Hello. I would greatly appeciate it if anyone could give me feedback on this application list and gave me a few more “probable” ideas.
Reach - Hamilton College
Probables - U. Rochester, U. Delaware, ???
Safeties - U. Vermont, SUNY Bing, CUNY City College
I live in the Northeast, have a 3.8 UWGPA and a 4.5 WGPA, lots of ECs. My parents are paying only for books, food, and transportation, and they make about 85k combined anually, so financial aid, both need-based and merit-based, is HUGELY important to me. I already took off NYU, Penn State, and others off my “probables” list because of how much they would cost me. In addition to fantastic financial aid/low total cost per year (preferably <20k anually, after financial aid) I would like, but not require, any other colleges to be D. III, completely reachable by train/bus, not car, and something I could be proud of. Any colleges that offer a large amount of full rides? I would love to go for free. I live in CT. Thanks
Wheaton in Norton, MA gives good merit aid. You would definitely receive aid, not sure about full ride as I don’t know what top packages are available.
What’s your ACT score like? There’s quite a few schools who have merit scholarships after a specific ACT cut off like UAlabama which gives an automatic full tuition scholarship after a certain ACT and would fit your needs pretty well
How about Clark University in Worcester? Saint Lawrence?
If you have very, very good test scores, Northeastern can give some great merit aid. A friend of mine with a 33 ACT and 3.9 UW got a full ride (University Scholars) there (she also got into Rice and Tufts, so she was a very competitive applicant). She had very good ECs and a college counselor put together her application for her, though.
That’s good. You should be able to find a lot of merit somewhere. Is there any chance of National Merit Semifinalist (it would be based on your PSAT score.)
You can’t retake it - the only shot for National Merit is the junior year test. That’s a good score and you’ll definitely be Commended. Edit - saw you’re in Connecticut. Unfortunately last year’s cutoff was 220, so that wouldn’t make it.
Unless you mean that you are entering you junior year this fall and that was your sophomore score.
Yup, you’d definitely qualify for the full tuition scholarship from UAlabama. Definitely apply there since you’ll get it automatically (just make sure to have everything in by December 15th) and I can’t help but saying that you’re a strong applicant. I would add a few more reach schools with amazing financial aid. This includes Ivies, MIT, Stanford with your price range of 20k a year. Stanford, Dartmouth, and Princeton cover all tuition for those making less than $125,000, $120,000, and $100,000 a year. MIT covers room, board, and tuition for families making under $75,000 a year so your financial aid would be very good since your income is close to that. Remember that these are reaches but I think you have as good a shot as any, especially since these schools are notorious for their generous financial aid and it’s one of your serious considerations.
Then there’s competitive full ride scholarships at places like UNC, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, and UPittsburgh (I think you’d have a very very good chance at getting it at the last one because of your profile) These are quite hard to get but I’d suggest just adding the ones you feel are compatible and apply to see what happens.
Hey Chris. Though Hamilton, with its sub 25% acceptance rate, can be categorized as a “reach for all,” I think you would stand a good chance of admission. Hamilton meets full demonstrated need for all accepted students, but does not offer merit scholarships. This is a common policy for colleges on this level. ED is an option to enhance your chances of acceptance, but you would have to feel comfortable with what that implies financially first.
St. Lawrence, mentioned above, sounds like a good merit-scholarship school to add to your list. I think you can get there by bus.
Rochester is a fine, complete university.
All your choices are realistically placed on your list (Though Bing has significantly higher scores than Delaware). I think you may ultimately have the luxury of deciding by fit. You’ve worked hard, go for the college you like.
Okay. Alabama’s a hike from CT (would your parents even be willing to cover airfare?) and would be a bit of culture shock. Would you be comfortable going there? Because their automatic scholarships are fantastic (thanks, incredibly lucrative football team!).
If not, then I would focus on getting some major merit at Clark. Wheaton, Pitt, St. Lawrence, UVM, and Northeastern on the reachy side (for merit aid). I think that if you get about a 2200 on the SAT (very doable with a 2160 psat; my sat was about 250 points higher than my psat), maintain your grades and write a very, very good essay, you should get some money.
I think those are all colleges to be proud of-
UVM is surprisingly generous to OOS students, and Burlington is one of my favorite “little cities”. St Lawrence is gorgeous and has a great liberal-arts education. Clark is one of the “schools that changes lives”. Wheaton is a little more isolated, but is a solid choice. Pitt is a hidden gem in my opinion. All would be good choices if the $$ comes through.
@albert69 Don’t know how I missed that.
Regardless, I would try to get that ACT up to a 34 and that SAT up to a 2250/2300. That will put you in a very good condition. When you’re looking for big aid, you want to be as competitive as possible.
@chris3499, Have your parents run any net price calculators to get an idea of how much need based aid you might be eligible for? At $85K you should be able to pull in sufficient need-based aid but run the NCPs to be sure. Most of the selective colleges in the northeast offer generous need-based aid, so if you can demonstrate need, you can put together a wide list.
If you like Hamilton you might also look at Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Skidmore, Conn College, Kenyon. Some of these are highly selective, but your grades and scores would put you in the ballpark. Your ECs, essays, recommendations and demographic will also be factors.
Since @momrath, quite appropriately for you, suggested five other NESCAC schools, you should probably search for the recent “NESCAC” thread in this forum. It’s a little randomly written, but may nonetheless give you perspective on some of the colleges.
Think of these schools as teaching physical and life sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities and fine arts. For the time being, this is a more useful description than liberal arts. The curricula at these schools are similar to those at most universities. Their undergraduate focus is what sets them apart.
