I’d like to study Business. Specifically International Business.
Note: All data is subject to change as I am a second-semester Junior
School Type: Private, College Prep
Location: California
Race/Gender: Hispanic-Latino/ Male
Unweighted GPA: 3.69
Weighted GPA: 3.944
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank
PSAT(Fall 2015): 1140 out of 1520
Reading & Writing: 600 out of 760
Math: 540 put of 760
PLAN(Fall 2013): 24 out of 32
Projected ACT: 26-30
AP Scores:
AP World History: 3
Taking 3 AP’s Junior year: AP Spanish Language & Culture, AP United States History, AP Biology
I am currently taking Business Economics course and plan to take AP Macroeconomics and a Global Economic Leadership course Senior year.
Extracurricular :
2013-2016-Drama
2015-2016- Assistant Head of Props (Drama)
2015-2016- ComedySportz Team Manager
2014-2016- Key Club International (running for President)
2015-2016- (school) Ambassador
2015-2016- Student Council affiliated group. In charge of school events. Entertainment committee.
2014-2016- Acapella group
2016- Business Program
40+ hours community service
And I’m thinking about applying to the following, however I want to narrow the choices.
Boston Univ, UC Berkeley, Fordham Univ, George Wash Univ, Indiana U Bloomington, U of MA Amherst, Michigan State Univ, New York Univ, Pace Univ NYC, Purdue Univ, Rensselaer Polytech Inst, Syracuse Univ, Tulane Univ, Villanova Univ
U of Washington
Dickinson is SAT optional and offers an international business major. You might consider adding it to your list.
Have you run the net price calculators on each school’s website? You should do that if you have any financial constraints, it would probably help narrow your list down. You have several OOS public universities that will be expensive and some schools that give lousy need based aid.
@intparent Fairleigh Dickinson University? I was considering it and I put it on my list but removed it, however now I’m reconsidering, because it also has a free application, haha.
No. Dickinson in Carlisle, PA. A liberal arts college, meets 96% of need (as they define it, as with all colleges) and offers merit aid. Regarding GW, don’t look the list price on the website. Run the calculators to see your possible costs at all your schools.
I’m also a college-prep student with a lot of similar interests as you and I applied to NYU, GWU, Tulane, and Pace, along with looking into Boston U, Fordham, and University of Washington!
GWU is really great with financial aid, by the way. Average net price comes to around 5k. NYU on the other, is painfully awful. However, don’t eliminate a school based on the price tag! Even if the net price calculator says it’s too expensive, you never know how much scholarship money you’re going to get.
My advice: As a junior, you don’t need to cut down the list. It’ll cut down itself if it needs to. And even if it doesn’t, I, and several other people I know, applied to 14 schools. I always recommend applying to as many schools as you can if you’re indecisive like me. That way, you have a lot of options, and you don’t regret not applying to that one school you really liked.
@dragonfly26 I’d like to apply to a lot of schools, but it’s expensive. I don’t qualify for application fee waivers, but it’s too much. According to my parent’s income we wouldn’t need much financial aid, except, I’d be paying for most of my college tuition, so I do need it.
How are you planning to pay for tuition if your parents aren’t helping? You can’t borrow enough to pay for college on your own, even for in-state schools. If there is really no money coming from your folks, it’s time to look at community college for the first two years. Are you planning to live at home? If not, and they aren’t helping with that either, then add another $10k/year to your projected expenses.
Or start looking at schools where you have some chance of getting a full merit scholarship. Google scholarships for hispanic students for starters:
While Rensselaer (RPI) has an undergraduate business program (which is decently rated) they are a very STEM focused school, with most students studying engineering, and a 70/30 m/f ratio. Good choice if you want to mix engineering/science + business, but otherwise, other schools would probably be better.
First, you need to clarify this: your parents will pay for tuition because you expect to get sufficient financial aid for room and board, or your parent expect you to win a full tuition scholarship?
Second,how much will your parents contribute? At a minimum it’ll be about 25K (pretty standard for public universities) although, depending on your income, you may qualify for Blue and Gold or MCS at UCs (for income up to 80K, 100K, or 150K).
RUN THE NPCs now and show the results to your parents.
You can “only” borrow $5,500 in loans, for your first year, with 6.5K sophomore year and 7.5K each of jr and sr year, for a total of 27K, because that’s how much a typical college graduate can pay back in 10 years.
Financial aid doesn’t depend on whether your parents are willing to contribute; the estimates assume your parents will contribute.
If they’ don’t… you have to find other colleges. In your case, it means commuting to the closest community college and working to save money to pay for two years at a commutable UC.
Since you live in California, you’ll have to apply to the public universities with business schools there such as UCI, UCR, and UCM plus Cal Poly SLO Orfalea and SDSU.
Right now, your list is strange. What criteria have you used?
Boston Univ => lousy aid
UC Berkeley => out of reach (you’d need 4.1+ and an SAT around 1400+)
Fordham Univ => possibly
George Wash Univ=> generally lousy aid
Indiana U Bloomington=> why would you go when you have the UCs? Have you checked their scholarship opportunities?
U of MA Amherst =>? same thing
Michigan State Univ => ? same thing
New York Univ=> unlikely to be affordable
Pace Univ=> bad value (Baruch is a better value but the red tape problems are enough to drive one crazy)
Purdue Univ=> why do there if you have the UCs?
Rensselaer Polytech Inst=> run the NPC
Syracuse Univ=> run the NPC
Tulane Univ => run the NPC
Villanova Univ => unlikely to be affordable
U of Washington => no financial aid, it’ll be 50K and again why go there if you have the UCs?
I agree with MYOS1634, that is a strange list. It seems like a quick patch and paste job.
You’re a California resident, so the California public colleges logically belong on your target list. As for private colleges, you would have a stronger chance of admission and merit aid at undergraduate business programs at places such as…
Marist College
Ohio Wesleyan University
U of Tulsa
U of Puget Sound (Economics)
U of Dayton
U of Rochester
Saint Louis University
Also, the U of South Carolina is known for its strong undergraduate business department.
Besides cost, check whether you get direct admission to the business major. If not, check how difficult it will be to enter it. For example, UCB does not direct admit to business. Students have to apply in their second year, and admission is highly competitive.
So, more than likely, my parent’s will be paying for more than I think, however, I’d like to move out of California. I was also considering UCI for business except, it would be a BA in Business administration, and I’d prefer BS, but whatever, it’s a good school. I’d also like to study international business. I’m also interested in science and will likely mix, as a minor, or maybe even double-major, hence why I was thinking RPI. IU has a direct admit into the business major for which I qualify if I get a 30 on the ACT. @LakeWashington Do you really think I’d have a chance to not only get into but gain merit aid from U of Rochester?
Thank you all for your feedback! I’d also like to add that I just got into the National Honor Society.
BA versus BS should not matter, as long as the program is AACSB accredited.
UCI may admit frosh directly to the business major, or may admit as undeclared or some other major. Admission to the business major later for undeclared or other major students is competitive.
Here’s a ranking by Bloomberg of undergraduate business programs.
RPI is #35 (but #5 in academic quality). If you want to double major, or minor, in a science-related field, and are interested in working in the NE, it could be an interesting choice. But bear in mind that RPI is known for its rigorous academics, so a double major there will definitely be a lot of work.
Some of RPI’s M.S. programs are pretty highly ranked, but tend more towards analytics, quantitive finance, etc., not international business.
