demographics: Black female, TX, first gen american/college student, middle class but goes to low income school
GPA/RANK: 94 UW/104 W ranked 15/650
rigor: By senior year 10 honors, 13 APs (physicsC-span-eng-calc AB/BC-Hg-USH-gov/psych-Chem-Bio-ES), most kids @ my school don’t even take 1/2 APs.
scores: Don’t know yet, but will get results soon
extracurriculars:
Soccer Team Leader
7cups internship online (~300+ hrs by senior year)
Science Olympiad/Quiz Bowl(team captain for qb)
NHS/SNHS (hopefully will get leadership positions)
Volunteering (will start volunteering with therapy animals as well)
Knitting and donating (donated over a hundred items to various places)
Spanish learning
Awards:
School award
Some regional places for science olympiad
Honor Roll
School criteria:
Suburban/Urban areas
I’m interested in premed, but I think I would wanna major in biomedical engineering or education.
I want a school with academic rigor, but not too much to where it’s over 60% of the college experience. (work hard/play hard schools)
I don’t mind schools with cold weather, but cold weather makes me very unmotivated so it’d be a plus if the school had a J-term if it was up north.
Schools I like:
UT Austin (automatic entry)
Howard
TAMU (automatic entry)/ Texas Tech
Rice
Wellesley
Baylor
Pomona
Brown
Arizona State University/ University of Arizona
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You have some great options there already. How’s the financial piece? Have you looked at the Net Price Calculator for these schools and talked to your parents about what they can afford? I’m going to throw out Trinity in San Antonio as one to look at that has some great merit aid.
I think the max would be 20k or so, but I honestly don’t know what they could afford so I’m applying for external scholarships. And thanks for suggesting trinity I’ll check it out!
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@nicy245 the best scholarships actually come from the colleges to which you are accepted…unless you win a big one like Questbridge.
So…look for colleges where you will be able to bring your net cost to within the price point that is affordable for your family.
Wellesley gives only need based aid. Rice does that as well. Pomona too. And Brown. Aid at these schools will be based on your family financials. It’s your family income and assets that matter. It doesn’t matter that your high school is low income.
I agree…you and your parents need to have a conversation. You need to know any financial limitations and you also need their help in completing the net price calculators.
Re: the net price calculators…they are set up now for students starting college in fall 2021. Any info you get should be viewed as an estimate only. These NPCs will be updated in late summer for your senior year of high school.
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I said the school was low income because it’s part of the class profile, and it’s limited the amount of resources I’ve had available to me. And you’re right! I’ll talk to my parents about it, and rerun the npc’s.
University of Texas Dallas gives big scholarships if your parents aren’t able to meet the net price calculator costs of the other schools. Texas Tech will also likely offer you a scholarship. Agree with other poster that Trinity might also give you merit money. Rice has pretty generous need based aid for middle class families.
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Yeah, the term “middle-class” gets tossed around a lot on this board and can cover a lot of territory. I agree with @thumper1. Get some ball-park figures from your parents and start running the individual Net Price calculators while you still have a manageable number of colleges under consideration. If a place like Brown seems affordable then that will make your search a lot easier since using a college’s NPC is a lot easier than scouring the country for merit money.
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I agree with @thumper1 - you need to have the money talk with your parents. What are they comfortable paying? How does that compare with the numbers on the net price calculators (NPCs)? Every college will have a NPC where you can plug in some basic financial information and get an idea of what your cost would be. Be aware that if your parents are divorced or own a business or rental properties, the NPC is not likely to be accurate.
If the NPC lines up with your parents’ budget - great - you can apply to schools that offer need based aid. If there is a big gap, you will have to focus on merit aid, which is awarded independently of your family’s means.
I can tell you from my own kid’s experience this year and that of her friends that COVID and test optional policies has made everything even less predictable than it otherwise would be. Many of them are very high achieving and had lots of waitlists and denials at places they thought were target schools. Merit scholarship opportunities and scholars programs offered by colleges were even more competitive. External scholarships are also very hard to get.
The good news is that you have great in state options in Texas, many of which you like. I recommend Texas Tech and UT-D if you’re looking for merit money. In addition to ASU and U AZ, maybe check out UNM, where you would likely qualify for in state tuition, bringing your total cost of attendance to just under 20K.
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But please remember…YOUR first year if college starting in 2022 will use income and tax return information from the 2020 tax year.
You can run the NPCs now with those numbers…but these NPCs will be updated late summer for students enrolling in fall 2022. SO make sure you run them again as financial aid awarding formulas and policies do sometimes change from one year to the next.
Anything you get from the NPC now should be viewed only as a gross estimate.
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Depending on what ‘middle class’ means, take a look at Questbridge, if your family’s income is $65K or less.
https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students/national-college-match/who-should-apply
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Are you aware that Howard has an accelerated BS/MD program, which allows you to complete both your bachelor’s and medical degrees within 6 years? Not only does this save you money, but you gain admission to med school right out of high school.
The only other college I know of that accomplishes this in 6 years is University of Missouri-Kansas City, but there are others that are also accelerated but do it in 7 years. The major such programs include:
RPI + Albany Medical College
Boston University
City University of New York
George Washington University
Northwestern University
Rutgers University
Penn State + Thomas Jefferson University Medical College
University of Oklahoma
University of South Florida
University of Toledo
From your list, Baylor and Brown both offer admission out of high school into a single track 8 year combined bachelor’s + MD program. No time saved, but you do gain entry to med school right out of high school. The Baylor program includes scholarship money. Brown’s financial aid is need based.
Good luck.
Be very wary of college’s NPC. One, they vary widely & two they will, not infrequently, award you much less aid than their own NPC says. But conversely there are times they award more.
Also, some schools will not only include loans for the student, but also expect the parent to take out parent plus loans. This is not to discourage you from applying to any school on your list. Just don’t get too attached to any. And make sure you look at various schools in say the top 150. That gives you a wide range & all will have smart, driven students and good professors.