Any suggestions?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My sister is going to be a senior in high school next year (class of 2013). She's having a lot of trouble with the college search. Here's the story on a few of the colleges she's considering: </p>

<p>University of Alabama: Her absolute favorite. However, they will not give her any extra financial aid during the 2 years in which both my sister and I will be in college, which is a very important factor.</p>

<p>Sewanee University: She originally crossed this off her list after visiting, but she is being recruited to play basketball there. This put Sewanee back on her radar.</p>

<p>Coastal Carolina University: Visited, liked it. She would prefer to go to a school that is bigger and has more tradition (ex. Alabama). She still likes Coastal and wouldn't mind going there at all.</p>

<p>These are some of the factors that she cares about:
1) A big football school with a ton of tradition.
2) Within 1000 miles of our home state of Maryland.
3) Greek life is preferred.
4) Needs to be willing to help us financially during the 2 years that both of us are in college.</p>

<p>Her stats are as follows.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.3 UW, 3.8 W
SAT: 1540 out of 2400, not sure of the breakdown. She will be taking it again.
Class rank: Top 40%</p>

<p>Academic honors:
Honor roll every year
AP Scholar
Scholar Athlete on school and state levels</p>

<p>Sports:
Basketball (Varsity 9-12), Captain (11-12), Tournament MVP (11-12), School MVP (12)
Volleyball (JV 10) (Varsity 11-12)
She is definitely capable of playing basketball at a Division 3 level, although this contradicts with her big football school preference.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Dance (9-11)
Students Against Destructive Decisions (11-12)
Key Club (11-12)</p>

<p>Community Service:
Foster family for a dog rescue
Photography coordinator for local youth basketball program
Counselor at a volleyball camp for our high school
Coaching assistant for youth volleyball team
Volunteer for Happy Helpers for the Homeless
Counselor at a Girl Scout camp for underprivileged inner-city girls</p>

<p>Her essays should be great and her recommendations will be pretty good.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for is suggestions for colleges that exemplify the factors on her list. Number 4 is very important.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance! :D</p>

2

<p>What does she want to major in?</p>

3

<p>Can you explain more about your financial situation? Family EFC, amount family will actually pay?</p>

4

<p>She wants to major in biology. I guess that doesn’t really narrow it down much haha. </p>

<p>Our EFC is about $37,000, so it’s important to find a place that will cut that in half while we’re both in school. My dad has looked into it and said that Alabama isn’t willing to do that, but please correct me if I’m wrong!</p>

5

<p>OOS public schools are not going to give large need-based awards, in general. A couple of exceptions are UVa and UNC, but they are quite selective.</p>

6

<p>Hmmm… Do you know of any big private schools (I know that’s an oxymoron) that wouldn’t be too much of a reach for her?</p>

7

<p>bump…</p>

8

<p>You have two approaches to cutting your $37K EFC in half:

  1. Find a college with a low sticker price (UMCP cuts it almost in half, at ~$20K)
  2. Get a big merit scholarship</p>

<p>She’s unlikely to get merit aid based on her stats, so it probably would need to be an athletic scholarship. According to the Sewanee Common Data Set (Section H2A), Sewanee does not award institutional non-need-based athletic scholarships. </p>

<p>Sounds to me like she should be focusing on in-state public schools such as UMCP or UMBC. Not too many OOS public schools will be under $19K/year.</p>

9

<p>UMd is really the best bet, to get the in-state tuition.</p>

<p>There are a number of big-time football schools that meet full or nearly full need, but generally speaking they require higher GPA and SAT scores. Syracuse would be a possibility.</p>

10

<p>Some northern tier colleges in the Dakotas and Minn cost less, like Bemidji State. COA is about $15k. [Tuition</a> & Fees - Undergraduate Admissions - Bemidji State University](<a href=“http://www.bemidjistate.edu/admissions/undergrad/explore/costs/tuition/]Tuition”>Tuition & Aid | Admissions | Bemidji State University)</p>