Just my $.02. I think you’ve got a good chance at UMich given you’re in-state. I see others have said stretch - but you’ve got pretty good stats and good ECs. If you can get the SAT higher that will help as well. Given that I’m not sure ED at GWU is a good idea. Would you rather go to GWU vs. UM if you got into both?
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Are they giving you 35K in total, or 35K a year? If they’re giving you 35K/yr, that’s great! That’s the cost of an in-state public education for you. If they’re giving you only 35K in total, on your own you can borrow only about 27K from the Feds in total, and with summer earnings and a 10 hr/wk job on campus, you still would have trouble paying for all 4 yrs at an in-state public.
You could get a large amount of merit money at a 3rd tier private college. Your parents could cosign huge loans so that you can attend a 2nd tier private college, but this would be a foolish choice.
Law school admissions are based largely upon GPA and LSAT. You can get into a good law school from an in-state public just as easily as from a 2nd tier private.
You can major in absolutely anything and still get into and attend law school. So major in whatever you enjoy, and can do very well in, since your GPA will matter.
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$35k per year or total for all four years?
Also, why the restriction against changing major?
I would urge you to run the Net Price Calculator for each school you’re considering and note whether it asks for academic information or not. If it asks for academic information, then it’s likely giving you the minimum merit aid award that you would qualify for.
If the price is higher than $35k, see if there is merit aid that has special applications or talk with an admissions officer for your chances at receiving a higher merit award than what was in the NPC. In thinking about additional merit aid possibilities, make sure you look and see what percentage of students receive merit aid (available from the college’s Common Data Set or many are listed here) and what that average merit package is. Depending on the percentage, compare yourself to the college’s top applicants (at least 75th percentile or above). If you aren’t at least at the 75th percentile, your odds are highly unlikely to get a competitive merit award. Obviously, however, this depends on what type of institution you’re applying for. The more selective/rejective the institution is, the harder it will be to get.
Once you’ve done the above, eliminate the schools whose NPC indicate that it will be out of budget ($35-40k, max) and for which you are extremely unlikely to receive enough merit aid to get it down to your budget price. Then take a look at the schools that remain and make sure there are at least two schools that you are highly likely to get in and be able to afford.
It would be helpful if you would list the schools’ NPC prices here, or at least indicate which ones make the cut for being within budget.
As others have said, you can go into law from any field. Is there a reason why your family doesn’t want you to change majors? Or is it that they just want you to make sure you graduate within four years?
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What everyone has said:
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There’s no law major (except Arizona) - pre law is advising. So you’re not going to find a college with a ‘good’ law program. Doesn’t exist. You need a college where you can get a good gpa and then test well.
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Most colleges don’t have law schools so most go to law school somewhere different. Today many even work a couple years in between. Bennington, for example, no law school.
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What your parents are giving you doesn’t determine need. Colleges determine need through FAFSA or CSS (private). Many parents can afford a certain price but don’t want to. If that’s the case here…ie GW shows $80k a year on its net price calculator, you need to remove it. You should not ED anywhere if you aren’t sure about affordability. Have your folks help with NPC. You don’t want or need loans and fortunately the government doesn’t allow you to borrow over the $27k during four years (less than $7k on average). You don’t want to owe…period…if you don’t need to.
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Perhaps I’m less optimistic than most about your odds but the 3.0 Junior year and two Cs at math worry me. It’d be really helpful if you could give us an unweighted GPA. It’s simply 4 for an A, 3 for a B. With 7 APs thus far and a 4 weighted, while I don’t have concerns, I do for the level of school you are looking at.
Please re read everyone’s messages. Lots of good words here. Make sure you understand them and ask for help if you don’t.
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I am not sure I understand. Sanguine means positive and confident in a tough situation but you seem to be more pessimistic than others having said up thread; “it’s almost certainly a no shot. But one can always try.”
Pardon my confusion but for OP’s benefit who values your opinion and clarity are you sanguine or concerned?
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I agree an unweighted GPA on a 4 point scale for core courses only would be helpful. The two Cs and a downward trend (sounds like a downward trend in jr year?) are likely to put OP at a disadvantage at some schools.
OP…does your school use Naviance or Scoir? That, along with your GC’s input, will be the best determinant of your chances/how to categorize schools.
OP- you sound like a terrific person.
You’ve started the search backwards.
So take a beat- and reboot. Affordability is the single most important factor here. You will need your parents help to run the numbers and determine if ANY of the colleges you think you are interested in are going to come in at the affordable level (the 35K you get from your family, plus the federal loan amount which is capped). If NONE of them are affordable, you need to start all over again developing a list.
There are very few colleges in America where you cannot get a solid degree in literature. And forget law- as everyone has pointed out, law school does not care what you major in (and majoring in something pre-law like criminal justice is not helpful, despite what you may think).
So take a beat and figure out what your budget is. There is no sense pining after a college which you cannot afford.
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Poor word choice. Less optimistic. Meant to say less. Thx for catch
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Minimizing those loans is critical.
I am hoping that you meant $35k per year. If this is true, then you should be able to totally avoid taking out any loans, but this will constrain where you can go to university. If you can completely avoid loans, then you really should. You should not even think about taking on more than the government subsidized level of loans ($27k total over four years) and even that would best be avoided.
If $35k is the total amount for the full four years, then you might want to seriously consider starting out at community college, and then transferring to an in-state public university after two years. One friend of a daughter was a very strong student and did this, and did very well.
My older daughter was not particularly happy that I would not let her take out any loans for university. Six months after she graduated from university she thanked me. Her first job was an absolute dream job but it payed really badly – she could only take the job because she had no loans. This led to a slightly better paying second job. Both provided great experience that helped her get into a great graduate program.
Exactly. I wish that I could upvote this twice.
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You should check out colleges that are full need met. I will second U Iowa, which not only has one of the best creative writing programs in the country, but will probably be a “safety”, and will likely be willing to provide good merit aid.
If you are really interested in criminal justice, MSU is one of the top colleges for that field.
definitely umich, it’s my #1 choice! i’m super worried i won’t get into it though, & gwu seems a little safer (acceptance rate wise).
just calculated my uw-- 3.514 after junior year, 3.65 after tenth (if the latter matters)!
35k per year or total >> total, but they’re willing to contribute more if i get into umich since they really want me to go there
why the restriction against changing major? >> i have no idea honestly–they don’t want me to seem weak minded i guess
GWU is not safer and isn’t likely to meet need.
So, you have 9K/year + 5.5K in federal loans. Basically you must apply in-state…
You really need to run the NPC on all State schools then on private college. Forget out of state publics.
Law isn’t a major. Law Schools want to see very high grades and a major that requires a lot of reading&writing: English, History, Philosophy, Political Science/Government.
Run the Net Price Calculator (to find it, type NPC+ )
for
Kalamazoo College
St Olaf College
Muhlenberg
Sewanee
These are better than Bennington and more likely to “meet need”.
UCLA doesn’t give any financial aid. If you like the idea of studying in California, run the NPC on LMU, Whittier, Pitzer, Occidental (varying levels of selectivity and financial aid generosity). However these wouldn’t be the best for English. Also West Coast: Whitman. These may be too expensive, so run the NPC and cross them out if their net cost is 10K and above…
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based on the other replies—i’m going to go in w/ just english as my major, and philosophy as a minor, and then do law school after my undergrad IF i get into umich—if not, i’ll probably just major in finance or something (enjoyed ap econ). i really don’t want to go to a small college—i know i’d feel like i was missing something, since i’ve always wanted to go to a big school in a college town or near the city (bennington the glaring exception). do you think a really good essay & very good recs would be enough to balance out my (quite frankly) abhorrent uw gpa? also are my extracurriculars okay? & is it worth listing stuff that i wasn’t an officer in (quizbowl, key club, among others)? (sorry for all the questions!!)
Your GPA is not abhorrent but it makes UMich very reachy. Don’t forget to apply to the residential college at Michigan State (along with UMich) in addition to Honors.
Finance is NOTHING like AP Econ. It often is the most difficult business major, has courses similar to applied math and your results in Calculus make that only remotely possible if you attend, say, Grand Valley and get into their Honors College. (Not possible at UMich or MSU).
You can always minor in Economics and take the “less math” track though.
At colleges with sub 25% acceptance rates, essay&recs come after GPA, they help distinguish between the many with stellar grades (3.8+ uw). They DO make a difference at colleges where your 3.5 is fine.
Aim for all your state schools with good honors colleges or residential colleges. Get those apps done quickly, now - you’ll learn as you complete them. Keep MSU Honors+Residential College and UMich for last in that batch.
After that, and only after that, attack your list of private colleges whose NPCs have shown they’re affordable, ie., under 10K net cost.
Added complication, you might want to think whether you want to attend college in a state where they might force you to carry out a pregnancy against your will or let you bleed out from it/have your gf be submitted to that&take responsibilty for raising a child. (If you’re fine with either situation obviously it’s not a consideration at all, so, only mentioning it just in case.)
I agree with all your points. OP said above that family income is in the $100K-$150K range, so I don’t think any NPCs will show anything close to $10K net COA. Of course OP should still run them to double check.
There’s no need to declare a minor when you’re applying to college. Take a philosophy class, but you may also find a different area that sparks your interest that you haven’t been introduced to yet. Also, many students go in undeclared with respect to major. But going in as an English major also works, if that’s where you think your greatest interest lies.
Ok, a $35k budget (total) is much different than $35k/year. Do you know if your family will be Pell Grant eligible (a need-based grant from the federal government)?
I would do a couple of things first:
- Is there a public college that is within commuting distance? Unless it’s UM or MSU then it should be a safety (i.e. extremely likely for acceptance AND affordability). Question is, would you be happy attending that campus?
- If you’re looking for a residential college experience, take a look at these Michigan publics, all of which are primarily residential campuses:
• Grand Valley State
• Central Michigan
• Western Michigan
• Ferris State
• Northern Michigan
• Lake Superior State
• Eastern Michigan - Research into those schools and see which ones seem like the best fit. Also, run their Net Price Calculators (especially if they ask for academic info) to see what kind of merit aid they’d be likely to offer you (I suspect you’d get it from all of them). What you’re really looking for is a school that will give you a scholarship or enough grant aid to cover all of your tuition. Then you can spend the $35k your family is offering on room & board (probably supplemented with some work from you, either part-time during the school year and/or with a summer job).
So even Michigan State is not a safety.
The issue - a school like W Michigan has a $29K Cost of attendance. I’m not sure of the merit and there’s a $4K opportunity a year but you need a 3.85 of 4 - so I think they look unweighted.
In short, at $9K a year, I think you need to consider community college and living at home. Or find a four year and live at home. I hate that - as living home is not going to college.
As others said, work with your family on filling out Net Price Calculators. But if your income is as you show, they’re not going to get close and at some schools will get no aid.
There are schools - like Southern Illiniois (CMU is one too I believe) that have no OOS tuition. They won’t make the $ you need but with scholarships you can get down to $20K or so.
The reality is, short of a community college, you need to speak with your parents about adjusting the budget.
Even U of Michigan tuition alone is double your budget - and you won’t qualify for Go Blue based on what you say their income is.
I feel for you - you need to show them #s, go over #s, and if that’s truly the budget, I only see community college as a way - and many many many a person takes that route and does so successfully.
You can get a job to help - but you’d be spending all your money and it still is unlikely to make a huge impact.
Good luck.
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