<p>"my major: business and psych double major. at vandy: Human organizational development, and at virginia (to give me an edge): classics since i studied latin for 3 years in high school and have won a few awards in it, so its legit. id just switch when/if i got in. "</p>
<p>For the sake of your own integrity, don't lie. If you get in, you'd forever wonder if you deserved to get in or if you got in because of a lie.</p>
<p>There also is absolutely no reason to lie. If you get in, you will get in on your own merits. If you don't get in, lying about planning to be a classics major isn't going to add so much to your application as to be a tip factor.</p>
<p>Also do realize that college admissions officers read this site. As a first generation college student from the Buffalo area who has done major unusual leadership activities, and who's dad has cancer, you have such an unusual profile that admissions officers could recognize your application, and could decide to reject you based on the lack of integrity that you demonstrated here by planning to lie on your application. And yes, putting down a proposed major that you don't plan to pursue is considered a lie.</p>
<p>"You also have to know that private schools also have obligation to give need based aid first to their own instate students so consider carefully what are options in your state."</p>
<p>Not true at all. Private colleges can have whatever guidelines they choose in terms of how to give financial aid. Some give excellent need-based financial aid only to students who are needy and in the top part of their application pool. Others such as the Ivies, promise to meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need (Remember that's what the college thinks you need, which is not necessarily what your parents feel they can pay) of all students who are accepted.</p>
<p>I do not know of any private colleges that give need-based aid first to their instate students. Some may exist, but they have no such obligation to do this.</p>
<p>--
What kind of cancer did your dad have? I have friends who have cancer, and I like to tell them about the survivors that I hear about. :)</p>
<p>linda: >>> You also have to know that private schools also have obligation to give need based aid first to their own instate students so consider carefully what are options in your state. <<<</p>
<p>This isn't true... Who told you this? Private schools are independent; they can do what they want. They can give $$$ to whomever they want, and they can also do Affirmative Action if they want. A lot of people have weird ideas about private schools; they don't charge OOS kids more (unless they have a rare, unique situation with their state like Cornell has).</p>
<p>Sometimes, a private school will offer some need and/or merit scholarships that have been funded by a foundation or family who have insisted that the recipients be from the home state.</p>
<p>"they don't charge OOS kids more (unless they have a rare, unique situation with their state like Cornell has)."</p>
<p>Cornell is a unique case in that it is public and also is private. The public parts of Cornell are agriculture, human ecology, and I think hotel management and the labor management schools. Everything else is private. The public parts of Cornell offer admission preference to NY State residents, and also provide lower tuition for state residents.</p>
<p>I'm not totally sure, but I think Cornell has some kind of land grant from NY which is why some instate kids are charged less. I'm thinking that because NY gave Cornell some land, they have to charge some instate kids less because of their particular majors use the land from the land grant. But I may have this totally wrong.</p>
<p>Cornell is just plain weird: Parts of it are land grant public colleges. The rest are private. </p>
<p>This confusing blurb is from the web site:
"What is the difference between a contract and an endowed college or school at Cornell?
Contract colleges or schools at Cornell University were created by an Act of the New York State Legislature and receive direct funding from New York State. The mission of the contract units is linked directly to the economic and social well-being of New York State. Cornell's contract units are: </p>
<p>¿ The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
¿ The College of Human Ecology
¿ The School of Industrial and Labor Relations
¿ The College of Veterinary Medicine</p>
<p>Endowed colleges or schools at Cornell are privately funded and do not receive direct funding from New York State. Cornell's endowed colleges or schools are: </p>
<p>¿ The College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
¿ The College of Arts and Sciences
¿ The College of Engineering
¿ The School of Hotel Administration
¿ The Graduate School
¿ The Johnson Graduate School of Management
¿ The Law School
¿ The Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City
¿ The Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar
¿ The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences (New York City)"</p>
<p>I think I answered your other post on a different thread. Basically, you need to to have a number of financial safeties. Since it seems that you "prestige" is important to you in a school, you can certainly should apply to those schools that meet that requirement in your mind, and that give close to full financial aid. By running your family numbers through the estimators you can come close to what they will probably give you. You can also get some idea on the composition of aid by looking up what they generally give. The USN&WR Ultimate Guide breaks down that info. Keep in mind that other than at the very top levels, schools do tend do give "merit within aid" so that the higher you are in stats for a school, the better your package composition will tend to be. Also you are more likely to qualify for any special scholarships that these schools may offer.
The next level of schools where you can get aid, is where your stats are waaaay up there, and they give good merit aid. Some of the catholic colleges do well in this regard. Again these stats are available (in averages) in the Ultimate Guide. The higher you are in the academic hierarchy within a school, the better the chances of getting grant money.
Then you have the SUNYs where you are likely to get state money (you mention a regent's scholarship) such as TAP and also you are first in line for much of their money. Also if you stay local and commute, as much as you want to leave Buffalo, that would reduce costs probably to nothing in a number of colleges in town, including NY's flagship school, SUNY at Buffalo, where I am pretty sure you could get a tuition free ride with your credentials.
If UNC or UVa are dream school, throw them in, but getting much money from them are "shoot for the stars" tries. They tend to give only their very top OOS student substantial scholarship money, and their costs are pretty high. For some OOS where your numbers are way up there, it may be worth a try, but then you might be better off with a SUNY. Cornell's land grant schools may be a good shot for you as their costs can be offset by NY state grants, and their tuitions are lower than comparable private unis, though not as low as the SUNYs. I would have loved for my son to have gone to ILR. An ivy education at thaat price would have been such a bargain!!!</p>
<p>cptofthehouse is right. OP, you need a few financial safeties so that you'll be able to compare financial offers in the spring. Some of the Catholic colleges do give some merit, but it seems that some others are more into F/A, which this you would seem to qualify for also. </p>
<p>I do think that on your list of financial safeties you need to include some SUNYs (including Buffalo) even tho you wants to GetOutOfBuffalo. College life is very different than the life that you are currently living. You will be around new people no matter where you go. And, as with most colleges, there probably are opportunities to study abroad. </p>
<p>Also, you must not overlook the likelyhood of needing to go to grad school (which is another reason why you shouldn't take out a bunch of loans for undergrad). After doing well at a good undergrad (without taking on a bunch of debt), you may have to take on some debt for grad school. You don't want to have debt from all 6+ years of school; it would be too much of a burden once you finally are done with your education.</p>
<p>ok, all good suggestions. its good to hear that catholic schools are good with fin aid since im applying to two: dayton and scranton.</p>
<p>anyone with specific experiences with either of them?
im also thinking cornell human ecology, but i hear thats even moreeee competitive than the rest of cornell!!</p>
<p>as far as the majors thing, i totally agree now and will stick with my psych and business majors, except for vandy because i HOD would be an amazing background to have before grad school for psych. altho i still want to pick up a minor in classics at UVA bc if ur gonna do classics anywhere, it might as well be at UVA!! a minor wouldnt be dishonest at all cuz im really interested in it... or else i wouldnt have taken 3 years in high school and done national exams for awards. i think what i wrote got very misconstrued and i want to point that out. different schools are stronger at different things...UVA would be the only school id consider doing classics at because its a prestigious school. i wouldnt want to do a wacky major/minor at an unknown school. and HOD for vandy is a major unique to vandy that im tremendously interested in!! its their most popular major at vandy as a whole cuz u cant get it anywhere else! i love vandy :-)</p>
<p>Buffalo- You started lots of threads and you are getting very good info. I don't have the time or patience to read what everyone else has said. But as a NY state mom who is very familiar with SUNY and Cornell I am going to reiterate a few things.
A SUNY financial safety like Stony Brook may make the entire application less stressful. I assume you will not get any financial packages until March or April, so why stress out for the next 6 months. Stony Brook may not be your dream school, but a financial safety "in your pocket" by January will save you a lot of sleepless nights. Also check out ILR program in Cornell. My d is a junior there. ILR has a "concentration" in Organizational BehAVIOR,(or somethink like that) SO YOU CAN GET YOUR SHARE OF ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSES (OOPS Caps Lock!!) and business/economic courses in ILR. A strong female applicant to ILR has a pretty good shot at getting in. Also- Cornell is complicated but not wierd. Cornell was designated as the NYS Land Grant institution in the 1860"s when the Morrell Act came into effect. There was no State University system in NY until 1948. Therefore Cornell does have the CALS school, ILR and Human Ec as there was no public university around when the Morrell Act came about. As I said Cornell is complicated.</p>
<p>Buffalo, you need to go invest $30 in the USN&WR Ultimate College Guide, and look up each college you are considering as to what they gave two years ago in aid. Scranton, though a Catholic school, gave a lousy 5% in merit about with the average award being about $8k. They tended to fulfill about 75% of kids' need,on average with only 14% of the kids getting full need met with loans comprising a third of the need package. Dayton gave 65 % of the kids they deemed needing financial aid, full aid, with the average needy student gettting 84% of what he needed. Though a third of the kids get merit money, the average award is $3500. Now you have to tailor where you would stand in the applicant pool, as to what you are likely to get. It's going to take work to get your ducks in a row, and you should have several financial safeties. Financial safeties are not like admissions safteties where you have a near sure shot of getting in. It's not an all or nothing deal, financially. It gets messy with loans, work study, etc. A full ride, or close to one is difficult to get even from "3rd or 4th" tier schools where admissions is very close to a 100% certainty.</p>
<p>Or, instead of spending $30 on the US News Ultimate College Guide, you could invest $14.95 to use the U.S. News' college web site, which is excellent, includes extensive financial aid and admissions stats for most colleges in the country, and also includes a spreadsheet that you can use to compare colleges that you're interested in.</p>
<p>Before, you said that you couldn't afford the $15. However, if you can't afford $15 to find a college that you can afford to go to, you can't afford to move away from home, which even with excellent financial aid, will cost you more out of pocket than $15.</p>
<p>Yay, Northstarmom. I am still in the Dark Ages research wise I guess.<br>
Bufffalo, you have to put the time into the research. No one else can customize a list for you. Since my son is not going to need the specific info till next year, I am not paying the $15 till then, and the info I gave you is dated since my book is from 2004 (and I am not buying a new book till next year either!). I just gave you the examples to show you how specific you can get with some schools, and the time of matrices you will have in trying to determine what your financial safeties are. Unfortunately with money, until you are awarded it, there are no certainties, so you have to go with the odds as you customize them for yourself. If you go to catholic school which for some reason I think you do, your counselor would be able to tell which schools have traditionally treated kids from your school well. Particularly the catholic colleges. Any counselor will know where the money flows the easiest for the students from their school, and what sort of state packages you are likely to get.</p>
<p>Look at the list of schools you have identified as possible.
Add to that list any suggestions which have come from the parents here on cc.
Make another list of tips parents have given you on choosing schools.</p>
<p>Then, step away from cc. For a time.</p>
<p>Examine your list of schools against all you have learned from reading the advice given you. Use the USN&WR premium online to help you further refine the list.</p>
<p>Then.. once you have refined your own list, come back here with it and any questions about it.</p>
<p>I think you are going a bit in circles now with all the advice and information and thinking that parents can answer questions like whether aid from Dayton is going to be better than from Scranton. We usually can't.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think you are going a bit in circles now with all the advice and information and thinking that parents can answer questions like whether aid from Dayton is going to be better than from Scranton. We usually can't.
<p>You may want to look at St. Lawrence University in Canton. They give several presidential scholarships worth $25, 000 plus preferential packaging for presidential scholars, plus they have some aid designated specifically for NY state residents.</p>
<p>Thank you jmmom. yes my little head is spinning in circles. </p>
<p>this post has taken me from completely throwing off udel and ohio u and scranton to putting them all back on again!! ughhh. i think i am going to add SUNY albany as my SUNY. its the most social SUNY and not too close to all the long island kids like bing and stony.</p>