<p>I am a CT resident. And I'm going to be rank 1/500ish (currently 2, but rank #1 and I calculated I definitely will be 1 by this yrs end). Therefore, I will probably get full ride to uconn(ct valedictorian/salutatorian scholarship). Also, I have almost 2 whole years of uconn credit from early college experience.</p>
<p>However, I have been raised with a disdain for public unis. My parents went to public schools and my dad teaches at one, and they always have told me to tho to something better. They were limited by money. </p>
<p>Also, I sort of want to move a metro area. I lived in rural settings (<3k pop town in ny) until I was 15. And then I moved to slightly larger but still small city of about 40k in ct. </p>
<p>Also, I'm considering med school. So, it all boils down so- should I go to uconn for 2 hr for free, get bs and good grades and suck it up. Or pay 4 yr at private, have a good time, and still to to med?</p>
<p>My family"s financial situation is pretty well off, parents have saved a good sum of money since birth(about 2 yr of tuition).</p>
<p>Well it’s not just for being private. I’m also concerned about class size, academic environment, etc. The disdain is more from my parents. Its really deep for them. Even if I get full tuition, they would not allow me. I still need their financial support.</p>
<p>Also, for med I’m thinking about going for the army hpsp full scholarship. I don’t really support wars politically, but hey, I need to pay debts.</p>
<p>I’ve had my guys apply to public and private colleges and see where the finances worked out. They knew not to fall in love with any school, but only to apply to those they’d enjoy going to. It worked out well (and both of my older two are going private).</p>
<p>Start looking at colleges and see which appeal to you for applications. Then apply, but I’d lose the chip on your shoulder before writing any of the essays or doing interviews… or you might not like what you see come acceptance time. Learning tolerance and tact is a useful skill. More than once I’ve seen higher ranked kids do poorly at acceptance time and it surprises no one except themselves and their parents. There are several equal caliber students out there for schools to choose from. Those with people skills that shine through will find more opportunities. Those who feel they are better than everyone else often find out others don’t share their belief. You’ll still make it in the automatic places, but…</p>
<p>This student’s parents have an income of over $200k, they have assets and savings and 2 homes. He won’t qualify for any aid.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t want his parents to pay or they won’t pay, he needs to have a strategy and apply to the right schools that will give him merit.</p>
<p>It’s fine to apply to a couple of schools that only give need-based aid, but why waste time/money applying to many if the parents won’t pay or the son doesn’t want them to pay full freight.</p>
<p>*Ok, so I have a question about how my efc will be affected since my parents own two homes. They make a little over 200k/yr for just them, my brother, and me.</p>
<p>But here’s the thing. The only reason we have a 2nd home is because my mom had to relocate for her job as a statistician. It would’ve caused significant financial hardship if she did t take her job, especially since we lived in a place where there was practically no statistican jobs besides her old one. So we bought a new home close to her new work.</p>
<p>But we retained our old home because my dad works till kept his old job since quitting would also wreck Pur family.</p>
<p>So it’s not as if we have bought a vacation home. It does mean that my family has to pay off 2 mortgages. If you take our family’s relatively high income and subtract expenses, we only gain about 5k. However, my parents have been saving money for college since I was a baby, and we have 80k in my collee fund.</p>
<p>Will my efc be less than most ppl with same family incomes?*</p>
<p>Certainly I’d apply to UConn. The honors program isn’t a bad option and especially with med school a possibility, finances just have to be part of the equation (although it is great that your parents saved 2 years, tuition college and med school total 8 years leaving a big gap).</p>
<p>I’d also investigate private colleges where you might qualify for scholarships. These will generally be schools where you are above their averages. For example, my S is at Fordham and they can be generous with merit aid if they really want a student – not that you have to apply to Fordham, but that is one example of a metropolitan private school where you can get a great education and may get merit money. You can search around and come up with other ideas.</p>
<p>Here is my advice for you. You should do some research and find schools that will provide you a full ride, tuition plus room and board (travel, etc.). Then you should go to the best school you can find that will do this for free.</p>
<p>At this point you will essentially be financially independent of your parents.</p>
<p>M2CK, I was thinking merit aid when I wrote what I did. It still applies. There are schools where, pending actual stats and attitude, merit aid could be significant and beat (or equal) state school costs. I wouldn’t think of applying to need-based only schools in the OP’s situation. (No Ivies, etc.)</p>
<p>Since the OP would like private and appears to potentially have good stats, it’s worth a try.</p>
<p>Will your parents pay the premium for a private school if the lowest cost option happens to be a public school? Or will they force you to take more student loan debt to pay for the private school even if you want to go to the lower cost public school?</p>
<p>Your best option, all things considered, may be UConn.
But here are a few more or less urban, private schools that might give you enough merit aid to make them cost-competitive (not necessarily cheaper), yet still give you the quality features you seem to want:</p>
<p>Brandeis
Case Western
Tulane
University of Miami
University of Richmond
Rhodes College</p>
<p>Yea, I just got in an argument with my mom about this topic. She got really angry that I would consider a school like fordham. She also made t sound like I’m crucifying myself if I go to uconn.</p>
<p>My parents attitude stems from the fact that they value education over every thing else in the world. Growing up ib the philippines, they were pretty poor by american standards. They always proselytize about how their education go them where they are now.</p>
<p>There are some elites that offer merit scholarships up to free tuition (possibly even free rides), but they are VERY competitive to get - as in hundreds or more applications for a handful of offers. WUSTL is one. Vanderbilt would be another. You’re not even guaranteed acceptance into these schools with good stats, much less merit aid.</p>
<p>It’s worth it to try them, but you can’t count on them.</p>
<p>Go down just a tad and get to Case Western, University of Rochester, etc, and your odds get a little better for some merit aid if not totally free (tuition). Also, let mom know that UConn is ranked #58. That’s not horrid - esp for free (or free tuition). But there are private colleges you can try to see if you end up with a similar cost via merit aid. Show them other things about the schools you like - mainly what their grads have done. E-mail places and ask where they’ve gotten students into med school (do that for UConn too). If they see where _____ grads have gone, they might soften up a little and see the possibilities. Remind them you will need the $$ they saved for med school.</p>
<p>*Yea, I just got in an argument with my mom about this topic. She got really angry that I would consider a school like fordham. She also made t sound like I’m crucifying myself if I go to uconn.</p>
<p>My parents attitude stems from the fact that they value education over every thing else in the world. Growing up ib the philippines, they were pretty poor by american standards. They always proselytize about how their education go them where they are now.
*</p>
<p>Your parents need to do a little homework and learn where the sucessful professionals around them went to undergrad. I think they’ll be surprised to learn that many of them went to “non-elite” schools.</p>
<p>Your mom is a statistician. you don’t need a degree from an elite to be a successful one. Not at all.</p>
<p>As stated before, for med school, I’m considering applying for the army’s hpsp (full tuition) scholarship. In exchange you have to serve as army doctor.</p>
<p>Would anyone know if you can do hpsp for med and do ROTC in undergrad as well?</p>