Chance me (sorta) for scholarships! What schools actually give substantial money

Paying for College
1

Hi, I’m a senior and I am starting to apply to colleges as we speak lol. I plan to apply early action to all of the schools that I decide to apply to. Being realistic, I don’t want to spend more than 30k per year for college, but the less the better. I think that my academics and involvement could definitely get me more than that somewhere. But I would like to ask for opinions here on where I would be most likely to get high sums of money/ scholarships and where I would definitely get very little.

My Stats:
GPA (UW): 4.00
GPA (W): 4.28

ACT: 34

APs: 4 previous: AP human, AP US, AP Gov, AP Cogo, 3 current technically: AP Psychology, AP Economics (both micro AND macro)
received all 4s and 5s.
also took a Dual Credit Chemistry & am taking a Dual Credit Personal Finance right now

also took at least 5 “honors” classes

Intended major: Nutrition/Dietetics

I’m involved in many clubs/ service clubs/ sports: secretary of NHS this year and Community Outreach Director for Girl Up and hoping to be named Dance Team Captain soon (4 years on that)

I also run a food & nutrition instagram page that has around 7,300 followers currently which i’m hoping could help me stand out?? I don’t know though

schools i’m considering:

  1. Miami of Ohio
  2. Appalachian State
  3. University of TN Knoxville
  4. Purdue University
  5. Kentucky
  6. Indiana
  7. Auburn
  8. NC State
  9. Clemson
  10. Ohio State
  11. Pitt
  12. WVU
  13. Ohio University
  14. Virginia Tech
  15. Appalachian state
  16. UGA
  17. UNC Chapel Hill
  18. Cornell
  19. Michigan State

Need to narrow it down so much, but I want to do it well informed about how affordable they will turn out to be. Thank you so much for any input!

2

What’s your home state? Does the $30k budget include the ~$5500/year federal student loan or is that just what your parents said that they’ll pay? Have they run the Net Price Calculator for each school to see what the net cost might be?

3

Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site.

4

We did find multiple schools that were less than $30k per year, but all of the ones that we found were either in-state public universities or in Canada. However, your results may be very different from ours and our list of schools was very different from your list.

This does lead to the question: What state are you from?

As the first two comments above have said, you should run the NPCs on each college and university that you are considering.

If your parents are divorced or separated, or if they own a small business or farm or rental property, then the NPCs are likely to be wrong and too optimistic. With one exception every small business owner that I have talked to has needed to send their kids to in-state public universities. Otherwise the NPCs are likely to be accurate.

5

All of the colleges on your list are public universities. Are you a resident of one of those states? Which one?

Cornell gives only need based aid. Does your family have financial need? Cornell also does not have early action…just early decision.

For most of the schools listed, their mission is to provide aid to their instate tax paying families.

I think WVU would likely come in at or below your $30,000 cost.

6

Alabama isn’t on your list, but it should be, since, with your GPA and SAT, your CoA would be less than $25,000.

7

U of Arizona

8

Utah has given four year OOS full tuition scholarships in past years for 4.0/34. That would put the COA below $20K.

9

Alabama
Arizona
Iowa State
Nebraska

Before need-based aid, all these schools came in lower than the cost of in-state for my son with lower stats than yours (31 ACT and 3.7 GPA) due to auto scholarships. Run the net price calculators.

In the end though, our home state blew them out of the water due to a state grant and institutional aid for residents. Are you a resident in any of these states?

10

University of New Mexico also.