maybe look at u of pittsburgh ! great school in a great city!
it may not be to late to apply.
https://oafa.pitt.edu/apply/
Did you apply for the Honors College at U Missouri ? It might be too late to get into the Honors College residential housing, but I would certainly call up the school and ask. Even if not, it looks like you would get access to smaller honors seminars and some special programs as a member of the Honors College.
I don’t think you’re going to get the merit/need based money you would need to make Pitt affordable, although I agree that it is a great school.
I think you have two good options now, and I’m not sure I’d take the gap year route in the hopes of getting into a better school. Gap years, in my judgment, are best taken if you want to take a gap year and have a specific plan for how to spend it. Posters on this thread have the right idea. See what the options are at each school. Can you study abroad or somewhere else for a semester to broaden your experience? Can you get an internship in the summer or during the year that will give you a different perspective?
Good luck - my personal view is that you should pick either Truman or UMissouri and not look back!
Mizzou sounds like the best choice academically, but to some degree it depends on what you want. E.g., journalism is world class there. You can always transfer after a year or two if you do well (GPA greater than 3.35). But the admissions numbers are even tighter at that level.
Yes, you did overshoot. Your creds may have been competitive at Vandy 25 years ago, but now competition is a global phenomenon. The very best in the world is better than the very best in North America.
As to being defined – you are hot stuff, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot be outcompeted. As a famous Nobel physicist said to me, “No matter how good you are, there are plenty out there that are better.”
Tulane gets about 30,000 apps now – far above what they got pre-Katrina, so it is a very difficult nut to crack.
Vanderbilt only accepts around 12%, has mean SAT in the 1500 range and things are getting even tighter there…
Had I been your counselor, I would have added or substituted Emory, Case, Rochester, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tufts, Purdue, (not CMU: it has zoomed into the stratosphere as well…), Champana. And if a smaller school were palpable, maybe Denison, Macalester, Beloit and a few others. I bet you would have been admitted to the majority of them - with $. Of course, it MAY be the case that your recs were not as strong as you think, and your essays may not have been sparkling. We never know everything about our files. If one of your recs indicated that you were top decile in potential, when most at Stanford are rated as top 5% or higher, you will have a problem. Nuances like that make a difference. There are people with academic potential higher than those with better grades and more glamorous extras.
In my high school class, the most brilliant student ranked in the top 15%. Nobody would have argued there. And he got into places many of those ranking above him did not and would not ever have a chance of getting into. He was much brighter and had done amazing things outside of school, such as win the state classics exam, and top five in the state math exam two years in a row. SAT 1580 – and this was in the 80’s before they adjusted everything upwards. The valedictorian was in the 1350 range, had won a cross country award at the state level and worked VERY VERY hard. Not to mention his near photographic memory. He applied to some of the same schools as did our genius man, and was nowhere near as successful. The salutatorian was in the 1380 range, and did cartoons for the school paper. They were very good, but that was all he did. And worked REALLY hard in school. Why he was infuriated that Cornell turned him down was mystifying. He didn’t have good counseling is my guess.
All of this to say is that there are factors over which you have no control. You did your best, and that is what mattered. You cannot change history, just the way you look at it. Also, you are not defined by the school – it is what you make of your college years.
I have a nephew who faced a similar situation, except that family shit screwed him up senior year. He ended up at a 3rd tier state school, did a 3.75 his firs two terms as a chem major, and for transfer was accepted at Swarthmore, Occidental, Pomona, Macalester and Centre – with plenty of $. He went to Swarthmore and on to a top 5 for an MD-PhD.
Go to the U of Missouri and be a rock star there!! if your scores are way above the average, then you will be able to stand out and get attention from professors and work and do research with them and be able to stand out!
My daughter went to a safety school for financial reasons and she was sure she would be miserable. Other people suggested a gap year and I am glad she did not take that advice. It is the right move for some but not for all - our financial situation did not change in the year and she would still have had to attend where we could afford. She had an incredible 4 years making the most out of every special program she was in and doing many internships. She graduated in May and is employed in her field. This is a young woman who went to college feeling that she was settling. It was actually the best place for her (by the way, her stats were higher than yours and she made her dream school but could not attend. She was heartbroken at the time.)
Just wanted to get back and send my utmost sincere thank you’s, for a bunch of strangers to be so supportive nand helpful is something to be said about.
As for myself, I’ve made a few phone calls and dug into things these last few days. As of right now, my path looks as if the Honors College at UM-C (w/o the intentions of transferring) will be the place for me. Just wish I had enough time to know so I didn’t lose the opportunities to things like the Cornell Leadership program. It’s all in hindsight though.
If anyone has any insight on how to get the most out of the big state school experience and would like to share I would be all ears. Any programs or organizations that people know of or any advice to look into as well!
Thank you CC
@zreader55, my son is in your shoes right now on the other side of the state (KC area). 35 ACT, 3.88GPA, many academic ECs, 8 APs,lots of community service, some leadership, but not quite as much as you. But an ACT that superscored as a 36, so he felt fairly confident. So far he’s been ejected or waitlisted from the elite schools that were the only ones where he could envision himself. Accepted at Northeastern with a sizable scholarship, but not enough to afford it. He does have an acceptance to University of Kansas (KU) Honors college, but he is disappointed and not at all excited. I don’t know that he questions the academics so much as he wanted a more urban, sophisticated, intellectual environment for college and he believes KU is just going to be high school all over again as many, many kids from our suburban upper-middle class region go to KU.
I feel for both him and you. You worked so hard and had a truly outstanding and extraordinary high school career, only to be rejected from the schools where you know you belong and would do well. But I agree with all the other posters that if you can both continue on the path you’ve been on at the state school, you will surprise yourself at how much you will enjoy it, how well you will do, and the rewards it will bring.
I don’t know if you’re considering graduate school, but we’ve been telling our son to do his best on AP exams, take CLEP tests once at school and he’d probably be able to graduate in 3 years and go on to a “better” grad school. If we keep funneling money into his 529 account, there should still be money left.
We haven’t researched gap years or transfers, but it sounds like merit money is still possible for transfers? I didn’t realize that. It seems like we’re at the end of the road, but there are so many possibilities for kids like you two and you absolutely will succeed and prosper.
Best of luck to you and sounds like you’ve got the right attitude and are already on the right track.
VERY little money for transfers, and very dependent on the school. A gap year is much better for finding merit aid options.
If you want/need merit options, a gap year is necessary since transfers get very little financial aid in the first place and do not have access to the large merit scholarships (reserved for freshmen).
For grad school, it’s important to use all 4 years to the max, including using Honors College opportunities to start taking graduate-level classes as a senior (or even as a junior).
@MYOS1634, that’s helpful information. I also hadn’t thought about him taking graduate-level classes while still at KU, so that’s interesting. I also think he’ll be happy with the study abroad options that could now be available to him if he attends KU, since we would be saving money. I know it’s all going to work out for my son & OP.
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Truman state university where I would only pay ~2k but be miserable, and the U of Missouri where I would pay about 9k, my most likely choice as of now.
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Unless you want a Liberal Arts College feel (Truman), Mizzou is the better choice.
Don’t go to a school with the intent of transferring otherwise you’ll likely be miserable and not make connections.
Either commit to going to Mizzou or Truman for four years, or take a gap year and reapply to a more sensible list.
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My family only has one income in my mother’s who makes roughly 125,000 a year. I also have around 20,000 in savings. Looking at these lofty tuition at elite schools just does not seem doable in my situation? And as far as size is concerned, I’m pretty open to anything but just do not prefer a small school (LACs)
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do you have siblings in college??? If not, how did you get an EFC of $9k when your mom earns $125k per year and you have $20k in savings??? How many people are in your household? Is there another parent in the household? Did you list the $20k on FAFSA??
And @zobroward just how would this student pay for Pitt?
To the OP…you have two very respectable schools that are affordable on your list. If you can, visit both…and see which feels the best of the two. Then go and make the most of it all.
Either that…or take a gap year and apply to a list where you would receive guaranteed merit aid as an entering freshman.
And I agree with Mom2cllege kids…with $125,000 in income, your FAFSA EFC with one student in college would be more like $30,000 a year. And your $20,000 savings would add another $4000 to that (20%).
Can’t imagine how you have $9000 EFC unless you have siblings in college too.
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maybe look at u of pittsburgh ! great school in a great city!
it may not be to late to apply.
https://oafa.pitt.edu/apply/
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@zobroward Why would you suggest UPitt to an OOS student whose family can’t pay much? What’s he supposed to use to pay for college???
Lots of top places fund transfers as well as they do first year students. Chicago, Swarthmore, Haverford, Brandeis, Cornell, Reed, Stanford, Pomona…
I’ll just chime in to say that there are several students from my children’s NYC suburban school who chose to go to University of Missouri.
@cutepug What is a palpable school? Also, why would you suggest Wisconsin which would cost an EFC $9k student about $40k/year? No merit at Wisconsin.
At this point I don’t recall the conversation, but I think we were talking about places where you may have been admitted. We were not talking $. Also, contiguous states often have mutual discount for their students. I believe Minnesota and Michigan or Wisconsin have such an arrangement, although it has been eons since I have been up on that.
Don’t look at a gap year as “delaying life for a whole year while everyone is off beginning theirs.” It’s not a delay at all. It’s a different kind of start. You’ll actually be living your life, not postponing it, gaining skills and maturing during that year. If you find something interesting to do, it will make you more interesting to admissions committees when you apply next year.
I agree with the others that if you decide to be happy at your safety, you most likely will be, but if you’d rather apply to a different batch of schools next year, there is no reason in the world why you shouldn’t do it.
It’ll be okay! You’re not alone! My D is not going to her top picks. She got accepted, but in the end, we can’t afford two picks, and don’t want to stretch for the third. She is taking the money and will hopefully squeeze everything she can out of the opportunities at her safety.
Where you go to school isn’t a measure of your self-worth or your destiny. Make a wise financial decision, and work hard. Get your emotions under control and use your head. You’ve got very good choices!