<p>You have had what sounds like a very difficult life, but you seem to have persevered to overcome these challenges. If you can turn that in to an amazing essay, you would be that rare student without a near-2400 and perfect grades and ECs to get in to an Ivy-caliber school.</p>
<p>One very good LAC is Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. They have a small student body, but a very active and close knit one, and an absolutely gorgeous campus. It’s in a formerly rural area that’s fast becoming a suburb of Austin (they have an IKEA now…its’ about 20-30 minutes north of downtown Austin). It’s a great school and very well respected within Texas. They give amazing financial aid. If you have a 3.5 GPA and 1200+ on your SAT, you would qualify for at least $5,000 and up to $20,000 of merit based aid. They also have the Bishop Dixon scholarships, which are for minority students, and with your unique life experiences you might get some consideration for that. They award 12 awards between $5,000 and full tuition.</p>
<p>I’ve heard a lot of good things about New College. The whole thing is there is that you plan out your own tuition, so it’s good for really independent people. It’s not a religious school at all–in fact, it’s a public school, so you could get a great deal for in state tuition at a school that’s fast on the rise as one of America’s best colleges.</p>
<p>Of the schools you mentioned, I know that BU, NYU, and Penn State are not particularly good with aid (Penn State esp. since you’re out of state). That said, if you want to go there, my advice is appy and then see how much aid they offer you. You might be suprised. </p>
<p>Still, based on your situation I would think a Liberal Arts college would be best. All the schools you mentioned are very large and are not really able to give individualized attention help students who may be going through a tough time. </p>
<p>Still, you know what type of school YOU want. If you want a big school, go for it!</p>
<p>You mentioned Northeastern. I don’t know how they are with aid, but they have a co-op program in which you would graduate in five years instead of four, and during two of those half-year periods (occurring at some point after your freshman year), you’d be working full-time at a company or institution relevant to your major field. This would allow you to make some serious money, which you could use to offset your financial burden.</p>
<p>I gather that Wellesley College in MA is pretty decent with financial aid, and would give you the individualized attention that is one of the big selling points of LACs.</p>
<p>While NYU and BU are excellent schools, I’ve heard bad things about both of them on the financial aid issue.</p>
<p>Bard gives good aid, and their psychology department yeilds really good grad school admission results.</p>