I am a junior at a public high school, 4.0 unweighted, 36 ACT, 230 on the last PSAT (expecting to be NMF on the latest), three 800’s on SAT subjects, all fives on 5 AP exams. I did not like the old format of the SAT, and am waiting to take the new SAT in March, but am aiming for a (near) perfect score and will retake the test until I have the score I want. My EC’s are very well rounded (4 yrs of varsity tennis, high executive positions in a speech&debate club, volunteer assistant TA for government program) and I have high leadership positions in all of them.
I have not looked into any colleges whatsoever and have no idea where to start, strictly because I do not know what I want to major in. I have disliked every science course I have ever taken since elementary school, but have a huge passion for history and the language arts. I can see myself being in heaven at a liberal arts school; but my parents have already told me that they will refuse to pay for me to receive a liberal arts degree and I do not want to take out loans.
For some reason, I never caught the “I want to go to an elite, name-brand college” bug that seems to plague almost everyone else who has high standardized test scores. In fact, I am almost adamant about NOT going to an Ivy League or elite school due to the extraordinarily high cost. I’ve been told by countless friends and family members that I should definitely ED to somewhere like Harvard or Stanford because I will have a good chance of getting in (assuming I improve my SAT), but so far, I’ve completely rejected the possibility.
My goal with improving my SAT and continuing to be a good college applicant on paper is to receive a full ride scholarship to a school that has a decent program in multiple areas that I would be interested in majoring in.
My question for all of you is this-- to those of you who have had more experience in the college search and selection process, is it worth it to still look into these elite, ivy-league schools? I was told by older friends that scholarship applications often look for students who show drive in a field and already know what they want to major in. Do schools prefer if you declare what you want to major in when applying to scholarship programs? Will being undecided hurt my chances of receiving merit aid?
First, congratulations on your high record of achievement.
Second, if your parents are really serious about not paying for you to get a liberal arts degree and you have a passion for history and literature and want to choose your own major, you should seek colleges and universities that award full merit awards. A good place to start, with your excellent stats, would be here:
Another would be here: http://www.stampsfoundation.org/partners/partners/ Note that for the Stamps awards, each school has different criteria - some have a financial aid component, some are in state, etc.
What is your state of residence? Check out the flagship university and see if there is an honors program.
Ivy league schools offer need-based aid only as do many of the most competitive colleges and universities in the Northeast. So your eligibility will depend upon your parents’ income and filling out the requisite paperwork. I applaud your balanced view on the Ivies. There are so many great colleges and universities for you to explore that would be happy to have you enroll.
BTW, with a 36 ACT, there is absolutely no need to take the SAT multiple times. You will need to take it at least once if you are eligible for National Merit consideration. But a perfect score won’t be essential to qualify. Don’t remember the cutoff but I’d like to say it’s around 2100-2200 in the old format.
It is fine to look into highly selective schools with an excellent academic record, but that alone will not get you admission. Almost all the applicants have excellent academic records and the schools seem to take special delight in announcing how many 2400 4.0s they did not admit each year. It is clearly the case that once you pass a certain threshold academically, other factors are more important. (I frankly think you are wasting your time taking the SAT if you have a 36 ACT, but everyone has fun in their own way…It isn’t going to increase your attractiveness for a full ride anywhere.) What other factors matter? Something that differentiates you from all the other high achievers: It can be your passion in a particular academic area, or something else entirely. It generally requires demonstrated achievement at a very high level. So no, being undecided about your major doesn’t hurt. Being undecided about what your passion(s) are is a problem - excellence usually requires a passion for/about something.
Be aware that most of the highly selective schools do not offer merit scholarships - and among those that do, they are few and far between, usually aimed at increasingly the diversity of their student population. Generous financial aid is another story - if that’s what you need, then the highly selective school often have large endowments which they use for this purpose among others.
What does ‘a liberal arts degree’ mean to your parents? The liberal arts includes math, all the basic sciences, all the basic social sciences, as well as the humanities. Are they saying you have to be en engineer, business, accounting, pharmacy or nursing major? (Those are the non-liberal arts degrees.) Or are they objecting to liberal arts colleges (schools that have all the liberal arts, usually have no pre-professional degrees, and no graduate schools)? Or something else entirely? (Are they from the US? This is the type of restriction that usually is given by foreign born and educated parents who don’t ‘get’ the US higher educational system.)
I’m confused, if you parents don’t want you to get a liberal arts degree, which includes science and math, then what possibly do they want you to get a degree in? Nursing or something? HVAC? Is your family uneducated? Do they, and you understand that Harvard is basically a liberal arts school at the undergrad level, not very different from Amherst, say?
Also some unsolicited advice, since you have ACT 36, no one cares what you get on the SAT, it will have no impact on admissions. The only thing you need to do is get a decent enough score to make NMF if you want NMF scholarships. Being a test taking perfectionist is not something that is interesting to selective colleges. It will make you out to be a grind that has nothing else going on. Use you time more wisely and do something interesting.
Where to start–I recommend getting a Fiske Guide to Colleges, so you can browse a bit and get a feel for different colleges. There is a mix of universities and LACs. Do not listen to friends and family, those colleges turn away plenty of perfect scorers every year, they practically brag about it. And it is often unwise to ED if you need aid, although the Ivy and equivalents often give the best aid, so does Amherst and Williams. If you want to compare aid packages do not ED unless you know you can afford it.
Scholarships don’t really always rely on the criteria you give, no. They often rely on extraordinary accomplishments coupled with good grades and scores, or your demographics. Why don’t you look at the lists of large competitive scholarships. They are in the threads pinned to the top of the merit aid forum. Read the pages for the Moorhouse scholarship and look at bio of past winners. As for outside scholarships, the large ones like Coca-Cola us reliant on community service and impact.
Edit: Sorry if this is overlap with other posters I took a long time to write. But yes the elite schools dont give scholarships, just need based aid. A few do, like Duke. So your parents are going to choose your major, are you sure they aren’t going to choose your school too? Is mommy going to pick your job too, lol?
“my parents . . . will refuse to pay for me to receive a liberal arts degree”
“I’ve been told by . . . family that I should definitely ED to somewhere like Harvard”
Though well covered above, it’s worth emphasizing that the most popular majors at Harvard are in liberal arts fields such as economics, biology and other sciences, history and math.
I forgot to ask if they are opposed to a liberal arts college, as opposed to a liberal arts degree. In either case, you have the opportunity to educate them. As mentioned by other posts, “liberal arts” is not limited to history, literature, anthropology, gender studies or topics otherwise deemed irrelevant in the job market. Math and sciences are also encompassed within the liberal arts.
If they are opposed to the idea of a liberal arts college (LAC), they may be operating under misconceptions. Quality liberal arts colleges offer numerous majors that provide an excellent foundation for medical and law school or grad school more generally. Just to give an example, St. Olaf’s in Minnesota, has a strong track record of placing its graduates in medical school. Who knew? True, many LACs don’t offer majors like engineering and finance, but it sounds like that’s not what interests you. If your folks are determined that you study engineering or nursing or some other applied field, then I stand by what I recommended earlier.