I’m a junior in high school and this summer I will be applying for colleges and I have no idea where or how to start! Someone please guide me? Also does anyone know how legit these online scholarship things are? Please help!
Thanks
Where is your geographic limit? Price limit? How good are you as a student? Visit college search websites, see if anything stands out as a perfect fit
I’m a junior too so I’ll be happy to help. Here are the first things you should focus on:
- What’s your home state? That’s going to be the cheapest option of you.
- How much can you pay? Ask your parents. I know it can be a weird conversation, but it will make everything much easier.
- Where? North, south, west, by the water?
- What size? Big, small, mid sized
- Type of school? Small public, big public, LAC, private
- What do you want in your college experience? Greek life, big sports, etc.
- What are your stats? SAT, ACT, GPA (Weighted and Unweighted), how are your ECs?
Actually, home state may not be the cheapest option: between private universities that meet full need (which very few public universities do) and excellent merit scholarship programs about anywhere, it’s quite possible to find cheaper alternatives out of state. The key issue is to have high stats and, for #1, to have a family who makes less than 75K or up to 180K (depending on the university) OR for #2 to have high stats (32 ACT, 1400 CR+M single sitting, etc).
In order to help you, we need to know what State you/your parents live in; if you’ve discussed budget with your parents and how much they can afford (or are willing to pay - as the two may not be the same!); if you’ve taken the SAT/ACT, what was your score; whether you’ve already taken AP courses or Dual Enrollment classes; if you have an idea of what field you’d like to get into (Psychology or Biology can be found anywhere; Industrial Engineering or Arabic can’t.)
Depending on your answers, the adults on this forum will provide you with some help.