I Need Help Selecting Colleges!

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I am an African American female from New York City.*</p>

<p>How did you do on the PSAT? Would you likely become a National Achievement Finalist?</p>

<p>*My financial situation is pretty good, in terms of my parents income, but my parents aren’t contributing to pay for my college education. I plan on applying for many scholarships. *</p>

<p>It is very hard to get private scholarships to pay for 4 years of education. Private scholarships are often small and only for incoming freshmen (so only for one year).</p>

<p>You’re best bet is to increase your SAT and ACT to the point that a school will give you a good merit scholarship. the best scholarships are from the schools that give them because they’re usually for all 4 years.</p>

<p>Are there any SUNY’s that you could commute to if you had to? You say that your parents won’t contribute, but would they let you live at home for free and commute to college? If so, that would save you several thousand a year.</p>

<p>*Your financial situation is not good if your parents make a good income but will not contribute. In fact, that’s probably the toughest situation you could be in. Colleges expect parents to pay a large part of their income and contribute from their assets too. [Schools] will not give you more aid if your parents don’t choose to pay.</p>

<p>You need to calculate your EFC, if it’s high, given that your stats will make merit aid difficult, in state schools will make the most sense, and although I know you won’t be happy with this suggestion, so will community colleges for the first 2 years so that you don’t drown in debt.</p>

<p>**Big scholarships are rare and most are only for one year. ***</p>

<p>Redroses is right.</p>

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<p>I have considered CUNY Hunter College and CUNY City College. I haven’t heard that many good things about City College, so I am not sure. My mother went to CUNY Hunter and I heard it’s a great school as well.</p>

<p>I am also pretty interested in the SUNY’s as well because they are good value.</p>

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<p>The SUNY schools close to be are SUNY Stony Brook, Old Westbury, Farmingdale, and Purchase I believe. I know there are probably more, but those are the SUNY schools I am familiar with in my area.</p>

<p>If this makes you feel better. I’m an African American Male who got into the University of Michigan with a 3.3/4.0 UW/W GPA and a 1590/23 SAT/ACT score. Granted I was wait listed, but I applied in January and UM was using rolling admissions at the time. Now I’m in the top 10-15% of my class here.</p>

<p>I think you can apply to prestigious universities like Wake Forest, Top Public Universities and even some privates. If you get that SAT score up, you can even apply to the top schools. </p>

<p>Some say I’m a product of affirmative action, but i don’t care because I’m taking full advantage of the opportunity given to me.</p>

<p>That is great. Thank you for sharing your experience, it really inspires me.</p>

<p>Funny though, doesn’t Michigan sware up, down and sideways that they don’t practice AA? They were actually the school thhat was sued and began the wave of public colleges not being able to consider race. So maybe they liked other things about you?</p>

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There were no such implications.</p>

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<p>Are there any suggestions for any colleges in particular inside or outside the CUNY/SUNY system?</p>

<p>Are there any suggestions for majors? I like using the computer, I like math and science, but I don’t do really good in science. Hmm, I have no idea. I was thinking of a Public Health or Chemical Engineering…but I have no clue.</p>

<p>Because you’re African, I can see you being admitted into a number of competitive colleges. (You are definitely not limited to SUNYs.) </p>

<p>Admissions can be quite volatile since not all universities practice holistic review. An unprestigious college may reject you while a prestigious one may accept you. You should definitely shop around and apply to a variety of universities with a number of specialties and different levels of prestige.</p>

<p>(It’s difficult recommending any particular college because your admittance will be very unpredictable. That means work on your personal statement and emphasize your hardships!)</p>

<p>My best advice is to be careful with “engineering” if you choose to attend a college way out of your range. Those majors can be quite strenuous and competitive and you may need time to adjust to the academic rigor of the university.</p>

<p>“Funny though, doesn’t Michigan sware up, down and sideways that they don’t practice AA? They were actually the school thhat was sued and began the wave of public colleges not being able to consider race. So maybe they liked other things about you?”</p>

<p>I mean, I did a lot of extracurriculars. I’m really not sure. In my eyes I was not a stellar applicant. However the OP should not rely on her race. Get your standardized test scores up. That will make it easier to differentiate safety schools from reaches. By the way Michigan won that supreme court case. However there was another proposal instated in 2006, which banned affirmative action, but colleges are businesses…affirmative action means diversity lol.</p>

<p>I think you can apply to prestigious schools like UMiami, Michigan, SUNY’s, Syracuse, UPittsburgh, Rutgers if you get your SAT/ACT scores up. If you get an 1800+ it will make you a more competitive applicant.</p>

<p>Vloria, you may find this thread to be helpful as it contains many links to merit scholarships - SUNY’s included:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships-7.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships-7.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Good luck with your tests!</p>

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<p>Hmm, do you think I’ll probably do better in business? I am lost at what I should major in.</p>

<p>The student who got into UMich OOS doesn’t say how he’s paying for it.</p>

<p>Vloria’s has two issues. Modest stats and parents with a good income who won’t pay.</p>

<p>So, getting accepted is only half the battle. What’s the point of getting accepted to a school like UMich if they’re going to hand her a big bill she can’t pay?</p>

<p>Her stats aren’t high enough for the huge merit she’d need for most schools. </p>

<p>Her FA packages will already have student loans in them, so how is she supposed to cover her parents EFC that they won’t pay? </p>

<p>Don’t worry now about a major. Go in undeclared…that’s fine.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>vloria…</p>

<p>Is it certain that your parents won’t help you pay anything for college? </p>

<p>Do they not want you to go to college or what? </p>

<p>How do they expect you to pay for college?</p>

<p>It’s pretty certain unless they change their mind this year.
My mother always say although they make a good bit of money, they also have a lot of debt and therefore cannot afford to help pay for college for me.
She’s also those type of parents that want you to work for what you want.
They want me to go to college, but she sounds like if I don’t go to college she would be fine with it too.
She expects me to get merit scholarships, work-study, loans, anything… x.x</p>

<p>Tell your mom that work-study is awarded based on determined need, so if your parents income is too high, you won’t have any need.</p>

<p>Merit scholarship are awarded to those with high stats. Unfortunately, your stats aren’t high enough to get merit at most colleges. Merit scholarships are for the students with the top stats at a college. </p>

<p>You may have to apply to a variety of schools so that your mom will see that her suggestions won’t get you the money that you need At that point, she may see that she’ll have to help.</p>

<p>You probably will have to work during the summer and part-time during the school year to come up with as much money as you can.</p>

<p>Yes, if you improve your scores a bit, there are more SUNY’s that will accept you but they may not be affordable if you have a high EFC and no means to pay it. If your scores improve a lot (or you do well on the ACT), then you might be able to get a scholarship.</p>

<p>What schools are close enough for you to commute to?</p>

<p>The schools that are close for me to commute to are any school in NYC. Also, maybe some in Long Island because of the Long Island Railroad.</p>

<p>This website describes my parents WELL.
[FinAid</a> | Other Aid | What If No Help from Parents?](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>What To Do If Your Parents Can't or Won't Help Pay - Finaid)</p>