<p>Officer in two school clubs (President, Secretary) (Key Club, Poetry Club)</p>
<p>Member of two additional clubs (Chess, Multicultural) </p>
<p>NHS member</p>
<p>Summers:
Volunteered for 6 weeks as "youth leader" for school's freshmen initiation program (10th)</p>
<p>11th: Volunteering with local alderman's office as an intern (answering phones, helping constituents) I start working at K-mart as a cashier on Monday. (local retail store) </p>
<p>I hope to major in either: Public Policy or Political Science</p>
<p>My List so far:
American
Duke
Northwestern
U of NC Chapel Hill
Boston U
GWU
U of Chicago
Grinnell
U of I Urbana</p>
<p>U of I chicago (safety?)
Depaul (safety?)
Michigan State Saftey
Iowa State Saftey</p>
<p>Since you’re OOS for MSU and Iowa State, they aren’t safeties…because affordability is questionable.</p>
<p>Since DePaul doesn’t meet need and aid is questionable, that isn’t a safety either.</p>
<p>UI-Chicago might be a safety if we can figure out if you have all costs covered.</p>
<p>What is your financial situation. Saying that you need lots of aid doesn’t tell us if you’d QUALIFY for the aid that you’d need.</p>
<p>How much will your family pay each year?</p>
<p>Are you low income?</p>
<p>Do you have a non-custodial parent?</p>
<p>While your stats are good, your test scores aren’t quite high enough for many of the schools that give the best aid. </p>
<p>Your kind of in that “gray area”…good stats, but might not get into the schools that give the best aid. </p>
<p>Your safeties are schools that you know FOR SURE that you have ALL costs covered and you know that you’ll be accepted to. You also need to like the school and it has to have your major.</p>
<p>Depending on your financial situation, your safeties may be state schools that you can commute to.</p>
<p>What is your price limit (after applying financial aid and scholarships)?</p>
<p>You may want to look at this list to see if any that you get the good scholarships for are schools you are willing to attend and have remaining cost of attendance within your budget:</p>
<p>Well, since private scholarships are HARD to get and usually ONLY for FROSH year, you can’t depend on those to pay for college. </p>
<p>You need to ASK your parents how much they can pay each year…not just hope. $3500 per year is about $300 per month. Your family may not have that much “leftover” each month to put towards college. Or, they may have already figured things out. </p>
<p>ASK them how much they can pay each year. </p>
<p>You might look at Truman State…but it can’t be a safety because aid is unknown. </p>
<p>To have more options, you need to retest. </p>
<p>Your safeties are likely the state schools and CCs that you can commute to.</p>
<p>No, it’s not “frowned upon”…that’s an old rule of thumb. Besides, you need higher scores regardless. Your chances at your top schools are very slim with current scores… Your chances of getting the needed aid needed at other schools is low.</p>
<p>You’re only hurting yourself by not retesting.</p>
<p>Today, kids are applying with a few SAT scores AND a few ACT scores.</p>