<p>Apparently if you want to go out of state (im in NY), you might as well go private since OOS isn't worth the money, so i'm wondering what schools are generous with aid for students with good grades (90s) in the northeast (New England, Pennsylvania, etc)</p>
<p>My only criteria is:
Good marching band
Good athletics
Good academics
Good student body/social life</p>
<p>= Has to be a GOOD school. =)</p>
<p>I was thinking UCONN or Penn State, but people said I should look in the private sector.</p>
<p>Pitt…
-Not sure about the marching band
-Good basketball, football, might be more than that
-Pretty good academics
-Pretty good student body/social life (in Pittsburgh)</p>
<p>As a URM you would be eligible for the Helen Faison scholarship which is a full ride. No separate application needed. Full tuition scholarships are awarded generously based on stats.</p>
<p>I’m taking my SAT’s May 1st and am not worried about it since every practice one I’ve taken with priceton review prep classes has been great, and more likely than not, by EFC will be higher than we can actually afford due to several reasons I rather not divulge here. That’s why I’m just looking for some schools out there who aren’t too picky with their aid, because I probably can’t afford simple OOS tuition without aid, let alone private tuition. (And dorming)</p>
<p>-They said they have a good marching band
-It’s not Big East, but it’s D1. CAA is a good conference and their football team won the FBS National Championship recently.
-Great engineering program
-Everyone says they love it there</p>
<p>It’s right on the tip of Delaware so it’s basically in a suburb of Philly.</p>
<p>If your EFC is higher than you can afford, you need to look for significant merit scholarships. Don’t bother with the need-only schools (save for extremely generous ones like HYP), you can’t afford them.</p>
<p>I’ll second Pitt. It seems to meet your criteria. If you look at the Pitt board here, you’ll see much discussion of merit scholarships awarded to OOS students. Pitt has a very good engineering school and you can also take classes at Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, I’m thinking that your parents’ EFC is in the $25k range (maybe higher), but can’t pay much or any of their EFC. Is that right?</p>
<p>If so, don’t bother with ANY schools (except some ivies) that don’t give BIG MERIT. You would need huge merit to get thru your EFC and cover your need.</p>
<p>Schools like UDel won’t likely work because I don’t think it gives great OOS merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Stick with…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Privates that will give big merit to URMs.</p></li>
<li><p>OOS publics that will give huge merit for stats. Don’t bother with any OOS publics that don’t give generous merit scholarships to OOS students. They won’t be affordable.</p></li>
<li><p>Ivies that go beyond EFC.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The problem is that except for a few ivies, most schools will not help you with your EFC, and most publics won’t help you with your need.</p>
<p>So, you need huge merit or a generous ivy acceptance. Do NOT rely only on competitive scholarships…apply to at least a couple of schools that will give you assured merit for your stats. You need to have at least a couple of schools that you’ll know for sure that you’ll get money. :)</p>
<p>When will you have some SAT and ACT scores (take BOTH…you need big merit so you’ll need a high score and some do better on one than the other.)</p>
<p>Does marching band and good athletics imply big time football? BCS football schools in the Northeast are limited to Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, Rutgers, Penn State, Boston College and Maryland (now that the state has joined the Northeast), Buffalo and Temple (also I think Army and Navy, but they’re different). Syracuse and Boston College are the private schools in this group.</p>
<p>How necessary is staying in the Northeast? You’ll have additional choices in the South and Midwest, for instance, that otherwise meet your criteria.</p>
<p>I probably would be better off outside NorthEast, but my parent’s are to attached to me, and would go crazy if I went beyond long driving distance.</p>
<p>And mom2collegekids, it’s going to be less for sure, if I said 25k before, then I must have accidentally added a 50k income my dad got from his retirement plan to pay off some debt that was added to his income for the year, though it was just used to mostly save our second house. Not having the range is a real obstacle here, because it’s hard to know what to look for, but I just want an idea of those schools out there that I won’t have to bend over backwards to get merit aid, especially since my grades aren’t valedictorian caliber, though being under no mistake above average.</p>
<p>Why don’t you try this to get a rough idea of what your EFC will be…
(Keep in mind…that that is generally the MINIMUM that a family will have to pay…not the max…that shocks a lot of people.</p>
<p>Taking SAT May, and taking my prep class in which I score 1280/1770 on practice (The writing really kills me, and M + R can easily be boosted since I just need to be more accurate, because everytime I review the test, I end up hurting myself for making stupid mistakes. I always think I got over 2000, then the score comes… ) And I know SAT/ACT score helps considerably for scholarships, so I’m working on this. I might take the ACT to see which grade is better, so which do colleges prefer?</p>
<p>Is Pitt the only school in that area that I can look into? I would expand my search beyond northeast, but being 5-6 hours away from home is something my parents probably won’t allow, unless its a very “nice” scholarship/aid package. Except, even with a full scholarship (thought it won’t happen), going half across the country to california/Florida etc, is not an option. I’m not that comfortable with it either.</p>
<p>(The writing really kills me, and M + R can easily be boosted since I just need to be more accurate, because everytime I review the test, I end up hurting myself for making stupid mistakes.</p>
<p>You really need to take the ACT…the ACT doesn’t seem to have the tricky math questions that the SAT is sometimes accused of having. </p>
<p>As for the writing…this is an area that can be improved upon if you study the front sections of the SAT and ACT practice books. </p>
<p>Are you also having problems with the essays? My kids insist that having a few “go to” literary references is the key to scoring 11s and 12s. Also, supposedly, the more you write, the higher the score. Have you read Animal Farm? IF not, it’s a quick and easy book to read…get it and read it. My kids swear that they referred to Animal Farm in several essays…they seem to “work it in” regardless of the prompt…LOL.</p>
<p>There are some privates that are looking to boost their diversity numbers. Are you male? (I’ve forgotten if you’ve said…sorry if you’ve already indicated.) Loyola Maryland has been generous to African American students. And, there are several other privates that want to increase their URM numbers. </p>
<p>But, if you want the marching band aspect…you probably need to go to a football school. And, I’m afraid that second home (that your family hasn’t had much luck selling) is going to be a FA issue. Your parents might as well accept that it’s not going to sell for awhile and try to find some reliable renters.</p>
<p>A little farther than the Northeast (meeting your marching band, sports and electrical engineering criteria), there would be Ohio U (great band, sports ok for the MAC- just beat Georgetown, lots of merit aid), Ohio State, Michigan, Mich. St., Purdue, Va Tech, NC State, Clemson, GaTech and Alabama.</p>
<p>Yes I am male =) And they started putting it up for rent a little while ago. Hopefully it’s rented soon. The whole concept of the SAT really annoys me, since it’s really just testing you on how well you can take a test, and not on your knowledge. Seems kind of ridiculous…</p>
<p>Is Mich St and Michigan really good for merit? I was actually looking at them beforehand, didn’t give them too much thought…</p>
And, there are several other privates that want to increase their URM numbers.