Hello all. I’m a junior right now and I pretty much have a list of colleges that I’d like to apply to. It includes Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Duke on the top end, and the University of Missouri as my in-state safety. However, I’ve had some issues finding a middle ground.
I’m looking for smaller schools hopefully on the east coast that would be a fair match with my stats.
GPA: 4.0 UW (maybe 3.95 or something)
ACT: 35, 34E 34M 36R 35S - I got a 34 the first time I took it
IB Diploma Candidate with HLs in History, English, and Math
Class VP, current valedictorian, started a club, scholar bowl team nationally ranked, active in theatre, volunteering in the community, part-time job
Possibly NMSF? I’m right over last year’s cutoff.
I’d like to major in political science, and I’m hoping to go to law school. Cost is definitely a factor, as my family’s EFC is around $7000 so I’ll need lots of financial aid.
I’d love for the university to be near a major city, hopefully with good public transportation. I know this is a lot to ask but I’m open to any and all suggestions. Thanks!
It would also be fantastic if the school has no religious affiliation, and if it does that it does not have any religious requirements.
If you make NMF, http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ may be of interest. Some of the NMF scholarships are automatic (i.e. safety), while others are competitive (i.e. reach or match). Some schools also have scholarships for lesser NM status (e.g. NMSF or NMCS).
Law school is expensive, and top end college GPA and LSAT scores are needed to get into a highly ranked law school from which graduates have good employment chances (law employment is very law-school-ranking conscious). See http://lawschoolnumbers.com .
I know that this isn’t a top priority type of post, but I was wondering if anyone out there had some good suggestions?
Check out LACs for which you would be in the top 25% of the class academically and which offer merit aid and are based in/near urban areas. Macalester in St. Paul, MN would be an example. If law school is your goal, then a LAC would be good prep as they tend to be more writing and class participation intensive.
Sorry, just saw the East Coast requirement. Very few of the better known east coast LACs offer merit aid.
You are probably better off looking for schools that meet full need than merit aid. (Merit adi is factored in and decreases need aid at most schools so it’s a wash for people who have a big need like you.) Certainly if you end up being NMF, that might change things.
This gives a list from 2013. http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
You’ll need to check websites but you’ll also want a need blind school.
If you want suggestions, give some more requirements-- liberal/conservative northeast southeast? frats? sports?
Look at URochester, GWU, or maybe Haverford.
Tufts, Northeastern, Richmond, Villanova, and Emory might be worth checking out, in addition to the other schools that have been mentioned before. I think University of Rochester is a great suggestion, and it has a really strong Political Science program.
If you are looking more toward an LAC, you could consider Dickinson or Gettysburg in PA. Both are good with need-based aid. Franklin & Marshall might be worth an app too. None are in or near a big city though, so you’d have to see if that were a deal-breaker.
U Rochester is larger, but worth a look.
While alot of the NE LAC’s don’t offer merit aid, many are need-blind and meet 100% need. so even better. Just google it and you’ll have 20 fantastic schools that you will be a contender for. I wish I could give you a list but very few of the ones I know are near a big city.
Be careful about “meet full need” claims. Each school may define “need” differently, and may expect a different student contribution (student loan + student work). The difference in net price can be many thousands of dollars, and some of the “meet full need” schools may give worse financial aid than some schools which make no such claim. Run the net price calculator for each school.
How about Georgetown? I think Georgetown is a perfect match school for you. Georgetown may have a religious requirement as part of its core, but Jesuit schools typically allow non Catholic courses like Hinduism or Buddhism to satisfy their core.
If you have 3 subject tests, I would definitely recommend Georgetown.
IMO I don’t really think that Georgetown and Tufts would be “match” schools in the traditional sense of the term for anybody, even if they have great stats like OP.
Edit: Northeastern is a good choice for what you want (Boston is a great city, the uni has like 4 T stops) and would likely give you very good merit aid.
I agree that northeastern might be a good fit. I had very similar stats, including IB, and I’ve really liked the opportunities I’ve had at Northeastern. They also just started meeting full need. Plus if you get NM, that’s a guaranteed $30,000/yr scholarship and admission to the honors program. Boston is a great city, especially for a college student, but the downside is that it is expensive.
These are all really fantastic suggestions, thank you all! I’ll make sure to check all of these schools out.