Help me decide where to go to college - PLEASE

College Search & Selection
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<p>USC offers NMF scholarships that cover half tuition. That’s 21K this year, last year it was 19K for NMF. You have travel expenses, personal expenses at all schools, so no that wasn’t in the figure. If you you add tuition and room and board and then subtract the NMF scholarship then it comes to 32K (I was “off” by 1K). I was hoping you would give her more information on bama since you have so much personal experience with the NMF scholarship, but I think it’s helpful for NMF applicants to know that they have many other options as well. </p>

<p>Not sure of the rankings, but what would be the advantage of taking a full ride at Bama vs. a full ride at U Nebraska Lincoln (her homestate --so zero travel expenses). I think that would be helpful for OP.</p>

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<p>nenative, you’ve indicated you probably won’t qualify for need based aid, but what can your family actually afford? </p>

<p>An applicant with your qualifications, from Nebraska, has a shot at any Ivy for admissions. If your family income is under $180K or so, you might even get some need-based aid from HYPS (if you can get in). However, I would not count on getting your net costs much below ~$35K from any of the USNWR top 30-40 schools. That’s about as low as the private schools in that range need to go to compete with OOS costs at the most popular public universities.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-6.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The only schools on this list that give more than $20K/year in average merit aid, to more than a few %, are Richmond, GW, and Case Western. The list by now is a couple of years out of date so a few others may have crossed that threshold (like Davidson, an excellent LAC). The University of Chicago gives large merit scholarships (full tuition) but only to a small percent of admitted students.</p>

<p>To get really big merit offers, enough to bring your net costs down to UNL in-state rates or below, you need to consider some schools that might be considered “contrarian” choices to many CC posters. Quite a few private schools in the US News “24-45 range” would offer $15K or so to someone with your stats, but that would still leave you with net costs of ~$35K or more.</p>

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<p>check out UAB (Birmingham) It has full ride for nmf. an incredible honors program (sci/tech which will allow research from freshman year…and if you decide not to go med school…it pays for 2 years of a phd program) [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DWelcome%5B/url”&gt;http://www.uab.edu]Welcome[/url</a>]</p>

<p>Also has excellent premed advising from freshman year. interview techniques, mcat practice, shadowing opportunities, advisors, seminars</p>

<p>uab is an urban campus about 11K undergrads</p>

<p>The University of Alabama at Birmingham is nationally ranked among Top-20 in total federal research funding and key areas of health sciences receiving more than $433 million dollars in funding.[29]
The Scientist magazine recently ranked UAB No. 24 on its Top 40 “Best Places to Work as a Postdoctoral Fellow” list, up from its No. 56 ranking in 2008.[30]
In the 2010 Princeton Review College Rankings, UAB is listed as one of the “Best Southeastern Colleges” and one of the top 371 colleges/universities in the US. In addition, out of the 371 Best College Rankings, UAB was ranked #3 in race/class interaction, #11 for happiest students, and #14 for best athletic facilities.[31]
In the 2011 US News and World Report, UAB is listed as a “more selective” institution and 151st overall (public or private) among 572 universities in USA.[32]
In 2009, the Scientist Magazine ranked UAB as 5th in the Top 15 U.S. Academic Institutions and up from 47th in 2007.[33]
According to 2009 Academic Ranking of World Universities, University of Alabama at Birmingham is ranked between 152–200 among world universities placing it in Top-100 in the nation(Nationally Ranked Between 71–90) and Top-200 in the world.
According to 2008 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities UAB is ranked #65th among all the universities in the world.
Since 2000, UAB has produced 7 Fulbright Scholars, 6 Phi Kappa Phi Fellows, 8 Goldwater Scholars, 5 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellows, 6 Truman Scholars, 1 Marshall Scholar, 1 Rhodes Scholar </p>

<p>UAB’s med school is very highly ranked </p>

<p>In the 2012 edition of US News and World Report, the University of Alabama School of Medicine was ranked #30 nationally in research and #10 nationally in primary care [5].
Five medical specialties at UAB are ranked in the top 20 nationally by the magazine: AIDS, 4th; women’s health, 8th; internal medicine 18th; geriatrics, 19th; and pediatrics, 19th. The school’s primary care program was ranked 34th. [6]
In funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), eight departments within the School of Medicine ranked in the top 10; Anatomy/Cell Biology (No.1). Other departments in the top five are Surgery (No. 2), Obstetrics/Gynecology (No. 3) and Physical Medicine (No. 4). [7]</p>

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<p>OP is able to get a full ride at U of NE Lincoln as a National Merit Finalist, so she won’t have instate tuition costs --it’s a full ride. That’s why I’m wondering, does it really make sense to head to U of Alabama for a full ride for NMF if she already has a perfectly good instate option that’s full ride already? I’m just asking.</p>

<p>@tk21769, all good thoughts and a whole other animal. We have been focusing solely on the NMF scholarships, but OP, if you run the FAFSA forecaster on the gov. site you may find that you are able to get more aid than you believe. Princeton has their own calculator online (takes the CSS into account in their calculation).</p>

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<p>USC is a fabulous school, i really wish i had gotten in there</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the help - keep it coming please.<br>
It’s not a big deal, but I am a “he”. </p>

<p>@jkiwmom - I echo your thoughts about traveling to Bama. For clarity sake though, I do not have a complete full ride to UNL, just tuition plus $2k guaranteed. (I’d probably end up getting it down to only a few thousand with departmental scholarships).<br>
I feel like I’d need a real reason to travel so far, and I’m not sure Bama’s academics would be worth it (even considering the schooling would be free).</p>

<p>@tk21769 - Thanks for that info, it’s something I’ve been thinking about. My family will not qualify for much aid. However, I’m the 3rd of 5 children, and that is what is driving me to not want to pay too much. My parents will most likely not help pay for any of my college. All of it will be up to me. So I’m trying to be cautious with my choice. That’s why I need help knowing where to apply (going to UNL vs. getting a “better” education for a cost.)</p>

<p>As far as HYP is concerned, if I got in I would most likely go. Princeton’s financial aid estimate was about $15/year. I would pay that. Basically, I will rethink my goal of paying little to nothing if I am accepted into HYP. However, I know that it’s virtually impossible to get in. I’ve worked hard for my scores and resume, now I just need to figure out how to get in!</p>

<p>For USC, I definitely wouldn’t want to pay that much (because I’d have to add in travel expenses).</p>

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<p>Reach:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Notre Dame</p>

<p>Others: UNL, Michigan, not sure…</p>