<p>I am trying to narrow my list of school to apply for in order to save money on application fees. I don't know if it affects anything but I am applying for need based aid to everywhere that offers it. My household income is just under $33,000 a year. The schools which use the common app will not require a fee because they have been waived. However each one will take $12 for the ACT and $16 if it requires the CSS profile. I know it probably sounds like I'm being picky with money here but right now were in a situation of having $100 a week to spend on food and gas to provide for my mother, 2 siblings, and me. These fees will be coming out of that money.</p>
<p>I am planning to major in computer science and would really like a school who has a top ranked program, a good campus/dorm life, and who's undergrads are known to receive good internships.</p>
<p>My List:
Stanford- dream school and already applied
Harvard- prestigious and top ranked program
Yale- prestigious and top ranked program
USC- top ranked program and great area
U of Wisconsin Madison- top ranked program and within driving distance
U of Denver- heard there are good internships out there. Can anyone confirm/deny?
Nebraska Lincoln- supposed to have a good program
U of M Twin Cities- affordable invade financial aid falls through and safety school</p>
<p>If you want top-ranked: CMU (Carnegie Mellon), CalTech, MIT, HarveyMudd.
Above U Denver: U Rochester, RIT, Northeastern (co-op program)</p>
<p>Out of State public universities are unlikely to provide you with sufficient financial aid.</p>
<p>But to help you we need your stats (ACT score, GPA) and profile (we already know you are lower-income, perhaps first-gen -your mother hasn’t graduated from a 4-year college- and have had to overcome adversity but have you won awards, are you distinguished in something, do you work after school?)
We also need to know what your State is (I assume WI? So MN = tuition exchange?)</p>
<p>SD resident
Parents divorced
One sibling with us and one in college</p>
<p>GPA- 3.97 (Hope to have a 4+ by graduation)
ACT: 30 (Only took once)
Class Rank: Top 10%</p>
<p>Current Courses:
College English Comp and Lit
Calculus
AP Psychology
Physics
PLTW Digital Electronics
PLTW Engineering Draft and Design
Senior Experience</p>
<p>Honors:
Not much just one from a business camp I did at a local college and a couple programming certificates of excellent</p>
<p>Activities:
Football 4 years
Wrestling 4 years and Varsity captain
Power Lifting 4 years a varsity captain
National Honor Society 2 years
Drum Line 3 years and section leader
VEX Competition Team 2 years and team captain
Student government 1 year and president
Church youth group volunteering</p>
<p>Work Experience:
Worked for the city through middle school
Worked at a diner in the kitchen for almost 2 years
Worked at a grocery store for almost two year
Worked as an unpaid intern doing mobile development for a start up company in San Fransisco for about a year now</p>
<p>Right in state, so perfect safety, you have SD School of mines and technology - you won’t have trouble getting a job with a degree from there and it’s both an academic and financial safety. Another safety would be UMN-Morris (the state’s honors college) for CS where they’re pretty good.</p>
<p>Since you only took the ACT once and probably qualify for a waiver, take it a second time. A 32 would qualify you for a LOT of scholarships that a 30 doesn’t.</p>
<p>The schools listed above would be good choices, too. I’d replace Udenver by URochester for instance.</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculator on each school’s web site?</p>
<p>The parents being divorced could complicate things, since many schools will require the non-custodial parent’s financial information; if the non-custodial parent is wealthy but won’t contribute, or is non-cooperative with financial aid forms, that can prevent you from getting financial aid.</p>
<p>A check of Minnesota’s net price calculator indicates a discounted list price for being a South Dakota resident, but no financial aid grants beyond a Pell grant, so the net price would be over $20,000 unless you get merit scholarships. Since it is unlikely for a student to self-fund more than about $10,000 through direct loans and work or work-study earnings that makes Minnesota not a safety.</p>
<p>The South Dakota public universities have much lower starting list prices, so it may not take that much in financial aid grants and merit scholarships to make them affordable.</p>
<p>However, if you are decent enough at software development and are physically in San Francisco, you should be able to do a lot better pay-wise than an unpaid internship.</p>
<p>If need-based financial aid is insufficient, consider the following (you will want a residual net price of under $10,000 (less is better) after applying the scholarship):</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call these safeties unless the OP runs the net price calculator and gets an affordable net price. A $33,000 income family that is having difficulty with the food budget probably won’t be able to contribute much to the OP’s college, so the OP will need a net price that s/he can self-fund – probably under $10,000 per year.</p>
<p>I am not physically in San Francisco. I work over conference calls, emails, and source code repositories.</p>
<p>GPA at my school was unweighted until this year. They are still establishing the system so two of my classes that should be weighted (PLTW) are not.</p>
<p>Because it is a start up company and I have learned so much in such a short amount io time, I am ok with not being paid. For the time being at least. Also the CEO provided me with an excellent letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>A very early stage startup might not have much cash, but the honorable thing to do would be to pay in stock options or similar equity-based compensation. Yes, they are like lottery tickets, but can be very valuable if the startup actually succeeds.</p>
<p>You’re in South Dakota and have a great GPA and competitive ACT scores. I think you’re short changing yourself by only applying to two schools which meet full need for all students. Get rid of the OOS publics plus Denver and replace them with full need or close to it schools that offer a comprehensive CS program.</p>
<p>I would suggest finding the safeties first. Remember, the safeties must be affordable based on net price calculator results or automatic merit scholarships. Right now, it looks like you have no safeties.</p>
<p>Dude, if you can write good essays, you’re going to get looks from a lot of your schools. I’m with whenwhen on this. You have some schools on there that are reaches for anyone. I’d call up their admissions officers directly (their names and contacts are usu. available online) wherever you most want to apply, tell them your family’s financial situation, get their advice, and then ask them for an app waiver since you cannot afford to visit (one way people get app waivers). If they won’t give you one, something’s wrong. Contact the adcoms at the elite programs first and get to know them and let them get to know you. Then do the same thing with several just-below-ivy schools like UC-Berkeley, Rochester and Carnegie Mellon. Then look at schools like Texas, UC-Irvine, and UIllinois-Champaign. Where’s your guidance counselor in all this? and why isn’t s/he making phone calls for you? why didn’t s/he see to it that you took the SAT or re-took the ACT? That ACT score might be your only weakness. Let us know how else we can help.</p>
<p>Like you said, most students from SD tend to stay there or at least in the Midwest, so my school counselor doesn’t know anything about colleges outside of there. I had to help her out with the signing into the Common App because she had never used it before.</p>
<p>As far as “just below ivy” schools go, I know I can’t afford them unless they offer good need based aid. I originally really wanted to attend UC Berkeley but after running their aid calculator I found that I would still have to come up with almost $30,000 a year out of thin air (not including loans, grants, and parent loans). With my mother’s low income and my sister’s high medical expenses, I know that there’s no possible way for that to happen.</p>