Honestly when I applied I thought that I would be happy at my safety school. It’s in my hometown and it’s not a horrible school or anything. I was recently waitlisted by my top two choices, and the other schools I applied to aren’t offering me enough money to go. It wasn’t until going to my safety actually became a plausible situation that I realized how much I don’t want to go there. I’m not sure what to do because it’s like nearly impossible to get off the waitlist. I just really don’t think i would be happy at my safety or that I would thrive there and i have no clue what to do.
What are your stats and how much can your parents pay without borrowing? There will be a list (called NACAC, I think) in May listing colleges that still have openings.
You hate your safety school, and you haven’t even set foot in the door yet?
You need to know that when surveyed, year in and year out, 80% of respondents report that they were happy with their undergraduate institution, no matter where it fit on their list, even last.
It’s in my city and my brother goes there, so I’ve been on the campus plenty of times. I didn’t form a solid opinion on the environment of the school that I want to go to until I was in the middle of college applications, so I didn’t have time to look for another safety school. The school is more of a commuter school, and I want an actual community environment, so I know that I wouldn’t thrive at this school.
@austinmshauri
UW GPA: 3.9
weighted GPA: 4.4 i think
ACT: 32
class rank: top 25%
6 AP courses with 4’s and 5’s on the exams that I’ve taken so far
I also have like 4 extracurriculars that I’ve been involved in for multiple years with leadership positions and volunteer work and a job
As far as money goes, my parents can’t really afford to help. I’m being raised by my single mother who’s currently in bankruptcy right now, and my brother is also in college. I also really do not want to take out loans because I plan on getting my doctorate in the future.
How would you feel about taking a gap year? That would give you time to work up a better list, including more safeties. Some of the places in the automatic full tuition thread at the top of the financial aid forum might work for you.
You can always go for a year and transfer if you find that you really hate it that much.
As I see it you have these options if you don’t get into other schools with sufficient funding.
- Look for the list of colleges with openings in May and hope you can find one where you can get in with sufficient aid.
- Go to your safety school, lose the idea that you hate it before you start, and give a concerted effort to make the most of it. If you are truly unhappy you can try to transfer out after a year but do keep in mind that merit aid is hard to come by for transfer students.
- Start at a CC and move to a 4 year college. Same comment as above regarding merit aid for transfer students.
- Take a gap year, find something worthwhile to do, and reapply next year. Be sure to find a group of schools that appear to be affordable (run net price calculators) and that you would be happy to attend.
“I also really do not want to take out loans because I plan on getting my doctorate in the future.”
This is very wise. Given what you have told us, I think that you should avoid loans if you possibly can, and minimize them if you have to take any. I think that @happy1 has a pretty good list of your options in the post above. You might very well end up with a choice of your safety, community college, or a gap year.
If you tell us what your safety is and your intended major then you might get more opinions regarding how good it is.
I’d stick it out. You can always transfer if conditions improve. I was a transfer student. I hated my first school and then ended up hating up my second school. I think they all suck to a degree. Is community college an option? That is even worse, I know but if you are going to be miserable (like all of us) anyway, you might as well do it cheaply!
Statistics say kids tend to end up liking the school they end up at. My personal theory is kids who are at their safeties don’t necessarily stop being disappointed about admissions and financial aid decisions not going as they’d hoped, but they appreciate that college is better than high school.
Make the most of the opportunity to go to college. Your top school would have been the icing on the cake, but you still get the cake.
Correcting some bad advice above:
- DO NOT go to community college and do NOT enroll just for a semester at your safety school since stats can allow you excellent scholarships and you need money (transfers get lousy aid).
- Second: any PhD worth pursuing will be funded. You’ll get a tuition waiver and a stipend in exchange for service (assisting, teaching, correcting, helping with research… it depends). So it’s more important you attend a college from which you can get into a funded phd program.
I’m guessing you didn’t get much college advice since applying to five schools with two (or even four?!!) at a high level of selectivity is a recipe for disaster.
Pm me your essay.
Barring admission from the other 2 schools, you’ll have to rest on the NACAC list of colleges that miscalculated yield. It’s published in early May (check back college confidential or NACAC’S page around May 4-5) and usually includes surprisingly good colleges. Of course these Excellent colleges have few spots and they’re snapped up immediately so you have to have your common app ready to go.
There are still colleges accepting applications but their financial aid may not be tops, what’s your budget and your EFC (as those are often different)?
Look for a thread called ‘i messed up’ there’s good advice there too.
@MYOS1634 i’m a first-gen college student and my brother goes to the safety school this post is about, so I had to rely on the internet and friends for my college research. I applied to 6 schools total 1 safety, 3 fits/safeties kinda ((my ACT is higher than their averages the only issue is financial aid)), and 2 kinda reaches which both waitlisted me. my EFC on FAFSA was around $1.5k i think, which is pretty similar to my budget.
I have a cure 
Spend 3 days doing volunteer work at a homeless shelter. I guarantee every one of those people would be delighted to be in your position.
–Would like to mention that not every PhD program worth attending will be fully funded.
–Some programs do have the “on the way Masters” degree. But in the liberal arts some students go on for a non-funded Masters before applying to PhD programs to bolster their chances at top PhD programs. (My D knows a couple of people who went this route even though they were strong students undergrad).
So I would advise the OP to attempt to minimize undergraduate loans if he/she plans to pursue a PhD.
@MYOS1634 Please recognize that laying out available options is NOT advising a particular path. In fact I discouraged CC and transfer ideas by noting the difficulty of getting aid as a transfer student.
@scribbler2022 When your EFC is that low, the options often do boil down to your local safety school and winning the admissions lottery for a reach school that has super-generous financial aid.
Having attended and taught at a commuter school where people disappeared at 4 PM, I can sympathize. There really is a world of difference between a campus and commuter school.
Exactly. In today’s job market, you shouldn’t be getting a PhD without full funding. There’s quite a few good funded master’s programs out there as well, for that matter. (I did two funded master’s before my PhD.)
Giving OP’s stats, a gap year might be best to take advantage of merit aid. I recommending reading through Andi’s thread and its follow-up.
“UW GPA: 3.9
weighted GPA: 4.4 i think
ACT: 32”
At least some of these could work for you: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2006094-2017-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p1.html
Some still are taking applications. For those that aren’t, consider a gap year. You will need to re-check each scholarship in the late summer to find out whether they still exist, and if scholarship criteria and application cut-off dates have changed. To get an idea of what it might be like to accept one of these scholarships, send a PM to @paul2752
@AroundHere the two schools i’ve been waitlisted for (which are also my top two) are Williams and Kenyon, which are both pretty generous in financial aid. I attended the Windows on Williams program and talked with many student who were there on full rides or nearly full rides. I also have a friend who’s currently a freshman at Kenyon. He and I are in similar financial situations, and my stats are slightly higher than his. He’s attending Kenyon with a full ride currently. I was really hoping on getting into one of these two schools, so financial aid wasn’t a major concern for me during the application process.
Check that your GC sent your midyear update (should be visible in common app)…
Have you sent any update about your most recent achievements?
If you wish to share your common app essay you can pm it to me. You may need to change it a bit before the NACAC list is published.