Please suggest some safety schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I'd really appreciate if somebody could recommend some good safety schools for me. I'm starting my senior year this Wed. so I'd like to finalize my list. So far I have Georgetown and Emory as reaches (BIG reaches, I know); my targets (I think?) are Fordham, University of Miami, UIUC, American, and Syracuse (maybe this one's a reach since I'm applying to Newhouse?); lastly, my safeties are Arizona State and University of Illinois @ Chicago. </p>

<p>A little background info about me:
-I'm 17 & male
-I had depression for most of hs, which reflects my horrible freshman year :/, but I'm not writing about it. I don't want it to be an excuse.
-I'm Cuban (Born in Chicago, but my grandparents/parents were refugees)
-I'm an Illinois resident
-I'm bisexual & agnostic (some little things that set me apart)
-My parents are divorced and my mum's had full custody of me since I was 1(ish)
-I have 2 sisters in college :(</p>

<p>Background info on my mom:
-She's been a single mother for like 15 yrs? I really don't remember my dad. My grandparents were such a big help in raising me though.
-She is college educated (degree in education) and she got her masters last year in reading.
-She just started a new job that makes $75,000, but for the past few years she's made only $50,000. So I don't have a lot of money saved for college...She's looking to go back to her old job next year though because she thinks it'll help with financial aid.</p>

<p>My Stats:
-I've taken all honors/APs excluding math. I was in advanced geometry freshman year but for sophomore year (and the years following), I decided to take Alg 2 Trig I, Pre-Calc I, and senior year I'll be taking AP Calc AB.
Other APs: US History, Language and Comp, American Gov't and Politics, and AP Microeconomics.
-Senior Schedule: Photo 1 (first sem), Journalism (2nd sem), AP Literature, International Relations (advanced), Leisure and Recreation (4 yrs of gym required in IL), AP Calc AB, AP psych, and AP Spanish.
-Uw GPA: 3.5 (ugh, low I know.); W GPA:5.1...my school weights it weird..
-Rank: top 15% (yeah, fml.)
-ACT: 1) 31 (E:34, R:34, S:27, M:27, no writing-school couldn't afford it.
2) 29 :( (E:31, R:30, S:25..., M: 28, writing: 8)..and I want to be a journalist too :/ lol. Retaking in October.
-Sat 2's: US History: 770, Spanish w/o listening: 740 (I speak it at home, but I'm not great at reading & writing); I want to take another one for GTown, just not sure which.
-Extracurriculars: Cross country (2 years), Yearbook (3 years, including editorship for 2), Club Environmental Rescue (3 yrs) , Habitat for Humanity (3 yrs), Stage crew (3 yrs), Spanish Honor Society (3 yrs), and Nat'l Honor Society (2 yrs). We don't even do anything for Sp Honor Society though, so it's useless.
-Community Service:
1) Ever since I was about 7 my family has helped out at a homeless shelter once a month for our church (they only have it once a month :/, but it's for 4-5 hours). We first set up pads and sheets, then we serve the food to the homeless, and afterwards we are able to eat and socialize. We also sometimes play bingo or do some other fun activities with them.
2) For three years I've helped out at my Church's thanksgiving drive. This is 4-5 hours a year, so it's not much. Anyways, I translate for Hispanic families and I'm a personal shopper (I tell them what they can get, and I hold the bag/box).
3) I also have helped for 3 yrs at the summer vacation bible camp. As a crew leader I lead a group of 5-6 kids (ages 5-10) throughout the stations and I help them in finding God (yeah, I'm not even Catholic lol).
4) I've helped out at this soccer camp for 2 summers. I was in charge of registration & translation. It took place in a low-income, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
5) I've gone two times to a food pantry, totaling 10 hours. I'm hoping to go more, it's just so hard to wake up early on Saturday mornings with school >.<</p>

<p>What I'm looking for in a school:
-I want to major in journalism (I prefer broadcast); also interested in double majoring in Spanish. I also would love a college with a good Portuguese department, I want to start learning the language :D
-Urban enviornment. This is a must...
-Not too small of a school. Maybe like 6,000 kids at least, not too big either though (20,000?)
-As far as cost, it's a safety, so I'd like somewhere where I could get a lot of merit or financial aid...I know I need a set amount that my mom can pay, but I'm hesitant to ask her. I want to have as few loans as possible, I may go to law school.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading this REALLY long post. I really do appreciate all the help and I thank you for your time if you were patient enough to read all of this! <em>If I forgot to add something, please tell me</em></p>

2

<p>Also, I’ve had an upward trend if that counts for something? I’m going to aim for all A’s my first semester of senior year.</p>

3

<p>Your safety needs to be somewhere that you can afford without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state-based aid (I don’t know if Illinois offers that, but your HS counselor surely does) and/or guaranteed aid from the college/university itself. Since you have siblings in college, your mom knows what the FAFSA is like. Sit down with her and run your family’s numbers through the formula to see what happens when she has three kids in college at once: <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2012-13-efc-forumula.pdf[/url]”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2012-13-efc-forumula.pdf&lt;/a&gt; Personally, I would not drop my income by 25k (roughly the in-state cost of attendance for many public universities) just to improve chances of financial aid. Especially if I were working in a school district where my pension will be based on years of service at $X income. For a truly expert analysis of that option, visit the Financial Aid Forum, and track down kelsmom who until recently was a university financial aid officer. There also are a boat-load of threads in the Financial Aid Forum on the topic of merit-based aid. Read through them and see if any of the places listed could work for you.</p>

<p>Suerte!</p>

4

<p>Okay, thank you for the help. It really sucks that college is so expensive. D:</p>

5

<p>Yup. It sure does. Happykid (half Cuban herself) went to the local community college for the first two years, received her AA last May, and has transferred to an in-state public U for the fall. Not her first choice (Columbia College Chicago for Theatre Design), but workable for our family.</p>

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<p>Oh, I’m full Cuban, but it’s always nice to meet other Cubans :). I’m assuming happykid is your daughter? Congrats for her :). You’re from Chicago too!? Haha, this is creepy :p. I haven’t really looked into Columbia college. I always thought it was private. Can I ask you how much the total COA is? I love that it’s in Chicago, but that’s really it…</p>

7

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I think Happymom meant that Columbia College was her D’s first choice, but isn’t attending there.</p>

<p>I think Happykid will be attending a public in their home state of Maryland. </p>

<p>Yes, a safety has to be affordable so you need to know FOR SURE what aid you’d be getting for a school to be affordable.</p>

<p>For instance, ASU isn’t a safety for you UNLESS you’re ASSURED of getting enough merit that the remaining costs can be covered with small federal loans and family funds.</p>

<p>you need to find out how much your mom can pay. With siblings in college, it’s doubtful that she could pay much if she’s earning $50k-75k per year. I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to try to earn less. </p>

<p>I don’t think any of the schools on your list promise to meet need. </p>

<p>It looks like your highest ACT composite is a 31. Is that right? </p>

<p>you should sign up the SAT since Science Reasoning is bringing down your composite. The SAT doesn’t have Science. And, it looks like you might end up with a high Math + Critical Reading score if you took the SAT. Better for admissions and merit scholarships.</p>

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<p>Happydad is the Cuban, and there are a bunch of Rolandos in his family which is why your username caught my eye. I’m gringa raza pura from Iowa. We live in Maryland, but visited Columbia College Chicago last summer on the way back from seeing some of my relatives. That college has a great location smack on Michigan Ave in the loop. Happykid loved it (well we all did), but the cost of attendance is about $40,000, and there is very little aid available, so it got scratched from the list when the aid package came in. They are very, very transfer friendly so for a student who can scrape the money together for two years there, starting at a community college or state U that is more affordable, it remains a decent option.</p>

<p>I know you don’t want to talk money with your mom and sisters, but you really need to find the strength to do that. Until you know how much will be available for you, you really won’t know how hard you are going to have to search to come up with your safeties. Once you do know where you are likely to end up, check on their policy about the CLEP exams. They are a bit tougher than the SAT II exams, and a bit easier than the AP exams. For about $80 a pop, you may be able to wipe out a whole bunch of Gen Eds.</p>

9

<p>A few thoughts,
Do not let your Mom switch jobs to help with financial aid! At $75,000 you should be eligible. That would not be a good move!
Second, group your ECs … Like volunteering and service through church, soccer etc. seems longstanding. Do ou have passion for it?
What is your passion? Make it clear.
You are URM … Find schools that are looking for diversity.
Does your school have decent counselors?
I don’t think bisexual/agnostic is the best point of difference.</p>

<p>Also find out places with strong financial aid. Northeastern? Tulane? BC? George Washington?
U Penn?</p>

10

<p>Oh, thank you guys so much, especially you Happymom! No one can ever say my name! They say Ronaldo or Orlando instead haha. I’ll look into the SAT but I’ve only prepped for the ACT so I feel like I’m not really prepared for the SAT. Our teachers don’t even mention the SAT :/, it’s all about the ACT here in IL. </p>

<p>@Murphy, I looked into those schools but they’re so expensive. Also, my stats aren’t exactly great for those schools. But thanks! Also yes, I love helping others. My mom has made sure that we give back to others that aren’t as blessed. Her family left Cuba with nothing and catholic charities helped her family so much. Will being bisexual and agnostic negatively impact me? Esp for GTown and Fordham? I never really thought about that lol.</p>