Please help!!!
My DD wants to go to school in a warm climate at a great school for Business. We are looking for OOS merit scholarships that would match for her. We live in Wisconsin. She is a junior.
My DD’s stats:
ACT 31
GPA unweighted: 3.96
Will have 5 AP classes multiple honors classes.
Any ideas?
Any chance she could retake that ACT and get it a little higher? This would open up more merit aid options for her.
I’m not sure what the criteria are for U Alabama campuses. But @mom2collegekids will hopefully chime in.
How much can you pay annually? That would be a helpful piece of information.
What can you pay per year?
I don’t know how they are for business specifically, but last year FSU gave OOS tuition waiver with ACT of 31 and weighted GPA of 4.0. They use their own weight system to calculate it and only use math, science, language arts and social studies classes. Not sure what it will be this year as acceptances and merit for EA don’t come out until end of January and I suspect that’s when this years stats will be given.
I agree with the previous poster that if she can get the ACT up a bit, it’ll open up more options with higher aid.
Does she want a full-blown business school within a larger university, or would a small LAC with a business major appeal?
Eckerd is good for the latter - you’d be hard pressed to find a more idyllic warm-weather campus.
For a bigger school she might look at College of Charleston - her stats should qualify her for their Honors College (and merit $), and the business school offers a lot of interesting tracks and a Center for Entrepreneurship. The location offers a great combination of small-city resources and coastal recreation.
You’d probably need a bigger budget for most California options; Santa Clara would be a match, with great business programs, but the merit potential is probably limited. U of San Diego, LMU, and Chapman are a little more generous. Maybe SDSU and SJSU if paying $43K-ish OOS for a CSU is acceptable to you.
Her stats are good for ASU’s Barrett Honors College, which has its own honors business major within the School of Business. Does she want beachy-warm or desert-warm?
What’s your budget?
University of South Carolina. Her ACT would probably get her in-state tuition and maybe some merit. COA would probably be around $28k/year.
We are hoping for $25,000 or less, but could go a bit above that if it is a great fit for her. She is open to anything warm including Arizona, Texas, and the Southeast. She has stated that she wants a bigger school.
She is going to retake it at least once. She improved greatly from when she took it a year ago (from a 24 to a 31), and is hoping to get a bit higher. She also will be taking the SAT.
Have her prep for test retakes, try to get her ACT to 33 and up for more options. If she already has a 31, targeted prep should allow for improvement. As always, do not throw out the baby with the bathwater, if she is in at your flagship and reciprocity at Uminn Carlson, paying more for lesser schools is not a good trade for heat and humidity. IMHO The schools where she will get that kind of auto merit would not be as good as her state options.
Sybylla, I would typically agree with that, but knowing my daughter, the only option for in-state or in our reciprocity schools is UW- Madison or UMinn (for a high quality business school). Walking a mile to class in snow boots might send her over the edge. We lived in Florida for 3 years, and she honestly just is not willing to do the winters here anymore. They are brutal. She is going to focus on studying and bringing up her test scores so she can get what she wants.
She is going to apply to UW Madison and if things don’t work out, that is probably where she will go, but I want to help her.
Also… not “warm weather” obviously, but in the “great program for a great price and milder than Wisconsin” category, she’d be a candidate for the competitive Business Honors Program at UNL, which is a really terrific small-cohort program with great opportunities. https://business.unl.edu/academic-programs/honors-academy/ As a baseline she’d be eligible for the MSEP reciprocity rate (so, 27K/year worst case) and she’d likely do better than that with merit.
I forgot about Nebraska. I will add that to the list she can look at, thank you!
If she does get her ACT up, you may want to look at Miami University (OH). You might be able to get the cost in your range.
University of Mississippi has a great accounting school and might come in under your budget.
Any chance while you were living in Florida you bought a Florida Prepaid? Some of those came with an instate tuition guarantee (but those were in the early years and we might be beyond the years those were sold now - I just don’t know the last year they were offered that included instate tuition).
FSU is usually the best of the Big 3 (FSU/UF/UCF) in Florida to get instate rates. UCF has an awful lot of scholarships too that could bring your total cost down.
U of Denver has a good business school. It is snowing here today, but on the whole weather is pretty good in Denver. It’s not a huge school but has top D1 teams in hockey, lacrosse, and skiing.
I wish we had known about a Florida Prepaid!
U Alabama! Very good B-school! Excellent Accounting program! Recruited by the Big four
What do you mean “B-School” and “Recruited by the Big four?”
B-School = Business School
Big Four = the largest 4 accounting firms: Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Many students majoring in Accounting would like to be hired by one of the Big Four. Even graduates who don’t want to remain at one of the Big Four for an entire career see value in spending a few years at a Big Four firm as a résumé boost.
@Demofamily , agree that Alabama, FSU and South Carolina are going to be your best options for good business programs in the South with good OOS scholarships. FSU will come in under $20,000 if you can get the OOS waiver (she is right on the edge). South Carolina probably has the best regarded business school of the 3, but will be more expensive unless she can get her ACT up 2-3 points.