Hello,
Would anyone mind sharing their thoughts on my rough-draft college list? Colleges I should add or take off? And how are my chances for these colleges/scholarships?
Thank you!
-BIG need for merit/FA (parents only paying for books/transportation)
-white male, family income ~80k, Science major (most likely Chemistry), PreMed
-I am very open-minded and not picky, and I would feel comfortable at LACs, research institutions, etc. I’m not barring anything out for size, demographics, etc. although I would prefer staying on the northern East Coast.
- 3.88 UW / 4.3 W GPA (all As except for B+s freshman year Engineering and sophomore year World History)
- 1470 new SAT (730 R&W, 740 M), 1420 old SAT (700 CR, 720 M)
-34 ACT (35 E, 33 M, 34 R, 35 S, 22 essay)
-1450 PSAT (out of 1520 this year). 740 Reading & Writing, 710 Math. SI = 219
I don’t know if this if good enough for National Merit. I live in Connecticut.
By graduation, I will have
-7 AP classes and tests
-3 years of marching/concert band (baritone and trombone)
-4 years track, long-distance (indoor and outdoor)
-2 years XC
-Spanish/Math/National Honor Societies w/ required volunteer hours (mostly tutoring)
-1 year lifeguarding job
Here are my ideas so far:
Safeties
-University of Connecticut
-Temple University
Competitive merit
-Fordham (if NMF)
-Stevens Institute of Technology
-UPitt
-Miami U
Need-based
-Cornell
-Georgetown
-Johns Hopkins
-Amherst/Haverford/Swarthmore
I would remove Temple and add University of Scranton. Scranton you are a full ride candidate and that school is nicer, much nicer than Temple.
I would put Lehigh, St. Olaf and Lafayette in your Competitive Merit and remove Stevens and Pitt.
I would remove Georgetown and substitute Notre Dame.
I would mix up the LAC’s more. Maybe better to stay in NESCAC or Patriot League if you like sports.
Is that University of Miami? Or Miami University in Ohio?
You are right there at the predicted cutoff for NM for CT. Good luck. It will make a big diff for full rides. Check out this list if you haven’t yet:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
Northeastern has a 33K NMF merit but that might not be enough for you. I think getting a full ride from Fordham is slim even if NMF. Read their board and their aid posts.
@OnTheBubble Miami U of Ohio.
Also my running times would probably be enough to get me on some of the LAC teams. Might not make a difference in admission for NESCAC, but I will be sure to look into those more! Thank you.
@Dolemite thank you. I wish I knew aooner whether or not I was NMF!
If you are pre-med and have a great ACT like you posted, I would never remove Pitt! The full-tuition merit to be found there is a beautiful thing and the health sciences opportunities are great. Are you in the top 5%?
If you’re serious about being premed and going to med school, I would avoid being on a team. It can be a real GPA killer, and typically you’d have to take a gap year to apply to med school.
Two of my son’s housemates were former athletes, and they both completed their premed prereqs after graduation because they knew that their Bio/GenChem/Ochem/Physics grades would suffer from team demands.
I would add the suggested schools but keep your current list as well for now. I like Temple for merit. Consider Connecticut College, Rice and Vassar for needbased aid schools.
Run the NPC for all schools before shortening the list…And keep in mind that your definition of need may not be the college’s definition of need.
@carachel2 yes, top 5%
@mom2collegekids that is definitely something I need to take into account. Even one sport in D3 can hurt I’m sure.
I wouldn’t remove Temple either since they have had a guaranteed merit aid that you have qualify for. They are reworking for 2016/2017 so you have to check back but I would keep them on for further research.
Consider adding Northeastern and Boston University. Good merit aid for top applicants and NMF’s.
Family income about $80k. have you asked your parents how much they can pay each year towards college? Income is too high for Pell grant, so schools that give merit, but don’t meet need may not work if your family can’t pay much.
Do you have a non custodial parent?
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@mom2collegekids that is definitely something I need to take into account. Even one sport in D3 can hurt I’m sure.
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Yes, even a D3 sport can be demanding. My nephew did pole vaulting for Tufts and it did affect his grades a few times.
During the two semesters that my son took Ochem (plus other classes), he did nothing else except work 2 hours a week on Friday afternoons only.
@mom2collegekids they say they will pay only for books and transportation (short of airfare), but will cosign any necessary loans. So I really need full tuition merit or very high need-based aid
Providence College and St Lawrence have merit up to full tuition.
You have the stats to have a great shot.
<<< PreMed
say they will pay only for books and transportation (short of airfare), but will cosign any necessary loans. So I really need full tuition merit or very high need-based aid
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Oh my! co-signed loans for someone who wants to go to med school? Very bad idea.
I’m not even sure if a private loan would be “on hold” while a student goes thru undergrad, med school, and residency. Even if it would, the interest accumulation would be crazy high, plus the debt from med school.
Please do NOT select a college that would require co-signed loans . Terrible idea.
(BTW…with their modest income, they may not qualify to cosign loans each year. They might qualify the first year, but once that loan is made, their credit will take a hit, and they may not qualify for later years. )
In the Las few years I helped both my children into college and finances were everything. As a general rule of thumb the harder a school is to get into and the more expensive it is, the richer it is and the better financial aid ypu get. I had both my children apply to 25 schools fishing for money. At one point I did some research and made a list of colleges that offered full ride merit scholarships. It took a little work and I have thought of posting it. Note that there is a difference between a full scholarship that pays tuition and a full ride scholarship that pays all expenses including room and board. It is sometimes hard to tell what a college means by full scholarship. It sounds like you families finances are similar to ours. By the way I found that appealing a financial aid award almost always helped. My daughter is at rice that ended up at rice that gave her a no loan need based scholarship that covered for almost everything. My son is at Vassar with student loans. Also I don’t know what state you live in but for instate there should be state schools that offer full ride merit scholarships.
If in NJ full ride merit acholarships
Sorry doing this on my cell phone
In New Jersey full ride
Stockton University
The College of New Jersey
Rutgers (I think)
Outside new jersey
University of Mary Washington (true full ride pays everything plus stipend)
LaSalle
Temple (full ride or full scholarship?)
Financial aid we received best to good in order
Rice
Vassar
Colgate
Grinnell
Brandies
Drew
Boston College
Washington college
Fordham merit but not much need
OP, each college has a net price calculator on their website. You need to run that for each college discussed. The problem is that there will be an expectation that your parents will pay something beyond books & transportation. And it is not advisable to take out large loans, you will be sorry later if you do that for undergrad. My guess is that your are going to need to look at colleges that give large scholarships for merit. UAlabama always comes up in these conversations, so look at their scholarship page.
@mom2collegekids I agree about the loans. I need about full tuition in FA to be able to get through college w/o loans other than the limited federal loans.
@robotrainbow that’s exactlt what I’ve found - the better the school, the better the endowment and the better the FA. Thanks for the list. Also Temple’s scholarship is full tuition + 2 $4,000 stipends.
@intparent I have used NPCs many times in my search and I actually have a spreadsheet showing the costs. Some of the better schools give over full tuition, even when my brother graduates.
Where we got not great financial aid
St. Laurence, merit but not need
WIT
Quinnipiac
George Washington
William and Mary (they cap out of state grants)
Lawrence
Rensselaer
Champlain college
University of Denver
George Mason
All these schools gave my kids merit awards but 20,000 or even 30,000 is still far short of the 60,000 a year it takes.
Also I remember
Ithaca college full ride separate application
American university full ride separate application
Also Emory gave ok need based aid
Bump
Anyone else have any ideas?