Big Schools

I live in New York and there are not many high caliber sports schools nearby with very good academics. The only things I I can really think of are Penn State and Rutgers – both schools that I don’t like. I don’t mind UConn or UMass Amherst, but they’re not the exact level I’m looking for. I want to study biochemistry or microbiology with PreMed.

Some local schools I like that have big sports and good academics are Villanova, Temple, Boston College, & Syracuse.

For far away schools, I like: UMichigan, UMiami, UMinnesota – Twin Cities, UIllinois Urbana Champaign, Vanderbilt, UWisconsin–Madison, UNC Chapel Hill, and Tulane.

I know UIUC and UNC are not as easy to fly to as the others, but does anyone know easy ways to travel from NY to them?
I like the weather in New York so staying in the north would be nice, but southern schools tend to be cheaper overall.

Being an out of state student, it isn’t always easy to get great financial packages from big state schools and with travel costs, it makes it even more expensive. Can anyone give me insight on any of the schools I mentioned regarding their financial aid packages, campus life, sciences? Thank you to anyone who can help!!!

UW-Madison: sciences are good; it’s expensive for OOS students, who receive very little financial aid; sports are huge.

You might want to provide more information so that people can make suggestions that are realistic for you in terms of gaining admission-as well as letting people know what you’d like to study-and financially-if you want to go for merit/need based aid or whether you are fine with full pay.

UNC is very easy to get to by plane from NY. The hard part will be getting in as an OOS student…the school meets full need.

We need more information from you. Finances, gpa etc. Have you used the net price calculators?

Being OOS also makes it much harder to get into a number of those big state schools. What are your stats?
And yes, generally OOS will not get much funding.

I have a 95 unweighted GPA, 28/512 class, 1240 SAT ( I know I need to work on), 750 on world history subject test, haven’t taken any AP tests yet, but am currently in chem, lang, and US, 4 honors societies, junior yearbook editor, crew for our school’s theatre & work part time.

I would definitely need a good financial aid package with mostly merit aid. The only way my parents have approved of me going far is if it gets to a comparable price as SUNY which would cost us roughly 16-18k a year.

To get to UIUC from NY, you can either fly into O’Hare and take one of the direct shuttles (shuttle takes about 2 hours), fly in on American Eagle flights to Willard Airport (there aren’t any direct flights from NY, though), or take the train from NY to Champaign, again with a transfer.

UIUC is an awesome school, but I just feel that the process of traveling is simply not worth it

Cross out Wisconsin and UIUC. If your parents make more than $90k, cross out Michigan.
If you are trying to get there with merit, you can likely cross out all of them.

Out of state publics are not going to give you good financial aid packages. You need to rethink your list.

You have a lot of reach schools …pricey schools etc…on this list…it needs to be revamped.

I would choose a few schools that meet full need (Vanderbilt, UNC and Michigan) and use the NPCs…show the number to your parents. If they say the number looks good, you can keep them on your list… but you need to recognize that these schools are big reaches.

Your parents will give you $18,000 a year. You can add $5500 for a student loan, $2500 +/- for summer earnings…which gives you $26,000 a year for college. That pays for SUNY.

Check out the merit at Temple and see if you might qualify. You have to come up with a new list if you need significant merit.

What do you not like about Rutgers University? Rutgers seems to check all of your boxes. Easy to get to from NYC, Big Ten Athletics, and an academically strong school. For biology, Rutgers is home to the Waksman Institute of Microbiology on the Busch Campus:
https://www.waksman.rutgers.edu/about

For chemistry and biochemistry, Rutgers recently completed a new chemistry building on the Busch Campus.
https://rutchem.rutgers.edu/news-events/2018-news/176-new-chemistry-building-construction-may-2017

Many students do not like the fact that Rutgers University is spread out across 5 campuses- Douglass, Cook, College Avenue, Busch and Livingston. There is a bus system, which makes getting between campuses easier.

Rutgers also has the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, which is located on the Cook Campus, which is the most bucolic and pretty of the Rutgers New Brunswick area campuses:
https://sebs.rutgers.edu/

As far as athletics, Rutgers has been taking its lumps since joining the Big 10 in 2014. Women’s basketball, Wrestling, soccer and lacrosse are currently the strongest sports. Men’s basketball has been doing better as of late. Football still has a way to go.

I strongly encourage you to take a visit, and ensure you visit the Cook Campus. A great way to get to know Rutgers is by going to Rutgers day, which is on April 27 this year:
https://rutgersday.rutgers.edu/content/about-rutgers-day

As far as financial aid, if you are admitted to the Honors College, I believe that many out of state students are granted in-state tuition.

There are a number of public universities with big sports programs that give significant merit aid &/or out-of-state tuition waivers. A lot of the aid is dependent on SAT or ACT scores, so I recommend you study for those tests & take them as many times as you can. They will consider your best score, so you only need to nail the SAT or ACT one time.

Ones that offer enough aid to potentially make the price comparable to a SUNY include Texas Tech, Florida State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, & Mississippi.

Also check out Alabama, Kentucky, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Mississippi State, & West Virginia.

Will you be commuting? If not, than you’re only “traveling” 2-3 times per semester.

Alabama and Iowa State for sure. Great sports and schools with great merit. Should get you in the ball park.

Alabama actively seeks OOS students and offers attractive merit packages. As others have noted, OOS public universities are usually not great for significant merit unless one is a tippy-top student. Students who gain admission to Ivies and Ivy equivalents usually have full tuition or full ride scholarships from a number of “lower” schools (not lower academically, mind you), both public and private.

As strange as it sounds, private schools, especially cozy LACs, offer the most merit money. There are exceptions to b sure, but OOS public universities end up being costly for most families.

This is key. Do this to see what your potential aid package would look like. As others have stated your stats are not high enough to garner much merit and being OOS would make the need based aid hard to come by for most schools. UNC is an exception there but your stats make them a big reach. To handicap your chances google Common Data Set and look at section C to see what is used for admission and what admitted students stats are like.