<p>California resident
Attends a well regarded high school with kids who take lots of APs
SAT: Probably 1800-1950 (Takes too long to finish tests)
Probably no subject tests, though possibly one
GPA: 3.89 UW/3.95W
1 AP exam so far (score of 3); will take one more this year
Hispanic (Mexican, Columbian, Caucasian)
Middle income but dad was out of work for a good chunk of the year</p>
<p>Student wants:</p>
<p>-Medium to large school
-Party school or at least one with lots of school spirit as student is extroverted and wants to meet lots of people
-Midwest to West (no East Coast or South school)
-Likes the idea of Colorado, Northern California, Oregon, etc. because of cooler weather</p>
<p>Interests:</p>
<p>-Lots of local awards/honors/community service in photography (will do a supplement on Common App); would prefer to major in photography
-Good gymnast (Will do a supplement)
-Possibly photo journalism
-Other possible areas of interest would be psychology and sociology</p>
<p>Family would like to keep debt down but due to complicated job situation, it's hard to run numbers on what they might be asked to pay and I don't know how much they're willing to pay.</p>
<p>-Dad is Stanford graduate
-Student definitely looking for aid or outside scholarships, maybe for photography or from something like Hispanic Scholarship Fund</p>
<p>Schools on the list so far:</p>
<p>Colorado State Univ.
Possibly Stanford as the reachiest of reaches
Possibly UCSB
The local state school (and student knows community college might be an option)</p>
<p>Looking into Colorado College and Kenyon College as they are interested in increasing diversity.</p>
<p>Looking into NAU (Northern Az. Univ.) and possibly U of A (though student says she doesn't like heat)</p>
<p>Would love suggestions for safety, matches, and reaches.</p>
<p>What about any of the Big 10 schools? His Hispanic heritage will be a big hook for most schools. Is the SAT score posted all 3 parts or just CR/M?</p>
<p>What are the Big 10 schools? (Sorry, ignorant Southern Californian) It definitely sounds like she’d like a big state school but doesn’t want to travel past, say, Iowa, Kansas, maybe Ohio.</p>
<p>I did work late last night on Big Future and found quite a few more schools that seemed to be safeties. I also see that, as a Californian, there’s some sort of agreement with other western states on reduced tuition, so a Colorado State Univ. might be cheaper than listed for OOS. I need to research that for them.</p>
<p>SAT score is for all three sections. She (the student) took the SAT once without studying and got around 1640 with CR being the strongest section, but all pretty evenly balanced. My son tutored her some (before he left town, but I think he’ll continue to tutor her via skype) and felt she had real potential to increase it by 200-400 points with prep.</p>
<p>Yes, she’s only had one AP class, AP EL and is taking AP Photography this year and will be doing a photography internship.</p>
<p>Big Ten is an athletic conference with 12 universities (just to make it fun, Big 12 is an athletic conference with 10 universities), generally well known state flagship type of schools like Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc… Out of state public schools are not generally very good with financial aid (check the net price calculators), although some like Minnesota have relatively low list prices.</p>
<p>It can be hard for people to recommend appropriate schools without any idea of the price limit.</p>
<p>The student should consider taking both the SAT and ACT, since some students do better on one than the other. Also, she should read up on some test taking skills in order to reduce the problem of not finishing each section of the test in time.</p>
<p>All these school have cold winters and sweltering summers. (Used to live there.) But for the most part there are no mountains nearby if she’s into skiing/snowboarding.</p>
<p>Colorado College has very high SAT/ACT scores and way too many girls. She might have better luck there is she were male. D2’s classmates didn’t get great FA there–despite being recruited minority students (who had much higher stats than this girl). CC also has the one-course-at-a-time block schedule–which is not for everyone. The college is also tiny–only about 1000 students so she may eventually find the tiny school claustrophobic. Big school sport is club ice hockey.</p>
<p>U New Mexico has one of the better undergrad photography departments around, but she’d wouldn’t be diverse there. (BTW, NM does have real winter with snow and everything. There’s skiing & mountains about 20 minutes from the campus.)</p>
<p>She would be eligible for the Amigo Scholarship --which would put costs equivalent to in-state costs ~$17,500/year including everything (books, transportation, tuition, fees, room & board)</p>
<p>“His Hispanic heritage will be a big hook for most schools”</p>
<p>hmm…not so sure about this. Hispanic heritage is VERY common. People tend to greatly overexaggerate scholarship opportunities that are not directed in their general vicinity.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip on UNM! I just saw that over on the Hispanic forum. I wonder why Big Future didn’t find it when I was plugged in photography as a major?</p>
<p>UNM might be a very good choice. I will pass this along.</p>
<p>Colorado College doesn’t sound like a fit at all.</p>
<p>UCB, </p>
<p>She was thinking about taking the ACT but I wasn’t sure if she could fit in SAT retake, ACT, and a possible subject test all before deadlines.</p>
<p>When my son does SAT tutoring, he definitely works with students on test taking skills such as you describe. She is a confident young lady, so hopefully that will translate into much better scores.</p>
<p>Her mom was born of Mexican and Columbian parents and was born in Columbia. I don’t know what kind of a “boost” it will give them, but it’s a definite part of her world as far as extended family goes.</p>
<p>She may want to try an old real ACT for practice under test conditions (time limits and the like); if her practice ACT score is better than her SAT-R score according to the concordance charts, then she may want to prioritize the ACT over retaking the SAT-R.</p>
<p>Try Ohio State. See if she qualifies for the National Buckeye Scholarship. Iowa has a lot of good scholarships too. Look up partner schools on the Center for Student Opportunity. </p>
<p>P.S. did you see my email from a few weeks ago?</p>
<p>Have you checked out University of Oregon? They have pretty solid photography/journalism programs. I haven’t seen another school with as much school spirit, and the party scene is pretty vibrant.</p>
<p>Whatdidyou-I guess it depends on where you live but in the Midwest, where the OP’s D is looking, it is a hook, California, probably not so much. </p>
<p>As for out of state dollars for the Big 10 schools, several of them do offer very nice packages for OOS students. Purdue and Minnesota especially. </p>
<p>Is this student good enough to compete at the Division I level in college? You might want to start focusing on DII or DIII schools since there might be some athletic aid at the DII level and extra “merit” aid at the III level.</p>
<p>Do you folks have any suggestions for reachy schools? Maybe just one more school would be good.</p>
<p>So far, I think the list looks really good for safety/matches:</p>
<p>Univ. of Colorado, Boulder 87% acceptance (may have the tuition exchange)
Colorado State Univ. 76% acceptance (may have the tuition exchange)
OSU (will check into scholarships)
Univ. of Iowa 80% acceptance
University of Oregon 73% acceptance
Ohio University 86% acceptance
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia 86% acceptance</p>
<p>Match:</p>
<p>Univ. of New Mexico 64% acceptance (may qualify for Amigo scholarship; basically in-state tuition)
IUPUI 69% acceptance
University of Colorado at Denver 60% acceptance
Sacramento State Univ. 67% acceptance
Northern Ariz. Univ. 65% acceptance (may be a part of tuition exchange)</p>
<p>Reach:</p>
<p>Cal State Long Beach 30% acceptance (SAT scores within match range)</p>
<p>UOregon doesn’t participate in WUE for CA residents, but they have been known to give some merit aid to OOS students (in exchange for paying OOS tuition ;)).</p>
<p>I missed if the student is already a senior.
If she is she can already apply to Northern Arizona and to Univ of Oregon. Don’t know about recent years but in the past Oregon had an early application date to be eligible for some scholarships. Univ of Oregon does not participate in WUE for Ca residents. Nor does Boulder.
The requirements for WUE are going up and it pays to look at the website and make sure you have the scores. ColoradoSU has pretty high SAT requirements for the WUE.
My D with an 1800 combined SAT score got the WUE from Western Washington, Univ of Montana. Montana State did not give her the full WUE but did give her a good OOS scholarship. She got zero merit aid from Boulder. The requirements for their OOS scholarship is high.
I would suggest adding in a couple of smaller private schools if she has not visited one. My D thought she did not want a small school. She applied to one and when she went to visit she was very surprised by how much she liked it. She ended up getting a very nice merit award from the private that would have made it less expensive then the UC she is going to attend.
My older D attended Purdue. She had a small OOS scholarship and after the first year received some decent departmental scholarships.</p>
