<p>i know, of course that’s on my list considering i live in nj, but in respect to other universities.</p>
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<p>meh, not really. I’m Asian and I don’t consider a school with lots of Asians diverse.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your outstanding accomplishments. With good essays, you could get into an Ivy. Most are very generous with financial aid. Of course they are reaches for everyone but I think that you are the type of student that they would want. The reason that I am saying this is that you have truly taken on leadership, not just in student government and organizations but also in starting a whole tutoring program.
You could try for a Morehouse scholarship at Duke (very selective but you could be a contender) or a merit scholarship at Wash U (also very competetive) or at Emory. While these are southern, they do have diversity (the students at Duke have a reputation for self-segregating, though.)
You would probably get merit aid at Brandeis or Case Western.
You will get offers for full rides because you will be a National Merit Finalist. Most will be at schools that do not meet your criteria, though.
Financial safeties might be McGill or University of Toronto, or SUNY Binghamton.
Read books on writing college essays and some have exercises that you can start doing now to get your writing in focus.
Keep up the great work! You would be an asset to any college lucky enough to get you.</p>
<p>Clark University would be a good target/match school for you. It is very diverse, especially in terms of religion, and it meets other criteria of yours as well.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to go to the Midwest, look at Carleton and Macalester as low reaches.</p>
<p>Agree with the suggestions of U Rochester and Case Western. If you are NM Finalist, Rochester will guarantee $22000/yr in merit aid. I understand that Case Western is also generous.
You might also consider Pittsburgh, overall a very good school with generous OOS aid for top students. Try to apply there as early as you can in the application process, it’s not written anywhere but I have a hunch that applying early helps.</p>
<p>nritya, you are a very strong applicant. Do you know whether you will qualify for any need based financial aid? If you do, then I suggest applying to Penn and Brown. If you don’t, you will qualify for merit aid at many less selective schools. There are many good threads about merit aid on the parents board. Some schools close to NJ that come to mind are University of Delaware and Univerisity of Maryland College Park. You should qualify for the honors program at both schools and could possibly get a full ride. Maryland is more diverse than Delaware.</p>
<p>I’ll elaborate on the merit scholarships. Rochester I have heard will give you around 22k/yr as a NMF. Case will probably give you 22.5k or 26.5k/yr depending on your SAT breakdown. Pitt (my school) would likely give you full tuition with those stats. This is based on my own experience from applying last year.</p>
<p>How about UMass-Amherst, Colgate, and Oberlin?</p>
<p>if you are middle class, like family income of 60-100K, then most top colleges will have you qualify for a large financial aid package. Columbia actually fits the rest of your criteria rather well, it’s close to NJ, decently academic, social life does not revolve around drinking or drugs compared to most peers (although we definitely have these groups), and athletics are a normal part of campus like everything else, does not take precedence over other major clubs. Your stats are pretty good, in terms of majors: Columbia is pretty strong and balanced all round, good departments in sciences, math, social sciences, humanities. The core is a lot of work but still allows people to explore many options. Finally we are strongly diverse, something like 50+% students of color, many kids from poorer backgrounds, large numbers of people interested in variety of majors and careers (from aspiring novelists and actors to aspiring politicians, engineers, biologists, economists, investment bankers, doctors, lawyers etc. )</p>
<p>My recommendations are as such:</p>
<p>Case Western was previously mentioned, but I feel deserves repeating. Good school which should give you fairly significant Merit Aid.</p>
<p>Case Western University
Tulane Univesity
Rutgers University
University of Miami (very diverse and VERY wide range of courses. Big sports scene though, although there is still a strong focus on the academics).
Emory University
Rice University
Tufts University
American University (very big international population)</p>
<p>While some of these schools are in the deep south, they are diverse and they shouldn’t be automatically thrown out unless you have other problems with the deep south. Rice and Miami, particularly, are two of the most diverse colleges in the nation and both fit almost all of your criteria perfectly. American and Emory provide a slightly different form of diversity, but there are still different skin tones to be seen. Case and Tulane both have some diversity, but are known for generous aid, and clearly a state university should be considered as a financial safety.</p>
<p>Hope this helped and have fun searching for colleges. If you need any more help feel free to ask (particularly on colleges in the southeast / on the east coast).</p>
<p>“I needddd diversity, so schools in the deep south are out as well as rural places.”</p>
<p>There are many excellent schools in the South and in rural areas that are quite diverse. Check them out:</p>
<p>South
-Duke
-Rice
-Emory
-UNC
-Tulane</p>
<p>Rural
-Middlebury
-Bowdoin
-Grinnell</p>
<p>There are plenty of other diverse schools in the South and in rural places as well.</p>
<p>@ levirm: UNC offers the Morehouse scholarship, not Duke. Duke offers the Robertson Scholarship, but it is extremely competitive to get. Getting merit scholarships at Duke and any top 20 university is generally extremely difficult although Rice, Emory, and WashU are generous with merit aid among such schools.</p>
<p>nritya, you need to provide more clarity on your family’s financial situation. If you qualify for NEED based financial aid then you could conceivably find 40 colleges to apply to. (Not that you should!)</p>
<p>If you are going to depend on MERIT based aid then your list will narrow considerably. </p>
<p>If you don’t know, then ask your parents to use one of those online financial calulator which will give you an idea of the amount of NEED based aid you can expect.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t go any further until you’re clear on this issue.</p>
<p>Thanks for the correction, slik! I was mixed up on these scholarships.
nritya, where are you?
I still think that you are a contender for very top colleges and awards.</p>
<p>while those schools in the south/rural areas might still have some level of diversity i still think that they can’t provide the same level of diversity that urban schools can, simply because they don’t attract people from all ethnicities as suppose, NYU or Rutgers does.</p>
<p>and I have heard of the Morehouse, it sounds really amazing but the chances of me getting that are sooo slim. but I have a friend who recieved that and she chose UNC over columbia for it, and said it was worth it.</p>
<p>regarding my family’s finances - my parents make over 150,000 so i don’t think I can rely on any need based aid. my sister is already in college though so i guess having a sibling also in college = more aid? i have a 529 account too that my parents set up, and that gives me about enough to pay 15,000 - 20,000 a year for four years. I don’t want a lot of debt, but I am willing to take on some. </p>
<p>but thank you guys for all your suggestions! i’m looking into many of them now and UNC and duke seem likely from what i’ve seen so far.</p>
<p>Rice awards merit aid to 30% of its incoming class… just fyi.</p>
<p>Rice is clearly a top-tier school in regards to diversity, most colleges that you would probably place above it just factually aren’t near it, but to each his own I suppose.</p>
<p>regarding my family’s finances - my parents make over 150,000 so i don’t think I can rely on any need based aid. my sister is already in college though so i guess having a sibling also in college = more aid? i have a 529 account too that my parents set up, and that gives me about enough to pay 15,000 - 20,000 a year for four years. I don’t want a lot of debt, but I am willing to take on some.</p>
<p>Sounds like you won’t qualify for any aid at most colleges. Maybe a bit of aid from some schools like Harvard that have generous aid packages.</p>
<p>Between your parents’ income and your 529, you’ll have a high EFC.</p>
<p>You need to ask your parents SPECIFICALLY how much they can contribute towards your college costs each year. </p>
<p>If that amount is less than the $55k for many privates, then you’ll need a strategy to combine what they will contribute with what you can get in merit aid.</p>
<p>exactly what my parents can contribute is JUST from my 529 - nothing more. so it’s 15k - 20k annually. i am predicting that my 529 will not fluctuate greatly during the time i’m still in high school, btw. outside of the 15k - 20k, i have no scholarships or anything.</p>
<p>nritya, If you’re looking at privates then you should plan on $50,000 a year. Thus unless you snag some merit money you’ll end up over $100,000 in debt. Not good.</p>
<p>The most selective big name colleges don’t give much merit money. Go after it for sure but don’t count on it.</p>
<p>In order to get merit money you may have to search somewhat against the grain. For example, put aside for a minute the fact that you want a diverse environment and consider that *you *are, in fact, the diversity that many non-diverse colleges seek. In other words, think about what you can offer that would entice colleges to pay you to attend.</p>
<p>By ferreting out colleges at which your ethnicity would actually be a plus you may land some merit. These schools are, generally speaking, not the big, popular northeast urban colleges and universities. Those are already overpopulated with high achieving Asians.</p>
<p>The colleges that offer lucrative merit tend to be rural, small, Midwestern or Southern. The exception here may be women’s colleges which are also very good values.</p>
<p>So, it’s time to take a realistic look at your options. First, ask your parents to use an online calculator to get an idea of your family’s EFC. Because you have a sibling in college, you may be eligible for more than you think.</p>
<p>Second, after you have an estimated EFC, think about how much debt you would want to absorb. If a college doesn’t fit financially, cross it off your list. </p>
<p>Third, read up on good colleges that offer merit. Keep your options open. Try to do some visiting. You will find that many colleges located outside of your personal comfort zone are full of smart accomplished kids just like you.</p>
<p>Three to start you off: Smith, Emory, Grinnell</p>
<p>Good luck and let us know how you do.</p>