<p>i made a list of things i'm looking for in a college</p>
<pre><code>4 year college
SIZE: 5000+ ish
LOCATION: east coast, preferably north east, no more than 6 hrs away from home (i live northern va)
not in the middle of nowhere (URBAN / SUBURBAN)
less than 70% white people - DIVERSE
has to be less than $26K a year after scholarships and aid
at least womens studies minor, preferably
some kind of health or public health w/ education major
political science or sociology major, maybe public policy analysis
can’t be an uber conservative college
lgbt studies minor is a big plus, lgbt community / friendly
has high standards for gpa and sat scores - like around mine or better (gpa in the low 3’s, sats in the 600’s)
</code></pre>
<p>am i being too specific? do i need to change or loosen up on some things? is some of the stuff i want kinda extraneous? </p>
<p>I definitely don’t think you are being too specific. I think a liberal arts school sounds like it would be perfect for you since it seems like you are interested in a lot of things. However, finding a school that’s less than $26K (does this include loans) will be difficult depending on your families financial need. I recommend would have a conversation with your parents about that. I recommend plugging all of this in to the college board school search and seeing what comes up. I would be glad to help if you need help!</p>
<p>my family makes $120k a year but my parents won’t be helping me pay for room & board or tuition. my sister will be in college at the same time as me. i don’t really understand how loans work but i’ll be mostly paying for college by myself</p>
<p>I was going to suggest something similar - start plugging your preferences into a college search engine and see what it comes up with. Some of what you want is mutually exclusive - you aren’t going to find any “uber-conservative” schools (which are rare anyway, unless you consider any school with viewpoints on campus to the right of Chairman Mao “uber-conservative”.) with those other features like LBGT studies. Where you are going to run into trouble is high standards for GPA, when your GPA is only “low 3’s”. That is going to be your limiting factor, by far. (CC bias showing, where high GPA standard is considered to be 3.7+, maybe 3.8+.)</p>
<p>I would start with your test scores, GPA, geographic preference, size, and one or two majors and see where you are. Then add start looking at costs at candidate schools - the search engines aren’t good at taking into account aid, either merit or need, you’ll need to do that on your own. If you’ve got too many candidates, add in a few more requirements. Not enough candidates, loosen some requirements, but you obviously can’t change certain things like GPA and test scores, or the cost to attend.</p>
<p>I would suggest looking at a school like Barnard, as it might have everything you want, but you might be short of the admissions criteria and cost would definitely be an issue. You would also need to add in Columbia across the street to get to the size requirement.</p>
<p>Your list doesn’t seem too specific except maybe for the “no more than 70% white” requirement. But first I want to point out that unless you have a trust fund or an enormous pile of cash, you won’t be able to pay for college if you have to spend $26K. You can only borrow 5500 your first year, and you certainly cannot earn 21K per year and go to school simultaneously. </p>
<p>Your parents have an obligation to assist both the children they have in college. And while it is noble of you to try to take the burden from them, there is likely no way to do that. So DO speak to your parents about this. Find out to what extent they can help you. </p>
<p>Paying for a college must be a first or second consideration in the list-creation process.</p>
<p>A family income of $120K with two kids in college should open up a lot of FA packages - so don’t automatically assume expensive list price colleges are expensive for you. Run the EFC for each.</p>
<p>i just want a school that’s diverse because my high school is 75% minority students and it would be really strange for me to go to a school that’s not very diverse.</p>
<p>thank you for pointing that out to me. i don’t have much college funds / savings.
my parents pay for my sister’s books and supplies, dorm stuff, etc so i assume the same for me. but i’ll definitely talk to them</p>
<p>i’ve done price calculators a couple times for a few schools and the results very seldom say i would qualify for money for financial need</p>
<p>i know she’s worked a lot to pay for it but not enough to pay for all of it. i think she has a bunch of loans. she went to ODU for two years and transferred to Radford </p>
<p>You might do better looking south rather than north east. Have you considered some of the HBCU? Diverse, for sure, and also always looking to diversify by attracting members of other races.</p>
<p>You also need to decide which items you are willing to compromise on. Is a school with 10,000 students okay if it has the other things? If a school offers you money but doesn’t have a woman’s studies department, can you live with that? 75% white but has everything else?</p>
<p>Take your list of wants and prioritize them. 1-x with 1 being the most important. Then rate the colleges in those areas on a similar scale where 1 is the best match and x is the worst match. That will help put some of this in perspective.</p>
<p>MrMom62 is right there are only about 5 actual conservative colleges. Even in ultra conservative areas, colleges tend to be uber-liberal. You should be just fine.</p>
<p>Of course, you could try to stretch yourself and surround yourself in diversity by going somewhere that has students who thing differently. It always amazes me when people who seek ethnic and cultural diversity want to be in a political cocoon. </p>
<p>If your parents make $120k a year and aren’t helping you pay for college, you’ll probably be limited to a community college and then transfer. There are some schools that will give you a full tuition scholarship, look in the financial aid section for more info, but they’re in unattractive locations far from the Northeast. </p>
<p>There are 3500 colleges in the USA. CCers are mostly concentrate in those top 400 schools. You will find some schools within your specifications by using the CC search engines. Once you have a list, you can explore more on the lgbt factors.</p>
<p>@electriccrose American University meets most of those criteria:</p>
<p>SIZE: ~7K
LOCATION: east coast, urban (but not northern)
DIVERSE: 56% caucasian
MAJORS/MINORS: Women’s Studies AND Public Health majors/minors, respected for Political Science and Public Policy </p>
<p>POLITICS: amongst the most liberal universities, very lgbt friendly</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I don’t think that American is known for good financial aid, although given your family’s financial picture (income + sibling in college) it actually might come out to less than $26K a year after scholarships and aid. Run the calculator to see:</p>
<p>@ormdad i really like AU! the cost calculator comes out to 33k. also, if my sister won’t be enrolled in college at the same time as me for the entire time i’m in college, will the price go up once she’s graduated for most colleges?</p>
<p>also my parents said they’d help me get private loans to help pay for college.</p>
<p>“CCers are mostly concentrate in those top 400 schools.”
ha, i didn’t realize everyone on here is mostly looking at ivy league schools…thought it was for everyone.</p>