I recently got a higher act score so I’m reconsidering the kind of schools I want to go to. Before I was looking at mostly safety schools but now I have more confidence and am interested in applying to schools in a different range. Any guidance would be appreciated!
FINANCES
My EFC is $6135 but in reality I’d probably cap what they can contribute at around 3.5k, if that. We fall into the financial aid blindspot so somewhere that meets 100% need or has really good aid programs for middle income families is a must
FUTURE PLANS + PREFERENCES
I’d like to enter the medical field or deal with mental health so nursing or neuro or psych (open to other suggestions, too)
I have a strong preference to go anywhere outside of the midwest (I prefer warm but will brave the cold for the right school) but other than that I’m not limiting myself too much geographically or in any other respect
HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMICS
GPA (weighted) 3.868
GPA (unweighted) 3.585
9th & 10th- mix of a’s b’s and c+'s
honors, differentiated, and pre-ib courses
took 4 years of spanish and 2 years german
11th & 12th- nearly all a’s
transferred to science focus program
3 ap’s, some differentiated classes
Various clubs
-only had leadership in fems for change ( communications officer 2015-16)
-member of young dems 9-11
-member of gardening club 11+12
-member of yoga club and international club 12th
-on organizing committee of multicultural festival 2016
TESTING
I have a 32 on the act
34 in english
27 in math
34 in reading
33 in science
Home state? Private or Public? Large or Small? Urban or Rural? What schools were on your original list? Have you run the net price calculators on any schools of interest?
Sorry, I’m from Nebraska, I’m finding that private schools usually have better aid for out of state kids but I don’t prefer one over the other in any other respect, I don’t have strong preferences about size or urban/rural, I suppose I’d lean more towards middle size and not super rural. Originally, I was looking at University of Nebraska-Omaha, Nebraska Wesleyan, Sierra Nevada College, various California State schools, and Georgia State. Most net price calculators for the mid-tier schools offered little to nothing (we make too much to get aid but not enough to be able to afford those prices) but for higher ranking schools (Colby, Emory, etc) I’m finding it’s much more feasible financially.
You say you make too much to get aid, but your EFC is only $6135. That doesn’t seem to make sense. People who make to much to get aid have EFCs much higher than that.
Publics do not normally give aid to OOS students so that may be why you weren’t getting any on some of the NPCs, not that your income was too high. Forget about CSUs, UCs and Gerorgis State. I think if you target some mid-tier privates you should be able to get some aid and if you look a step lower you may even get merit.
But, $3500 is going to be hard to work with if that’s really all you can afford. You can borrow $5500, and then get work study but its going to be rough. That won’t even cover room and board at many schools.
If you haven’t yet, I’d suggest googling and printing out a list of schools that meet full demonstrated need. Then compare the list to the US News lists for national universities and liberal arts colleges. Forget any school from 1-20 on either US News list. There are probably some schools from 20-40 that meet full need where you would at least have a chance of getting into and that might be appealing. You could have a decent shot of admission at schools above 40, so consider those for sure, though there are few schools in that range that meet full need.
Trying for merit would be tough because you really need full tuition at least. A $25,000 merit scholarship at a private school will not help.
If the OP’s family income is not much higher than the national median (~$60K or less), then some selective “full need” colleges (like Colby) might offer net prices below $10K or so. That might be low enough to close any remaining gap with “self help” (student loans, work-study, summer employment).
If there is a much larger gap between the net cost and what the family actually can and will contribute, then a better cost-management strategy may be to focus on much less selective schools that guarantee big merit scholarships for qualifying stats. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Another alternative might be in-state public colleges within commuting distance from home.
To amend my post above (after seeing you mentioned an interest in Colby): For liberal arts colleges, I would change my sentence to say don’t bother to look at ones from 1-10 (not 20). For one thing, I think there are more selective universities than LACs, so a university at 25 might be as selective as an LAC at 15. And some LACs may have more advantages in admissions for certain students: Smith would be more selective if it was coed, for example, and Vassar is less selective for men. And smaller schools may value geographic diversity more than a bigger school that already has applications from everywhere.