Do not how to pick a college...CONFUSION!?

College Confidential Community
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<p>Hey everyone, college application season is here! And I am so nervous about making any type of college decisions, I have a final list of where I want to go of 8 schools but I don't know how to decide if I get accpeted to those schools. I'm not sure if I have done enough research but I also don't know what type of things to look at besides the basics: location, school spirit, rank, etc. I want to double major in English and Anthropology and all my schools have that so I don't where the buck should stop? I am so confused, I'm applying to alot of schools to maximize the amount of money I get. I guess I just need a little advice? Suggestions maybe?</p>

<p>(Top Choice to Safety)
University of Texas at Austin
University of Pittsburgh
University of Virginia
University of S. California
Ohio State University
University of Alabama
UNC-Chapel Hill
University of South Carolina (Safety)</p>

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<p>First off what can you afford to pay since you are out of state from everywhere except for South Carolina.</p>

<p>What are you stats?(GPA, standardized test scores, ecs, course rigor)</p>

<p>Do you prefer suburban, rural. or urban areas?</p>

<p>Visit all of the schools on this list that you can.</p>

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<p>I can’t afford much because I come from a single family home and make less than 60k/yr. I can’t visit much of the schools because of the cost of travel we just don’t have that kind of money. </p>

<p>I’m in the top 5% of my class, I have a 4.6 GPA, I took and am taking multiple AP/IB classes and I’ve passed the past ones I’ve taken. 1780 on the SAT, am taking it again, but the SAT is super hard for me, I’m better with the ACT which i am taking soon (2x) because its sort of like an AP exam and I was “trained” to work under a time constraint. </p>

<p>Anything else I need to add? This whole process is just overwhelming!</p>

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<p>Haha do not worry the process is quite long and tedious but much easier with a little help. Yeah I didnt imagine you would be able to visit most of the schools since they are very far from where you live and alot all the way across the country. I think one thing you should consider when choosing schools is the transportation cost. If you end up attending one the schools especially in Cali, or even ohio state and Pitt you will need to account for the cost of plane trips back and forth especially if you plan to come home during winter break and such. Another observation that I made was that all of these schools are big oos publics with expensive costs of attendance for out of state applicants. Most of these schools are going to cost around 40 grand each, with Bama being slighty cheaper and Southern Cal being more expensive than 40 grand. Unforunately, most of these schools do not promise to meet for full need oos students with the exception of UVA and UNC which are extremely competitive to gain admission if you are an out of state student. If you get your SATs and ACT score up you will have a much better chance and probably even scholarship at Bama, Ohio St, and South Carolina. As you already know you have a very very good gpa and a great class rank which will definitely help. Unforunately. your SAT score is good but needs to be higher for the majority of the schools on your list. Aim for as high as possible but I would try aiming for a minimum of around a 2000-2100 for a good shot at the schools. As of now I think you have a good shot at South Carolina, Bama. Pitt and Ohio ST would probably be a high match for you and depending on the rest of the package you would probably get in but not with much money. I think if you can increase your Standardized test scores you should also try applying to a few privates closer to South Carolina that meet full need and give generous financial aid and scholarships.</p>

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<p>Are you 100% sold on state schools? If you can get into the 30s on your ACT… with your GPA and rank, a whole world of private school possibilities opens up. </p>

<p>Both national universities and liberal arts colleges, schools like:</p>

<p>Georgetown
U of Rochester
Boston College
Notre Dame
Southern Cal (on your list)
Claremont McKenna
Middlebury
Colby
Hamilton
Haverford
Colgate
Bates
Davidson
Washington & Lee</p>

<p>If you hit, say, 32+ on the ACT, even more schools come into range for you – Swarthmore, Carleton, Williams, Amherst, Cornell, Rice, Northwestern… </p>

<p>The reason I mention private schools is, they tend to give much better need-based financial aid than state schools do.</p>

<p>Try pricing out a year at, say, Hamilton College. Regular total price is $50k+, but since they meet 100% of demonstrated need, I bet your family would be asked to pay more like $10-$15k per year (ballpark guess – check it out for yourself).</p>

<p>I just wanted you to know that the private school option very likely will be competitively priced, in terms of what you’ll be asked to pay, vs. state schools. And likely quite a bit less than out of state tuition/fees at a state school, unless you get nice academic schollies.</p>

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<p>Listen the SAT isn’t for me but my plan was to aim for at least a 2100, I just have to focus. But your saying that I should apply to more private colleges because they would offer me a more substantial financial aid package? I did want to go to Northwestern… any other D1 private schools?</p>

<p>I looked at Notre Dame and its obviously a great school but I don’t like that its a Roman Catholic university nothing against the religion, im totally accepting as I am a christian. I would just prefer to go to a non-denominational school.</p>

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<p>Also, I think I could get instate tuition for UNC Chapel Hill</p>

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<p>What about University of Miami?? Yay or neh?</p>

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<p>Or Syracuse…I do love New York? And I have family there…</p>

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<p>myhorizon,</p>

<p>I haven’t looked at financial aid at Syracuse – good school BTW.</p>

<p>Miami (Coral Gables), I think, is one of those that provides 100%, or <em>almost</em> 100%, of need-based financial aid.</p>

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill is an excellent school. If you can get in-state rates, by all means, apply. Do take another shot at the SAT or get a good ACT score, though. It actually is one of those that claim to meet 100% of need, too, which is fairly rare for a state school. UVA is another.</p>

<p>Another pretty good school in your neck of the woods that provides good fin aid is Wake Forest.</p>

<p>I made a spreadsheet (Excel, multiple tabs) of most of the schools (national Us and LACs) that claim to provide 100% of need-based aid.</p>

<p>If you’d like, I could send it to you. (lol no spam… i am not a recruiter…)</p>

<p>It has tabs for things like SAT scores (which you can convert to ACT…), endowment per student, selectivity, US News & WR rank, cross-registration consortium information, early application information, and regional distribution.</p>

<p>Just PM me if you’d like me to send you the sheet. (free, obviously. i did this with the future in mind, but do not mind, at all, sharing it)</p>

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<p>That sounds great!..what does PM mean, though?</p>

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<p>private message – kind of like intra-CC email. you’ve got one.</p>

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<p>A good way to figure out how much you and your family would be asked to pay (per year) is the Net Price Calculator. Just Google/Bing (or whatever search engine…) ‘(name of school) Net Price Calculator’ to get a decent estimate of how much you’d be responsible for paying each year at that school.</p>

<p>If you want to figure out how much it might cost to attend, say, Syracuse… just Google “Syracuse Net Price Calculator”. you’ll be prompted to populate fields with family/personal/financial info. No need to create an account… just do it as a guest if you want to.</p>