<p>yes, mom2collegekids, the ball IS in my court. It is, after all, my college decision, I don’t see why it ever wouldn’t be</p>
<p>No one was suggesting or hinting that it shouldn’t be. The point was that we are giving you info for you to discern your best strategy. </p>
<p>*The best criteria to go by is that I am looking for schools where I could easily be in a 20-25k a year (or less) range, which is what I could pay without taking out any loans. That includes room and board. Thanks *</p>
<p>With your ACT 34, there are some schools (like the ones that Longhaul mentioned) that would give you merit scholarships. Some will give you more than others.</p>
<p>Bama would give you free tuition and honors college admission. That would leave you with about $15k of costs (honors housing, board, books, travel, misc costs) that your GET and parents could pay for. </p>
<p>Bama has the brand new Shelby Building and the Science and Engineering Complex. Over 400,000 square feet of state of the art labs, classrooms, facilities. Here’s an aerial view of Shelby and the Science Complex… [Science</a> & Engineering Complex Phase II - Davis Architects](<a href=“http://www.dadot.com/project/education_college_university/science_and_engineering_complex.aspx]Science”>http://www.dadot.com/project/education_college_university/science_and_engineering_complex.aspx) </p>
<p>Another 150,000 square feet of science labs/classrooms are under construction and will complete this year. This is being build to the right of the buildings in the above picture. The grass area is being extended to create a science quad in the middle.</p>
<p>This would be a good safety because you would have minimal out of pocket costs which could leave money for grad or med school.</p>
<p>Well, I understand stress. Shaking hands and making up.</p>
<p>As you look into Tulane, I would just point out that with your ACT score and grades you should have gotten a personal/priority app from them. You might have and just tossed it, I know how much stuff you must be getting. It is free (all Tulane apps are) but it has very little for you to fill out. It is very streamlined. My point is if you fill that out or even fill out a regular one (which is still pretty easy), mark it EA and get it in by early October, you will get a quick answer, probably by end of October. In your case I would be shocked if you didn’t get invited to the Honors Program and offered the top “automatic” scholarship, which was $25,000 last year. The full tuition scholarship called the Deans Honor Scholarship, which you would have a very good chance at getting I think, requires an additional application. If you have any questions about it, just ask me here or PM me. FYI, with the DHS, you would have about $15K a year in expenses not counting travel and personal. Of course if you are NMF (forgot to ask that) then you get another $2,000 a year.</p>
<p>A couple of ideas. </p>
<p>With that 34, if you get your application in soon, you’ll likely get a full tuition merit scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh, which has a very nice honors program. You might even get a full ride (including room+board). They actually have serious cognitive science concentration, not many schools have that. They also have an unusually large endowment. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.psychology.pitt.edu/documents/CognitiveScienceConcentrationinthePsychologyMajor--newcurriculum.pdf[/url]”>http://www.psychology.pitt.edu/documents/CognitiveScienceConcentrationinthePsychologyMajor--newcurriculum.pdf</a></p>
<p>They are definitely a safety, OOS tuition+room+board is around $35K. </p>
<p>University of Minnesota OOS is only around $24K</p>
<p>Truman State University in Missouri is a public honors LAC that only costs $19K. ACT 50th percentile is 25-30 (Same as at Pitt).</p>
<p>My S goes to Truman State (senior this year). It is an excellent school, and they have automatic scholarships based on stats that lower that already amazingly reasonable price. The $19K is OOS tuition AND R&B. With your stats you would automatically get $3,000 off of that, and you would almost certainly get other scholarships that would result in a much reduced cost. If my D, who has stats similar to yours, had decided on Truman, it would have only cost about $2,000 per year, and we are OOS. Also, it is only about 6,000 undergrads, so a great size. So what’s the downside? It is in the middle of nowhere, about 2.5 hours from Kansas City and Des Moines Iowa, and 3 hours from St. Louis. Kirksville is about 15,000. But certainly worth looking at from a financial and academic safety point of view. Also, like Tulane, if you apply early you will know very early, including scholarships. Well, with Tulane you wouldn’t know about the DHS until end of February, you would only know about the “automatic” scholarship.</p>
<p>@ OP would you mind sharing your IB score please? I’m also in a full IB program and I am interested in knowing how your school converts IB points to GPA. Also, have you thought of Canadian universities? They often give significant IB credit, might give you a scholarship with your stats </p>
<p>@ClassicRockerDad, how dependent is Pitt admission on stats as compared to ECs recs></p>
<p>“how dependent is Pitt admission on stats as compared to ECs recs”</p>
<p>For admission of highly qualified candidates, I think stats dominate. For admission to the honors college, </p>
<p>"Freshmen with SAT combined math and critical reading scores of 1400 or above (or a 32 composite ACT score) and who are in the top 5 percent of their high school class are eligible to enroll in University Honors College (UHC) courses. "
[url=<a href=“http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/about/eligibility.html]Eligibility[/url”>http://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/about/eligibility.html]Eligibility[/url</a>]</p>
<p>For scholarships, I think ECs, recs and essays may play some role, but overall, I think stats dominate. </p>
<p>Go back and read the UPitt thread when people start getting in and you can get a sense of how it works.</p>
<p>^Thanks! I was planning to apply but I won’t get any merit money (as an intl) but it still seemed like a good school so it’s not off the list yet. And now, I’ll stop taking the thread off topic :P</p>