Match Me - I'm not good at narrowing down schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Asian (Chinese + Viet) female, single parent/widowed, middle-upper class (Idk why I was invited to apply to QB lol)

US student
Texas
High school with 2,000 students (~490 graduating class)
UDUB Legacy

Intended Major(s): public health, cognitive science, neuroscience, neurobiology (minor in history, sociology, or philopshy)

3.9UW (4.9W), top 20 percent - my school doesn’t give us a specific rank unless we are top 10 percdent
AP Scores:
HGAP: 3, WHAP: 5, APEH: 5, APUSH: 5, AP Lang: 5, AP Bio: 3
ACT/SAT Scores: going to retake

Coursework
Classes (by the end of HS) : HGAP, AP Euro, AP World, AP Psych, AP Lang, AP Seminar, AP US History, AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP Govt, DE Econ, DE Pharm Tech (application & interview-based), district course (also application + interview) at local hospital, honors for the other common cores

**Awards + Certificates **
Academic Excellence in European History
AP Scholar with Distinction
#1, #2, #3 places in Chinese school all three years + Citizenship Award
OSHA General (healthcare)
BLS
Food Handler’s

Extracurriculars
2 blog and newsletter positions about current events and technology + making STEM education more accessible, Chinese school, Georgetown pre-college program, a few edX/coursea courses, CCIR, local science museum volunteer, threading school club member, volunteer for feminist causes (don’t want to list all the orgs + also wrote an article for one of them), NHS, HOSA competitor, student ambassador, and 2 jobs

Essays/LORs/Other
Plan to sell my soul for amazing essays to compensate; likely get a LOR from my history teacher as of now but will think about more

Cost Constraints / Budget
Preferbly not tooooo expensive because upper-income in Texas income is like middle class in other states lol

Schools
So far I’m thinking UMass Amherst, UC San Diego, UTD, A&M, Penn State, BU, many of the UC’s, and possiblyyyy Emory (need more safeties)

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Can you pay full price for those CA publics as an out of state student? Or any of those other OOS publics?

What’s the matter with Texas schools?

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Where do you see yourself living in the future (which state or region etc?) Do you see yourself going to grad school? Looks like you prefer large schools, is that correct?

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I probably want to live in a blue state like WA. I also like the NE region and Cali! I do prefer fledge schools, but a medium sized school would be nice too.

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I don’t really wanna stay in Texas because I want a fresh beginning, and I don’t like the weather and policies here. I also don’t necessarily wanna be close to my family because my mom is kinda strict. I can probably afford OOS with aid & I save half my paycheck. I also do qualify for FAFSA.

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Tuition can range from $40-$80K/year.

FAFSA is the application for federal aid. You need to run the net price calculators at the schools on your list and talk to your family to see if they are affordable.

Affordability is the first hurdle in making your list.

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So not too expensive…remove the UCs. Penn State won’t have merit.

How bout U of Arizona. The state isn’t blue but the school leans. You’d likely get $30k off.

Same with College of Charleston and Honors. Red state. Blue city.

UVM. Binghamton / Stony Brook. UNM. Delaware

Colorado / CSU might be too pricey.

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First off, if your username reflects your real name, i would change it right away.

Secondly, your family needs to come up with a budget of what it is willing and able to pay, without taking into consideration any loans. If that amount is too low for an in-state public, then taking out loans up to the federal max (total of about $27k…starting with about $5500 in the first year) can be considered. But if the amount your family is willing to pay will cover tuition, room & board at an in-state public, I would seriously urge you not to take out any loans, as it can be very limiting in your options after college.

Your family may also want to run an Expected Family Contribution (here is one…a quick web search can turn up others). This is a general estimate of what colleges might expect your family to contribute. But schools do not have to use the federal formula, and oftentimes do not. If there are specific schools that you are interested in, run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on their websites to see how much they would expect your family to contribute. If the NPC number is affordable, it remains in contention. If it’s not affordable (and there’s no merit aid possible), then it’s out of contention. A very easy way to narrow down schools!

Apart from a medium to large school in a blue state, what else are you wanting out of your college experience? What kind of experiences would you like to have?

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Based on what you’ve mentioned (preference for large schools in blue states with your desired majors), here are some schools I’d look into further. As we don’t know what the budget is, I tried to keep likely costs under $50k, and preferably well below that. But even these numbers may be over your budget, which is why it’s so important to get that part nailed down first. All COA and financial aid numbers came from here. Most of these schools would be likely to extremely likely admittances for you.

  • SUNY Binghamton: This is New York’s flagship and it’s trying to attract more top students from around the country, so merit aid is in the picture. It’s out-of-state (OOS) cost-of-attendance (COA) is about $47k. 13% of students without financial need receive merit aid averaging $11,700, potentially bringing costs closer to around $35k.
  • U. of Delaware: OOS COA is about $53k, but 51% of students without financial need receive merit aid, averaging $9k, potentially bringing costs down to around $44k. Well-reputed for cognitive science and public health.
  • U. of Minnesota: OOS COA of about $48k with 33% of students without financial need receiving merit aid averaging $5500. This could potentially bring the cost to $43k/year. Well-reputed program for neuroscience.
  • U. of Maryland: OOS COA is about $55k, but 36% of students without financial need received merit aid averaging $6600. This could bring costs to around $49k. Well-reputed for public health.
  • DePaul (IL): This Chicago school’s COA is about $60k, but 89% of students without financial need receive merit aid averaging around $19k, probably bringing the cost down to about $41k
  • Loyola Chicago (IL): COA is about $65k, but 97% of students without financial need receive merit aid averaging around $21k, so cost is probably able to be around $44k.
  • U. of Illinois: COA for OOS students is about $50k, while 24% of students without financial need received merit aid averaging $6800. The cost could potentially be around $43k here. Has a well-reputed program for public health.
  • U. of Oregon: COA is about $56k for OOS students. 43% of students without need receive merit aid averaging about $7k. So the potential cost might be around $49k.
  • Rowan (NJ): COA of $43k for OOS students, with 36% of freshmen without need receiving merit aid averaging $6500. This means that the potential cost could be around $37k.
  • San Diego State (CA): OOS COA of about $43k, with 7% of students without financial need receiving merit aid averaging about $3k. The potential cost could end up around $40k. (In contrast with UC San Diego which has a COA of $65k for OOS with 4% receiving merit aid averaging $9600.)
  • Towson (MD): OOS COA of about $38k with 27% of students without need receiving merit aid averaging $5k. This could have a potential cost of around $33k.
  • Western Washington: OOS COA of about $43k with 6% of students receiving merit aid averaging $1800. This could end up with a potential cost of around $41k.
  • Oregon State: OOS COA of about $50k with 76% of students receiving merit aid averaging $6k, ending up with a potential cost of around $44k.
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First you need to figure out what your budget is. You should try to avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree if you reasonably can, and budget accordingly. You will thank me five years from now (or at least one daughter did five years after a similar discussion).

Secondly, employers up here in the northeast of the US know how strong the universities are in Texas. The same would be true of employers in other parts of the country, and of graduate admissions staff all over the country. You can get a bachelor’s degree in Texas and then move anywhere in the country after graduation. Mostly employers are looking for employees who have the right skills and who can get along with coworkers. You can get the right skills at a wide range of universities, which will vary greatly in terms of affordability.

Someone mentioned UVM (Vermont). The UVM net price calculator does guess at your chances for merit aid and will be worth running. Even with merit aid it is likely to cost at least $40,000 per year for the total cost of attendance (not including transportation).

I would also run the NPC on U.Mass and BU and other out of state schools. BU was expensive for us but might be more affordable for someone else. The various Universities of California are likely to be too expensive as was already mentioned.

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Each college has a net price calculator in its financial aid web pages. Use it to get an estimate of how much that college will cost after estimated financial aid.

Expect little or no financial aid from out-of-state public universities, although some less selective ones have merit scholarships for out-of-state students.

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You cannot assume that the State of California will pony up merit aid for its public colleges and universities to non-residents. In-state residents are the priority. My daughter, an instate student, received a $300 book grant, total over 4 years. That’s it. Also, you would need to include travel expenses, health insurance fees, leisure activity funds and local transportation costs.

Housing is an ongoing issue because the prices of housing and rents in California are out of control with limited availability of rental units. Owners are finding that their properties can gain more funding as Air B n B’s.

I know you want to apply to various UC’s but the reality is that these schools are funded by the state’s taxpayers and OOS students tend to be Cash cows-the state makes money on you. California is an expensive place to live, so consider this when applying.

The State of Texas has some really strong public schools that should be in consideration.

The UC’s are not QB schools.

You could apply to USC (a QB school) but understand that the competition is fierce.

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What does this mean? The FAFSA is a financial aid application form. Not a financial aid awarding thing. Are you saying you are very low income and qualify for a Pell Grant? What do you mean?

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UMD gave my daughter her lowest offer ($3000) with a 3.9 33ACT 7 AP’s (UD and UMASS offered around $16,000).

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I think your choices of UTD and A&M as your instate backups (if you do end up staying in TX) make sense.

UTD is not a “traditional” Texas campus because it doesn’t have big sports or much in the way of Greek presence. Instead it has a sort of fun, nerdy vibe. It is mainly instate students, but does attract some really bright and motivated students from all over the country due to its National Merit scholarships, so you can make friends from all over. And, as I’m sure you know, it has a strong cognitive sciences program as well as terrific speech pathology and criminology departments, both of which draw heavily on cognitive/neurosciences, so are real world applications forming the possibility for rich collaborations.

A&M is obviously a “traditional” Texas college experience, with big sports and all. However it does offer a strong education, and also participates in National Student Exchange. NSE is a consortium of about 200 schools, mainly in the United States but a few in Canada etc. You can do up to 1 year exchange, your credits transfer automatically, and you pay only in-state tuition wherever you go. Some really cool schools participate including U Mass Amherst, University of Minnesota, a number of California schools etc. https://www.nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/

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Another option is to broaden your search and include small liberal arts colleges. These often provide excellent education, with small class sizes and lots of opportunities for mentorship and research. If you are considering grad school, they provide an excellent launching pad for that! I went to a small LAC myself, had so many research opportunities, and was VERY well prepared for medical school. However their vibe is very different from big universities, so either that is for you, or it isn’t. Liberal arts colleges in the Midwest in particular often provide significant merit and financial aid.

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Or you would qualify for the CAP program and spend 1st year elsewhere and then 3 years at UT Austin. Such a bargain with tuition around $10k. Austin is a fun deep blue city.

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Without getting into specific names, most private universities will offer more financial aid than out of state publics, and many mid-tier privates could be more generous with merit aid. I would recommend running NPCs for these and adding to the list. It may be hard to beat Texas on cost. If you are considering graduate school, it may be better to wait on leaving the state until then, since that will be more closely tied to your future jobs.

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I want to give a shout out to WWU. We are in WA state. Western is a wonderful under the radar school. Not hard to get into at all (91%) but that stat defies the fact that they have a fascinating roster of alumni. Bellingham is gorgeous. On the water and an hour from Mt Baker and the Canadian border. Excellent environmental studies, music and art. The ROI on tuition is unbeatable.

The OP’s stats make UWashington viable as well. Really top notch for engineering and business. School of social work and sciences, especially bio/premed are excellent. Good opportunities for internships with the number of biosciences companies and Fred Hutch in town. Worth considering.

My daughter had it as her safety and we would have been thrilled to have her near home. She ended up deciding between Oberlin and Bennington for art and is headed to Bennington in the fall (the merit scholarships were surprisingly generous so it basically made her choices equal across the board except for the one OOS public-UVM).

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I live in north Texas and wanted to leave the state for undergrad but finances stopped that.

I think your mom will push you to attend UTD or A&M. UT-Austin’s CAP program gives you one year elsewhere and then three in Austin. UTD is fine and is a safety as long as your test scores are in their range for a top quarter student.

In the PacNW, I recommend looking at University of Puget Sound. They might offer a good bit of financial aid. A friend’s daughter from Houston attends there. They have a neuroscience minor and good honors program. https://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/coolidge-otis-chapman-honors-program

The key is that you like the school and your mom is willing to pitch in funds and sign off on any loans. It sounds like you would pay off any loans you would have.

Other private options in Texas are Trinity, Southwestern and Austin College. They are going to have strong student interactions and have center left ideology.

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