You have a strong application aside from test scores and you fit a very desireable demographic. You should seriously consider test optional schools with generous financial aid. Your net cost of going to college would probably be lower going to a school with good financial aid than it would be a CUNY. You can find test optional schools at Fairtest.org. 27 is not a crazy low ACT score by any stretch of the imagination
@bennied I did the calculator for Holy Cross assuming one sibling and 45k in family income and the net cost without any loans including books and extra college costs was about $7500 per year. With Holy Cross loans of 6k per year, it was $1500 out of pocket.
Just so you know, you don’t have to settle for CUNY because of money. Many schools will have similar numbers.
Thank you for giving me the stats for Holy Cross. I’m not going to a religious school for personal reason but thank you.
I’ll save that website. There aren’t many other schools that are interesting me. It makes sense to stay close to home and be okay than go away and find out I don’t like it to save money. But It’s alright, I didn’t want much. I just wanted to see what others thought. Thank you.
Take a look at these 2 programs which provide support and assistance for students of color and/or lower income students.
https://www.possefoundation.org/
http://www.questbridge.org/
I read about those. The deadline for the first one passed and the second one ends this month. Thank you for looking though.
If you can visit Mount Holyoke, you should. Reading online isn’t going to give you a flavor. It also has a very diverse student body, which might appeal to you (and your background would appeal to them).
I know it wouldn’t but I was curious to see what others thought about my chances.
There are at least 65 schools that would ‘meet need’ for you. And all of these schools would waive your application fee When you talk to your GC get some waivers, but you can write the school for one too.
Your scores are still well above average. I know of an African Amer male was admitted to Brown with similar scores last year, he was a bit crazy and applied to 46 colleges last year and he didn’t pay any application fees. Many through Questbridge as he was a finalist. (yes the application is due soon but it also just opened.) He was admitted to dozens of them and invited to fly in weekends, I know he went to at least 5. A bit much, but he ended up at an LAC where he was awarded the Presidential full ride scholarship. Needless to say he was a dynamic person who made an impression in his application. That is the key to ‘anything more I can do.’
I understand that you don’t want to go to a Catholic school, but there are other privates that will give you very comprehensive aid if admitted. And there are advantages in the access to professors and other extras. For instance at Brown my daughter was awarded 2 research grants for 3,000 each, was sent to a women in computing conference paid by the school, was sent to another 10 day conference paid by the school, all financial aid covered a semester abroad, her work/study jobs were great, sometimes doing research. Many of the LACs mentioned would do similar and I think you can submit your scores. Worth looking into a bit more, SUNY is fine but you should take a few risks.
Wesleyan and Amherst are fantastic schools. Wes has good sciences. And so does Mt Holyoke I think I read they have all new state of the art labs. Plus they are in a 5 college consortium with Amherst.
All- womens’ colleges don’t appeal to me but thank you for the information
@bennied Since you live in NYC but haven’t visited any campuses at this point why not visit Lehigh, Lafayette and Muhlenberg to see what you think. They are about 90 minutes from NYC in Pennsylvania. Basically one road the whole way and they are very close to each other. All three are good on the aid side, are great schools and have lively residential campuses.
All of those colleges have horrible diversity rates. They’re good but I would not want to be the token minority. Thank you though.
@BennieD It quite disheartening to read such cynicism from such a young person with such great prospects. Probably best to reserve judgement until you visit and get to meet other minorities attending the schools. Some of the most liberal and welcoming schools have smaller minority poulations than one would expect simply based on location and lower notoriety, not because they prevent minorities from attending.
From a practical standpoint, you would be a highly desirable candidate and in theory could get more financial assistance than the norm.
It is up to you decide.
@BennieD, I think you are selling yourself short. You may feel overwhelmed now at the thought of visiting schools, but it may not be so daunting later in the school year, after you have met with college reps that visit your school, or if you attend presentations this fall in NY and learn more about them. (Many of the schools mentioned will pay for visits if you apply and are accepted.)
Please go to some of the websites and check out the schools named by the posters above. See if any light your fire – it won’t cost you anything to do some poking around, and you may come across some schools that are worth looking into further.
I think many of the posters on CC see the potential that you don’t even realize you have. There are a lot of great parents on CC with a lot of good experience and advice and we all can help you through the process.
Good luck!
This is really fair afield, but I was just on the Oberlin website and noticed they have 3 different multi cultural visit programs in the next 3 months - all expenses paid - if you’ve ever wanted to visit Ohio and get a feel for a campus a little outside your comfort zone:
http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/admissions/mvp/index.dot
Oberlin is a similar size to Wesleyan and Amherst and has always been at the forefront of social justice (first college to admit African-Americans and to award bachelor’s degrees to women in a co-ed program).
Edit - not sure how generous Oberlin’s aid is…
Thanks to everyone who commented an gave me advice. I bumped up my ACT to a 29 and got into Amherst. I’m sure that’s not the only reason they accepted me but I’m so thankful and happy. <3
Let this be a lesson to everyone - never say never.
Congratulation! Well done!
Very happy for you @BennieD - will you visit this month?