<p>I am a high school junior, and I have just started my college search process. I am a 1st generation college student so this is all very new to me. I hate to say it but my biggest factor in deciding on a school is the cost. My family is not well off, and the burden of paying for college will be mostly placed on myself. I really want to avoid paying off college for the rest of my life. I live in Connecticut so the obvious solution would be to live at home and commute to some of my state's public universities. What it makes my situation tricky is that I absolutely can not see myself anywhere besides UCONN, and UCONN is becoming more and more difficult to get in to. Plus the idea of living at home for another 4 years makes me cringe. I would love to go to a university outside of CT, but still in the northeast. I know I am probably out of luck but if you all have any suggestions it would help a lot. </p>
<p>Here are a few of my stats as of freshman and sophomore year (I am doing a lot better academically this year and these stats have probably increased):
G.P.A: 3.31
Class Rank: 101/270
PSAT Score: 170
Projected SAT Score: 1870
1 A.P Class at B+ Average (haven't taken exam yet) </p>
<p>If your family is not well off, you may qualify for enough need-based aid to make many private schools around the same cost as UConn. There are a number of Online EFC (estimated family contribution) estimators for fnancial aid; Google them and see if it looks as though you need to focus on in-state publics.</p>
<p>First thing you should do is visit Uconn and the satelite campuses that you might go to at an open house and listen to the presentations, especially housing. The deal with the uconn satelites is you go to the other campus for 1-2 years and after the 2nd year you are GUARANTEED to go to the Storrs campus. I have been told you can apply to go to Storrs after the 1st but I am not positive. Also, while the other campuses dont have dorms, most have agreements with local apartment complexes, for 9 month leases, help finding roommates etc. They are NOT totally commuter campuses in the truest sense of the word. My son actually likes the local campus more than what he saw at Storrs… says it looks more like Fairfield U.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine doing better than U Conn. If you look at the admissions stats of places like Fairfield and Quinnipiac, which are schools that would seem like the best realistic private choices for you in CT, the students are very much comparable to those admitted to U Conn, but the cost is at least three times as much, depending on whether you do two years at a satellite campus and live at home. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to have the stats to get into the privates with really deep pockets–Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, et al–and that is what you would need to bring the cost of a private college down to the U Conn level or below.</p>
<p>I would certainly apply to a couple of privates that seem to have good FA, and see how the numbers came out, but I have the feeling that U Conn–whether Storrs or satellite campus then Storrs–is going to be your best bet. </p>
<p>Some less expensive privates you might look at include Clark (MA), Duquesne ¶, Bryant (RI), Juniata ¶, St Bonaventure (NY), and Alfred (NY). Alfred, in particular, is very highly rated for FA.</p>
<p>I just don’t see it as worth racking up a lot of debt to go to, say, Quinnipiac or Fairfield at about $45K vs U Conn at about $17K. The schools I list above are more like $30K. Another possibility would be some of the SUNYs, such as Stonybrook, Albany, and Buffalo, which are all in the $18-19K bracket depending on what happens with OOS tuition.</p>
<p>You should ask your guidance counselor if CT participates in a regional tuition exchange. If it does, you would be able to apply to public universities in the participating states and pay in-state tuition IF you want to study something that is not offered by any public U in CT. For example, students in MD go out of state for Meteorology and Fashion Merchandising under our regional agreement.</p>