Can someone help me? :(

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello! I was hoping some of you college gurus could help me out with finding affordable schools?
I can pretty much guarantee I will not get any need-based aid from any school, and if I get anything, it will be negligible in the grand scheme of things.</p>

<p>stats:
32 ACT
3.96 unweighted gpa
4.71 weighted gpa
60/1080 class rank
national hispanic scholar (not national merit)</p>

<p>My EC's are decent, numerous honor societies and 1 varsity sport, a few other clubs, and a lot of volunteering.
Course load: All of my core classes throughout high school have either been honors/pre-ap or AP. only level classes were the varsity sport, spanish, which is always level at my school, and art which is required. I doubled up on sciences junior and senior year, so i have 6 science credits, 3 of which are AP, the rest pre-ap.</p>

<p>I know I can get good scholarships to Arkansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Arizona State
I know that, and those are options if all else fails, but I do not think I would be happy at any of them.
I am a hardcore liberal- I also live in Texas. As you can imagine, this does not always blow over well. I'd like to get to a place that is a little bit more accepting of different ideologies. Also, I'm not religious which is another conflict of interest being in Texas.</p>

<p>I have auto admit to TAMU and UT, but I would like to leave Texas.
Parents are game for paying (Woo! :) ) but they cant afford the schools I've liked. (Emory and William & Mary). They're ideal situation would be 25k or less a year, that is including scholarships and not including airfare.</p>

<p>I like Emory and William & Mary because they aren't too big, are well respected schools, and I just feel at home there. (I attended pre-college at Emory and fell in love, but it's 60k a year and i do not think i would get Emory Scholars)</p>

<p>I know I dont have Harvard stats, but i'm not looking for a harvard school!</p>

<p>Also, I'm interested in zoology, ecology, biology, evolutionary studies, and anthropology.
Oh and i know there are threads with lists and lists of schools with merit scholarships, and while those are helpful, i'm really looking for people who can offer advice on the feel of the school as well as the scholarships. </p>

<p>Thank you so much if you read this far!</p>

2

<p>My impression based on relatively casual visits to Austin is that it is not a particularly conservative city.</p>

<p>You may find the following college confidential thread interesting. It’s a couple of years old but perhaps it still applies.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1002114-how-liberal-ut.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1002114-how-liberal-ut.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You do not give an indication of whether or not you qualify for financial aid.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response! :slight_smile:
I said I wouldnt get any need-based financial aid, so I’m relying on scholarships. Luckily, my parents are helping me so I dont have to find full rides.</p>

<p>From what I’ve heard, youre right, UT isnt very conservative. However, I would like to branch out from Texas! It’s just not the place for me, but I know so many people who go to UT that I feel like it’d be a continuation of elementary, intermediate, junior high, and high school which I’ve spent with relatively the same group of kids</p>

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<p>I think you have a good chance at receiving substantial merit aid at several good schools, Emory included. Some others that you might look at are Grinnell and Smith. Both have very liberal student bodies.</p>

<p>As a high achieving Hispanic, you would be a person of interest at many colleges especially those that have a hard time attracting that demographic. I would look at Carleton, Macalester. </p>

<p>Actually most academically rigorous private colleges lean left, though some are more activist than others.</p>

<p>If you really won’t qualify for any need based aid and you don’t like most of the generous large publics, then you’re going to have to rely on merit. So I think researching schools with good merit aid is a good place to start. Ask some questions about specific colleges listed on that thread that seem interesting to help understand the differences. </p>

<p>Are you interested, able, to play your sport in college? This could give you a boost both in money and admissions.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, momrath!
I’ll check those schools out! Parents income is about $200k, so as far as I know, we wouldn’t get any need based.
It’s a varsity dance team, so not particularly. If I did do it (which I am not to keen on continuing) there’s no recruitment or anything so I dont think I would get a scholarship for it</p>

6

<p>UT Austin is very liberal. Worth visiting if you haven’t yet, might like it.</p>

<p>University of Miami would give you some merit but it wouldn’t be brought down anywhere close to $25k. Wouldn’t hurt to apply and see. I’d guess you’d get $15-20k off the $60k price.</p>

<p>College of Charleston comes to mind if you like W&M. It’s $40k OOS but you’d definitely get merit. They don’t have any hard $ values on what certain stats get you, but they do say the minimum requirement for a presidential scholarship is a 29 ACT, so you’re definitely up there.</p>

<p>Rhodes could be a good choice. 41% of students receive merit aid and your ACT score is 75th percentile, so it might be affordable. It’s another small school.</p>

<p>Also look into Trinity (San Antonio), it’s a lot like Rhodes but closer to home.</p>

7

<p>DePaul comes to mind.</p>

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<p>okay, I’ll look into those! Thank you everyone for the responses! :)</p>

9

<p>Tulane might be a nice fit for you. Not to far but definitely a different community. Not 100% sure about the majors thought. </p>

<p>How far from home are you interested in going? Because I feel like you would fit in in California. UCs aren’t cheap out of state but they might give you enough aide to make it affordable.</p>

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<p>UC’s don’t give aid to OOS students. The only reason they admit OOS students is because they can squeeze more money out of them than IS students. A UC OOS full pay will be $50k plus per year.</p>

<p>OP, you might take a look at UMass Amherst. OOS COA is about $38,000/year, but they offer merit to high stat OOS students of $8,000 to $12,000 per year. With your stats, I think you’d have a shot at the high end of that range. That would bring down the cost to something close to the $25,000 you say your parents can afford, and it will certainly get you to a more liberal environment. My D is applying to UMass as her OOS safety. Good luck.</p>

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<p>They do, but (a) don’t cover the out-of-state additional tuition ($23,000 per year) with financial aid grants, and (b) won’t give any financial aid grants to a student with family income of $200,000 like the OP. Basically, an out-of-state student should expect to be offered financial aid grants at in-state level, but applied against out-of-state costs ($23,000 per year more than in-state).</p>

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<p>Anyway, have you looked at these lists?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-55.html#post16379939[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-55.html#post16379939&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Many biology departments are dropping zoology/organismal biology offerings and increasing their microbiology coursework. When you research schools, look at professors’ research and the course catalog. My daughter has similar interests, so here is a portion of her research list, publics first:</p>

<p>U Wisconsin
U Minnesota
U Montana
U Washington
UC Davis</p>

<p>Colorado College
Whitman
Mt. Holyoke - I practically begged her to apply but no dice. The all-female thing is a deal breaker for her.</p>

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<p>SUNY Binghamton is probably the most academic of the SUNYs.</p>

<p>You get northeast liberal, and a list price in the low 30K range. Other SUNYs like Stony Brook or Buffalo might also be of interest and have different feels. Most students at all SUNYs except perhaps Buffalo, are from the NYC area. Even Buffalo has a large population of NYC area folks. </p>

<p>NY doesn’t really have a flagship, all 4 of the universities have the supporters (Binghamton, Buffalo, Stony Brook and Albany). SUNY Geneseo is the honors public LAC.</p>

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<p>Thank you guys, I really appreciate it!
I’ve looked at a bunch of these schools and will definitely be talking to my parents about applying to some of them!
I think U Montana, DePaul, U Washington, Tulane and Rhodes are my favorites of the ones listed :slight_smile:
Thanks again!!</p>