College List

College Search & Selection
1

Looking to put together a list for schools, and am wondering what schools would give me significant scholarship money since I don’t qualify for financial aid. Scholarship isn’t necessary, but it helps. Also, what would be the best business major? I was thinking either accounting or finance.

GPA: 3.80 unweighted
SAT: 1400 (Retaking next fall)
Intended Major: Business, Comp Sci, or Poli Sci (Want to be business major and minor in the two latter)
AP (Haven’t gotten scores): AP Span. Lang, AP Gov, and AP CS
Senior Year Courses: AP Stat, AP Eng Lang., AP US History, AP Spanish Lit., Honors Environmental Science, and Advertising

By end of high school will have taken, 7 AP, and 4 other honors courses

Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
State: NJ
Income: >180k

Positions: (Main listed below)

President of Volunteer Service Club
Member of NHS
Work at Town Grocery Store 10+ hrs a week
Board Member for Prom Committee
Vice President of Coding Club
Lead Anchor of Morning News Show
Youth Basketball Coach

Schools I like: Rutgers (In State), Michigan, Emory, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Binghamton, Indiana, Maryland, Syracuse, Lehigh, Northeastern, UTexas, UConn (Not sure how good their business program is), and Tulane so far.

Any ideas would help! Really don’t want to go into severe student loans debt since I’d like to gt my JD and/or MBA. .

2

Congratulations on your hard work and success! You have a good perspective on the financial side, especially regarding going on to grad school. It’s great that you have Rutgers as an option.

Yes, your family is in a bit of a difficult financial zone, doing great financially but probably not able to easily pay $60-70k per year for undergrad, and then pay for 2-3 years for a JD/MBA.

The challenge is that top-flight public universities, like those on your list, don’t typically offer much financial/merit aid. They look to OOS/international students to subsidize in-state students. It’s sort of a backdoor way to get more money out of us. I’m not saying you wouldn’t get any money from these schools, just that they don’t typically give much.

GT is now extremely competitive OOS, as are Michigan and Texas (very small % OOS students in TX), so they’re a reach, but you’re a great student and a reasonable candidate.

You might check Case Western–great business school, great comp sci, and it gives $10-25k in merit aid to most students, or at least it did 3-4 years ago.

To get merit aid, in general, it helps to be at the top end of admitted students for a school. For example, Miami of Ohio is an excellent school with a great campus, etc., but you’d be at the higher end of admitted students, in terms of stats, than at, say, Michigan. So it’s more likely to offer you aid to attract you. Here’s a simple chart that illustrates that.

http://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-grid/

Note the early deadline for merit aid; it super-scores for admission AND aid; and these numbers qualify you, but aid not guaranteed.

What if you looked at KU (Kansas) instead of IU? I think you might have a better chance of qualifying for merit aid. Lawrence is a great college town.

A couple of other private schools that come to mind: SMU, Creighton, and Santa Clara. SMU has a great business school. Creighton is in Omaha, which is a very vibrant business center. Santa Clara is right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Enough said. And the weather is great. I don’t think these schools really give great merit aid. But maybe you could run the NPC if any look a little intriguing. Good luck!

3

UConn has an excellent business school.

4

Look into University of Delaware. I had the same exact GPA as you and a 1410 on the SAT and I received $15,000 in merit per year. That brought the total cost per year down to $26,000. I did not qualify for financial aid. Delaware has a great business school too. Of the schools on your list, I was accepted to UMD, Syracuse, Northeastern, and UConn, but I did not receive merit aid from any. The only reason I’m saying this is because our stats are so similar. Definitely look into Delaware, they have a great business program!!!

5

Places likely to give you merit $: Kentucky, Miami-Ohio, Florida State, Alabama, TexasTech, Nebraska, Kansas,Oklahoma, Iowa State

6

I am also looking at URochester, Colgate, and W&M. I know that Rochester has a 5 year MBA Program that I like.

7

Those would be good reaches.

8

Colgate w and m and ur are High match. Maybe w and m as a low low reach.

9

What about Georgetown? If I can retake my SAT and score 1480, would I have a shot?

10

You might look at TCNJ as another good instate option.

And just so you are aware, Gtown strongly recommends three SAT II exams.

11

An OOS 3.8/1400 is not competitive for W&M.

12

An oos 3.8 witth the right rigor 1400 with a great application is definately w and m eligible. But as i mentioned its a reach. Not like a uva or unc but a low reac for sure. 15 to 20 percent chance type reach.

13

if you like tulane and texas (the state) check out SMU. Actually considered a much better business school for undergraduates than tulane by a lot. Also the tower scholars minor is a great poly sci minor to check out.

14

The Georgetown’s of the world will be quite tough financially (let alone admission wise). They offer virtually no merit scholarships outside of the very tippy top candidates (figure 1% of admitted students- similar to BC, Wake Forest, Vandy, etc.) Realistically, these are intended to pick off a few kids who otherwise would be attending Ivies or Duke.

You need to be realistic in the pursuit of merit money. Unlikely (very) to receive merit at the very selective schools. At least that was our result with great stats (higher than what you’re projecting) and stellar overall HS experience. S was admitted to several highly selective schools including some on your list, just no money.

15

I agree with @rickle1. You are a good candidate and congrats for a very successful HS experience, but you likely won’t get merit at top colleges. For one thing, many very selective colleges do no or very little merit aid at all. That said, at some top schools they define need-based aid more generously than others using their institutional methodology. So, unfort., it’s not a transparent process.

Do you know your family’s EFC vs. how much they are actually willing/able to pay? That’s very important info b4 making decisions on where to apply but you need to not only have options on where you get in but where you can afford to attend w/o crippling debt.

There are a lot students with great stats who don’t get into top colleges. I think sometimes it’s b/c they don’t focus enough on essay and recs – they can make a big difference in places where so many high stats kids apply. Have a good solid common app essay done by end of summer. Choose your teacher recs carefully.

And, of course, if you can afford you first choice at full pay, ED and EDII will give you a big admissions boost at a lot of colleges.

You may want to look at Emory. Also, have you considered LACs? Top 20 LACs are, on average, a little easier to get into than top 20 larger colleges and they have a lot to offer students in terms of attention and opportunities.

16

I am definitely looking at Emory. I’d love to go to a great business school like Ross (Mich), but I do not think I could get into it. I haven’t really looked that much at SMU, but will add it to my list now. I’d love to go to Vandy, but likely could not get in.

17

Look at scholarships. Going out of state is going to cost almost triple as it costs in-state. Look at how much money you have to spend, then eliminate the ones you can’t afford. Otherwise, you’re going to set yourself up for a disappointment. Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Alabama, and Auburn would very likely get you an in-state tuition waiver.