I have a lot of reaches and a lot of safeties, but very few matches.
GPA-3.97, I’m not sure if it’s W or UW
SAT-1890 (yeah, yeah, I know it’s crappy. I’m going to retake).
EC’s-Head Delegate of MUN Delegation, Varsity rower, Secretary of the Pearls Alumnae Association, Newspaper Club.
Essays-I go to a creative and a performing arts high school and I’m a writing major, so I’m gonna go ahead and say that my essays are stellar (I’m not one to be arrogant, but I feel like they’re really good).
Reaches-
University of Virginia
American University
George Washington University
Boston University
Matches-
University of Pittsburgh
Safeties-
Penn State-Main
Temple University
Rollins College
Marietta College
Robert Morris University
Susquehanna University
Can anyone please suggest more matches for me, preferably on the East Coast? I’m a PA resident. I’d prefer a college with rowing, if possible, and I like schools that are in or near cities but still have that traditional campus feel to them. I won’t qualify for merit aid, but I’ll need pretty big scholarships to be able to go to college. We can probably afford maybe $5000 per year, maybe less.
Ok, here it goes- my advise, for whatever it’s worth. Why do you have UVA? It’s a state school that is very difficult to get into for OOS students and wouldn’t give much financial aid as it’s priority is in state students.
Go to the NPC for each of the schools and plug in the info to see what’s affordable and what isn’t.
If your parents can only afford $5000 a year, you need to work with that and go from there. A safety is a school that will accept you and is affordable.
For merit, you need to be hitting the >75th percentile on the schools reported metrics such as SAT scores, GPA, rank etc… Maybe not all the metrics but some.
BTW, I don’t think a 3.9 GPA and SAT 1890 is crappy. That’s pretty solid. But you have to make it work for you. No, that’s not going to get the attention of admissions at reach schools but would get the attention at a lot of good schools out there. And that’s not all you offer either I’m sure. Just have a solid list.
@goingnutsmom I liked UVA and I know it’s hard to get into and hard to get money from, but I want to see what they’ll give me. I don’t have a hook for most of those (I think most people don’t have hooks haha) but for a few, I am a recruited athlete. I’m also an URM. My rank is 7/161 and I have checked out the stats for most of the schools. My weakness would be my SAT score, which I’m retaking in October. Thanks for your advice!
I would check out schools in the South, as they are known to give good merit aid. Mississippi State, the University of Alabama, and LSU seem to give some of the best merit aid around IMO. I think I remember being told Ohio State gives generous out of state merit scholarships, but don’t quote me on that.
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I won’t qualify for merit aid, but I’ll need pretty big scholarships to be able to go to college. We can probably afford maybe $5000 per year, maybe less.
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Can you clarify?
Are you saying that you won’t qualify for merit aid because of your scores? And if you need “big scholarships” do you mean need-based grants? If so, is your family low income?
You need to have your parents run the NPCs on schools websites, so that you’re not wasting time and money on unaffordable schools.
@mom2collegekids whoopsie, I meant to say I won’t qualify for much financial aid. They refuse to discuss the financial aspect with me besides to tell me to look for scholarships and say that we don’t qualify for much need based aid. They won’t give me a number, no matter how much I ask, so the number that I provided is a guesstimate. Are you saying that you don’t think I’ll get enough merit aid money to cover the cost of those schools?
Your parents NEED to gather their financial information and run the NPCs at any school you are considering now and in the future. Then, your parents need to let you know if these schools are viable given their personal financial landscape. A “guesstimate” alone at this point will be a short avenue into a community college or a gap year for you come next fall because of a lack of appropriate schools on your application list.
At Rollins, for example, you may qualify with your current stats for a 20K/year scholarship (http://www.rollins.edu/financial-aid/as-cps-financial-aid/scholarships/index.html). This still puts you on the hook for about 40K/year! While you would surely be admitted to Rollins with your stats, clearly Rollins is not a safety for you given the financial “guesstimate” your parents gave you.
Check out the University of Minnesota. It’s in Twin Cities with 3.5 million population in metro area, yet has a beautiful traditional campus with the Mississippi River flowing through the middle of it. The university has a rowing team and lots of scholarships for OOS, and will typically stack scholarships by giving several to someone they really want to recruit.
Housing options include an “Arts House” living-learning community that is located in the center of many visual and performing arts venues, with activities including group outings to performances. You might feel right at home there coming from a performing arts high school, and you don’t have to be a major in those fields to live there.
@dadof1 I’ve been working on it and they FINALLY agreed to run a few with me (mind you, I’ve been after them for months about this). I do have a financial safety on there too (Temple) but it’s clear that I need to add more. Thanks for your input!
For Temple full tuition you need 32 ACT or 1420 SAT to get full tuition. Then your parents paying about $5k and taking out the direct loan for $5,500 plus some summer work earnings should be enough for room and board.
Have you tried taking the ACT? If not, you might want to think about it – it is sometimes a better fit for some students and it is equal to the SAT in the eyes of admissions folks. (You will want to take it with writing, though)
I don’t quite know what I’m going to do, but I’m looking for outside scholarships too.