Newbie - Hispanic rising Junior in Texas/College List suggestions

Have been reading through many of these forums – and my daughter is looking for some guidance on building a preliminary college list. Not sure if this is the correct place to post.

She took her PSAT as a sophomore and scored an SI of 207. She took her ACT a few weeks ago for the first time no prep, jand her composite was a 32. Her unweighted GPA is a 4.0 and she ranks in the top 5% of a competitive public high school. She took one AP test after her freshman year and scored a 5 and she is waiting for the results of the 4 tests she took after her sophomore year.

She will apply to UT Austin – but is the only school in Texas right now that she wants to consider.

She is unsure what she wants to study – but knows she does not want engineering, computer science, math – she’s thinking maybe something in the social sciences, environmental sciences, history and she hasn’t ruled out something in business.

We can afford $35K/year using 529 funds and current earnings/savings. We will not qualify for financial aid.

She would like a school in an urban or suburban area – nothing rural; she does not want a school with a large greek presence/party-type atmosphere. She is very much an introvert, but is fine once she finds a group of friends. She likes the idea of an honors college that is part of a large school or would consider a liberal arts school.

We have not visited any schools yet – but would like to start compiling a list so that we can make some plans for the upcoming school year.

Would love your feedback!

How does she do with cold weather? How far away from home is she comfortable with traveling? Farther away might mean she won’t be able to make it home for Thanksgiving, is she OK with that? Is she open to women’s colleges?

Check out University of New Mexico. Their Honors College is in the top 25 for the nation, and Albuquerque is probably sufficiently urban for her.

She will be offered the Amigo scholarship, which is an automatic OOS tuition waiver for students with her stats. She also has the stats to apply for their Regents package, which is a competitive full ride. Regents students live in the Honors dorm freshman year, and they have a lot of cohort-based activities, so she’d have a built-in friend group of students with similar abilities.

COA with just the Amigo is around $22k/year. If a student graduates in four years, tuition is free for the student’s final semester.

Greek participation is around 5-6% of the student body.

Campus is dry, except for a taproom being installed in the UCEN, and tobacco-free, except for a few designated smoking areas. Re: the taproom - ABQ has a vibrant microbrew scene.

Here’s a visit report: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-new-mexico/2004241-nmf-visit-report-scholarship-housing-and-general-info-p1.html

I’ve added more info throughout the thread, so you may want to keep reading past the initial post. Example: A major renovation on the dining hall has added a lot more diversity in the food choices, including a live, demonstration-style chef station where dishes are prepared to order.

Top 5% rank in Texas should be automatic admission to all Texas publics, though check to make sure that her majors are not additionally competitive.

Cost -wise, it is going to be hard to beat the instate UT rate.

@ninakatarina - she ‘thinks’ she would be ok with cold weather - but besides the ocassional freeze, she has never been in cold weather for extended periods. She has ruled out all women’s colleges. She is ok with only coming home during breaks. Thank you!

@ucbalumnus - yes, if she can stay in the top 6%, she would be auto admit to UT, which is her preference if she stays in Texas. Thx!

@DiotimaDM - great info! - she had done a bit of research on Arizona State and their honors college - but perhaps we can combine a trip to Arizona State and University of New Mexico later this fall - thank you!

My son sounds a lot like your daughter! Please know that at UT, the auto admit is for the school, not the major. Those who want to get into the CNS, Business, Engineering, etc., should be prepared for a thorough holistic review that will weigh leadership, community service, ECs, etc., very heavily. I’m with you, though! I wish we had better options here in Texas. There’s no close second to UT, at least not for my son!

@cheerchoirmom

http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen

If your daughter makes National Hispanic Scholar (based on PSAT scores), she would automatically qualify for the Patterson Scholarship at University of Kentucky in Lexington. Last year, this was full tuition plus room and board stipend for on-campus housing for the first two years. UK should update their web site in September sometime for the next incoming class. No idea how the scholarship will change this year or the next.

Lexington is a great city. Not too small, not too large. Has an airport. UK does have a strong Greek presence, no doubt. However, my D, a junior at UK, says she and her friends are doing just fine without going Greek. Winters are much more mild than Chicagoland. The rec center has nice outdoorsy activities and there is good hiking

Although UK is a large public flagship, it is not as gigantic as some other flagships. My D is still good friends with many of the other students she met in her orientation group and on her floor, freshman year. Now she is immersed in her major, and has a part-time job in Lexington related to her major. She lives off campus and loves it.

She has had some amazing opportunities cross her path at UK. Her academic work caught the notice of a couple professors early on, and it has opened doors for her. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it was NOT through the Honors College at UK. When applying as an incoming freshman, she thought she HAD to be in Honors or else. She did get in (it has a low acceptance rate at UK), but once in, she said it was not necessary and in fact, meeting the requirements for Honors was a bit of a PIA.

My D is introverted, loves her privacy, and therefore loves being at a large school. She attended a very small HS and after awhile, she was tired of everyone knowing her business and it was feeling suffocating.

Good luck building your long list. That’s the fun part.

To add to what @DiotimaDM wrote above, UNM’s bio dept leans heavily toward environmental/evolutionary biology if that’s an interest of hers. Anderson School of Management is well regarded in the SW and listed by Hispanic Magazine as one of the top 10 business programs for Hispanics. However, the business school is not a direct admit program. Students need to apply during their sophomore year.

Btw, I have to laugh at her comment that the campus is dry. While technically alcohol is forbidden to underage students living in the dorms, her son clearly hasn’t been on campus during football season yet…Just sayin’

Beside the taproom on campus, the campustown area is full of bars & breweries --all within easy walking distance of the dorms.

Thank you @Midwest67 - I will pass that info along to her as well. Appreciate all of the feedback!

She should look at Rice and visit the campus before she rules it out. She might get merit aid that could bring the cost down to close to UTs. Rice has a reputation as a STEM school, but it has very good social science offerings as well. Rice has an inclusive residential college system rather than Greek life. My daughter is introverted like yours and she loves it there. She should also apply for Plan II and /or Liberal Arts Honors at UT to get a small school experience within the big university.

@Houston1021 - thank you! Had not even considered Rice - I just assumed that they did not offer much in merit aid. Will definitely have her explore that possibility!

@cheerchoirmom

Kids with higher stats, like your kid, will be able to find great offers at “lower tiered” schools.

Sometimes parents will post here on CC that they are willing & able to pay upwards of X per year. Then the kid lands a full tuition or full ride at a school on the list, and things get tricky. Is X school for $125K really better than Y school for $20k?

Make sure you are really ok spending up to X per year, even if there are good alternatives on the table for a lot less money.

The more you can communicate financial realities and expectations to your kid, the more heartache can be avoided down the line.

Also, 11th grade is the year that the PSAT counts for qualification for National Merit, which can lead to large scholarships at some colleges.

So she hasn’t taken her junior year PSAT yet? If she invests some prep time over the summer and makes NMF, UNM is an automatic, guaranteed full ride. So are several other schools.

S used Erica Meltzer’s SAT books for ERBW and PWN the SAT for math.

@DiotimaDM - that was her sophomore psat. She will be a junior this upcoming year. Thanks for the tips on study material. Very helpful!

Rice offers some merit, but stats have to be VERY high to get large merit awards. Sticker price is over $60K now, so you’d be looking for >30K of merit. Great school, but getting a > half tuition scholarship isn’t likely.

Honors colleges at Arizona State and U of NM are great suggestions. Also, the U of Arizona Honors College - Tucson is a beautiful destination. The Honors College at U of Utah is great too, with year-long “praxis projects” - and SLC has a lot to offer both as a city, and as a hub from which to access amazing outdoor recreation, if that appeals.

U of Tulsa is generous with merit and might be worth a look. Agnes Scott is a women’s college in the Atlanta suburbs that has cross-registration with Emory and (unlike Emory) offers generous merit. Rhodes College also gives good merit, and Memphis is a great location. Also, has she ruled out Austin College? She would get good merit there http://www.austincollege.edu/admission/financial-aid/scholarships/ Agnes Scott, Rhodes, and Austin are all “Colleges That Change Lives” schools - the CTCL profiles do a good job of conveying what is special and attractive about each, and many of the other schools on their list would also be good options with good merit opportunities. https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/

@aquapt thank you for the suggestions! She spent three weeks on the campus of Austin college a few summers ago and has ruled it out. I will check out the other suggestions. She doesn’t want a women’s college, but I’ll pass along the others. Thx!