<p>Any suggestions for at least-somewhat liberal, Florida (preferably Southern Florida) and California colleges that are good and affordable.
Or at least one known for giving a substantial amount for merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I have a 2000 SAT, 1310 Two Part, Top 6% of Class, Good EC's, and am out of state for both Florida and California.</p>
<p>Are there any schools that are known for giving some type of scholarship, possibly with my stats.</p>
<p>My parents don't have any money for college so I will be paying it all on my own, and I also plan to go onto med school.
I am not sure whether it is important that I go to an upper tier undergrad or lower tier with money.</p>
<p>So any suggestions would be great, because I have been researching schools/scholarships but it's hard to find certain cutoffs, etc.</p>
<p>You may or may not go to grad school or med school, so you need to plan for the possibility. But let’s say you do go to med school. You’re going to be happy to have as little debt as possible when you get to med school because med school is mostly loans and it’s expensive. Some docs don’t make a lot of money given the amount of debt they have, so keep that in mind, too. Or some have to work much longer hours than they’d like because of their debt. So keeping debt in u/g to a minimum is a good plan.</p>
<p>So your first couple of schools should be easy to choose. They will be YOUR state universities because they probably will be the cheapest schools to go to and you’ll have a good chance of getting in. Unis of California (Berkeley, UCLA, Merced, etc.) are thereby disqualified from your budget b/c there is no aid for you there and they’ll cost 50K/year. State schools of Florida are less expensive but still more than you’d like to spend. So in those two states you’d look private, primarily, unless you first move there and establish residency, a particularly unpleasant and time consuming experience for someone who wants to be in college at 18. </p>
<p>So for the time being, research private schools in cali and florida that interest you (most colleges tend toward the liberal spectrum, and almost all colleges you can find large pockets of liberals in). Come up with 6. Get your parents’ latest tax return and go to the “net price calculator” at each school and punch in the data. the NPC will provide an Estimated Family Contribution for each school that your family is expected to pay. Show it to your folks and ask them how much they can pay. This will give you some idea which of these schools you can afford to attend and why. The EFC is much more important than how much merit a school MIGHT give.</p>
<p>Then you can broaden your search to include your in-state state universities and privates. then you can look beyond home, florida, and california, if needed. Ability to pay is the number one criterion for college entrance for almost every family. </p>
<p>As for YOU and merit, your scores (what is your GPA?) are not such that you should expect much merit except perhaps at those schools that offer automatic merit to students. You can find these at the top of the Financial Aid forum on CC. How else can we help you, OP?</p>
<p>Florida A&M will give you a full tuition scholarship if you have a 3.5 unweighted HS GPA and 1800 SAT score:
<a href=“Page Not Found”>Page Not Found;
<p>The less selective Florida colleges will offer you merit aid, the question will be if it’s enough. Applications fee is $30 for each school, so you may want to apply to several. UCF/USF would have the highest requirements (I’m not including FSU, New College or UF), but you may also want to look at FAU, FIU, and UWF. The less selective the school, the more likely you are to be offered Merit. As ucbalumnus said, FAMU would offer full tuition.</p>
<p>You should also look at the private colleges, some of which don’t have an application fee (though you still have to pay for sending SAT scores and such).</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that full tuition still doesn’t cover room and board.</p>
<p>If your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is much higher than what your family is able and willing to spend, then you cannot afford to be picky. You should broaden your search beyond California and Florida. Large merit scholarships are unlikely to come from “upper tier” schools. They’ll come from schools where your stats are well above the school averages (possibly including some out of state public schools.)</p>
<p>If your family income and EFC is very low, the picture changes. In that case you should be pursuing need-based aid. The best need-based aid often comes from relatively selective colleges. It rarely comes from out of state public schools. </p>
<p>If you’re going to attend medical school, it is much more important to minimize undergraduate debt than to attend an upper tier college. GPA and MCAT scores will matter far more than your college brand name.</p>
<p>We looked at several of these, and most have very high tuition, but perhaps you could get enough scholarship money. Some do offer significant merit aid (Florida Tech, for example) but still very expensive, and if you are on your own as far as paying for college, you can only borrow $5500 your first year. So, again, run the net price calculators at every school that interests you.</p>
<p>Flagler College is not in southern Florida, but northeast in St. Augustine, but its private school tuition/room/board is comparatively low, they do have many scholarship opportunities, and the campus is gorgeous. We love St Augustine - one of the most charming places in Florida. If they offered the program my son wants to pursue, he might have considered applying himself.</p>
<p>Best of luck. I don’t know if you have already spent much time here in Florida, but in case you haven’t, be prepared for the muggy days and the lightning. Oh, and the gigantic bugs :)</p>
<p>CA privates like LMU, Santa Clara and St Marys might offer close to a full ride for a candidate like you. Our public schools limit aid to in-state applicants. </p>