Need some help with college list!!!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am a junior and high school and need some suggestions on possible colleges that I should look into, and any ideas on how I can make the most out of my senior year. I don't have any real specifications for colleges. I have been looking at colleges in Illinois, California, and Florida; however, location or climate aren't really a big deal. Also as far as size of school or whether its public or private, I feel that I could be comfortable at almost any school. However, i will visit most colleges on my final list, just to make sure. I am planning on majoring in something related to the sciences possibly neuroscience, Public Health, or Biology. Not really sure yet what i want to do. So far, my list includes UIUC and Loyola University Chicago. Thank you for any suggestions. Here are my stats.
[<em>]SAT I (breakdown):
[</em>]ACT (breakdown):26(first sitting); waiting on new scores(expecting around a 30)
[<em>]SAT II (place score in parentheses):
[</em>]Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):3.8
[<em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):top 5%
[</em>]AP (place score in parentheses):AP Chemistry(taking test this year)
[<em>]IB (place score in parentheses):
[</em>]Senior Year Course Load:Physics, AP Calculus, Spanish 4, Advanced British Lit., P.E., Economics/ American Government, Psychology/Sociology, Teachers aide
[li]Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):[/li][/list]</p>

<p>[<em>]Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):National Honor Society(10,11,12), Key Club(editor 10,11,12), Student Council(10,11,12 possible president), Golf team Varsity(9,10,11,12)
[</em>]Job/Work Experience: Worked as Sandwich Artist for 7 months, corn detasseling for 2 summers
[<em>]Volunteer/Community Service: most through Key Club and Student Council; ~70 hours so far
[</em>]Summer Activities: Working, camps, and practicing for golf</p>

<p>[<em>]State (if domestic applicant): IL
[</em>]Country (if international applicant):
[<em>]School Type:Public
[</em>]Ethnicity:White
[<em>]Gender:Male
[</em>]Income Bracket:~100,000
[*]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):none </p>

2

<p>UT Austin, U Washington (Not the one in St. Louis), U wisconsin Madison, and Penn State are all realistic possibilities for you, university-wise. They all have excellent biology programs. Are you also interested in liberal arts colleges?</p>

3

<p>Thanks!! And yes I am considering LACs also. </p>

4

<p>Here are a few LACs within reach that have strong biology programs (Again, assuming you get your ACT up). The latter three also provide amazing research opportunities for undergrads. </p>

<p>-Bates
-Colby
-Bowdoin
-Grinnell
-Hendrix
-College of Wooster</p>

5

<p>Read <a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider-p1.html&lt;/a&gt; , particularly point 1. If you are not that picky beyond the academic programs you are interested in, then that may help you find a good selection of financially feasable choices. But cost constraints may be the biggest constraints you have.</p>

6

<p>Holy Cross-near Boston has very good science programs.</p>

7

<p>Don’t know your financial situation bot the LACS give NOTHING in merit money - child got into Colby Scholars program - no merit $$$$ but 5K to use for research…At 65K, that doesn’t amount to much</p>

8

<p>^ True, but they’re very generous with need-based financial aid.</p>

9

<p>The max my parents could pay would be around 20,000 per year… However, I don’t want to burden them to much since the will be helping my brother pay for grad school also. So I would like to try to get the most out of need based aid or merit money… And I will be applying for a lot of scholarships, so hopefully I can keep the cost down. What are some schools that offer good financial aid? </p>

10

<p>Applying to random outside scholarships wont work. those are small amounts and only for frosh year. </p>

<p>the OOS publics wont work in many cases unless you qualify for large merit. The UCs, and Florida wont work even with an ACT 30. The UCs will expect you to pay your EFC PLUS 23k per year. so if your parents EFC is around $20k then they would have to pay $43k for a UC plus full loans.</p>

<p>Frankly, if your parents can pay $20k, then likely their EFC is higher than that. Do you know what your parents income is? do they have a lot of assets?</p>

<p>Have your parents said that they will pay $20k? If you are guessing? Ask them. Also have them run the NPC on various schools’ websites.</p>

<p>It sounds like you need big merit, because you dont want your parents to pay too much. </p>

11

<p>My parents income is about 110,000 per year. Also they inherited some money. I have heard that through the Midwest student exchange program that I could possibly qualify for instate tuition in many Midwestern states. Have you heard anything about it. And yes I will ask them the exact amount and will run NPC on the colleges that I am looking at righty now. I guess my dreams of going out west for college were more of a fantasy instead of reality. But I’m ok with that. Thank you for your input! </p>

12

<p>Actually, run the NPCs but you would probably qualify for some need based aid in the top 20 colleges (LACs/universities) that meet 100% need. At Harvard, the threshold for important need based aid is 180k (but they’re the most generous).
I agree though that looking at the merit aid threads would be best for you.
Compose your college list keeping both types of school in mind and don’t forget your instate flagship.</p>

13

<p>Here is the link to the Midwest Student Exchange. <a href=“http://msep.mhec.org/”>http://msep.mhec.org/&lt;/a&gt; Look at the places available to you. You’ll need to get that ACT up to have a shot at any serious merit. There are also some low cost colleges like Truman State that might be options if you want to go Out of State. The schools listed by @Guest15 are all going to be much more expensive than your budget.</p>

14

<p>If you’re interested in liberal arts colleges, think about New College of Florida, especially if your ACT/SAT scores go up a little bit. They are very oriented toward independent research, despite their small size, and they have an excellent record for graduate school admissions. They are surprisingly affordable - 70% of their students graduate debt-free. It is not for everyone; they are decidedly idiosyncratic, but they came in at a lower price than our own state university. Some smaller LACs can be surprisingly generous with financial aid. Don’t rule them out. There are a lot of great public colleges in the Midwest, which have reciprocal aid arrangements. I don’t know how good Butler is for aid, but I know they have some good science programs. </p>

15

<pre><code>You need to start running some NPC to get a handle on what Fin Aid (if any) you are eligible for. Bet your EFC is over $45K/yr if they make 110K and have some money set aside from inheritance.
</code></pre>

<p>UT and UW are not options financially given information you have provided, they do not give significant merit or discount OOS with your stats. </p>

<p>What is your PSAT score? Is there a potential you will make NMF? </p>

16

<p>The good news is that your are asking these questions now and not next April when you have only applied and been accepted at schools that not going to be feasible. </p>

17

<p>Thanks. We can afford more than 20000 I just would prefer that they don’t have to shell out an exuberant amount of money. They are always talking about how grateful they for my brother, they barely pay anything for his college, and I just don’t want to burden them. I would prefer a place where we won’t have to pay nearly full price. Besides that rambling I do truly like my instate flagship school and realize that there are many wonderful schools in the Illinois and I will definitely start researching a lot more about colleges. And talk with my parents about it!! </p>

18

<p>Illinois has excellent collegesbeside UIUC and Loyola: Lake Forest, Illinois Wesleyan, De Paul, and Knox are all very good but different so look into their atmosphere and strengths, but you’d likely get merit there so plan to apply to a couple. Lake Forest and Illinois Wesleyan are especially good in the sciences.
Applying 400+miles from home means you bring geographic diversity - look into Hendrix, Eckerd, Rollins, St Lawrence, Skidmore Drew, Quinnipiac, Goucher, Wooster, Allegheny, Earlham, Gustavus Adolphus, St Olaf, Lawrence, Clark, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Susquehanna, Juniata, Ursinus, Elon, Appalachian State, UNC Asheville, UNC-Wilmington, SUNY Geneseo, Lewis&Clark, Willamette, UPuget Sound, UPortland, USeatle, Pacific Lutheran.
These colleges have different admission levels and different types of scholarships, different vibes, different types of location, but they’re all good.
If interested in the sciences, look into RIT, RPI, WPI, Stevens (plus Northeastern but their financial aid isn’t the greatest).
Run the Net Price calculators on all these colleges but you’re likely to get some need-based aid and some merit aid. Once you’ve identified a dozen colleges you like, go to their website and fill out the “request info” form, to indicate interest. (This matters, even if sometimes they say they don’t factor it for admission, it is factored in for merit).</p>