Hi so I’m new to posting on CC but here I go…
I’m a rising junior and I want to get a rough list of school I’m going to apply to so my senior year will be less stressful
So here are my stats:
My weighted GPA: 4.2 (don’t really know my unweighted…)
ACT: all I have right now is what I took freshman year for the gifted program I was in which was a 29 (hope to score higher than that but who knows… 
APs (so far): Chem (not reporting), World History (5) taking 3 more this year (bio, APUSH, and English Lang)
ECs: speech team(3 yrs.) (Officer) placed in regionals
Dance (13 yrs) not amazing at it but me and my dance team did perform at a Harlem globetrotters game and we’re Illinois delegates for a international dance festival last year
State: Illinois
Private catholic high school
Race/Ethnicity: half African American, half Mexican
Income Bracket: high enough where I can’t expect a lot of financial aid but low enough where we still need financial aid 
I have my reaches but would really love help with matches and safeties especially with merit aid as I have a twin sister
Thanks so much! >:D<
What major are you planning to go into and what is your budget??
Well I want to go premed and so I want to major in public health, neuroscience, but if a school doesn’t have any of those I’ll be fine majoring in history as I just need the prerequisites for med school. Oh, and and probably not more than like $30,000-$35,000 with scholarships or without. Thanks for replying!
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Oh, and and probably not more than like $30,000-$35,000 with scholarships or without.
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Your parents may have no intention of paying $60k-70k per year for their twins to go to college. That’s about $250k total. That may be out of their range.
How much will your parents pay each year FOR EACH TWIN? Ask them, please don’t guess. You really need to know the answer to this! With twins, who knows how much they can spend each year.
Your frosh ACT suggests that you will score at least a 32, likely higher on the ACT, so good luck. Also take the SAT.
For premed, you can go virtually anywhere.
Does your twin have similar stats??
Have your parents run the NPC on schools’ websites, like UIIUC, WashU, UChicago, and a few others to get an idea of what they’d be expected to pay for EACH twin. The results will be for EACH twin, not both twins.
Do you have younger siblings?
Do you have a non-custodial parent?
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Private catholic high school
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Do you know how much your parents are paying for each twin? Will they pay that much for college? More? Less? Please ask them.
Safeties have to be affordable…FOR SURE! You need to know for sure that you have all costs covered. Once you have actual test scores, and your parents say how much they’ll pay each year, we can tell you what your safeties are.
You’ll be taking the PSAT in Oct…try to do well on that. how did you do as a soph on the PSAT?
You should be able to calculate your unweighted GPA.
You are within striking distance of the 32 ACT that brings a lot of big merit scholarships, though you current 29 gets some if your unweighted GPA is high enough. The SAT may be another chance to get a high score. Junior year PSAT is the one that can get you National Merit status for more scholarships if you score high enough, so be sure to take that.
There is a sticky thread in the financial aid and scholarships section about scholarships and low cost schools.
Thanks and yeah I meant both of us for college. I really don’t want them to pay for a lot so I’m trying to get merit aid . My twin is exactly like me and wants to go to premed too. We ran NPCs on on UChicago and since we live close we get that Chicago scholarship automatically which brings it to like under 30,000 which is not really affordable. We also did Princeton as that’s my reach and it put us at like 26,000 a year which my parents said that’s fine if I get it down to 20,000 with outside schlorships which is what they pay for my older sister. I also don’t have any younger siblings besides my twin and my older sis is graduating this year.
Note that merit + need aid situations usually just help to the extent that merit can substitute for student loan or work listed in the need aid package. Additional merit then usually reduces grants (I.e. does not reduce net price) until it gets so large that it exceeds the total need aid package.
If the best need aid schools are not affordable, then you need a merit seeking list.
Thanks so much! I didn’t know that
Scholarships reduce your grants, so that’s not going to help you.
Also, outside merit awards are usually only for one year…frosh year.
Where does older sib go to school?
You and your twin, if serious about med school, should try to keep costs down for undergrad so that parents will help you with med school costs. Ask your parents if they’ll help with med school costs if you and twin find undergrad education for a very low cost.
My older sister goes to an Illinois directional school (Northern Illinois) and my parents said they r either helping out with undergraduate or medical school. Do have any schools the cost would be low as its looking like oddly enough Princeton is the most affordable besides my state school and I know that is with a slim chance of me getting in?
Oh and my parents just told me that while cost is a concern it is not a deal breaker they’ll manage. But of course they prefer not to pay $60,000 per child a year. But really I’m just looking for schools that match my academics so we can run NPCs and see if it’s financially possible
HYPS gives super aid, that’s why P is more affordable.
What do you like: Big, small, city, rural, rah rah, quiet, cold weather, warm weather, Greek Life, etc
I don’t like rural and I like all four seasons but can deal with warm weather if I have to. And i don’t like big schools or small schools, I more of a midsize school kind of person if that makes sense
Thanks @Erin’sDad I looked Temple and I think I might add it to my list