Help on how to choose a safety school...and could U of Minnesota be one for me?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm always reading threads on here, but I've got a question of my own now that I'm officially through with junior year and about to begin the admissions process. I obviously understand the concept of a safety school, but exactly how safe is safe enough? If that makes sense. What I mean is what sort of ranges should I look for in potential safeties based on my profile...so I guess I should probably include that now--</p>

<p>State: CA</p>

<p>Type of HS: Private, Catholic</p>

<p>Class size: ~430</p>

<p>Class rank: not totally sure about this--top quarter for sure, possibly top tenth, but maybe not.</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.8
Weighted GPA: 4.13
^Those are without my second semester of junior year grades, so my weighted might go up just a tiny, tiny bit, as for that semester I think it's somewhere between a 4.3 and a 4.4. Unweighted should stay the same, though.</p>

<p>SAT: 2150
SUBSCORES:
CR: 720
M:630
W: 800</p>

<p>Activities:
-Spirit Commission (grades 9-12)
-NHS
-California Scholarship Federation (Board Member) (this includes TA-ing and tutoring peers twice a week)
-Mock Trial Team (10-12, county champions at least once)
-Shakespeare Club (Member grade 10, Board 11-12)
-Club Soccer (since the age of 9) (Captain)
-Radio Club (11-12)
-International Club (10-12)
-Casual Philosophy (11-12, co-founder)
-Some service hours, but not a hundred or anything...should be somewhere between 10 and 15 each year of HS.</p>

<p>I don't know how much of a difference it'll make, but I'm also Mexican and I'll be first generation. Oh, and I'll be applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>I'm looking into probably Linguistics and/or International Relations as a major, and maybe Film Studies minor depending on what the school offers. Definitely liberal arts, no math or science (as I'm sure you gathered from my math SAT score haha).</p>

<p>I'd appreciate any advice on what sort of ranges, etc. I should be looking at for safeties in general and also whether or not University of Minnesota-Twin Cities would work as one. Thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>I’m almost positive you’ll need to take the ACT in order to apply to UM. What school are you applying to? You could get into the lib arts college easily but for the engineering and sciences you may be less of a lock. Although you have a great chance at both.</p>

3

<p>You do NOT have to take the ACT in order to apply to UMinn. They accept either.</p>

<p>I don’t know how much of a difference it’ll make, but I’m also Mexican and I’ll be first generation. Oh, and I’ll be applying for financial aid.</p>

<p>If you are out-of-state for UMinn, then don’t expect aid from them. Most OOS publics do NOT give their aid to OOS students. They reserve their limited aid to state resident students. </p>

<p>Some publics will give merit scholarships to OOS students. Check webpages for details. some are competitive (so you can’t count on them) and some are assured (given to all who have specified stats)</p>

<p>Will you be a National Hispanic scholar? What was your PSAT?</p>

<p>What is your home state?</p>

<p>BTW…a safety school is a school that YOU KNOW that you can afford to go to because you can pay for it thru assured scholarships, assured FA, family money, and/or small federal student loans.</p>

<p>If you aren’t SURE of how you will pay for a school, then it’s NOT a SAFETY. </p>

<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>

<p>Is your family’s income low enough that you would get some free fed grants (up to about $5500 per year depending how low income/assets are and how low FAFSA EFC is)?</p>

<p>You need to retake the SAT and take the ACT in case you do better on the ACT.</p>

4

<p>MSauce-
Thanks!
About the ACT–I’m not very good at math, so I wasn’t really planning on taking it. College Board and the UM website say that either test is acceptable, although I noticed that most people submit the ACT (which I found odd…most schools I’ve looked at receive mostly SATs).</p>

<p>mom2collegekids-
Thank you also!</p>

<p>I’m from California. I didn’t realize that publics don’t give OOS students financial aid…I think it would probably be okay if I didn’t get it, though…my parents just want me to apply for it everywhere. Would it hurt my chances of getting in to do so? I’ll definitely look into merit-based scholarships.</p>

<p>According to my school counselor, I have a good shot at being a National Hispanic Scholar. My PSAT score was 215, so I’ll probably also be commended for regular National Merit, but probably not semi-finalist…I think the cutoff for that hovers around 218.</p>

<p>As I said, I think we could manage with those things and don’t necessarily need aid from the school. I’m not sure exactly how much we can afford per year. My current school is around 12-14k per year, and UMinn is about 15+Room and board, etc. so I think with some scholarships/loans we would be okay.</p>

<p>I already took the SAT twice…my first score was a 2050 (CR: 700, M: 600, W: 750) and I don’t anticipate my math score going up any more than it already did, which is why I was thinking I’d just keep the 2150. And the ACT has harder math on it, which is why I don’t want to take it. I covered trig in math this year and it didn’t go so well.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>In the Midwest, the ACT dominates.</p>

<p>Talk to your parents about how much they’re willing to pay for your college education. Do it as soon as possible.</p>

6

<p>It sounds like you wouldn’t qualify for much, if any, financial aid anyway. Remember, financial aid is based on need (by looking at your parents income and assets). Since you’re saying that you probably don’t need aid, then that usually means you won’t get qualify for any/much. </p>

<p>Yes, you will make Nat’l Hispanic…do whatever you have to do for that. There are schools that will give big scholarships for that.</p>

<p>Definitely retake the SAT. Some schools don’t put a lot of weight on the Writing part of the SAT, so you’ll want your CR + M score to be higher.</p>

<p>BTW…the math on the ACT is said to be easier than on the SAT because it’s less “trickier.” Also, keep in mind that math is only 1/4 of the ACT. And, since Writing is your strong point, that can help you ACT-wise.</p>

<p>You need to look at particular schools’ scholarships pages to see which give merit scholarships and which ones don’t. many don’t. and some don’t give them to OOS students. </p>

<p>As for FA and OOS publics. Publics charge OOS students a high cost for a reason - their families don’t pay taxes in that state. So, there’s little reason to then cover that high cost with FA (which is often tax-payer money). Exceptions are merit scholarships - which are usually funded by other sources of money - donors, etc.</p>

<p>Some schools offer assured scholarships for specific stats. Some only offer competitive scholarships.</p>

<p>here’s a link for some assured scholarships</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>For some scholarship info…</p>

7

<p>“I’m from California.”</p>

<p>Your best bet for rock-solid Financial (you can pay for them without financial aid other than FAFSA determined aid) and Academic (you are guaranteed admission based on your stats) Safeties are the California community/junior colleges. Check out the ones that are commuting distance from your home to find at least one that would work for you if everything else in your application process goes wrong.</p>

<p>Depending on how much your family can afford to pay, there may be Financial Safeties for you in the Cal State and U C systems as well. Whether or not they are Academic Safeties, or Academic Likelies/Matches/Reaches is another story. Your HS counselor should be able to give you a good sense about that.</p>

<p>Sit down with your parents and run the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) to get an idea of what the colleges/universities will expect your family to be able to pay. Talk with your parents about how they will meet that EFC, how much more than that they are willing to pay, and if they can’t meet the EFC, how much they actually will be able to pay. Find out how they feel about you taking out loans for your education, and how much money they expect you to earn during the school year and during vacations. Once you have the money question settled, you will know a lot more about your options.</p>

8

<p>Once you’ve talked to your parents and they give you an estimate of how much they will pay each year, then you can figure out reaches/matches/safeties.</p>

<p>If you have younger siblings, they may only be able to pay what they’re currently paying for your high school tuition…but maybe they can/will pay more. </p>

<p>Use the link above to find out what your EFC is. Your EFC is not the most you’ll have to pay. That is just a figure to find out if you’re eligible for any free fed aid. Schools do not have use that to determined aid, because most schools have little aid to give.</p>

9

<p>Apply to Mn early in the process - Sept, Oct, Nov. Keep in mind that the College of Liberal Arts has a separate application for merit awards and scholarships.</p>

<p>If you have the time and the money, take the ACT.</p>

<p>Phone or email the admissions office to see how close you are to the cut off for the Honors College. The housing is better.</p>