Schools like U of A don’t care for admission. You hit the GPA…you are in with the merit on a published table. Note your gpa is calculated on classes they look at. 3.9 or higher and you do well.
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My d23 with a lower GPA was given 30K a year in merit at Southwestern and invited to apply for additional scholarships. She decided it was too small for her, to our serious disappointment, it’s a lovely school.
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S24 also felt it is kind of small. But since he had friends that are freshmen there, he said if they do give him good merit, then he will seriously consider it.
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great attitude 
If you’re looking for some additional schools to consider, have you thought about these, most of which have popular international relations/studies majors?
- Centre (KY): I’ve heard so many great things about this school of about 1300 undergrads
- College of Charleston (SC): Surprised @tsbna44 hasn’t mentioned this school of about 10k undergrads
- Hendrix (AR): Texas has some of the lowest costs for its public schools which means that Hendrix could offer you an incredible value. Hendrix has a flagship match program (so you would pay the tuition cost that would have been paid to UT) and the cost-of-living is a lot less in Conway than it is in Austin.
- Occidental (CA): This school appears very generous in defining need
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Saint Edward’s (TX): This would keep your travel expenses very low
- St. Mary’s (TX): If San Antonio was one of your son’s attractions to Trinity, he might like this school, too.
Also, not in a warm climate, but have you looked at Seton Hill in New Jersey, just outside of New York City? Its School of Diplomacy and International Relations has a lot of ways for undergrads to interact with it (from majors to minors to a certificate), and one or more would certainly be able to mesh with premed requirements. Majors are required to have a professional internship, students can do a semester in D.C., and they actually offer classes at the U.N. And I suspect your son would get good merit aid here, too.
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Thx AustenNut.
We have looked at Centre and Hendrix, because they are some of the CTCL schools. S24 has been talking to a recruitor at Hendrix, so we might make a trip to check out the school in May. Centre is in KY and wife has some personal objection to going to that state (i bet it has nothing to do with fried chickens) But yes, I have heard good thing about Centre as well.
Occidental is on his list of school because his favorite president went there. When we visit in-laws in Cali this summer, per S24… we will make a “pilgrimage” there 
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One of my neighbor just graduated from St Edward last year and had a long chat with S24 a few weeks ago. I don’t what they talked about, but S24 was discouraged to apply there. Might need to ask S24 whats up.
St Mary and Charleston were not in the the radar, now they are!
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Hendrix may prove to hit budget (and Ogelthorpe). Both, for some, will match in state tuition.
There may be more. WIth C of Charleston, you need Honors College and then to become a Charleston Fellow and International Scholar to get to budtet. You can google both programs.
Good luck - and yes, @AustenNut does a great job with getting other colleges on the radar.
College of Charleston has the Mroz Institute - and they bring in great speakers, most recently the Swiss Ambassador to the US. And Ole Miss has the Kroft Institute, also highly regarded.
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Just an update.
S24 took his second SAT and hsi score gone down by 50 points 
.
His GPA is still 3.95. Found out his current rank in school is 16%. 
Besides Centre and Hendrix, I also looked intot he following schools and some have pretty good Poli Sci.
He might try ACT or SAT one last time (his ACT score was 31). With test score being opotional, think he has a shot at these?
George Mason
Univeristy of Mary Washington
Clark university
Allegheny College
Union college
Kalamazoo College
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31 should be used at all these schools. Even Union which is the ‘highest’ for difficulty on your list.
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I think he has a shot at admission at all of those schools. A shot of getting all of them to $28k or under is a different matter. Virginia publics tend to be pretty stingy with merit aid. I’m not sure how generous Union is, either. I think Clark, Allegheny, and Kalamazoo would be your best bests at getting into your targeted budget.
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Sorry - I missed does he have a shot - yes, at all but Union will be toughest. But at $28K - unless you have need - unlikely.
Is he a Junior so this is next year? Like Hendrix, Ogelthorpe has a program to match in state tuition.
You can get into some publics with those #s and at your price - both small and large.
And some at $28k.
Good luck.
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31 ACT has concordance with 1390-1410 SAT. If his SAT scores were 1340 and 1290, it seems like if he wants to do any more testing, the ACT should be the focus.
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Echoing the other responses. The 31ACT should be good enough to submit, and his stats should give him at least a decent chance at admission to all, and a good chance at some.
However, getting the COA down to $28K is going to be tricky unless your family falls into the need-based aid category. Trying to get that far down on just Merit Aid at these specific schools is not predictable … and I’m not sure if the public universities on your list provide much merit aid at all.
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Thanks everyone. He is getting a tutor on ACT, instead of SAT, and will give ACT another try to see if he can raise it a bit more. (wife requested it)
Yeah, COA wil be the trickiest part. For in state, we are hoping SLACs like Austin College, Southwestern, or UT Dallas/UNT, will be giving more aid because we know main flagships like UT Austin and A&M won’t be. Maybe some out of state SLACs might give more aids. 
For privates,there is no in state / out of state aid - but yes some might try to attract local students.
Again, Hendrix and Ogelthorpe will match UT tuition - and the 31 is fine for these schools (except maybe Union). Would a 32 or 33 be better - yes - but for most of your list, not necessarily by much.
Union meets 100% of demonstrated need. Did you run the net price calculator?
There’s lots of schools in TX and neighboring states that will give you a deal. And there’s other small schools or mid size schools where you can go within budget - but you need to be flexible geographically. A Truman State or Western Carolina come to mind. A York College for private.
You need to make sure you apply to the right schools - not just schools that you hope will make $$. That is an ok strategy as long as you have at least 1-2 that are assured - so no hope is needed.
Good luck.
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Thx tsbna44. I am checking each school and running NPC.
Okay, I’m thinking of a few additional schools for your family to consider:
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Kanasas State offers a Global Health, Medicine, and Society Certificate and its Integrated Health Studies major seems as though it might hit some of your son’s interests, as well. There’s an array of other majors that your son might find of interest. There are fewer than 16k undergrads here, so this should feel much smaller than most of the Texas publics. Additionally, K-State regularly makes the lists of colleges with the happiest student bodies. 46.5% of classes have fewer than 20 students, 41% between 20-49, and 12.5% have more than 50. With your son’s current stats, it appears as though he would be eligible for the Founders Non-Resident Merit Award (eligible students pay 150% of in-state tuition…aka a reduction of $11,326.50 in tuition/year) and the Sunflower State Award which is $3k/year (they will stack awards). Looking at the costs, that would bring your costs to a little less than $24k.
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U. of Kansas is a bit larger, with about 19k undergrads. Its major in Global & International Studies appears to be flexible enough that a student could develop a focus on international health issues. Its Applied Behavioral Science degree with a concentration in Community Health and Development might be of interest, too, especially as there appears to be options for study abroad. 49.% of classes have fewer than 20 students, 38% have between 20-49, and 12.9% have more than 50. If your son keeps his GPA at 3.95+ then he would get $16k here, but if drops to a 3.85 then it would be $14k. The $16k would bring tuition & fees to about $12k and then room & board plans vary between $6500-$15,275, so there should definitely be options that would stay within your budget. Lawrence gets a lot of nods as a great college town.
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U. of New Mexico is also a smaller flagship, with fewer than 16k undergrads. It also has some interesting options that could interest your son. It offers a BS in Emergency Medical Services with a concentration in International Mountain Medicine which, frankly, sounds super cool. Another major of possible interest, among others, is the B.S. in Population Health. 50.8% of classes have fewer than 20 students, 40.9% between 20-49, and 8.3% have more than 50. It would appear that your son would be eligible for the Amigo scholarship which is $16,290/year plus a $200/year stipend. So tuition, fees, and room & board would be a little under $22k here. Albuquerque would also have lots of possibilities for clinical experience if he’s interested in med school.
If your son is accepted to any of the honors colleges, then that could also help to minimize having any of the large class sizes. To compare the class sizes of the other public schools you’re considering:
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UT-Dallas: 22% have fewer than 20 students, 50.7% have between 20-49 students, and 27.3% have more than 50.
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U. of North Texas: 27% of classes have fewer than 20 students, 56.7% have 20-49 students, and 16.3% have more than 50.
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Based on experience with my kids, I think your son will get solid merit aid at UNT and it will be affordable for you-my son had lower grades and similar test score (1390 SAT) and our COA has been about 15K there with scholarships only. I think Southwestern will likely meet your budget or better with your sons GPA and scores. So there’s two solid in-state options.
My kid that attended Southwestern also was accepted to Knox, Trinity (TX), Centre, Clark, Puget Sound, Willamette, Lewis and Clark, UAZ(in state for us) and of those, Centre, Trinity, Southwestern, UAZ and maybe Knox met your budget. The rest landed us in the 40k range COA (merit aid only).
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Thx AustenNut, Parentof2014grad and tsbna44 for the help!
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So we were at the Texas Tech Roadshow in Austin last weekend. S24 was kind of impressed with their International Affairs program.
After we got home, I looked for more information and tried to compare the program at Texas Tech with A&M or UT Austin. Maybe my Google-fu is just not great due to my aging brian… their program there just not seemed as highly rated as good as Bush School at A&M or UT Austin.
Also S24 has been reading threads here, so he thought he should also try applying to Univerity of Gerogia and Washington & Lee…
I doubt he has what it takes to get into W&L, even with ACT of 33 and a 4.0 GPA.
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