I am currently about to go into my senior year of high school and my gpa is a 4.4 (top 6% of class of very competitive school) with a 1540 SAT and 34 ACT. The schools I’m applying to are pretty prestigious, so I most likely wont receive much in terms of merit based scholarships and I’m worried that my EFC on the FAFSA will be much too high to qualify for any need based grants. If it adds to anything I also have a twin that will be attending college at the same time as me so hopefully this will make my EFC lower. If I don’t get into state school because of the competitiveness of my major ( i want to be a business major , and UT has one of the top 5-10 business undergrad programs) , I’m worried that I will have no other options.
You will have lots of options, but you’ll need to apply to schools that aren’t so prestigious or that have guaranteed aid. How about Alabama? Oklahoma? UT-Dallas?
If your parents are wealthy, even cutting your EFC in half because of the twin is probably not going to help. If your EFC would be $30k, cutting it in half brings it to $15k, which doesn’t get you a Pell grant or often a lot of school aid.
LOTS of students have financial restraints as part of college planning. It’s normal.
There are things you can do in order to prepare for the admissions cycle. Sit down with your parents and run a few of the NPCs (Net Price Calculators) at a variety of schools. Find out what your parents can afford to pay annually for your college education. No vague answers, no “we’ll figure it out”, but you (& your twin) need to know what is affordable.
Once you have the information, come back here and everyone will help you find good affordable options for your application list.
As an aside, I have a D that was bitterly disappointed that we could not afford her #1 choice. One of the CC mantras is Do Not Let Your Student Apply To A School You Cannot Afford. But, there is a strong narrative out there to “Apply and See What Happens”. We could have avoided a lot of heartache by vetoing her application, but, quite frankly, I thought the school would do the dirty work and deny her application. Well, she got accepted. And we said nope, cannot afford it.
The thing is, college is very expensive and high stat kids can find really good financial deals at less sexy schools.
Keep an open mind. Find out what your budget is.
Good luck!
Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of several places that are currently on your list and your twin’s list. That will help all of you find out what your family might be expected to pay.
Push your parents to give you and your twin firm figures for what they will pay each year, and find out if that is only for four years or if they will pay for an extra semester, summer session, or year if you need one. With that number in mind, you will better understand how deep and far you will need to search to find the merit-based aid needed.
If your parents are wealthy, you’re not going to get need based aid even with two in school. Ask your parents how much they will pay per year per twin.
As for applying to schools that are pretty prestigious, I doubt that any of them would give you any merit at all. Their other applicants are going to be similar to you, which is why you would not be receiving merit.
In the meantime, get ready to apply to three schools that you know for sure will give you a lot of merit money. Example, the University of Alabama will give you the presidential scholarship which would leave about 17K per year for your parents to pay. You can borrow $5500. Alabama Has a very good business school. Find other schools that will also give you large merit scholarships.
What is your current list of schools?
Have you asked your parents how much they will pay per year per twin? If not do so now and let us know.
Are you saying that if you went to university of Texas as an in-state student, you would have to pay half? So does that mean your parents will pay about 13,000 a year per twin?
You’re instate for UT Austin so you’re guaranteed to get in since you’re top 10% of your class, so you will get in! And for in-state, UT Austin is like 20k, and if your parents are paying about half, it’s 10k for you to pay. you could work or apply for scholarships and take loans, but most you can take in your own name is 5500.
@ddeebaa they’re guranteeed admission to UT Austin but not to their major.
Make sure you apply to some safeties, UTD has great merit aid and a very good business program.
Has there been a change? I thought you had to be a top 7%
It’s more like 25,000 when you include personal expenses and miscellaneous costs. Don’t know what the parents consider half is. If the parents consider only tuition room and board then Student would have to come up with $15,000. If the parents consider half of 25,000 then the student has to come up with 12,500 Which probably would be impossible
@hunter7890 : can you clarify what your parents expect?
What is their goal (to keep you instate or to teach you something about money)?
Actually UTAustin auto-admit is changing to top 6% starting next year https://news.utexas.edu/2017/09/15/growth-in-texas-drives-automatic-admission-to-top-6-percent
Agree with the others – you need to find out exactly what your parents are willing to pay and then seek out schools with guaranteed scholarships for your academic profile. And other TX public schools may work as well.
The % changes for UT from year to year.
Try Texas Tech.
@hunter7890
with those stats,and your financial predicament, you need to apply to safety colleges where you are guaranteed merit aid.
start here-
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
check with each colleges website as information may be out of date.
did you take the PSAT and was your score hi enough to ensure you are a NMSF ?
if so look here-
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
DONT make the mistake of thinking your stats will get you into one or more of the few colleges that have the most generous FA. Every year the vast majority of highly qualified students are turned down from those colleges.
Build your college list from the bottom up- safeties first- that means colleges where you are likely or assured of acceptance AND can afford.
I was also going to say Texas Tech. It has great merit for your stats, in state tuition, auto admit for your stats into your major and is a very good school. You just have to deal with Lubbock but the campus is great. It was our first in state option for my son but he got a better deal OOS with merit and special program admits.
Hi! I have similar stats and I’m also a twin 
I just made a post asking this, but did you and your twin apply together anywhere?