Help! Must find safety schools :o!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have trouble finding some safety schools based on my gpa/test scores
and am particularly trying to find the schools with "more of a name" like ohio state/michigan state etc and not some small college in a town in wyoming if you know what i mean :/</p>

<p>Asian Female, public school</p>

<p>GPA: 3.094UW, 3.438 W (i know horrible GPA :/ though GPA trendline positive from freshman to senior year)</p>

<p>Class rank: school doesn't rank</p>

<p>Courseload: 9th: 3 honors, 10th: 1 AP + 3 honors, 11th- 4 APs, 12th-4 APs</p>

<p>ACT: 29 (34 math, 25 english, 26 science, 29 reading) <- yeah didn't do well :/</p>

<p>SAT: best score- 2030 (660 math, 730 writing, 640 critical reading)</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 790 korean, 710 math IIC, 640 us history</p>

<p>Honors/awards: hospital volunteering (200+ hours award), tennis singles + doubles finalist (tournament)</p>

<p>APs: 4- AP Calc AB, APEL; 3-AP World History, APUSH, AP Stats, </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Hospital Volunteer - 4 years (200+ hours)
JV/Varsity Tennis- 2 years
Math Team- Co-Founder/Vice-President- 2 years
Orchestra/Wind Symphony - 3 years
Key Club- 4 years
Community Service club; accepted based on GPA- 3 years</p>

<p>Teacher/Counselor Recs: very strong (got recs from all my math teachers + advisor of the math team)</p>

<p>Applying for Financial aid: yes</p>

<p>Essays: based on personal matter (unique)- received good feedback from people that read over my essays</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>I plan to major in mathematics
btw does anyone know how competitive a major in mathematics is?</p>

2

<p>Wanna narrow it down a lil more? Specific states? Size?</p>

3

<p>What state are you from? You can probably look at your state university</p>

4

<p>Applying for Financial aid: yes</p>

<p>OOS publics won’t give OOS students the FA that they need. Your GPA will likely prevent you from merit scholarships, since many/most require a 3.5 GPA or higher.</p>

<p>How much can your family pay each year? What is their EFC? IF you don’t know, use <a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml[/url]”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml&lt;/a&gt; to get an idea.</p>

<p>Is that a “single sitting” SAT score?</p>

<p>what state are you from?</p>

5

<p>University of Iowa</p>

6

<p>Check out Miami of Ohio.</p>

7

<p>How about Ohio State or Michigan State? :)</p>

8

<p>Mathematics as a major is no more difficult to get into, but the course work is very rigorous. Many students get weeded out (moving to other majors) over time.</p>

9

<p>Pitt Indiana Drexel</p>

10

<p>I think we need to know what state the OP is from before we can recommend state schools. </p>

<p>A person who needs FA isn’t going to be able to afford an OOS public such as Mich St, Indian, Pitt, Iowa, or Ohio St. And, I think the OP’s GPA will likely not allow for merit at those schools. </p>

<p>I think the scholarship date for Iowa has passed.</p>

<p>Others can chime in if I’m wrong.</p>

<p>In-State public schools are often more forgiving about things like GPA’s for awarding scholarships to its own residents than OOS publics.</p>

<p>Because of the OPs GPA, her own in-state might be the best choice.</p>

11

<p>Ok…I looked at her other threads, and she’s instate for Calif</p>

<p>*Schools applied to:
Michigan State
NYU
Ohio State
Purdue
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
San Diego State
UC Berkeley/UCLA/UCSD/Davis/Riverside/UCSB/Irvine (**I live in Cal **haha)</p>

<p>and may apply to:
Syracuse
Cal Poly Pomona
University of San Diego*</p>

<p>Jellydoughnut…you need to find out what your EFC is and how much your family can pay (see post #4).</p>

<p>**A safety isn’t a safety if it’s unaffordable<a href=“because%20of%20cost,%20lack%20of%20aid,%20etc”>/B</a>. I don’t think any of those OOS publics will give you aid (because they don’t meet need for OOS students), or merit (because of your GPA). :(</p>

<p>University of San Diego is NOT good with aid (which is why it’s a bit of a rich kids school.) NYU and Syracuse are also **not **good with aid.</p>

<p>You will likely get some merit/aid from Azusa Pacific, but that may not be a good choice for you.</p>

12

<p>I just had a thought. **Is that your complete GPA or is that your UC GPA? **</p>

<p>Some schools will use all of your grades 9-11 classes for your GPA - including PE and electives.</p>

<p>So, if your complete GPA is higher, then let us know. :)</p>

13

<p>Actually the university of Wyoming is the only four year university in the state! And thats a law because it’s wrtten into the state constitution! Sorry I had to do it :)</p>

14

<p>Check out schools of interest on students review dot com. Read the posts and see what you think. Provides stats of what successful applicants had to get in.</p>

15

<p>Texas Tech has a decent student population, party students, good math program from BS to PhD. Texas State U at San MArco has math program and no GPA requirement. University of Kansas has decent math program. These are safety schools that you can get into. You could also look at a tandem application. Apply to Michigan State but also apply to Grand Valley in Michigan. It’s easy to transfer within the state system. So Pick a safety like Grand Valley that will be a stepping stone to Michigan State. With your stats you may need more safeties.</p>

16

<p>Since the OP needs FA, I don’t think that many/any of these OOS schools are going to work as financial safeties. These OOS schools will have hefty tuitions/COAs that won’t be covered with financial aid.</p>

<p>Because of her stats, her financial safety schools will likely be found in her state schools or a few lower tier privates that “might” give her a lot of merit/aid even though her weighted GPA is under 3.5.</p>

<p>Jelly…how much can your parents pay each year, and what is your EFC? That info will likely determine what kind of financial safeties are reasonable.</p>

17

<p>sorry i’ve been away from this awhile but the gpa stated is the gpa from 9-12 not the UCs
and not sure how much but approx. 20,000 - 30,000
what is EFC? sorry im kind of new to this :/</p>

<p>but thanks for all help/advice guys!</p>

18

<p>EFC is what FAFSA says is your Expected Family Contribution. :)</p>

<p>Try to ask your parents for a more definite budget. There’s a big difference between $20k and $30k. :slight_smile: A budget of $30k opens up more options. :)</p>

<p>To figure out an estimate of your EFC use this… [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml)</p>

19

<p>*I plan to major in mathematics
btw does anyone know how competitive a major in mathematics is? *</p>

<p>Do you mean how competitive it is as a major among classmates? or how competitive it is to get a job after you graduate?</p>

<p>My older son is a Classical Applied Math major. I wouldn’t say that it’s competitive amongst classmates (not cut-throat or anything like that)</p>

20

<p>All of these are in your price range (OOS), ranked on US News National Universities and I believe are safeties for you. I assumed that a high admit rate and a significant fraction of students that had GPAs lower than 3.0 indicates that it’s probably a safety for you. </p>

<p>Iowa State (#88) $17,871 tuition + $7,277 Room/board, 87% admitted, 15% had GPA below 3.0</p>

<p>University of Kansas (#96) $20,174 tuition + $6,802 Room/board, 92% admitted, 19% had GPA below 3.0</p>

<p>University of Arizona (#102) $22,264 tuition + $8,614 Room/board, 80% admitted, 30% had GPA below 3.0</p>

<p>Ohio University (#115) $17,937 tuition + $9,408 Room/board 78% applicants admitted, 16% had GPA’s below 3.0</p>

<p>University of Oregon (#115) $17,166 tuition + $10,645 Room/Board 85% applicants admitted, 10% had GPAs below 3.0</p>

<p>Arizona State (#121) $18,919 tuition + $9,210 Room/board 90% applicants admitted, 20% had GPA’s below 3.0 </p>

<p>University of Utah (#126) $18,136 tuition + $6,240 Room/board 80% admitted, 11% had GPAs below 3.0</p>

<p>Missouri University of Science & Technology (#128) $19,579 tuition + $7,545 Room/board, 93% admitted, 10% had GPAs below 3.0</p>

<p>University of Kentucky (#128) $16,687 tuition + $9,125 Room/board, 79% applicants admitted, 14% had GPAs below 3.0</p>