Another List Help Topic...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm going into my senior year, and I'm planning to major in computer science. My stats aren't extremely impressive, but I seem to be having trouble finding matches. Most colleges are either well above me (Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, MIT, etc.) or not impressive when it comes to computer science.</p>

<p>I live in PA and my stats are as follows:
-4.79 Weighted GPA (not sure what it converts to unweighted, but I've had two B's overall so far, one in AP Calculus AB and one in AP US History)
-2200 SAT
-32 ACT
-National Honors Society, Spanish National Honors Society, and hopefully Tri-M
-Eagle Scout
-taking SAT Subject tests (Physics, Math 2, and possibly Spanish) in October
-part time job
-lots of community service</p>

<p>So far, my list of schools consists of:
Reach: CMU, Cornell, MIT, Stanford
Match/Backup: University of Maryland-College Park, Georgetown, Stevens Institute of Technology, Penn State, Drexel</p>

<p>Thanks for any help in advance, I know there are a ton of these topics.</p>

2

<p>What is your question? Those look like good choices. Can you afford them all?</p>

3

<p>Well, my reaches I’ve had plenty of options and really looked into them, to narrow it down. But my Matches and Safeties I have trouble with… I don’t wanna go to some school where I learn nothing and just waste four years to get a piece of paper that says I have a degree (this is what my older brother is currently doing, but he is moving onto a masters at Pitt at least) I don’t want to pick matches, only to find I can’t get aid. So no, to answer your question; I was hoping for financial aid, but again, not sure what to expect.</p>

4

<p>Pitt might be a good backup, you’d likely get lots of aid (known to be generous with merit aid particularly if M+CR is around 1450 or so), and any compsci course that Pitt didn’t offer could be taken at Carnegie-Mellon through their cross-registration agreements.</p>

<p>…although, whether that is a good idea might depend on how much you get along with your brother.</p>

5

<p>*So no, to answer your question; I was hoping for financial aid, but again, not sure what to expect. *</p>

<p>:) It’s not enough to hope for financial aid, you have to qualify for aid based on family income/assets. And, most schools don’t have much to give even if you can demonstrate real need.</p>

<p>What is your family’s likely FAFSA EFC? If you don’t know, estimate it to be about 23% of your family income. So, if the family income is about 100k per year, your EFC could be about $23k per year. This is just a rough estimate that’s not taking assets/savings, etc, into account. </p>

<p>Do you know how much your family will pay each year towards your education? If you don’t know ask. That could have a large impact on where you can go to college.</p>

<p>If you have a highish EFC that your parents can’t pay, then you need to be SURE to have a few financial safety schools on your list. A financial safety school is a school that you KNOW for SURE that you can afford through assured scholarships, assured grants, small student loans, and/or family funds. It’s not a financial safety if you’re not CERTAIN that you will have the funds to pay.</p>

<p>Luckily, you have the stats to get some big merit scholarships at some safety schools.
ASSURED SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Merit Scholarships given for stats… </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>*I don’t wanna go to some school where I learn nothing and just waste four years to get a piece of paper that says I have a degree *</p>

<p>With a major like Comp Sci or Comp Eng’g, I doubt you could go to a college and “learn nothing” and just get a degree. Maybe your brother majored in something rather easy, so his situation may be very different.</p>