<p>"at noobcake: You're last comment made me laugh. Not low income, though, mom has ~$80k and dad (divorced) ~$50k with lots of savings (little for me). We definitely have a cash flow problem....</p>
<p>So, at Harvard, your total costs would max out at $18k, well lower than your costs at Michigan. (And I would be surprised if you didn't get in.) Penn/Wharton would likely be the better choice for what you want.</p>
<p>I think it's hard to know, exactly, whether a school is not for you or not. I mean, if you are planning to come to U-M, or go to any other school that you're unsure about, I hope you will go with an attitude that you'll give it a real try. Who knows, you may end up liking it. If not, you can transfer as you planned on. I heard from several U-M seniors this year that they came to U-M and were unhappy (either from the get-go, or after they got here) and things turned around. That's likely true on campuses all over the country.</p>
<p>"As a 3.9, 32 ACT AA, I don't understand why you're not trying for merit scholarships at Tier I schools: WUSTL, Rice, Emory, Grinnell, USC, Vandy, Tulane, Brandeis, Scripps, BU, Smith, etc."</p>
<p>Why would any of those be much more interesting than UM? UM has a better business school than any of them and is a more exciting place. Tulane?? Emory?? Grinnell cornfields with zero placement after college?</p>
<p>I'd think UM will end up being free or nearly so and you would be in the Honors program which would be as good as anywhere you could consider.</p>
<p>at barrons: I agree. Mich would be an awesome college experience, but not the one I'd been <em>dreaming</em> of. Again, I have a very specific idea for college so, of the colleges above, BU is the only I may like remotely better than Mich. But I don't want to limit myself to Mich if one of the few I'd prefer accepts me and with decent financial aid.</p>
<p>OP, reach for the stars. They will give you the aid you need. Great schools that are in excellent cities include Harvard, MIT, Yale, Penn, Columbia, etc. Harvard, MIT, and Yale will give you extremely good aid-in fact if your combined parents income is somewhere between 80k don't expect to spend more than 10k at these schools. Indeed it will likely be <em>cheaper</em> than your state school. That being said, if your Dad has a lot of savings you can tell the FA offices that that money is not capable of being used for college (divorce) and the more generous colleges will likely listen. Also, don't turn down Michigan for NYU, BU, or BC. Michigan is better and cheaper than these colleges. Lastly, look into top schools that give merit aid. I'm pretty sure you'll be in the running for these.</p>
<p>thanks Cervantes</p>
<p>@ msneicirenee</p>
<p>I am a native-born and raised Michigan resident who moved out-of-state for college. I would still consider applying to Michigan. I applied and was accepted there for undergrad (I chose to matriculate to Northwestern for social and financial aid reasons). But I am fully committed to attend Michigan for grad school. It is an excellent university with LOTS of social and academic opportunities. I got the big-city lifestyle for undergrad, but I still chose to move back to Michigan. Don't rush to think you know what you want so soon. Wherever you attend, good luck.</p>
<p>tenisghs: Totally plan on applying to Michigan, and at the moment it is my #3 choice (not knowing 1 or 2, lol) But amazed that Northwestern was financially still a choice compared to Mich. It's great to know that.</p>
<p>Another plus for Michigan: Due to me taking multiple community college credits, by the end of summer after senior year, I could have around 40-50 credits. If I'm really eager to live in the city, going to UofM could only mean 3 years (or two and a half or so)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>barrons, my post was quite obviously in response to the OPs comments about preferring not to attend UM and feeling that her only other options were Tier 3 schools due to financial concerns. So, I gave her some possibilities to consider, I did not cull the list since I am not privy to all of the characteristics she is looking for in a school beyond a major. And perhaps you missed my stating:</p>
<p>
[quote]
You'd also be in the running for LS&A and possibly the Shipman scholarship at UM.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>@ msneicirenee</p>
<p>If private schools really want you, they will give you a good financial aid package to urge you to come there. Michigan proved to be too expensive (no aid due to high family income) for me. Something to think about if you plan to apply to elite private schools.</p>
<p>OP, apply to the U of M <strong>EARLY</strong> so that you have a rolling admissions admit under your belt. Then apply to a selection of need/merit schools that have money to give and the habit of doing so. I really think that you ought to apply to Penn, at least, of the Ivies, because they have what you are interested in, and therefore you will be making a compelling case for going there. I also think that you ought to consider Harvard or Yale for financial reasons, if nothing else, and a couple of the more moderately selective schools that others have suggested. A course of action like that ought to leave you with a choice come next April, both financially and academically. Keep your options open and try not to fall in love with any single place. </p>
<p>I wouldn't say you are a lock at any place that is as selective as the Ivies, but an AA female with your stats has got to have a very good chance.</p>
<p>Something that we haven't addressed is the rigor of your program and your ECs. Have you taken the most challenging program available at your school, or reasonably close to it? Do you have ECs, including volunteering or a job? When you start looking at the Ivies and their ilk, those things matter.</p>
<p>BTW, on the testing front, I don't think you mentioned whether your ACT was with writing or not. You should check this for schools that interest you, especially Penn, because a lot of the better ones require ACT with writing.</p>
<p>And my point was maybe she being a high school kid has no real clue what UM is like vs BC, Vanderbilt et al. Not all HS kids are that clued in to what any college is really like--even if they have read a few guidebooks.
Let's just say I have been to all those schools on your list, known grads of them and was not all that impressed.</p>
<p>About my ECs and class rigor: EC-wise, I have not been preparing. I do have a lot of ECs, but they need to be organized and planned to show passion. Basically, I run indoor/outdoor track & field, sideline cheerleading in the fall (captain 11 and 12 for track, JV captain 10 for cheer), but quit 12th grade year cheer. I have taught a youth cheer camp every summer, go to cheer camp every summer, all-conference in track, qualified for state in track (got DQed ha ha). Additionally, I have volunteer tutored all through high school, now student employee at comm. college as a tutor, have a girl I mentor for two years. Most important are the things I have done for my future career, attended a Actuarial Science summer camp, job shadowed for multiple actuaries AND planning to take the first professional actuarial exam in March.</p>
<p>Class rigor-wise, my counselors will explain why I could only take 2 APs per year. Each year, due to scheduling conflicts I can never get the classes I want. They schedule AP classes for the same 2 or 3 class periods, so no one can ever take more than 2 or 3. We offer no honors classes. But senior year, I'm taking 3 comm. college classes in addition to 4-5 HS classes. These classes will prepare me for my professional actuarial exam.</p>
<p>ACT is with not too good writing score of 8.</p>
<p>About Not Knowing the Colleges: barrons is exactly right, I don't know the colleges. That's what saddens me about this whole thing. I've visited a few colleges and I have this picture in my head, but I'm being to stringent and trying to conform to this idea. When in reality, I have no idea what I want. I've been to Mich once for a track meet, but I don't know it well enough to give up on it. All I know is, that if I choose Mich, I may be there dreaming about a big city college experience.</p>
<p>If you want a big city experience definitely look into USC (my son is a 2007 graduate), which is very generous with merit awards. The school is beautiful, but not in a Hogswort's kind of way, and diverse economically, geographically, racially, and ethnically. Marshall School of Business is top notch, if not the absolute best. And, btw, the weather is a whole bunch better than Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>LakeWashington,
WashU has no actuarial science porgram. </p>
<p>tsdad,
Marshall has a decent undergrad business program but it's far from "the absolute best". It has no act sci program and isn't known for math/stats. </p>
<p>OP, check out the following:
Be</a> An Actuary - Diversity Programs
SOA</a> - Undergraduate – Advanced
Not all programs cover the first 4 exams. Temple, Wisconsin-Madison, and UT-Austin programs are some of the more established ones.</p>
<p>Sam:</p>
<p>
[quote]
top notch, if not the absolute best
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That actually means that I'm saying that it's not the best.</p>
<p>By the way, Waterloo (Canada) probably has the best program in North America, if not the world.</p>
<p>OP, with your grades and stats -- I doubt you would have to pay ANYTHING at Northeastern. Plus, you'd probaly also get a lucrative co-op (paid full time internships in your field) to off-set any costs related to travel home, etc. </p>
<p>That's just an FYI; I'm not pushing Northeastern because I think you may do well in terms acceptance/FA/merit aid in some of the tier-1 schools mentioned here.</p>
<p>I don't understand this whole thread. You plan to transfer out of a school that you haven't even been accepted to yet? I can understand your "dislike" of a university for what ever reason you can make up, but to make a thread that reads the way yours does is disingenuous. To the casual CC observer it appears that you already have matriculated at Michigan and want out.</p>
<p>Nah, I think it's fair. For all intents and purposes there is no doubt she will be admitted to University of Michigan and she was thinking if/when she attends if she should plan to transfer.</p>