Good schools to look at?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi :) I 'm a junior in high school and will be going to look at schools starting next month and I think I finally finalized my list of what schools to look at. But, I want some opinions on whether this schools are good picks or not.</p>

<p>3.7 unweighted GPA
top 10% of class
4 AP classes by time I graduate
10 honor classes
Took science, english, and history classes as electives (took hardest classes i could, didn't take art or other "easy" electives)</p>

<p>3 years of varsity softball (won coach's award for being most involved with team and most encouraging)
1 year of varsity volleyball</p>

<p>yearbook for 3 years
SADD for 1 year</p>

<p>head altar server at my church
pick vegetables for poor around thanksgiving and christmas
volunteer as tour guide at my school's open house</p>

<p>grew up on family farm (sets me apart from others on application ive been told)
dad went to college but never graduated and mom never went</p>

<p>will take SATs in March and subject tests in june....I know that its not what I'll get but im studying and aiming for a 2100 and above 700s on each subject</p>

<p>So the schools I'm going to look at are; Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Holy Cross, UConn, Ithaca, Syracuse, Rutgers, Villanova, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Purchase, U of Maryland, Georgetown, George Washington </p>

<p>And I'm from Long Island</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any opinions :)</p>

2

<p>How much your family can afford will be key. The SUNYs are affordable which is good. Do your parents own the farm? That could play into FA offers from private schools. Hard to tell how you match your schools without SATs.</p>

3

<p>No limit on how much to spend. We are expecting a lot of financial aid, but my parents have said that I can go wherever I want as a reward of my hard work though high school.</p>

4

<p>This is a good list actually. I would not get your hopes up for Georgetown. BC is a stretch. NU, BU, GW and HC are good targets. Nova is a wild card. UConn, Cuse, Rutgers and the Suny schools are good safeties. I don’t know that you need two Suny schools though. </p>

<p>There are a lot of very different types of schools on here, so you should visit and maybe try to tailor the list a little.</p>

5

<p>Sometimes these NYS guidance counselors require their students to apply to at least two SUNY’s.</p>

6

<p>^Interesting. What is the reasoning?</p>

7

<p>Are you limited to staying within 250 miles of home?</p>

8

<p>Did you take the PSAT? How did you do?</p>

<p>We are expecting a lot of financial aid,</p>

<p>Aid is often misunderstood. Most schools don’t have much aid to give no matter how poor a student is. </p>

<p>And…to qualify for a lot of aid at the schools that give aid, your income/assets can’t be very high. Are you low income with low assets?</p>

<p>And…out of state publilcs (like UMaryland and UConn) won’t be giving you financial aid to cover their high OOS costs.</p>

<p>You wrote something that is contradicting…you say that you’re expecting a lot of aid, yet you also say that your parents say that you can go wherever you want. Does that mean that your parents will pay for wherever you go as a “reward” for your hard work? If so, that suggests that they have the income/assets that would likely disqualify you for much aid - even from the schools that give aid.</p>

<p>Can you clarify?</p>

<p>Informative…probably to ensure that each kid has a safety or two. Some Calif schools require their students to apply to at least a couple CSUs as well.</p>

9

<p>I’m not required to apply to any SUNY schools but I want to look at two to see which one I like then probably apply to one as a safety. </p>

<p>My parents and I have decided that I want to be no more then 6 hours away so yeah about 250 miles.</p>

<p>Have taken the PSATs but honestly I didn’t even try on them. My scores were somewhere in the 60s though.</p>

<p>My mom is very frugile so while my parents don’t make a lot of money she has a good amount saved and what I meant by that is that I will probably be taking out loans.</p>

10

<p>I think you have a great shot at Georgetown, BC, and Holy Cross. You should easily get into the others listed. You have a very strong academic record and your farm upbringing is a great differentiator. Jesuit colleges like to see the strong community service which you demonstrate. You must get the 2100 plus on the SATs.</p>

11

<p>you have a good list together; try narrowing it down first by exploring their websites to make sure you like them (i was considering NYU until some things the admissions officers said told me a lot about the attitude of the school and really turned me off them), then try visiting to make sure you like the vibes.</p>

12

<p>You might want to consider a few liberal arts colleges for comparison to the larger schools. Possibly Trinity, Hamilton, Colgate.</p>

13

<p>*My parents and I have decided that I want to be no more then 6 hours away so yeah about 250 miles.</p>

<p>Have taken the PSATs but honestly I didn’t even try on them. My scores were somewhere in the 60s though.</p>

<p>My mom is very frugile so while my parents don’t make a lot of money she has a good amount saved and what I meant by that is that I will probably be taking out loans. *</p>

<p>If your parents have a lot saved (don’t know how much you mean), that could hinder how much aid you can get.</p>

<p>Also, YOU can’t borrow very much. You are limited to the following amounts…</p>

<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>

<p>Obviously, since schools can cost over $50k per year, those loans won’t be enough. It’s not a good idea to try to borrow more than those amounts. </p>

<p>You would need co-signers and if your parents are frugal, they’re not likely going to agree to co-signing (nor should they).</p>

<p>You need to be reasonable about finances. If your stats end up high enough, then you could qualify for excellent merit scholarships at some schools. If your PSAT is high enough (can you look?), then you might be a NMSF, and that would mean good scholarships.</p>

<p>As your mom how much she’s willing to spend each year on your education.</p>

<p>No school is worth a lot of debt. There are other solutions.</p>

<p>If your stats are super high, then you’d be competitive for ivies and other elites that might give you good financial aid (depending on assets/income).</p>

<p>What is your likely major and career goal? If it’s medicine or law, then certainly you’ll want to avoid much debt as an undergrad.</p>

14

<p>Must second mom2’s advice. This is not necessarily a good list for someone who qualifies for lots of aid.</p>

<p>OOS publics are unlikely to give you much aid and privates like Ithaca, BU,Northeastern and Syracuse are not great aid schools.</p>

<p>With a 2100 you can get into many schools that meet 100% of need and graduate with much less debt.</p>

<p>So take the time to figure out what you will qualify for by using calculators like the one on this site. A sane approach to creating a college list starts with a full understanding of the money issues.</p>

15

<p>My parents have agreed to co sign on loans because they have seen how much time I have put in to my high school work. I want to gto somewhere where I will be happy and if that school might cost me a bit more then I’m willing to spend that. I’m looking to go into political science or communications. Thank you for trying to help me financally but that is really between me and my parents and I don’t want that to effect my school choices. I have people in my family who have took out more then the listed amount in loans and they can be paid off by age 30 which I think is fair. When all is said and done I am going to do what I have to to go where I want.</p>

<p>Thank you to all who responded though! It’s great to hear other opinions.</p>

16

<p>“you have a good list together; try narrowing it down first by exploring their websites to make sure you like them (i was considering NYU until some things the admissions officers said told me a lot about the attitude of the school and really turned me off them), then try visiting to make sure you like the vibes.”</p>

<p>Im thinking about NYU too, what exactly did you hear about the attitudes? (it’s close to home for me so I decided to check it out). Right now I plan to check out all of the schools I listed along with Temple and NYU and then choose 6 or 7 that I really like and tour again and then apply there. I plan on applying to 6 in the end, I figure maybe one reach, 4 right about on my level and 2 safeties or maybe 4 on my level and 1 safety.</p>

17

<p>

What you really mean to say is if that school might cost them a bit more you are willing to spend it. You are really willing to spend down your parent’s savings to make you happy??</p>

18

<p>My parents have saved money for my college education because I’m an only child.</p>

19

<p>:) Glad to hear that your parents have money saved for college because poly sci and communications majors do not earn very much upon graduation so paying back any sizeable loans would be very difficult.</p>

<p>Fordham for poly sci…don’t know how good it is for Comm.</p>

<p>Loyola Maryland</p>

<p>American U</p>

<p>Fairfield</p>

20

<p>Thanks for the school suggestion but i’m done adding to my list. I’ve been looking into a lot of northeast schools over the past year and the ons I originally listed are the ones I’ve finall bought it down to.</p>