This isn’t enough guidance for us to give you good advice. We need to know what you will qualify for in terms of financial aid.
It is safe to say that Georgia Tech will not work, as they do not give need-based aid for out-of-state students, and the only significant merit scholarship there is the Stamps which is too competitive to expect with your stats, despite your strong GPA.
Rice is a good place to start in seeing what the “best case scenario” looks like in terms of need-based aid. Estimate Your Cost If you can, get your parents to help you run the more detailed Net Price Calculator to get a clear idea of your financial aid eligibility. If you can’t get the detailed info right away, at least run the simpler MyIntuition calculator, and let us know how it looks. Rice’s aid is about as generous as it gets, so this is a good starting point in determining whether colleges with generous aid will be viable for you.
Are any of the TX schools on your list close enough for you to commute from home?
Note that Rice (and many other schools) require two teacher letters of recommendation, sometimes teachers of core subjects. So if your coach was not also your teacher, you will need another letter.
When you say you have no budget, does that mean that the college net price calculators also determine that your parents cannot contribute anything? Many times parents determine they cannot afford college tuition, but the college financial aid formulas do not agree. That’s why you are being asked to provide more budget info — to figure out which category you are in.
Are you in the category where schools and your parents agree regarding how much your family can pay or not? The list of schools you “match” with looks different based on the answer to that question.
So should I just get two core teachers for letters of recommendation since it may vary per school? I understand that a coach may be different since I’m not applying for athletics.
Also, according to the Net Price calculator at UT Austin, my net price would be ~$19,000.
The MyIntuition calculator suggests that my total annual cost at Rice is $79,000. I don’t have too much information at the moment to use the Net Price calculator though.
The University of Texas at Dallas is around a 30-minute drive from my house, so I can commute there if necessary.
I think UTD is your best bet. If you can get your SAT up a bit UTD will likely give you a generous AES award based on you rank and GPA. If you can commute that will be a major savings for you. UTD has a very well respected CS program. Please apply early so you can be considered for the UTD AES awards. Consider signing up for one of their Scholars Day to learn more about the school and get an application fee waiver Scholars' Day
You’ll get accepted to Texas A&M, due to auto admit. However, you’ll be General Engineering and have to go thru ETAM to try and get Comp Sci-won’t be easy. Unless you attend a Century Scholar School, I don’t see A&M offering any $.
Texas won’t offer $ either, and you may not even get admitted.
UTD is your best bet, if you can commute. Great Comp Sci program.
Check the Common App requirements for each school on your list. Some schools allow a recommendation letter from someone other than a teacher. If any of the schools on your list allow this, the coach letter could be helpful.
So I think - you really need a budget. Your parents say - get scholarships - and you say full need met but college can be $90K +. Sometimes what families say they need and what colleges say you need are two different amounts.
What can they afford? nothing? $10K? $30K? $50K? etc. so that’s the question. When you say needs full aid - is that mean 100%. I assume so - but typically a school will expect you to contribute something.
So you potentially get into UT and A&M you get in - but the major - can’t say. And how would you afford them?
U of Arizona would be $25K a year. Can your family afford that? They lock in tuition all four years. When I say $25K, I mean tuition, room and board. UAH is another - about $25K.
Rice meets full need and has the Rice investment - so if your family earns $75K to $140K, it’s full tuition and under $75K it’s free. But the 3 in Human Geo and test score will make them wonder - are you ready?
You might run the net price calculator at other meets need schools - I’ve included here. Look at those less competitive although they’re still great - a Franklin and Marshall, Denison, etc.
This is the problem - MyIntuition is saying that Rice is going to be full-pay, or nearly so. That doesn’t bode well for need aid at less fabulously-endowed schools that meet need, like F&M, Denison, etc. I agree that those hit the sweet spot admissions-wise, but I don’t see how they come in affordable if Rice does not.
That’s why I think the students needs to ask - what can the family really pay? We all (as parents) love scholarships - if possible
Then there’s also the - who filled in the #s and does the student have a real handle on the #s vs. the parent who should fill out.
And of course, not use my intuition but the school’s NPC.
Colleges like Arizona, Miami Ohio and I’m sure there’s more - based merit on GPAs - in the case of Arizona unweighted - but yeah, until there’s a real handle on finances, it’s going to be tough.
I hate commuting 30 mins and in Texas - that’s lots of tolls - but moreso not living a true college experience - and the student is very accomplished - and deserves better if possible.
Agreed… but I don’t see the additional detail getting him from no-aid-at-all to lots-of-aid. Unless what he put into MyIntuition was completely wrong, which I doubt. This sounds like a case of a family who can afford to pay, on paper, but really can’t. But yes, parents need to get involved and do a complete and accurate NPC for Rice and others, so OP will know for sure where he stands in terms of financial aid eligibility.
I agree that the half-hour commute doesn’t sound enviable. My thought was that if they could stretch to fund the first year on campus, he’d at least make the social connections, and then could see what was possible from there.
For sure, our collective goal here should be to find him something better than the commuting-to-UTD baseline. (Although we also don’t know for sure that even that is affordable. It’s a really good school for CS, at least!) More information is needed here.
OP - did you prep for your first SAT? I’m wondering how much potential there is to improve that score. With your strong GPA, a higher test score could go a long way toward getting you more merit money.
Yeah, I’ll come back with a net price calculator result. Id assume my parents would pay near 10k but I will get back to you all when I have the result.
My first SAT was last october and was provided by the school. I didn’t study much since I had football taking up a lot of my time. However I do plan on studying regularly for the one this Saturday and likely the November one was well (for the regular decision apps)
(also replying to @aquapt) UT Austin is where I would most likely go if I were accepted with my major, and the net price is ~$19,000.
Rice University is on my list but definitely wouldn’t be my first choice unless I had very very good financial aid since it’s a private school, sorry for not specifying in my original post.
I’m confused as to why you seem to get aid at UT-Austin (because 19K is definitely not the full in-state price) but not at Rice. Something is odd with that. Hopefully you can come back with more accurate NPC numbers. Maybe try running the NPC for Lehigh; they’re quite generous without being a super-tough admit. What projected cost do you see for UTD? (Check Cost of Attendance for both on-campus and commuting.)
It’s the getting-into-CS part that’s going to be particularly tough for UT-Austin.