big city somewhat nearby
  • a good school, but I’m not expecting an Ivy League or anything, I think UIUC and the U of M at TC are great schools*
    My parents can pay for about 20k a year for college, any other expenses I am going to be paying for myself so the tuition can’t be too crazy
    If anyone has any suggestions for schools it would be a big help, I know I am being wayyyyy too picky, but if the school had one or two things on my list that would be great! I put * by the things most important to me. I am literally open to go anywhere in the USA or even internationally, I’ve always wanted to travel
2

UCF fits all of your requirements EXCEPT historic buildings. Their buildings are very nice, a lot of them newer, and the dorms look great, but definitely not of historic character.

3

Have you used the supermatch tool on left side?

If you add in the federal student loan that would give you $25k for college. Also does the $20k from your parents include paying for transportation, books. and a monthly stipend/living expense? If it does, then you will have to subtract your transportation/books/monthly expenses from the $20k.

4

Also, UIUC, UM Twin Cities, & Univ of Iowa are more than $25k/ per year. I don’t know about the others.

5

Kansas

6

You can also run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at the school’s website to get an estimate of attendance.

Also, what do you want to major in? Sometimes a particular major can be difficult to get into at a university.

7

Have you looked at schools with automatic scholarships?

Here’s the page for University of Alabama-- http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php

8

Automatic scholarship thread on CC
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html#latest

Here are some other popular threads about automatic scholarships and low tuition OOS schools
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

9

Sewanee (at which you would be a solid candidate) boasts historic buildings and unparalleled access to nature/hiking, but it falls short of your ideal in terms of enrollment and location near a big city.

The University of Georgia is a large school located in a celebrated college town that is within easy distance both of the north Georgia mountains (nature) and Atlanta (urban attractions).

10

Did the out of state universities that accept you give you financial aid? If not, they probably will cost more than you can afford. If you want to go out of state and want a big university then look into Univ of Alabama