<p>I will be a senior this coming school year. My school encouraged us to create a cappex.com account and begin looking at colleges. I thoroughly looked at the colleges near home, Louisville, KY. I hate all of Kentucky's colleges. None interest me. All of them except for UK and UL are out in the middle of no where. Other colleges that are in Louisville or Lexington, like Bellarmine and Transylvania are much too small. I want a medium to large sized college, but not one as massive as UK. UK has around 28,000 students. St. John's in NYC has caught my eye. I have researched as much as I can on the internet about it and it seems like just the school I want to go to. While it cost around $45,000 a year, including room and board, the average financial age package is $24,000, and 85% of students are on financial age. My parents laughed at me when I told them I was really interested in St. Johns. I currently go to a very elite private Catholic high school in Louisville, Trinity. Ask any person who lives in Louisville and they'll tell you Trinity is an excellent school. I just don't understand why my parents aren't encouraging me to apply to St. John's. After my senior year, they will have spent over $50,000 on my high school education. So why would they want me to settle for a public state university that a student from a local public school could get in to? I don't understand them! Why would they waste all of this money on sending me to a private high school and then laugh when I want to pursue an elite university? I am in the Advanced Program, in the top 25% of my class, and have a 3.75 GPA. I really think I have a solid chance at getting in St. John's, and even receiving some money. Of course I will also apply to some schools closer to home, like University of Dayton, St. Louis, Xavier, and even UL as a safety school. How can I get my parents to support me? What do you all think?</p>
<p>Maybe discuss this with your parents to share your points of view?</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculator with help from your parents? That will give you a better idea of the cost. You need to apply to more than one school anyway… agree to apply to a couple that they want you to and see if you can also apply to St. John’s. </p>
<p>My guess is that they don’t want to pay what they perceive as higher tuition for St. John’s or have you take out significant loans. Are there any other Catholic colleges you could get them to let you look at besides St. John’s? </p>
<p>And if you are wondering why they paid for Trinity – many parents pay for Catholic schools because they perceive them as having stronger discipline than public schools. Possibly better character building, safer environment, and putting you with other kids who are more likely to come from families that share their values. It isn’t always about the academics – so maybe that is why they don’t seem so tuned into that side of the college search.</p>
<p>(1) Look up the word “average.”</p>
<p>(2) Understand that the “average financial aid package” is the average ONLY for those students who opted to attend. Those students who got far worse packages and couldn’t afford to attend are NOT included in that average.</p>
<p>(3) Understand also that “financial aid” includes federal student loans, which are available to all students, without regard to family finances. Thus, of the “85% of students” receiving financial aid, an unknown percentage (but certainly a far smaller percentage) are actually receiving institutional aid (aid from the college itself). The rest are just getting federal student loans.</p>
<p>(4) Now that you’ve reconsidered the potential cost of attending St. John’s, thank your parents for paying for your fancy private high school, apologize for being an ungrateful little snot, and ask them if they won’t please sit down and share with you what they can actually afford to pay for college, so that you can put together your college list accordingly.</p>
<p>Bottom line: you don’t have to attend college in Kentucky. But you do have to understand what your parents are willing and able to pay, and work with them to come up with a college list that works for ALL of you. You may be eligible for merit aid that would reduce the cost of any number of schools, allowing you to attend school out of state and stay within your parents’ budget.</p>
<p>Yes, I am also looking at Saint Louis University, along with what I previously said: Xavier and University of Dayton. St. Louis is only 4 hours away from home, and is more of a city life style than Louisville. I am honestly just tired of Louisville and Kentucky. It is so suburban here, I really want to be a part of the city lifestyle, having good public transportation, new, exciting things to do. I’m ready to leave home, but they seem so obstinate of the idea of me going far away for college.</p>
<p>In addition to being concerned about finances, they are also allowed to be concerned about you leaving home for the first time. It’s normal . . . and, in the end, you’ll probably both have to make some compromises.</p>
<p>Sit down and talk with them about finances and any other concerns they have. Let them know you’re willing to listen to them. It will make it much easier for them to listen to you when the time comes, and you’ve put your final list together.</p>
<p>If you think St. John’s is an “elite” university, you haven’t done nearly enough research. Based on your stats, you’d certainly get in and very likely snag a nice merit award, which might make the finances work. But given its location (Queens, not Manhattan) and middling reputation, I think you could make a better choice. St. John’s is not the kind of college that attracts people from other parts of the country.</p>
<p>CUNY schools might be worth considering. Even out of state, their prices are more reasonable than many Us and some are in more urban areas. </p>
<p>Agree that it’s best to sit and calmly discuss what your folks can AND are willing to pay for your college for each of four years, what their interests and concerns are, and how you can work together to build a good college list, including affordable Us that you’d be happy to attend, are likely to be admitted, and can afford.</p>
<p>average aid pkgs don’t mean anything to any ONE student. The school has plenty of students who received ZERO aid. should they have expected to receive the “average amount”???</p>
<p>You need to ask your parents how much they’ll spend each year on college. And, you need to ask them to run the Net Price Calculators on St. Johns and SLU’s websites. </p>
<p>St. John is a good school, but I think it’s becoming a commuter/suitcase school because it draws so many students from the region. If so, then you may find yourself rather lonely at times. </p>
<p>St. John’s is NOT an elite university…not at all. Who told you that? It’s a good univ, just like UK is a good univ. UK is probably ranked higher than St John’s. </p>
<p>What are your test scores and GPA? There may be some Catholic univs that will give you merit scholarships. </p>
<p>What is your intended major and career goal?</p>
<p>Run the net price calculator on each school to see how much it would cost after applying financial aid grants (not loans) against its list price.</p>
<p>If your parents’ concern really is about the cost, you may also want to check these lists:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078</a></p>
<p>Cost really isn’t an issue. My sister attends University of Dayton, which is similar in cost to St. John’s. My brother also just graduated from University of Louisville. Their college experiences were so much different. For my brother it was basically another 4 years of high school. I want my college experience to be more like my sister’s.</p>
<p>When I say “elite”, I don’t mean elite as in Berkley or Harvard. I mean in terms of average, private universities. St. John’s is an excellent school with what seems to be a gorgeous campus. They also have a campus abroad. Students can study there for a semester. That is what my sister did with Dayton. Dayton has a sister college, Chaminade, in Hawaii. She was able to study there for a semester with Dayton’s tuition. I intend to major in clinical psychology or in Biology and then go into med school for Psychiatry. I’m stuck on the fence with psychiatry or clinical psychology. I was also looking at Fordham University in Bronx. They seem to be much more selective with their financial aid though. In terms of Catholic Universities, St. John’s and Fordham are excellent. Like I said, I have a 3.75 GPA, am in the Advanced Program (Less than 5% of students are selected for it), but have a terrible 25 ACT score. I did score a 9 on writing which is very good, my science killed my score. I’m taking it again in September.</p>
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<p>So what is the actual issue that your parents have with your college choices?</p>
<p>However, for pre-med purposes, you want a school that has a low net price so that you can save money and avoid debt, because medical school is expensive. Convenience to typical pre-med extracurriculars also helps. So does grade inflation relative to the students’ competitiveness.</p>
<p>If science is your weakest subject, the typical pre-med courses may weed you out of the path to medicine.</p>
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<p>That’s a bit of an understatement. While St. John’s once had a good reputation among Tri-state Catholic families several decades ago from what I’ve heard from some Catholic neighbors/teachers, its academic reputation has greatly declined since then. </p>
<p>St. John’s reputation even back in the '80s while growing up was such that my Catholic elementary school teachers made it a point to warn us and our parents of academically above-average kids that St. John’s academic reputation wasn’t what it was in the past and to consider Catholic universities with better academic reputations such as Fordham, Manhattan, etc. </p>
<p>At my NYC public magnet, the only reasons why classmates went off to St. John’s was for the well-respected Pharmacy program and/or because of a free ride scholarship for other programs. The latter type HS classmates who ended up enrolling were mostly those practically at the bottom of my graduating class. </p>
<p>I also dated a Pharmacist who attended St. John’s on a near-full ride scholarship and FA which made it nearly free for her. Her undergrad experience was while the Pharmacy program was great, the classes she had to take to fulfill core/distribution requirements outside her program were of noticeably far lower academic caliber than her Pharmacy courses. There was also a noticeable difference in academic-level and motivation between the average Pharmacy students and those from other parts of the university.</p>
<p>Only your folks can say whether cost actually is an issue. Their finances may be depleted after funding so much education, your sibs may have gotten some good financial packages. You need to talk to them. Can’t assume how much they have and are able to spend in your college. </p>
<p>Please be aware that there aren’t many jobs for psych or bio majors, unless they get grad degrees. Premed does require a lot of science. Med or grad school will be more expenses. </p>
<p>As you know, your ACT score is low for your GPA.</p>
<p>Take a look at Fordham.</p>
<p>If you had trouble with the science section of the ACT, try the SAT - it doesn’t have a science section. You can submit either one - colleges accept both.</p>
<p>Your parents money is their money. It isn’t your money. They get to choose what they spend their money on, not you. You are going to have to deal with whatever strings they place on the money. Find out what those strings are and find a college that meets their criteria and is acceptable to you. </p>
<p>If they don’t want to pay for a college that is far away they do not have to pay. You can go to such a college but then you have to figure out a way to pay for it on your own. Do find out exactly what they ARE willing to pay for and go with that.</p>
<p>Then say thank you to them. There are lots of kids who don’t get any money for college.</p>
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<p>A school cannot be elite and average at the same time.</p>
<p>Catholic schools in cities yet that have better reputations than St John’s:
Saint Louis University
St Michael’s
Villanova
University of Portland
Boston College
Fairfield
Gonzaga (WA)
Marquette
University of San Francisco
University of San Diego
Duquesne
DePaul
University of Dallas</p>
<p>To an extent, still better than St John’s:
Carroll (MT)
Barry (FL)
Viterbo
St Thomas (MN)</p>
<p>In short, if you like St John’s, you’ll likely enjoy these schools - and their location would be better (based on your criteria) than St John.</p>