Help, thinking about adding a school or two...merit money!

College Search & Selection
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<p>And, I know it is probably too late for schools with an EA deadline of 11/1, but I know some have 11/15 or 12/1 scholarship deadlines. </p>

<p>Male
Not reporting race
Catholic High School</p>

<p>GPA: UW around a 3.8, probably a low 3.8ish. W 4.17ish
Grade Trend: Might hurt me a little bit. Frosh yr was pretty good, soph year was pretty good/really good, I showed an upward trend for the most part. 1st semester Jr year was pretty good too, but 2nd semester I kind of burned out and ended up with 3 Bs. I have a total of 4 Bs on my transcript (not horrible I know), and 3/4 were in math or sci classes, which is definitely not my forte. Not freaking out about Bs, I was pretty chill when I got my report card, but it kinda sucks to end Jr. yr on kind of a crappy note, with half my classes getting Bs in them.
Anyways.
Class Rank: My school is kind unclear they say they don’t rank, but they tell in a counselor rec the approximate rank. I should be in at least the top 5-10% so I’m guessing they’ll put down something like that. Or they might not put anything in the letter. I’m not sure.</p>

<p>SAT: 700 M 690 CR 720 W --- 2110 total (single sitting, not superscore)
ACT: 29 (won't report if school does not need all scores)
5/6* APs by graduation. *School is unclear, we might be credit for taking my physics class last year because right now it is an AP class..and its basically the same thing, but I doubt the college board will let them do that. Will haven taken 7-8 test though by graduation, however only 2 were Junior year.
USH
Gov
Physics E&M
English
Clac AB</p>

<p>Last four are current, senior year.</p>

<p>SAT IIs: Should be decent. Took USH today, hopeful for an 800, but should be no lower than 780. Math...I'm studying for a 700 and I'm taking Eng Lit in November, sounds hard haha.</p>

<p>Teacher and Counselor Recs: Teacher one should be pretty good, my grade in the teacher's class that I'm asking to write me a rec rarely dipped below a 97% (AP class) and I think he liked me as a person/student. Not sure about counselor one, we get to write a "brag" sheet, so it should be at least ok.</p>

<p>Essays: Looks like MDA Camp for the main one and my EC essay is going to be wacky (haven't written it yet)</p>

<p>ECs: Pretty solid, though nothing spectacular like some people on CC.</p>

<p>-Eagle Scout, plus one year of being Senior Patrol Leader
-Student Govt Representative (lowest position in student govt, lol)
-Work Experience: 1 secretary job at my Church, another is a yard work type job, which I have recently stopped at, but I've had that job since summer before freshman year, so it should still look pretty good.
-Student Ambassador and Freshman Mentor (more intensive than you think haha)
-NHS
-Youth Challenge Volunteer - Help Disabled kids play sports. I also research grants for the organization, to keep the service free.
-Minor role in school paper
-Mock Trial
-Model UN
-Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice
-AP US History Co-Student of the Year
-Investment Club</p>

<p>probably leaving a couple minor things out</p>

<p>Service:
-Have not tallied up my hours, but it should be about 300+ service hours when I apply (tutor at school and local library, soup kitchens, various things, etc...)
-Eucharistic Minister at my church, at my school and I go to the nursing home and distribute Communion.
-MDA Camp Counselor. This is where a bulk of my service hours came from. Very demanding, but very rewarding and I plan on doing it again next year. I also participate in a program that helps disabled kids play sports during the summer and school year. Might write an essay about this. Something to the gist of the first day and a half or so of camp, I absolutely hated it, but it kind of grew on me and I really want to go back.</p>

<p>Think this is about it, sorry it was kind of long and there might be a few typos, do you need any more info?</p>

<p>So, my current list is:</p>

<ol>
<li>UVa</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Notre Dame
rest are in no real order</li>
<li>Boston College</li>
<li>Emory</li>
<li>Ohio State (in-state)</li>
<li>South Carolina</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Florida State</li>
<li>Dayton </li>
<li>UMDCP*</li>
</ol>

<p>But, I'm think about taking UMD off. I like the school, it just might not be feasible to realistically attend. </p>

<p>But here are some of my parameters</p>

<p>Cost. COST. It's huge. Florida and Michigan would probably be two of my top choices if they were a little cheaper OOS or if my stats were higher to get scholarships.
Cost has to be around(ideally less) $20,000 with scholarships, $25,000 at the most. My parents are willing to shell out $20k, and I'm willing to take $5k a year in loans, though obviously I'm hoping not to. </p>

<p>I would prefer big, though I'll be fine as long as its >4000</p>

<p>School spirit. All my schools (besides Emory), are kind of rah-rah with decent sports, so I like that, but not a huge requirement. </p>

<p>Semi-close to a big city...or the beach. Not huge, but I don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, UNLESS it is a kind of large school, like >10,000 undergrads. </p>

<p>Region. I'm open to pretty much anywhere. I'm from the midwest, and kinda want to get out, haha. But I had USC on for a while (I LOVED it!), but I think California is just tooo far away...but USC sounds so awesome. Thinking about adding it back to my list, except I'm afraid I'll actually pick it. </p>

<p>I'm planning on majoring in Business (Finance/International Business) or Econ and maybe trying to double that with Political Science. </p>

<p>Other schools I had of my list, but took off:</p>

<p>Miami (FL)
Tulane
Florida
Michigan
Alabama
Illinois</p>

<p>Any recommendations? I guess I'm looking for a safety, or just some place where I could get some significant aid to make COA around $20k</p>

<p>Thanks, I know it was long</p>

2

<p>W&Y,
You mention cost as being very important. do you know what your EFC will be? You also said you want to get out of the mid-west,and Ohio state is your in state safety,which is good, but if you want to leave Ohio you should probably add back a couple of financial safeties. You might consider putting Tulane and Alabama back on your list as they may give you some merit aid.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response. </p>

<p>I’m not quite sure what my EFC will be. I had my dad run a calculator on College Board’s website and it said our EFC will be about $22k. If that is the case, I would be ecstatic. However, my school partnered with some local college counseling place where you could go and they would give you in-depth information about the college search and assess how much aid you will get. They said our EFC would be about $35k…now I really, really hope College Board’s is more accurate. Who knows, I may have him run the calculator over again, it was like a year and a half ago when he ran it. </p>

<p>I’m okay with Ohio, I would like to leave it, either for Chicago or somewhere back to the east coast.
However, I’m starting to warm up to OSU and that’s why I took Bama off my list. I missed Bama’s full tuition scholarship by 10 points, so the difference between tuition there and tuition at OSU would only be like 2-3 thousand dollars more. And I’m thinking of picking South Carolina over either OSU or Bama, so it’s kind of a mute point. Not sure yet though.
When I looked around Tulane when I was in a NOLA and year and half ago, I was not that impressed with campus, but I kept it on my list. Don’t get me wrong, it was very nice, but didn’t really blow me away. Still a nice school and only recently took it off. Maybe, I should put it back on…</p>

<p>Thanks, any other advice? I’ve done a lot of research on CC, so I know for the most part which schools give decent aid, so I’m not sure how much this thread would really help, and I’m a little late for some EA cycles.</p>

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<p>I strongly second adding Bama back on the list. It is GUARANTEED merit, not competitive. Take the SAT again in Nov. Get the M/CR 1400 or above (you are so close it shouldn’t be difficult) and you would get the Presidential Sch. which covers full tuition. 12/1 app deadline. With the Pres. the estimated COA would be <$12k/yr. </p>

<p>Have you considered Pitt? They have been good with merit.</p>

<p>I suggest NOT taking SAT II in Nov and instead re-take SAT. I don’t believe you need 3 SAT II for any schools on your list.</p>

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<p>Definitely keep Dayton on the list. I don’t know why you don’t have Miami U on your list instead of tOSU. Your ECs will help you there and I think you would have a better chance of merit aid. I don’t know why Notre Dame is on your list if you need to keep the bill to $20K.</p>

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<p>You really need to know your EFC. If it’s $35K, schools like NU, Cornell, and BC will be affordable if your parent’s can only contribute $20K. Many schools have accurate calculators on their web sites.</p>

7

<p>Redroses, did you mean to say that schools like NU, Cornell, and BC will NOT be affordable if the OP’s parents can only contribute $20K and the EFC is $35K ?</p>

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<p>You may get merit money from OSU- here’s the link</p>

<p>[Scholarships[/url</a>]</p>

<p>I have heard of U Del out of state students getting scholarships which made their cost of attendance reasonable. </p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“Additional Scholarships | University of Delaware”&gt;Additional Scholarships | University of Delaware]Scholarships</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University”>Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University)</p>

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<p>Yes, these schools only give need based aid. They expect the family to pay their full EFC and then the first “aid” will be a student loans and work study. Grants come after that. Loans will be bigger than $5K/yr. They start at $5500 freshmen year and go up every year.</p>

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<p>For the most part, the more “selective” the college, the less likely they are to hand out $$$. Still, take a look at this thread, which is from last year.

</a></p>

<p>It’s about “guaranteed merit”.</p>

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<p>Here is the link to the guaranteed merit cc thread.
<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;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>It is easy to run the EFC, have you Dad do an updated one. All he needs is his last year’s tax return, so really, you could do it if he will supply it to you. There is one on the FAFSA website.
[FAFSA4caster</a> - Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf]FAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf)</p>

<p>Also you should open a fafsa account now and start preparing it. There isn’t a downside to having applied. You may be eligible for loans under it should you need to take it out.</p>

<p>Don’t worry about ‘too far’. Away experience is great and air travel makes getting home easy. You will get good fares out of LAX. If you can’t drive home in a few hours you’ve got to get on a plane anyway.</p>

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<p>Might look at Holy Cross-very good school with nice campus, 1 hour from Boston. HC has strong economics and political science with one of the best alumni networks-good for job placement. Holy Cross has strong school spirit and competes against the Ivies in most sports.</p>

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<p>par72,</p>

<p>Aside from the very FEW scholarships HC awards in Classics, there is no merit, something the OP is specifcally looking for, at HC.</p>

15

<p>A lot of my friend are looking into HC. Sounds nice, but I’m not sure if I’ll apply. </p>

<p>Parents kinda guilted me out of USC. I don’t really blame them either, it is really far away and I took it off my list, not them. They always said I could go wherever I wanted to. I only have one cousin that I don’t really know living in that region. Not like that really matters, but I’d kinda like my parents to visit me every so often, where they could drive in a day and stay for a weekend. Can’t believe I’m saying that haha. Not too mention I wouldn’t mind coming home for a long weekend. Though, I’m still thinking about adding it back to my list. …</p>

<p>I think I’ll keep most of my reaches on. Last time my dad ran the calculator, it said our EFC would be about 22k, which is totally reasonable IMO. Lower the better though…obviously. Not sure yet about back ups. Like I said, I’ve grown on OSU. Last time I visited, (unofficial), I liked it and added it to my list (OU was gonna be my IS safety). Visited both over the same break. Didn’t like OU, my school sends too many kids there, gonna be just like high school all over again. Same kinda with Dayton. My dad went there, and he is really pushing it. Don’t get me wrong, its a nice school, but my high school sends so many kids there. And I didn’t even mind high school, I just want to move on.
Yes, my H.S. sends a fair amount to OSU (though usually less than OU or UD), but OSU is soooo freakin huge, I’ll hardly see any of them. Plus C-Bus isn’t that bad of a college city. I’m taking an offical tour there two weeks from now, while classes are in session. I think I’ll like, I’m going in with an open mind.</p>

<p>But, ideally if I don’t get in to any of my reaches or the money doesn’t work out, hopefully I can get a tuition waiver from FSU, in-state rates at Carolina, and I might get a small scholarship at OSU.
I’ve been told I’m pretty much a lock to get IS at Carolina, though you never know. FSU will be a little tricky, but that school sounds awesome. It is far away, but at least its in the same time zone. </p>

<p>Thanks again everyone. I’ve been reading these boards since Soph year, so I kinda know which schools are decent with the money for OOS (Bama, S. Carolina, etc…) and which are stingy (UF, UofM, etc…). But I was hoping something else came up. I am going to have my dad run the calculator tomorrow. </p>

<p>Hell, maybe I’ll just move in with my cousins in NoVA and try to get in-state rates at UVa haha. </p>

<p>Thanks again, everyone. I think I’ll give HC a quick look.</p>