I'm Puzzled.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi.
I am a high school junior, and I have no idea about college choices.
I have a 4.0 gpa unweighted, and I'm taking 6 AP classes this year:
AP Psych, AP Cal. AB & BC, AP His. 11, AP English 11, and AP Chem.
I've made A's in AP Psych, AP Cal. AP His. 11, & AP English 11 this quarter and I'm taking the rest next semester.
I only took the ACT with writing last year, and I made a 30. I'm planning to take the SAT and ACT once more this year. I have very few extracurriculars because I don't like any that they have in my school. Right now I'm only in Key Club. I would say that my race is other, and I live in Mobile, Alabama. </p>

<p>The issue is that I don't want to go to any of our states "good schools". All they care about is football(no offense). But I don't know where I should go. I'm planning to take some classes next year at our regional university in my spare time, and I want to major in computer science or mathematics. My dream goal is to create a new standard for information sciences.Does anyone have any advice about good universities I should try. I need somewhere that gives good financial aid, because we can't really pay much.( and please, nothing in the South. I'm tired of it :) ) .</p>

<p>If I need to add any more information or if I'm in the wrong section, please tell me. And if anyone has any advice about high school and what should I do to get accepted in a college, please do tell. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Well, 4.0 GPA and 30 ACT gives you full tuition scholarship for four years at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and if you major in computer science, which is in the engineering division, you get an additional $2,500 per year. That leaves probably about $11,500 in other expenses per year, depending on need-based financial aid grants</p>

<p>[Scholarships</a> - Undergraduate Students - The College of Engineering - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]Scholarships”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama)
[url=&lt;a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”&gt;Page Not Found | The University of Alabama]Higher</a> Education Act Compliance - The University of Alabama<a href=“follow%20the%20net%20price%20calculator%20link%20when%20it%20becomes%20available”>/url</a></p>

<p>So there is your likely safety. (Yes, you did say you want to get out of the south, but your criteria points mostly to admissions reaches or financial reaches, so you do want to have a safety, unless you want to default to a community college as a safety.)</p>

<p>If you need a lot of financial aid, you want to put “net price calculator” and/or “financial aid estimator” in the search box of the web site of each school you consider, in order to see if it is affordable to you.</p>

<p>Many of the top CS and/or math schools with good financial aid are also the super-reach for everyone type of schools (MIT, Stanford, Ivy League schools, CMU, Duke, Chicago; you probably want to get at least a 32 ACT or 700 on each SAT section to go along with your 4.0 GPA to be in the running, but the chances of admission are low even with those stats, since they get lots of applicants with those stats).</p>

<p>Many of the others are out of state public schools (e.g. various University of California campuses, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Purdue, Texas, Georgia Tech, Penn State, Washington, Maryland, Rutgers), most of have high list prices and not much financial aid for out of state students. A few publics do have a reputation of giving aid to out of state students (Virginia and North Carolina), and some others have relatively low out of state list prices (Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Cal Poly SLO, Stony Brook – however, “low” is still around $30,000 per year total cost of attendance).</p>

3

<p>Another low cost safety would be University of Alabama, Birmingham, with the Blazer Elite Scholarship for $15,000 per year, which would probably leave about $7,000 in other costs per year:</p>

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4

<p>Sometimes people confuse the “sports hype” they hear on TV and think these schools care only about sports. That is so wrong. </p>

<p>Since this student does live in the state, yes, when the news is on, Alabama sports is mentioned …a lot. And, when you’re out shopping, half the people have Alabama spirit wear on. However that has nothing to do with academics and the school. Nothing. </p>

<p>The profs don’t give a rat’s patootie about sports and they certainly do not dumb down their courses because a top football team plays on Saturdays.</p>

<p>Bama would not be building a mega-sized Science and Engineering Complex if all it cared about was football. Over 600,000 square feet of science buildings have recently been completed, and another 200,000 feet will be added within 18 month. In the last 10 years, Bama has added 50 new buildings and has been remodeling/updating the older ones. </p>

<p>Bama has a good-sized Honors College which provides small-sized classes for its students (15 kids per class). This is a very expensive endeavor. Do you think Bama would be investing this much money in an Honors College if all it cared about was football? </p>

<p>UCB is right that Bama would be a financial safety for this student. With free tuition and 2500 per year for CS, his costs would be quite low (depending on dorm choice and meal plan choice).</p>

<p>Since he lives in Mobile, chances are he hasn’t toured Bama lately (or at all). If that’s the case, I strongly recommend that he set up a campus tour AND contact the Honors College for a personal tour involving dept heads, honors faculty, etc. I’m sure he’ll be surprised.</p>

5

<p>I’m sorry Mom2collegekids, but I think you’re missing the point the OP has. The OP doesn’t want to go to a sports ‘rah rah’ school. You’re right it has nothing to do with the academics however, it can have a lot to do with the student body. Before I transferred to NYU, I attended Rutgers - a state school with a ‘rah rah’ football team. You can hear the stadium from over a mile away, most people come back from the game drunk and loud. There aren’t that many people who stay in the dorms during the games. So if you’re not a sports ‘rah rah’ person, I do think you can feel a bit excluded. And I can say that the type of person that Rutgers attracts is VERY different from the type of person NYU attracts and the main difference between the two is the exact ‘rah rah’ sports that NYU doesn’t have and NYU students, for the most part, don’t care about. I believe the OP is concerned with the student body, not the academics.</p>

6

<p>The problem is, as noted above, most of the out of state or private schools good in CS and/or math are either reach for admissions, and/or reach or out of reach for cost (and NYU would likely be out of reach for cost, based on its poor financial aid reputation). So the OP needs a safety or few, which Alabama and UAB fulfill. The OP can certainly consider and apply to reach schools, but should be aware of the likely possibility of not getting into the admissions reaches and not getting enough financial aid at the cost reaches.</p>

7

<p>*The problem is, as noted above, most of the out of state or private schools good in CS and/or math are either reach for admissions, and/or reach or out of reach for cost (and NYU would likely be out of reach for cost, based on its poor financial aid reputation). So the OP needs a safety or few, which Alabama and UAB fulfill. The OP can certainly consider and apply to reach schools, but should be aware of the likely possibility of not getting into the admissions reaches and not getting enough financial aid at the cost reaches. *</p>

<p>Exactly! If this student raises his scores, gets into a school that “meets need,” and THEN qualifies for the aid that is needed (based on income/assets), and the family pays the “family contribution”, then the student will have other choices. </p>

<p>However, if the stats stay about the same and/or the parents have an unaffordable “family contribution” and/or doesn’t get the needed aid, then the student may not be able to go OOS. The student would be making a mistake not to apply to some instate financial safeties just in case the other schools do not work out.</p>

<p>*I’m sorry Mom2collegekids, but I think you’re missing the point the OP has. The OP doesn’t want to go to a sports ‘rah rah’ school. *</p>

<p>That may be the OP’s point. Or, his point may be a wrong assumption that schools with big Div I football only care about football (and therefore provide poor academics). </p>

<p><a href=“At%20Rutgers”>I</a> You can hear the stadium from over a mile away,*</p>

<p>I realize the “mile away” comment is an exaggeration. :)</p>

<p>Bama’s stadium is on the south side of campus. The honors dorms are on the north side of campus. I have been on the north side of campus many times on “Game Days” and it’s quiet over there. </p>

<p>I attended Rutgers - a state school with a ‘rah rah’ football team. You can hear the stadium from over a mile away, most people come back from the game drunk and loud. There aren’t that many people who stay in the dorms during the games.</p>

<p>Bama has 25,000 undergrads and only a fraction have tickets to the home games, so many are not able to attend. At winning Big Div I teams, they don’t have to rely mostly on students to fill the stadiums.</p>

8

<p>No Mom2collegekids, the “one mile away” is not an exaggeration. I mean it quite literally. The Rutgers stadium is 1 miles away from the suites (I lived in Judson) on the Busch campus at Rutgers. You can google maps this. And believe me, you can hear when a touchdown is made.</p>

9

<p>Even if you can hear a touchdown being made from your dorm, you’re only talking about 6-7 days per YEAR…no big deal. A school usually only has 6 or 7 home football games per year.</p>