<p>I have a problem finding financial aid. Currently I'm a a senior with a 3.56 Unweighted GPA and ranked 33 out of 75 in my school. My SAT is 1600 and I'm hispanic. I want to go to a UC or private institute like USC or Northwestern. Community college is not an option because I will be graduating high school with an Associate of the Arts degree in Math and Science. Took both high school and college credits at the same time. My parent's income is a little over 100,000 dollars because they work 3 jobs in total, (mother and father) under a household of 3 including me. I can't find any scholarships that award a lot of money for students who AREN'T low income. It is becoming frustrating for me to not able to find scholarships just based on my academic achievements and volunteer work. Hopefully someone can help me. Please because without financial help it would nearly impossible for me to pay for college. Also I'm interested in biomedical engineering and becoming a doctor. Hopefully these information are useful.</p>
<p>Go to the Hispanic Students forum (under College Admissions, Specialty Topics), start with the Resources sticky thread at the top of the forum, there’s a section with links to scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>Schools like Northwestern and USC are highly competitive. You are in the top third of your class. Is that SAT score for three sections of the test? If so, I am going to guess that they will be tough admits for you.</p>
<p>Northwestern really gives only need based aid (very very few merit awards). Any aid you would receive there would be based on parent income. With $100,000 in income, your family contribution will be upwards of $25,000 for the year. With a family of three, I would guess closer to $30,000.</p>
<p>USC has some generous merit awards…they give 1/2 tuition to NMF but it does not sound like you are one. In addition, that would still leave a hefty price tag for you. USC has an early application deadline for those wishing to be considered for scholarships.</p>
<p>If you are a CA resident…have you looked into any of the CSU campuses? They are more modestly priced. </p>
<p>One issue you will need to address…many colleges have a December 1 deadline for applications for students wanting to be considered for those competitive scholarships. You have two weeks to find the colleges, and complete your applications to them.</p>
<p>Every college has a Net Price Calculator on its website. Some include the ability to enter your GPA and SAT scores. For some, this will give you a guestimate of your merit awards as well as need based. The best scholarships come from the colleges themselves. There are some very generous outside scholarships (Gates, etc) but you may have missed the deadline for applying for these…and they are not a sure thing either.</p>
<p>My children are in a similar situation where we make too much money to qualify for any scholarships because about 98% of the scholarships for hispanic or mexican students are NEED-based. Having been through this with two children, with higher stats than yours (sorry), my middle daughter didn’t receive much more than a $300 scholarship. That paid for her chem book.</p>
<p>After the first round of scholarships by the HSF, my daughter was solicited to apply for a scholarship from the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation for $100. She didn’t seek it; they sought her! After they asked for tons of paperwork and income sources, she was flatly and automatically denied for $100! She’s been on the Dean’s List! </p>
<p>Our son is a senior with a 2370 SAT but he has yet to be offered any full rides. He is awaiting his Eagle, does sports, clubs, volunteering, plays violin and has had tons of activities. But, our income doesn’t qualify him for anything.</p>
<p>People are under the misconception that because we are underrepresented, the money just pours in. Not true at all!!! Each merit scholarship, that my children have applied for, has always been denied because we don’t look “poor” enough; several merit committees even told us, “your family fits our profile perfectly, but your income doesn’t fit the expectation!” So, they lie about saying that you have a chance of getting a merit scholarship. If your family has just a little money, they wont give you a dime. </p>
<p>Your best bet is to apply to the California State University System if you can’t afford the UC’s ($32K per year). I don’t think your stats are good enough to receive a private school’s scholarship. I don’t understand how you received a Math and Science AA without having to take other GE classes and having them help you TAG to a UC. That information should have been forthcoming.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response. Here some information I enclosed if you are confused about the college + high school.</p>
<p>I am currently in a high school combined with community college. I am graduating with a GED high school diploma like any high school student and a Associates of the Arts: Liberal Arts in Math and Science with 60+ transferable units. So the time I go to a UC I will actually be starting as a freshman with college units.</p>
<p>Only 2 schools offer the major I want in the CSU system. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Jose State University. Yes I agree with everyone that CSU is my best bet but I really want to go to privates and UCs. Why? Because I am trying to go to medical school. CSU isn’t going to help me a lot.</p>
<p>Do I have to change to get in? Well let me tell you something unique about myself. I have taken the equivalent of 8 years of high school math (Calculus III or Multivariable Calculus), 780 on SAT Math II and 790 Bio SAT. I have a lot of things that me unique not only as a student but as a person.</p>
<p>My intended major is biomedical engineering. Maybe bioengineering then I later enter a MD/PhD program. I’m interested in prosthetics or neural engineering. I have CREATED a prosthetic arm in the past and won 1st place in the preliminary rounds of a national competition but lost in regionals before able to go to nationals. There are other reasons but the journey into making the arm made me have a stronger desire to enter the medical field.</p>
<p>Scores make a difference; apply to privates and UC’s, you’ll get in. But with UC’s not having any money, you never know if you’ll get anything other than 1/2 tuition. You need to investigate those scholarships listed in #7 above. </p>
<p>My two girls have never received anything substantial, so we’re assuming we will be full pay again for our son. They always look at the FAFSA numbers and our income always is a deterrent to “merit” scholarships for our children. We’ve been told often that we make too much money and they end up selecting students who are similar in stats but lower in incomes-even though my kids’ only applied for merit scholarships! First daughter was STEM volunteer and graduated in May with EE degree; STEM monies were not given to students but used for recruiting events-pencils, toys, etc. Second dd is in biological sciences and will be applying to pharmacy school. No offers or money and she has continuously been on Dean’s List.</p>
<p>Son did apply to USC (1/2 tuition) and CSULB (fees are more affordable). He’ll probably go to the local UC, since the cost is the same as USC’s and we’ll save money by having him live at home; we’re already paying for sister’s full UC tuition and he is aware that we can’t afford 2 uc tuitions.</p>
<p>Yes, most of the large Outside Scholarships for Hispanics are for low income families, just as most of the large Outside scholarships for all students are. No surprise, and personally, something I have absolutely no problem with. </p>
<p>There are still many sizable scholarships for NHRP and Institutional merit aid for Hispanic students (either scholarships that target Hispanics or those open to all).</p>
<p>Just as an alternative experience from aunt bea, merit for my two Hispanic Ds included: UMichigan Shipman (full tuition, R&B), Emory Scholar (half tuition as couldn’t attend scholarship weekend), top merit at IS flagship, 19k/yr at UMinn-TC, 12k/yr at Pitt, 2k/yr at Carlton. </p>
<p>Non-need based merit scholarships are usually Institutional. They’re not easy to get, but there are opportunities out there. My kids could have applied to more schools with merit aid, but they chose not to based on other factors about the schools (eg. location, size, etc.). But this was a choice, it was not due to lack of non-need based merit possibilities.</p>
<p>For reference, our finances were high enough that when D1 applied (1 year before HYPS changed their FA policies for upper-middle income families), we received either minimal (ca. 10k/yr) to no need based FA.</p>
<p>If you want to go to medical school…the two single most important things will be your MCAT score and your college GPA, particularly in the courses required for medical school. You are very misinformed if you think that the name on your diploma is THE most important thing for med school applicants. It isn’t.</p>
<p>In addition…the two Cal States you mentioned are very fine schools. I guess you don’t realize how lucky you are to have those as instate options. </p>
<p>It sounds like you have a “name recognition” issue with colleges for undergrad. I would strongly urge you to adjust that way of thinking.</p>
<p>There are doctors who got their undergrad,degrees at No Name University. Heck, there are doctors who started off at community colleges and transferred to four year schools.</p>
<p>Oh…and while you are doing your rethinking…if you plan to go to medical school, you don’t want ANY undergrad debt…or the BARE minimum. Med school will cost you upward of $250,000. YPU do not want undergrad debt on top of that.</p>
<p>P.S. your “uniqueness” might not get you past the first screening round of some of these other colleges if that SAT 1600 is for all three sections. If it is a perfect CR/Math, then that is another story.</p>
<p>Prosthetics design/neural engineering doesn’t require a MD, but rather a PhD. (D2 was interested in this area for several years in undergrad and has a good friend who is in a top grad program doing exactly this.) </p>
<p>For admission to top PhD programs, it’s not the name on your undergrad degree, rather it’s your (in order of importance) research experience, letters of recommendation, grades in upper level major classes, GRE quantitative score.</p>
<p>CP-SLO has an excellent national reputation in engineering. It will get you where you want to go. (And that includes med school if you have the the right stats and CV.)</p>