<p>haha consolation thanks for your "insight" but i know that i receive plenty of merit based aid...but almost all of it amounts to full tuition scholarships...there are little if any full tuition + room and board merit based scholarships</p>
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-Captain Men's Volleyball team,
-Junior Olympic Men's Volleyball player,"<<
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<p>Wait, I thought you are a female, no?</p>
<p>no haha did i give that impression?</p>
<p>p.s those stats aren't the most current haha consolation...search around my forums and find the last sat scores :)</p>
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its mostly cultural yes...they are more relaxed on guys than girls in my culture...its not like prohibited to leave the home...but my parents just don't want me corrupted by American culture
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<p>That's what I read. :D</p>
<p>hmm...i meant they might/should be more relaxed on me since i am a guy....but theyaren't because they don't want me corrupted by American culture :)</p>
<p>sry for the misunderstanding haha</p>
<p>I'm sure there's some college out there where you qualify for a full ride -- tuition and room/board. Go there and your parents can't really stop you.</p>
<p><<p.s those="" stats="" aren't="" the="" most="" current="" haha="" consolation...search="" around="" my="" forums="" and="" find="" last="" sat="" scores="">></p.s></p>
<p>I saw your updated stats. As I recall there wasn't a big difference? Which was why you asked whether it was worth sending them? IIRC, about 30 points or so. (FWIW, I think it is worth sending them.) </p>
<p>I'm not sure why you put "insight" in quotation marks. You seem to be mostly interested in Ivies, and you seem to have been given the impression by someone that your decent stats combined with your race make you a shoo-in there. Leaving aside the issue of whether race will (or should) help you much given that your family are immigrants with an extremely high income, if your parents are really determined to not contribute to your educational expenses, you need to realize that the need-based schools are not a realistic target for you.</p>
<p>Assuming that you cannot persuade your parents to budge, an alternative is to find schools that offer true full-ride scholarships. The question is a) can you qualify for them, and b) are the applications still open. There are probably threads on the FA forum about it. </p>
<p>Schools to look at might include Pitt and the U of Rochester. If going anywhere other than the local college will cause your parents to disown you--which I doubt--then why not go to Stanford if you can indeed get in with a full scholarship?</p>
<p>Do you think that there is anyone whose opinion might persuade your parents that they may be mistaken about the idea of going away to college? A GC? A teacher? A colleague? (It sounds as if your parents might be in the medical field...if so, they must have well-educated friends who could convince them.)</p>
<p>I just had another thought for you, which is colleges that are actually free. Olin, Cooper Union, Deep Springs, and Berea (I think) spring to mind. Of course, they are very difficult to get into, serve different populations, and have distinct character.</p>
<p>Ivayhopeful,</p>
<p>I can really empathize with your situation. Leaving high school, my situation was similar. My parents also made enough to rule out sufficient financial aid. Unfortunately, they didn't see the value in paying for a university which both offered good academics and was a good fit. So I've been there. Hopefully, some of what I learned the hard way is relevant to you.</p>
<p>The fact that you have merit scholarships at multiple solid universities is a huge blessing. You have this advantage now, if you apply to any of these schools as a first-year student. Conversely, it's much harder to win merit scholarships as a transfer student. So if you cave into pressure now and commute to the University of Akron now, these options may no longer be available to you if you decide to transfer later.</p>
<p>Even if there are financial constraints, it's still important to make sure that the university you choose to attend is a good fit. When money is tight, it's too easy to just attend one of your stronger in-state public universities without thorough investigation. This is a huge mistake. It's not just a question of whether you enjoy attending the university. If the university isn't a good fit, you're likely to not do very well there. And if your GPA starts to slip, merit scholarships elsewhere probably become impossible, and your options for being able to transfer at all become quite limited. For clarity, I'm not saying that Ohio State is necessarily a poor fit. I'm only saying that you need to investigate first and make sure it's a good fit.</p>
<p>It's also probably a mistake to attend a university which is nowhere near the level you're capable of academically. Weaker universities just don't offer the same quality of academics as stronger universities. They also probably don't offer the same quality of experiences outside the classroom. The bottom line is that it takes just as many years to graduate from a weak university as a strong university, yet you don't get anywhere near as much out of the experience. That said, even a relatively weak university academically is probably a better choice than a university which is a blatantly poor fit.</p>
<p>Also, manageable loans may be unavoidable. They can even be a good move financially if they are manageable while making it possible to attend a much stronger university than would be possible otherwise. A stronger university will open more doors than a weaker university will. This in turn increases your income, hopefully by more than enough to pay off the loans. But it cannot be emphasized enough that the loans have to be manageable on the salary you can reasonably expect to earn after graduation.</p>
<p>There are a few universities which anyone in any state can attend at prices comparable to in-state public universities. Also, other posters here have noted universities which offer good merit aid. So you have options, even if you find none of the universities which you can attend cheaply to be a good fit.</p>
<p>One possible strategy is to initially attend one of the universities at which you have a scholarship. This assumes the university is at least tolerable. Then, you could transfer to the university you really want to attend for the last two years. This way, you at least get two years at the university you really want to be at. Two years is better than zero years. Your degree also has that university's name on it, just like the degree of anyone who started there as a first-year student. Yet any loans you need to take out only are necessary for two years instead of four. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn't work well for the Ivy League, which tends to accept very few transfer students.</p>
<p>Last but not least, clashing with your parents may be inevitable in the long run if they are as unaccepting of your decisions as they seem based on what you said.</p>
<p>Good luck, whatever you decide!</p>