Hey everyone! I was hoping I could get some help looking for some other universities to look into as well as what my chances are at getting into some schools I have already spent time researching.
Stats:
I am a senior from an Early College in NC
3.7 Unweighted GPA
4.3 Weighted
28 ACT score
40 Volunteer hours
60+ College credits (Will have completed my AA)
I am a student ambassador for my school
Plan on majoring in Psychology to eventually go onto be a Clinical Psychologist after Grad school
I am horrible at writing essays so my application essays will probably not be the best
I have already applied and been accepted into Wingate University with a $32000 scholarship.
Here are the other schools I am interested in (In order of interest)
Appalachian State (NC)
University of NC Charlotte (NC)
Georgia Southern University (GA)
Radford University (VA)
University of Denver (CO)
Mercer University (GA)
Louisiana State (LA)
University of South Carolina (SC)
I’ve never looked into UNC-Wilmington but I’ll check it out. Thanks for the suggestion!
Definitely look into UNC Wilmington and UNC Asheville. Run the NPC to make sure they’re affordable and pay attention to Honors applications and deadlines.
For Psychology, Clark University (in Massachusetts) is well known and probably a match for your stats.
Not sure why you’d apply to GA Southern or Radford with a 3.7/4.3 GPA, especially considering you have much cheaper safeties in the UNC System.
What’s your parents’ budget?
Thanks for the response! I will for sure look into those. They are both just safe schools for me. I know I’ve been accepted into Wingate but it’s really at the bottom of my list. My parents are not going to be able to pay much. My mom is on disability and my dad has been out of the picture for a few years now.
In that case, aim for “meet need” colleges.
They’re mostly reaches but offer excellent financial aid. Examples include UNC-CH (and Carolina Covenant), Emory Oxford, Davidson.
Run the NPC on each college.
At UNCa, UNCw, app State, look into the honirs programs (they come with good perks, community, and scholarships). These universities don’t meet need but maybhave an incentive to offer you merit scholarships.
Finally, look into Questbridge to see if you’d qualify financially. Questbridge is highly selective but if admitted you have a 4 year full ride at a top college.
A couple more NC schools for you to consider sticking with public since don’t know your budget. Look at NC State for a reach and UNC-Asheville target/Safety
Your top choice App State Class of 2024 profile from their website
Below are the GPA/test score ranges of the middle 50% of first-year admits. 25% of admitted students fall either below or above these levels:
- Weighted GPA: 3.82-4.34
- SAT (new – evidence-based reading and writing and math): 1100-1270
- ACT (composite): 22-28
You should be a strong Candidate
Good call on UNC-Asheville, which is the UNC system’s public liberal arts college. Asheville is a neat place, also.
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If you’ve already been accepted to Wingate, are you in Union County? If not, which school is within commuting distance, and do you have a reliable vehicle available? How many credits do you have? Are you by any chance URM? What is your class rank?
No, I live in Gaston County. I was sent an immediate action application from Wingate earlier this summer, where it was free to apply, no essay, no transcript, 1 week decision time. I’ve never heard of this type of application but I contacted the school and they said it was legit so I just tried it and got in. The closest schools to me are Belmont Abbey, UNC Charlotte, Gardner Web, and Pfeiffer. I don’t have any interest In Belmont Abbey or Gardner. I will have 64 Credits and my class rank is somewhere between 5th and 8th out of 39. I am not a URM.
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Awesome, then you could commute to UNCC if necessary. It would be a 30-40 minute commute, but it could work if you don’t receive enough FA to live on campus somewhere. Have you run a FAFSA calculator and any NPCs? If your dad is not in the picture and not cooperative, you may need to focus on FAFSA only schools. Maybe take a look at ECU. I’d also apply to the NC promise schools like UNC Pembroke and Western Carolina.
The FAFSA calculator kinda confused me but in the end, it said I would have $12810 in aid available. I’ve looked into Western before and they accept little to none of my college credits. I’ve never tried Pembroke so I’ll take some time to research it.
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It’s surprising that Western won’t take most if not all of your college credits.
I’m not sure if you just researched online, but if you haven’t already, I would recommend contacting someone in admissions and find out for sure what they will and won’t accept. (Apologies if you actually did this and found out).
My understanding is that if you have an AA degree, you will be admitted as a Junior. But my understanding might be lacking.
Rather than aid amount, you need to look at the line that says “net costs”.
Do so for UNCC, UNCA, UNCW , UNC CH, and Davidson.
What’s the “net cost” for each and which would be affordable for your mother (without loans)?
UNCC, UNCA, and UNCW will be affordable. UNC CH and Davidson could work but I would need a few small scholarships.
Yeah, it is really weird I agree. And you don’t have to apologize. I haven’t contacted the school directly I got that information from my counselor. At the beginning of our sophomore year, she gave me a list of all the UNC schools and what classes they usually accept during transfer. I could probably contact Western to be sure though.
Agree about transfer classes. Did you check the equivalency tool? If nothing appears, it may just mean no one has sought approval, not that they wouldn’t be approved. I know I’m asking some personal financial questions, so you don’t need to actually answer them here, just things to consider. Does your mom receive any child support payments; if so, do those end when you turn 18 or graduate? Do your parents have a written agreement about contributing to college. Does she (or you) have any money in a 529 plan or another other savings account? If she is currently receiving SSDI benefits, your dependent benefits will end at the time of high school graduation, just something to keep in mind for budgeting purposes. Run the NPC, but it sounds like you could possibly make UNCC work if you have a reliable vehicle. D20 has several friends who attend UNCC; they’re doing so because the other options were just too much $ for the residential experience. They’ve been able to assimilate into UNCC college life, even without living on campus. If you like it there, that could potentially be your safety. If you choose to try for a residential experience, apply for all the FA driven/competitive scholarships. If your calcs are correct, it may cover most of tuition and fees, but that leaves you with room and board. The Wingate offer doesn’t cover full tuition and you would still have to pay R&B. The balance of tuition plus R&B could be $18-20k/year. You may be able to negotiate a better package with them. You could probably swing R&B at state schools with federal student loans and a part-time time job, BUT that could leave you with quite a bit of debt in a field that requires additial schooling beyond undergrad. Does your mom rely on you for physical support? I know this is a lot to think about, just trying to think of safety options that will work with your current financial situation.
That’s excellent!!
Now all of them can be on your list.
You probably don’t want to claim all your credits -you’ll notice courses at 4 year colleges are more in-depth than at cc and you will want to take advantage of connections with peers and professors, participate in career center workshops and find internships, volunteer, etc. You will also need to be involved in research if possible.
Having the AA is less important for selective colleges than taking key classes.
For instance, have you taken statistics for psychology? Human Biology? Spanish for health professions? Sociology? The pre-reqs for cognitive science or neuroscience?
So what I did was I looked at the psyc socials Science concentration for app and choose the classes that would meet it (Which I have just found is basically the same for Pembroke). So when I go I’ll meet all general education requirements and the prerequisite for the major courses. Luckily I also most requirements at other UNC school systems with this plan outside of a few classes. Here’s a list of the classes I have taken.
ACA122
HEA 110 PED 110
Art 111 Mus 110
Soc 210 Pol 120
Mat 171 and 152 (152 is stats but it’s not specifically for psychology I don’t have a class like that offered at my school)
Eng 111, 112, 231, 242
Bio 111, 112, and 155
Bus 110, 115, 137
Chm 151
Psy 150 and 281
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That’s awesome, congratulations!! You should have some great options; put in some reach apps like CH, apply for the competitive scholarships where appropriate and cast a wide net. Good luck!