Hi all. I’ve been perusing this thread for awhile as it’s very informative. Now, my family is down to the nitty gritty as DS will apply this week; I’d appreciate advise. My son is in a very competitive high school in Illinois. He has taken the SAT 3 times (bombed the 2nd one due to illness) and doesn’t want to do it again. He would like to major in accounting in order to get his CPA then go on to law school. He wanted to major in Finance but we persuaded him to get his CPA just in case he doesn’t go on to law school… Here are his stats:
SAT: CRW 730 + M 660 = 1390
GPA: 3.65 (his GPA has increased yearly taking a nice leap Jr. year. He has Mono freshman year and got a pretty bad concussion playing hockey Sophmore year which account for some of his sluggish grades).
Honors since freshman year and will have a total of 5 AP tests upon graduation. I would assume his scores will be at least 4’s. He has taken 2 so far and received 4’s.
EC’s: Working with developmentally disabled (300+ hrs since freshman yr)
Assistant Captain hockey team
Is that GPA weighted or unweighted? Is the SAT single sitting or superscored? What is his budget? What types of schools is he interested in? UIUC has an excellent business school (hard to get in, though), and NIU has a very good accounting program. Does he WANT to be an accountant?
CONTINUED
I’m so embarrassed, I don’t know what happened there…
Varsity hockey 4 years
Coaching youth hockey 4 years (over 300 hrs)
Youth Ministry at Church co-lead in 2 year old room
National Honor Society
Recipient of Peabody Award 3 years in a row for German Studies
there’s more but these are his major contributions
Work: Hockey Officiator since the age of 14.
He will have 2 excellent recommendations from German and English Lit Teachers
We do not have much saved for college. We were saving but had some serious unforeseen employment issues during the recession. We are just recovering, really. But we will help in every way that we can. We are hoping for some merit money but are realistic. We know there are lesser schools that will give him good money but… we want him to go to a “good” school.
Here is our list so far:
UIUC (I can’t believe it, but I’m a little worried he won’t get in direct admit)
Marquette (I don’t know if it will be affordable)
IU Kelly Business school (he will be a direct admit but I’m not sure it will be affordable)
Western Michigan (he has friends there and I understand he would get a crazy amount of money there, making it the most affordable… but I don’t think it’s a good school).
Emory is the reach school
Ohio State (he would get money just not sure how much)
So that’s the list so far. If someone has anything to add, I would greatly appreciate it. Oh, and he would prefer to be in an urban area and a mid-size school. However, he’s open to larger schools, just doesn’t care about greek life or football. He does love the city. We can’t afford DePaul nor do I feel it’s a good school. My husband won’t hear of UIC, his alma mater. My husband attended UIC because he paid for it himself. He doesn’t like the school. My son likes Marquette the best… I just don’t know if it’s doable.
Well, most kids we know pick a major. If he hates it, then we certainly wouldn’t make him continue. This is just the plan right now as his goal is corporate law. Thank you for your response.
He wants to go into corporate law, so his thought was finance. However, we have had a lot of input from friends in finance and accounting and understand that getting a CPA will give him an edge. That’s why he’s decided go accounting rather than finance. If he doesn’t like it, I suppose he will go a different route. His GPA is weighted and that is all our school reports. Also, our school does not rank. We would like to keep the all in cost under $30,000. I have heard that NIU has a good business school. It’s not considered a very good school though, around here.
Is he in the top 10% of his class? The Ohio State merit aid has become more competitive and a standardized test score alone no longer garners merit aid.
Our school does not rank. However, a friend of ours son got in this year with similar stats and received merit aid. I’ve looked at their website and it seems pretty clear cut. He has to be in the top 25% of his class, which I’m sure he is.
Be prepared to do a financial aid appeal documenting your circumstances during the recession if there was a significant period of unemployment as some schools will take that into consideration.
You can also look at schools where your son can commute or a community college as low price tag options. Cheap undergrad is important when you are planning on law school.
If you really want to play the game, have him apply to another midwest Catholic U or two that compete for the same students, then you may be able to use one financial aid offer to get a better deal at another.
He’d probably get enough merit at Xavier to come in around $30,000. Good business school. Dayton is also good but probably will come in higher than that even with maximum merit. Duquesne should also be around $30,000 after merit. Good business program, nice downtown Pittsburgh location.
The National Buckeye is competitive, not automatic so he needs to be top 25% just to be considered.
“Applicants who meet the criteria and apply to the university by November 1 will automatically be considered.”
The university has been reducing merit dollars to increase need based aid and additional stackable scholarships like the trustees have actually shrunk as well as requiring higher stats for consideration.
Oh thank you AroundHere. Yes, I forgot, we are applying to SLU as I understand they are a direct rival. I did the net price calculator at Marquette but didn’t feel it was probably too accurate as we haven’t completed the FAFSA yet. My husband started it last night and will complete today. It looked like they would gift him $18,688, but again, my numbers were a ballpark. I’m going to do it again after my husband completes the FAFSA. Thank you for that bit of information about the recession. We will for sure document that info!
Parent of Attorney here. Her major was religion And it did not hurt her in admissions or getting a job after law school.
Unless he is looking to do intellectual property or tax, he can major in anything he wants and go to law school because only 2 things matter-LSAT and GPA. He does not have to major in finance to do corporate law. Learned in hindsight keep your costs and debt as low as possible because most of the top law schools give mostly need based aid. This means your income and assets will determine how much aid he gets.
Your goal as others mentioned is to run the net price calculator to see what is affordable especially so nice you have 7 years of check writing ahead
Thank you AroundHere. You’ve been very kind. What is a CSS? Sorry. is that the FAFSA? Sorry, again. And, I received a couple of derogatory comments about my “persuading” my DS into accounting. So, his goal is Corporate Law. That’s what HE wants to do. In researching degrees that are the “best” for entering law school, Accounting seems to be high on the list. DS wanted to go Finance, but from the advice given to us, it seems Accounting would be the solid choice just in case he decides not to pursue law school. It doesn’t mean he has to become a CPA; it’s more flexible than finance. What are your thoughts?
Thank you sybbie719, that’s very helpful! Honestly, my understanding is that it DOES matter what he majors in (looking at majors listing the best and worst to gain admittance to law school). Now, you raise an interesting point…