Fall 2024 admission to colleges based on my stats [FL resident, 3.2 GPA, 1230 SAT, "definitely need financial aid"; journalism or sports management]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi, I am a florida high school senior at a very rigourous high school with very average stats. I am hispanic and a Duke double legacy (I’m applying to duke ED but I’m already prepared myself for the basically guaranteed rejection, so I don’t even count it. Here are my stats and the schools I’m applying too- I would love if you shared what you think my chances are, and what schools (if any) I should also consider applying to.

Intended Major(s): Journalism/Sports Concentration or Sports Management

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.2/4.0, Weighted HS GPA: 3.9/6.0, Class Rank: Top 50%, SAT Scores: 1230 but planning to retake in 2 days

*9 AP classes (since freshman year), passed all but 2 and have yet to take 3.

*Awards: Varsity soccer heart of a champion, Ap Scholar

*Extracurriculars
*Chief sports editor for yearbook, head of social media for the student section at my school, Content creation Intern at Girls Club, a sports platform for women, lead violist orchestra, soccer coach to middle schoolers in an after school club, founder of business that raised 2000+ dollars for Florida Bail Fund, Barista at Starbucks (paid job), Varsity striker for School Soccer, Club soccer player, Member of National English Honor Society

*Essays: extremely strong (Multiple reviewers), freshman year my family went through a lot (also the reason for my low GPA) and I use the greek mythology I was obsessed with as a child as a metaphor.

*Single mother, dead dad (freshman year trauma)-will definitely need financial aid

-Schools:
Syracuse
Flagler
Penn State
University of south Carolina
Clemson
Texas Christian

and some safeties I didn’t put.

Before you make your assumptions, I know I barely have a chance at these schools and I am definitely not getting my hopes up. I am very realistic about my chances and I have more than enough safeties I am happy to attend.
ALso, if you’re from Syracuse, I put my first option major as Sports Management in Falk and second option as digital journalism in Newhouse. Should I change this? flip it? What gives me the best option to get accepted?

Thanks!

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I think you have a very good chance at Flagler!

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For Syracuse both are going to be really tough but I would go with Falk as the best chance.

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@burghdad I see that you’re an avid responder in clemson and such colleges, I’d love to see what you think and/or what other colleges I should apply too

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I think your first consideration needs to be budget. OOS with no merit based on your stats Clemson is going to come in around 58-60k. South Carolina similar COA. PSU out of state COA 52-53K. Syracuse is about 75k. Have you run the net price calculator with your families current financial situation.

You also have to add in the cost of travel and yearly 3-6% tuition increases

Additional I believe those schools are all going to be pretty big reaches for you. At Clemson only 1% of enrolled student had a GPA of 3.0-3.24; your SAT score is at the 25th%tile. USCar only 7% of students had 3.0-3.24 GPA; your SAT slightly above 25th%tile. PSU 7.4% with 3.0-3.24 GPA; SAT at 25%tile. Syracuse 10% 3.0-3.24 GPA; your SAT score is below 25th%tile. Of course you can apply to all test optional and you do have good rigor and ECs but I just think that your GPA at those schools will be a hurdle you can’t over come.

As a Florida resident do you have FSU, CFU and or south Florida on the list?

I have few suggestions of less sexy schools with your an academic interests that would be much more likely admissions, and most less costly. And maybe even a chance for merit money.

Coastal Carolina. OOS COA $42,500. Have communications major with a concentration in sports communications. At Coastal your SAT score is over the 75%tile and 22% have GPA of 2.5-3.24

East Carolina. OOS COA $40,000. Have both a communications and sports management majors. At ECU your SAT at 75%tile and 20% have GPA 2.5-3.24.

Western Carolina. OOS COA $23,000. Have both communications and sports management majors. Your SAT at 75%tile and 22% have 2.5-3.24.

Those are just a couple of suggestions. Ohio has quite a few public’s that you would get in with your stats and are affordable to OOS students. Kent State, Youngstown State, OU, Toledo to name a few. @tsbna44 and @AustenNut also are very well versed on schools and might have some other ideas for you.

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What is your budget? Yes, Flagler is a safety.

Without knowing budgets, I’d look at schools like Alabama, Indiana (maybe), Kansas, Ohio U as mentioned and the other OU - Oklahoma. Missouri may work but not sure how competitive journalism is to get in. URI is another.

A lot will depend on budget.

Flagler - very small - so it’s different.

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both UCF and FSU are on my list; as well as College of Charleston, Umass Amherst, and IU Bloomington. About money, I am a very low income student; both of my sisters (c/o 2021 and c/o 2018) were given basically full tuition from FAFSA, so while it is a factor, I know I will be getting money from FAFSA. Thank you so much for these stats, it helps a lot

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I would still suggest running the net price calculator for any school you are applying to.

Also could I ask what schools your sisters attended or are currently attending?

Also can you give me a breakdown of your GPA by year? A good upward trend from the tragedy you suffered your Freshman year might shed a bit of a different light on your chances.

Finally did you take AP tests for those AP classes you already completed and if so what were the scores.

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If you are trying to go with a public school, FAFSA will get you loans. Not likely much need money.

You might look at W Carolina, Southern Illinois and Central Michigan as lower cost full pay schools.

All three have sports mngmt. SIU and CMU have no OOS tuition (I believe) and OOS at WCU is $5k so $20k all in.

Not sure C of C will work major wise. Certainly not cost wise.

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No you won’t be “getting money from FAFSA”. The FAFSA is a financial aid application form. The data from that is used by some colleges in awarding their institutional need based aid.

You need to also understand that multiple students in college will no longer reduce the FAFSA SAI (that’s the new name for the EFC) starting now. So…having more than one sibling in college likely won’t increase need based aid or eligibility for it as it has in the past.

The FAFSA is primarily used to determine your eligibility for federally funded aid…the amount of the Pell Grant you are eligible to receive and the federally funded Direct Loan. If you got the maximum spell, and took out the max Direct Loan, you would have about $13,000 which would not fully cover your costs at any of the schools on your list.

What level of Bright Futures are you eligible to receive?

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Generally, if you look at the Common Data Sets for the schools that you are interested in, Section C7 tells you how each school weighs different academic and non-academic admissions factors; and Sections C9-C11 give objective criteria for recently matriculating classes – so you can compare your stats to those of entering freshmen, and perhaps get a general sense of your chances for admission.

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I think that Northern Illinois University also does not have OOS tuition; and it has Sport Management and Journalism as majors.

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Your extracurriculars really shine for me, and they definitely point towards your interest in sports communication.

As the federal formula for calculating aid has shifted this year, have your mom run through and see what the SAI (formerly Expected Family Contribution) is. Public colleges in your state will be your best bet at a public school giving you enough aid to meet your SAI. Except for a few very hard admits (UVA and UNC, UMich for low-income families), most public colleges don’t give need-based aid to out-of-state students. And unless you have something close to an unweighted 4.0GPA for grades 10-12, those schools are highly unlikely to give you an admission.

Thus, if your sisters received enough aid to cover full tuition, they probably went to private schools (and/or the aid they received was not just need-based, but merit-based as well). Private schools can use whatever formula they want to calculate your family’s need, and they are under no obligation to meet that need. Run the Net Price Calculator at each school you’re considering and see if the price is within you family’s budget.

Additionally, if you share what the budget is for college, then we can help provide suggestions of realistic options that might work.

Wishing you the best as you go through this process and sending you a virtual hug.

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What classes and grades did you get Junior year? This year?

What’s your EFC?
What’s your budget - can your parents contribute?

Have you run the NPC on TCU? What does it indicate?

You can try contacting meet-need D3 colleges’ soccer coaches if you could play at the college level. The issue is that few of these colleges will offer the majors you’re interested in but Denison (a reach academically) for instance has a journalism major. Depending on your grades Jr/sr year (and the possible hook of soccer??) it could be an affordable choice.

Penn State, Clemson, USC will all be unaffordable. OOS public universities do not provide financial aid to students from other states, their mission is serving their state’s residents.
Only 85 colleges out of 3,700 meet need. The others don’t so low income students must find universities that will be affordable either instate (BF) or through meet-need colleges.
Meet-need colleges (like Denison listed above) are all super selective so your odds will depend on freshman year v. Other years, esp. Jr/sr years. Typically a 3.2 GPA wouldn’t qualify but your situation may warrant a 2nd look.

(FAFSA will provide you a 5.5k loan and a Pell Grant for about 6.5k, so add your job’s savings and that’s your budget unless your parents can add some $$… instate you could also have the 2nd tier Bright Futures).

What colleges are your sisters attending?

What instate public universities with Bright futures are you considering?
What about Eckerd or Rollins?

Send your essay to the group of experienced readers on this website.
Metaphor essays are extremely difficult to pull off so multiple eyes will help make sure your voice shines through.

:hugs::hugs:

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My sisters both attend Duke University (hence why I’m applying ED, although I am 10000% i dont even have a chance).

My freshman year GPA was a 2.0-I did awful in classes that year due to a lot of external factors. I believe my sophomore year GPA was a 3.4 and my junior was around 3.6? Not 100% positive about any but the freshman year one, but the others are definietly in that vicinity. As for AP Tests, I got a 4 on 3 of them and 3s on 2 of them. The rest I havent taken.
Sorry for the late response and thank you again

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Duke is a generous/meet full need university. It means that they offer full rides based on need, don’t package loans and/or add extra money for miscellaneous.
Very very few universities do that.
As a result, your financial situation is going to be quite different from your sisters’ (I agree Duke is unlikely and in fact wonder if you could use your ED advantage at another meet need college rather than “throw away” that advantage.)
Unfortunately, unless you get into Duke, you need to find affordable universities -with Bright Futures, with Pell+your work earnings+ what your parents can give you +5.5k in loans, or through institutional aid.
You really must ask your parents (or your oldest sister) if they can contribute anything toward college because colleges as generous as Duke are going to be highly selective and probably out of reach with a 3.6 junior year GPA and 3.2 overall. In short, if you don’t build a list based on net price calculator results you really risk not being able to go to a 4-year college.

Can you list the classes you took last year and the grades you got, as well as your senior schedule?
Which APs?
(Environmental science and Psychology don’t “count” the same as Calculus, English Language, US History, Physics, Foreign Language, Biology…)

What are your safeties? Have you run the NPC and how much are they? Have you shown your results to your parents?

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Do you qualify for BF? Have you completed all the requirements in foreign language, community service? If so, you should get the medallion level, about $3300/yr.

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update: I just did the Net Price Calculator for Syracuse and it estimated that I would receive 70,000 a year out of the 81,000 tuition, meaning I would have to pay 11,000 for the 2023-2024 year. I believe this is very reasonable and while not an exact number it does relax me on the financial stress about college, not just Syracuse.

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APs I’ve taken/taking: Lang, Lit, Psych, World, US History, Government, Macroeconomics, Human Geo, Comparative Gov. Yes I ran the NPC for Syracuse and the estimated I would receive is 70,000; I would be paying 11,000 for the year.

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Good job on the choice of APs AP Lang, Lit, World, APUSH, US Gov, Comp Gov are all solid APs that would help a Journalism/Professional Writing major.

You need to run the NPC on every college, because each calculates differently.

OOS publics do not offer financial aid to students from other states so you need to focus on “meet need” private colleges plus colleges where the NPC shows affordable results.

As of now, Syracuse (reach but possible for Falk) and Flagler (safety) are affordable.
PSU, USC, Clemson, CoC, Umass Amherst, and IU Bloomington are not.
Run the NPC on TCU and Denison.

Do you qualify for Bright Futures?

Apply to Florida public universities in time for the Honors Deadline, especially wrt your safeties.

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