<p>I am currently a senior (skipped Junior year) in a Pittsburg High School- looking for the best colleges. I am getting very worried about college choices and paying for them. My parents aren't willing to pay much for me, so I'll have to shoulder most (if not all) of the school money. I have no savings or money. I might be able to get a summer job, but I don't know.</p>
<p>My current statistics: 1810 SAT, 24 ACT. 4.7 Weighted GPA, 3.9 Unweighted. 4 AP Classes this year, 1 AP class last year with 2 Honors. Volunteer hours mostly in tutoring high school kids. Experience with several after school classes (Law and Critical Thinking courses). Started a club and participated in a few- quite a few leadership positions and experiences in my HS years. Intended Major: Accounting.</p>
<p>I want a school that would provide me the best academic and merit aid, I am hardworking and would be able to keep up my GPA. Whether Public or Private, it doesn't quite matter as long as I'll be able to pay for it. I shall also be looking for scholarships.</p>
<p>Definitely looking to live on campus.</p>
<p>I am willing to get federal loans, subsidized and not subsidized, but I desperately am looking for a college that can allow me to stay within federal loans and not step out into private ones.</p>
<p>It would be best if within California. </p>
<p>Please, anybody that can guide me to a college that has plenty of options that are not merely for low income people I would be greatly appreciative. Also, tips for scholarships and loans would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Exactly tacoman…find an area you really like Rimor that has a CSU. There are many good ones in Northern and Southern California. Also, aren’t you ELC? If you’re ELC (which you should be) you would be accepted into UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and maybe even UC Davis. AND if your parents are low income you would be eligible for a number of grants and low interest loans…maybe even some scholarships…but you need to talk with the financial aid depts. at the UC’s. Or at least peruse their websites. I don’t mean to make assumptions…so if you’re not low income then the CSU’s are obviously your best bet if your parents aren’t kicking in much.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as you and am thinking about going back for college. I was born in raised in SoCal so I can help you out here. There are two options you can take: A UC school or a Cal State school. The UC schools are traditionally better schools academically. They tend to be the bigger schools and the nicer one’s but for OOS they’ll cost you. The one positive is that you can gain in-state residency after your first year, so you eat the cost the first year and pay in state the next 3. If your looking for a UC school, I’d say apply to UCLA (where I’m applying). Due to the economic crisis, OOS admission rates are higher than in state. Stay away from UC Davis & UC Riverside, you don’t wanna go to either of those. If you want to pay less and recieve more aid, I’d suggest a cal state school. The nicest one’s being Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach. If you’re looking at the private school route, there are 3 schools to look at. USC, Stanford, and Pepperdine. All of these school’s have a lot of endowment money to throw around meaning that if they want you, theyll give you all the money you need. Since you probably know nothing about pepperdine, I’ll give you a little info on it. Pepperdine is a medium sized christian private school with the most beautiful campus in the world. The campus is in Malibu and sits on a cliff that overlooks the beach. The dorms are massive and they actually used the campus to film the shoe Zoey 101. Check out the school. The only downfall being that they have zero-tolerance on partying and drinking. If your looking for a small school, I’d say University of San Diego, who also has a beautiful campus and perfect weather. Ohh, and San Diego State is free to apply to online so you might as well throw an application out there and see how much money they give you in aid. Anyways, if you need anymore advice, I’ll try and help you out. Hope everything helps.</p>
<p>Your stats unfortunately don’t suggest you’ll be eligible for merit aid. If you could raise your SAT by several hundred points, however, you would become a very attractive candidate for schools such as Pepperdine.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO is the best CSU and its supposed to be comparable to the mid tier UCs. You should consider that. The CSUs are probably your best option.</p>
<p>Have you sat down with your parents and run an EFC calculator? This will be the amount that schools expect your family to contribute based on income and assets. The less you have, the less you are expected to contribute.</p>
<p>It is very important to get an idea of this figure, so that you apply to financially viable schools.</p>
<p>Also, check to see if you are qualified for CALGRANT, this will help you with UC funding and I agree you will qualify for some UC’s and you should try to get to one if the debt isn’t too steep.</p>
<p>Some schools, like Univ of Redlands will give you significant merit aid in addition to need based aid if you are in the top of the applicant pool (howeber for fneed based aid, they don’t guarantee to meet full need for all students.) You should be for gpa, but maybe not for SAT, not sure. Check collegeboard.com for the average accepted SAT. If you are high you might have a good shot. (I peeked, looks like you are at 75% and maybe above. Look at the Johnson Center there, as it has a good rep.</p>
<p>Also for non publics, look at Scripps and Pitzer in Claremont.</p>
<p>*I want a school that would provide me the best academic and merit aid, *</p>
<p>What is your SAT breakdown? Your ACT is probably too low for merit, but if your M+CR score is high enough, there might be some schools. Are you testing again?</p>
<p>The CSUs won’t give him merit aid. They also cost about $30k for an OOS student. OOS tuition is about $21k…not counting room, board, and books.</p>
<p>There aren’t many schools in Calif that give much merit for your stats. Calif is loaded with high stats students so good-sized merit scholarships usually require high test scores. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that you won’t get any merit offers. I’m just saying that you won’t likely get enough to make enough dent in the total costs that you can pay for the rest unless your parents contribute a lot.</p>
<p>What is your home state?</p>
<p>How much will your parents contribute? (this is important!)</p>
<p>Since you want to stay with federal loans (good idea) there aren’t any tips…you just apply. For freshman year, you can only get $5500.</p>