Yes, the flagship programs are awesome (and very well recruited if you do what’s expected of you).
@sophiavictoria Probably not on your radar but you’d probably get close to a free merit-based ride for your stats at Southeastern Louisiana U in Hammond, LA (about an hour from New Orleans). It’s medium-sized and the weather is warm. There is a page where you can calculate merit and there is a priority deadline in the fall to get the most. I know a girl who attended there, had a great experience, and it cost almost nothing.
With a budget from your parents of 20K annually, there may be better choices like Alabama, but check it out.
Not sure if it was already mentioned, but you should qualify for in-state tuition at University of South Carolina. In state tuition, room, board and books is $25,000, which is very close to your target. With a 32 and a 4.62 weighted gpa there is an additional $2000. With a 34 an additional $4000. I don’t know if they describe how they weight the gpa.
University of Kentucky offers full tuition with a 31 and adds a 2 year housing allowance with a 33. However, they are Competitive scholarships and not guaranteed. Not sure if Kentucky is too cold for you.
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
Are the University Of South Carolina scholarships guaranteed based on stats?
My comment would be if a school says it is 50% greek that is very high. Take out the athletes, completely anti social types etc and that will be a predominantly greek school.
But I agree with the person that said Alabama. They are looking for students like you and they have great sports and a lot to do. Greek will be huge but so much to offer you should be fine.
@thumper1 I do not know for sure if they are guaranteed at South Carolina, but I think they are. I know a number of students who have received them with their offer of admission.
@Hippo21 Thanks for those suggestions. I just looked at the USC scholarships page you linked and it seems like the scholarships are not automatic. For the Academic Scholar Excellence Award, it says “In 2018, recipients of the Academic Scholar - Excellence Award had an average SAT score of 1470 (ACT score of 32) and an average weighted high school GPA of 4.62”, which makes it sound like it’s not automatic since it has an “average” rather than a clear cutoff. Also I don’t think my GPA will be high enough to qualify anyway. I’m not sure exactly what my GPA is at the moment, but it’ll probably be around 3.8 unweighted when I apply. I’ll keep Kentucky in mind, but I don’t really care about big state schools unless they have automatic merit aid.
@sophiavictoria it might be worth it to apply to South Carolina. It’s a great school. One of our kids received one of those scholarships years ago (they had different names)…and it was a great big surprise. If you do apply there, also apply to their honors college…but fair warning…it’s a doozie if an application and it’s due pretty early in the application process…check they date.