<p>Okay so I am a rising senior which means I have a lot to do this summer/fall and I need to start by knowing where I am going to be applying. The thing is, I don't have much money to just apply to any place I want to go and I am pretty sure that my fee waivers are limited to four. (Also, if any of you have any info. about this, explain it to me please).
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I can't bring myself to narrow my focus into one major or something so I am having a hard time limiting my school list. I am 99.9% sure I want to major in either anthropology or psychology, but then that .1% kind of wants to do business (marketing). Btw, I am a Florida resident.</p>
<p>Here is my list of schools:</p>
<p>Florida State University
University of Florida
University of South Florida
University of Miami
Boston University
Northeastern
George Washington University
University of Washington
Syracuse
Fordham
NYU
SUNY Binghamton
Cornell
Purdue
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina
Penn State - University Park
Tufts University</p>
<p>Also, I'm an IB student, I'm in our school's color guard, in NHS, and throughout high school I have done half a year of Spanish club, two years of Key Club, and 100+ hours of community service. </p>
<p>Thank you so much for reading this super long post.</p>
<p>Remove Purdue. OOS publics are not terribly generous and you will have a gap in financial aid. Although it is a good school, it would not be worth it to go there for your intended major(s).
If you are in need of financial aid, I would drop NYU as well. </p>
<p>Do you know how much you can afford for school? I recommend you run the EFC calculators on each school and determine which schools on your list meet need and spend some time looking at the school’s FA websites. I would keep all the in-state options, possible adding UCF.</p>
<p>Look at (1) private schools that commit to meeting 100 percent of need (preferably without loans) and (2) private and public schools that give merit aid for students with your stat’s. For schools that don’t offer guaranteed merit aid (and most don’t), that means you need to be at the very tippy top of their applicants. If their average applicant has a 3.2 GPA (for example), they’ve got no reason to give merit aid to a candidate with a 3.2 GPA - they’ve already got lots of those! You need to be far enough above their average for them to want to PAY to have you as a student!</p>
<p>Princeton Review can give you an idea of each school’s average GPA/test scores. You can also search each school’s website for its “common data set”. The info in the common data set includes the test scores and GPAs of their incoming students. You want to search for the most recent data you can find - right now, that’s probably the 2012 data set.</p>
<p>Almost forgot - I’m not aware of any limitation on the number of application fee waivers you can apply for. After all, that request is made to the school directly. All you need to do is ask your guidance counselor to write you a letter saying you can’t afford the application fee. That should be good enough for most private schools . . . not sure about public schools.</p>
<p>Thank you both so much! I have done the EFC and I got a 0%. Purdue and NYU are off the list then, I know NYU has terrible financial aid so I was thinking of cutting that one anyway. So really if I apply OOS it should be to private schools only? In that case I should take of University of Michigan and Penn State too. I’ve heard that SUNY schools actually give really good FA (even to OOS students), is this true? I will also add UCF. Also, before I was trying to choose between BU and BC but since Bu does not meet 100% of need, I’ll probably go back to BC. I’ll also remove Northeastern (although I love the co-op program), George Washington, Syracuse and UW because they do not meet 100% need as well. I really can’t bring myself to get rid of Fordham because I realllly would love to go to school in NYC, same with Boston. Any tips on that?
ALSO, if you know of ANY schools that would suit me please tell me :)</p>
<p>Take another look at that list of automatic/guaranteed scholarships . . . most, if not all, of those are state schools. If your stat’s are in the right range, that’s guaranteed aid.</p>
<p>By the way, about going to school in NYC if you don’t have a lot of money . . . even if you were to get a grant that covered everything (tuition, room/board, etc.), NYC is still an extraordinarily expensive place to live! When your friends all go out to a club, what do you do? Heck, when your friends go out to a neighborhood bar or cafe, what do you do? Read [this</a> post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/10910419-post21.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/10910419-post21.html) by a mom whose kid got a generous scholarship to NYU . . . it ended up not being quite what he expected. Frankly, if you’re on full financial aid, it’s much easier to be at a small liberal arts college out in the middle of nowhere. I know you’d love to live in the city . . . but this might not be the time for it.</p>
<p>If you can do some ACT prep over the summer and try retaking it in September, that could help you a lot. Get that score up a few points and that will help you.</p>
<p>And I don’t agree that you shouldn’t apply to Fordham just because it’s a high reach. There’s nothing wrong with including one high reach in your list. Just be realistic and remember that the schools at the bottom of your list are more important than the ones at the top!</p>
<p>You’re a woman with strong, but not stellar, stat’s . . . the trick is to find the colleges that want you as one of their students. They’re out there - you just have to find them!</p>
<p>Most definetly drop Penn State-university park
I got accepted at that exact branch and I would’ve went if the financial aid was better, it sucks!
As far as fee waivers go, if you get free or reduced lunch or if you recieved a fee waiver for ACT or SAT
You can go to NACAC website and print the fee waiver from their and let the CAP advisor at your school sign it
Those are unlimited</p>
<p>I will echo what most people said here–the financial aid is not going to be there for you at most of the schools you’ve listed. Your scores are competitive for Florida State and less so for UF. I’d add at least one more Florida public school where you could be happy. Your majors are going to be offered anywhere, and they’re the type of majors that often lead to graduate school, so you don’t want to be saddled with debt in undergrad.</p>
<p>Run the net price calculator on each school’s web site to see what they would cost you, based on their estimated financial aid.</p>
<p>If not affordable on need-based financial aid, check for merit scholarships that may make them affordable. But if that is the case, then you need to aim for the merit scholarships, not just admission. If the school is unaffordable on need-based financial aid, and there are no reachable merit scholarships, then it is not worth applying to that school.</p>
<p>As others have noted, many of the schools on your list are not all that generous with need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>The problem is that virtually all private, full-need, no-loan schools are very selective (either high reaches or out-of-reach for the OP’s stats). So those may not be realistic choices.</p>
<p>The best options may be in-state public schools, or else private schools that meet 90% or more of demonstrated need and also admit a significant number of students with the OP’s stats (examples: Dickinson, Gettysburg, Smith).</p>
<p>Wow, so much new info lol Okay, so my list so far goes as follows:
UF, FSU, USF, UCF for sure. And possibly one OOS, full need-met, private university? @mom2collegekids: It would be wise to pick one privates that “meets need” in-state you mean? For example University of Miami? @dodgersmom: thank you for all of your advice, and I do agree, I’ve been thinking more about it and I am going to try to focus on the education rather than the location. @iqueena: thank you, thank you, thank you for the NACAC idea! @theunforgiven: thank you for the suggestion, I will research it @ucbalumnus: Do you know of any merit scholarships that pay more attention to school performance rather than standardized testing? Just because, and many people say this, but I am really a terrible test taker and @tk21769: I will research Dickinson, Gettysburg, and Smith, thank you :)</p>
<p>For those alternative merit scholarships, look at the Colleges That Change Lives - their focus tends to be on holistic evaluation, rather than just the numbers.</p>
<p>And I don’t agree that you shouldn’t apply to Fordham just because it’s a high reach. There’s nothing wrong with including one high reach in your list. Just be realistic and remember that the schools at the bottom of your list are more important than the ones at the top!</p>
<p>I didn’t say to remove Fordham because it’s a high reach (because it’s NOT a high reach). I advised her to remove Fordham because they won’t give her the aid she needs.</p>
<p>OP…I don’t think UMiami promises to meet need. I don’t think it will meet need for a 0 EFC whose stats aren’t high for the school.</p>
<p>You need to find a school that will meet need.</p>
<p>I would take off Cornell and Tufts as well unless you can get the SAT scores up. And I would add a couple of other FL state schools such as USF.</p>
<p>Yes I do have a non-custodial parent but I have never had “contact” with him (I didn’t meet him until I was 10, no child support, etc.) so I don’t think he really counts? And also, as we’re talking about stats, does it matter at all that my stats are considered really good at my high school?</p>
<p>Noncustodial parents always count when it comes to college payment expectations. Schools will include that income in the total family income available for college. Your stats in comparison to your school figures in your class rank which is very good. Some schools value this highly, others not so much. Otherwise, your SAT/ACT are compared to students applying from around the world (one of the reasons a standardized test is considered).</p>
<p>The Non-Custodial Parent was THE biggest issue for my niece. More so than test scores/GPA.</p>
<p>Talk to your school counselor IMMEDIATELY. If you are already out of school for summer, call/e-mail counselor.</p>
<p>My niece was able, with aid of counselor, to get a NCP waiver at some colleges. The counselor was not very familiar with the process and it took some research on both the part of my niece contacting the colleges and getting details and on the part of the counselor to aid in providing back-up.</p>
<p>You have a good list of your state schools. To round out the list, focus on the NCP/finanical aid/net price calculator and merit requirements.</p>
<p>Your list shows that you like very large schools and seem to prefer cities. American in DC may be worth a look. I have heard both great and horrid things about the FA. For my niece, it was reasonable.</p>
<p>hendrix college maybe a great fit for you. if you are tight on money and you go far from home how often to you plan on going home? florida also has some real good schools you did not list like eckerd college and florida southern! check them out if you need to stay in florida!</p>
and