<p>My sister is applying to college after taking a gap year (to volunteer as a teacher's aid abroad). She has a 3.2 GPA and 600 writing, 420 math, and 490 reading SAT score. She also has a 530 in Modern Hebrew and 510 in US History or her SAT II scores. </p>
<p>She doesn't have a lot of ECs, worked a little at an elementary school in high school. She has a passion for teaching and wants to major in either education (including special education) or psychology.</p>
<p>She wants to attend a small east coast school. There are definitely plenty she could get in to but not many we could afford. We're in that gap between getting a lot of financial aid and being able to pay for an expensive school. ie, we won't be getting much in terms of federal grants. So we're looking for schools that will give pretty good merit aid (we can pay no more than $20,000 a year and that's stretching it. It's only that high because I'm on full scholarship). </p>
<p>Does anyone have any schools they think would be good for her? I've been looking a lot and if's been hard to find schools that match her criteria and are still affordable. </p>
<p>The twin goals of $20K per year and east coast seem mutually exclusive. </p>
<p>I did a search on College Board with elementary education majors and <$15K tuition. </p>
<p>Closest I could find with on-campus housing were
California University of Pennsylvania
Cheney University of Pennsylvania
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Lincoln University
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>Thank you for your response. By 20k a year, I meant after scholarships so if there are schools that are big on scholarships, that would be great too.</p>
<p>No disrespect intended, but it’s hard for me to see significant merit money coming your way on the east coast with those stats. Private colleges would go out of business if students like your sister could go there for $20K/yr. </p>
<p>I think that you are looking at footing most of the bill, so looking at schools with a low list price are what she should be looking at. </p>
<p>What state do you live in? Is there anything that she can commute to from home?</p>
<p>Otherwise, consider options in places outside of the east coast. There are probably many more reasonable options.</p>
<p>ClassicRocker, I know what you mean, I’m just being hopeful. She’s also looking at schools in the south, they’re looking to be less expensive. A must for her is a Jewish presence in the city, and that can be hard to find outside of New England.</p>
<p>We’re from California but she has no interest in attending school there.</p>
<p>She knows she wants to work in the field of special education but not directly as a teacher. Anything specific for that? </p>
<p>I just don’t want her to apply to all these schools and then not be able to attend because it’s too expensive. She works really hard in school but is a horrible test taker, that’s why her scores are so low (she’s fluent in Hebrew but just couldn’t show that in test format). It’s so frustrating…</p>
<p>If she can get WUE, Northern Arizona University might be within her financial reach. Very good school for B students, and a strong education program. Since so many kids come from California to NAU, the cost of transportation will probably be fairly low if she’s willing to give a student with a car some gas money.</p>
<p>Why isn’t she considering any of the Cal States? California is a big state, and there are A TON of Cal States in every possible location. If she’s looking for a residential school, she probably stands a chance of getting into Humboldt State, Sonoma State, Cal Poly Pomona (not sure how commuter this is though), Chico State, and CSU Channel Islands.</p>
<p>Fort Lewis College is a public LAC in Colorado with an estimated COA for OOS at about $25,000 a year. I’m not sure whether or not it’s a commuter school, but it looks promising.</p>
<p>She considered Israel for a bit but decided on the US. She’s in Israel now and really misses being in the US. </p>
<p>She doesn’t want to stay in state (don’t ask me why, we have a ton of great schools in California). She’s hard to please but I want her to find a school that she’ll love and it seems like it has to match her criteria…</p>