Help picking a college in the South/Southwest?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey!

I’m a high school senior from Texas and I’m looking at colleges I want to apply to, and I wanted to know if there are any suggestions anyone may have regarding colleges that give out a decent amount of scholarship/financial aid. I know a lot about colleges/universities (learned a lot through internships for college recruiting sites), and I’m excellent at helping other people with it, but I struggle when it comes to helping myself, so I figured I would ask you guys! My parents are willing to pay around $20,000 per year, give or take, and I know I can take out loans up to $7,000 (I think that is what it is?). I would like the school to be a decent size, but not too big to where I would feel lost in a sea of people. Basically, I would rather be a big fish in a little pond opposed to a little fish in a big pond. I prefer schools in the southwest/southeast region, but I would definitely be open to considering colleges in any part of the country!

My stats are as follows:
30 ACT (will be taking again)
1290 SAT CR+M (will be taking again)
3.5 UW GPA (No rank, my school does not rank)
7 AP classes
ECs: Baseball through Junior year (got hurt and couldn’t continue playing), 2 marketing internships for college recruitment websites/services, community volunteering (Court, library, organizing community garage sales), worked 25 hours a week for a local country club, Men’s Choir

Thanks in advance for any responses!

2

Check out Trinity, Tulane, Tulsa, Hendrix, and Rhodes (lots of TX students). I think it may be difficult to beat your in-state publics for cost unless you can get into Rice, however.

If you can get your test scores up a bit, you could get a pretty decent scholarship at Millsaps and BSC.

If you’re willing to go larger, there’s Alabama. Bumping your ACT up to a 32 could net you $26K per year instead of $17K (with your current ACT).

3

Thanks for the response! I’ve been looking at Trinity and Tulane, and I’ll definitely check out the others! I’m not unwilling to go to a public school, I’d even consider huge campuses like A&M and UT, I guess I just meant that if I was given a choice, I’d rather go a tad bit smaller.

4

Don’t forget Sewanee - University of the South

5

For LACs, check out the “Southern LACs” thread. Lots of good information on many different LACs… With your stats, your cost of attendance would range from about 20 - 30K, with BSC likely being the cheapest by a good margin.

6

There’s also Austin College and Southwestern University, right there in Texas. Another option is Southern Methodist University - although you’d be a pretty average applicant, and would probably get in, I’m not sure you’d be competitive for merit aid there.

In Georgia there’s Berry College and Oglethorpe University, both smaller colleges where you’re above-average and might get some aid. Mercer University might also be appealing to you, but I don’t think they are known for giving a lot of aid. In North Carolina there’s Elon University, where you’re sort of average - but also Guilford College, where you’d be above-average. In VA there’s Lynchburg College and Randolph-Macon College. South Carolina has College of Charleston - it’s a public school, but they do have scholarships. SC also has Furman University, where you’d be an average applicant.

7

Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC.

Here is a link that might give you some ideas: http://pulleygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Sweet16.pdf

8

OP, what do you intend to study? That might help narrow down the list.

Our S was interested in CS, and we toured many of these schools. Our impressions are included in the “Southern LAC’s” thread mentioned above. I would certainly recommend you spend some time reviewing that thread as there is a ton of good information therein.

He ended up at Trinity, and so far, so good!

9

I intend to study either history, philosophy or psychology. I want to go to law school, so it seems natural. I got a 34 on ACT Reading and a 32 on ACT English, I don’t know if that matters or not.

10

OP, do you want to participate in Moot Court in college? If so, that might narrow down the list.

11

I was under the impression moot court was a law school only thing. I’ve been looking at debate and mock trial in college though.

12

St John’s in New Mexico but not sure cost would work out.

13

My bad. Mock trial is the correct term, as is debate.

Some schools have stronger programs than others, so if that is of interest, you should include that in your evaluations.

14

Furman has a very good mock trial team; although participation in something like that is not necessarily essential to becoming a good lawyer. If your goal is going to law school, the best thing that you can do is to take courses that will enable you to analyze problems critically and to communicate effectively.

Sewanee (mentioned above) has turned out many good lawyers whom I know (and know of).

Also, here is the link to Southern LACs referred to above: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1671635-southern-lacs-p1.html

15

hendrix college

16

Possibly Wake Forest.

17

There are great suggestions on this thread. My D ended up at Sewanee and has been very impressed by all that they have to offer.

My advice is to apply to enough colleges that you have a selection of merit aid awards to choose from. You might want to look as far north as Earlham in Indiana, or Centre in Kentucky. With your stats and ECs you probably have an opportunity to get substantial aid at several colleges. We found that although the net price calculators were helpful, there really was no substitute for applying and seeing what was actually offered.

Many of the schools suggested above take “demonstrated interest” into account, so take every opportunity you can to connect with them–at a college fair, or during a counselor’s visit to your school, or in an on-campus visit, if possible. Given your responses to other posters, you are pretty knowledgeable about the whole process. Good luck!