<p>Many schools mentioned on your other thread are over $50,000/year. </p>
<p>If your GPA comes out at 3.4 or so at end of Junior Year, you may have to settle for less “prestige” and something more affordable in your home state.</p>
<p>I haven’t really talked in specifics about paying for college with my parents, but my dad has been saving up in my college fund. Oh and I’ll probably have a 3.4 GPA by application time as well. I really don’t want to got to school within my home state although I am looking into University of Florida. What colleges would be in my range?</p>
<p>Converse College (SC) all women, might have the writing you are looking for, link for merit aid calculator above, no film though. I think Converse is one of those “USNWR’s Great Schools Great Prices”.</p>
<p>Yes, Converse is #1 on Great Schools Great Prices, Southern Regional Universities, USNWR. </p>
<p>It is important that you have financial safeties that your family can afford, such as University of Florida, Florida State etc. So have that conversation, affordability is key!</p>
<p>OK, Thank you for all the help. Looking around for colleges has been a bit of a drag. My grades slipped this year and in result my hope of getting into a prestigious college went down the drain. I’ll really look into Converse College, I’m not sure how I feel about an all girls school but I’ll definitely look into it. Do you think I might have a chance at Wellesley , Colgate, and maybe even Emory?</p>
<p>I definitely think you should look at small colleges that offer freshman scholarships that continue for all four years. I applied to Converse (going to UF) and they offer me a scholarship for 13,000/yr. With scholarships, federal grants, and your own saving you could to your choice of school. And plus, admission do not only look at GPA and scores. Dont forget about your extracurriculars, etc. and if you can write a passionate, essay your good to go :)</p>
<p>Don’t focus too much on financial aid, I’m sure you’ll get a good financial aid package at the majority of private universities. In fact I’ve read that the average student ends up paying more at a public university than a private. Apply to the schools you want to go to, and then see the financial aid packages. If a school has a quality program + reputation, sometimes you have to consider the long term. For some reason…people like to tell students (particularly in this forum) to focus more on finances or what their family can afford, no matter whether the student indicates that they are low income or not…I won’t explain as to why I think this is, I’m sure you already know, but don’t let them hold you back.</p>
<p>OK, emmele. Thanks so much for the advice. I’ll definetely consider it. There are a variety of colleges that I’m interested in applying to but my issue is that I’m not sure I’m “qualified” to be considered because of my rather low gpa, that’s why I created this thread. Would a low gpa really hinder me from getting accepted into good schools?</p>
<p>More feedback would be GREATLY appreciated :)</p>
<p>Agree w/ SLUMOM re: affordability. With a 3.4gpa, you may be out of the running for merit awards (scholarships) - - especially the larger awards (half-tuition or greater). I would advise looking at strong LAC that are need-blind (or need-award) AND meet 100% of demonstrated need (as calculated by their indiv institutioal formulas). And the women’s colleges - - Smith, MHC, BrynMawr, Wellesley, Barnard - - should be at the top of your list, even if they aren’t particularly strong in film. Wesleyan has a great film program and great aid, but admission is quite competitive.</p>
<p>^Yes, I know with my gpa, it would be difficult to acquire a lot of merit awards. But I am hoping to get a scholarship for Crew. I’m pretty good after just being on the team for half a year and I’m also a Varsity Player. I’ll look into those colleges as well, I’ve really been considering Wesleyan.</p>
<p>"For some reason…people like to tell students (particularly in this forum) to focus more on finances or what their family can afford, no matter whether the student indicates that they are low income or not…</p>
<p>…I won’t explain as to why I think this is, I’m sure you already know, but don’t let them hold you back."</p>
<p>Spell it out. I believe you are saying that black students are assumed to have to factor cost into their educations… yes! Just like everyone else. I don’t believe that advice is limited to this forum.</p>
<p>Here’s another person saying factor in finances. Unless you king out with Oprah, it matters! </p>
<p>But if it doesn’t, consider LMU (Loyola Marymount). My son got in for film production with those stats (the ones above, not the ones in the link), but with no aid, that means $55k a year plus expected increases.</p>
<p>^
It’s matters, but you can’t say I’m not going to apply to this school and that school (even if they have the best program for my major) because I HEARD they don’t give good financial aid. Apply to some safeties, apply to some in-betweens and apply to some reaches and see what they offer you in April. There are waivers for tests and applications if you are in a real financial bind. Every student has a different situation and circumstances and you can’t base your chances (for getting accepted and/or getting a good fin aid package) based entirely on others results. I never said don’t factor in aid, I said don’t factor out colleges based on aid.</p>
<p>Op, I would say yes. If you work hard, get good test scores, stay involved in your school and write an amazing essay anything is possible. Quite frankly, your GPA may not be as bad as you think. Compared to some people on CC it may seem that way, but depending on how competitive/ hard your school is I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As far as schools, maybe you should look into Fordham University in New York. They have a really good Visual Arts program with a concentration in Film if you don’t mind going to a school with a religious (it’s Jesuit so you’ll get a good education, but perhaps I’m biased) focus. If it helps, Mr. Oscar himself, AKA Denzel Washington, went there. That’s why I looked into it in the first place. :)</p>
<p>"I said don’t factor out colleges based on aid. "</p>
<p>Actually, what you said was “I’m sure you’ll get a good financial aid package at the majority of private universities”.</p>
<p>Then went on to imply that parents who bring up money, do so because this is the African American student forum, and I don’t think either is true. Some think safeties have to be FINANCIAL safeties too…</p>