Hey, you don’t have to tell us where you’re from, but if you’re from the west-ish coast, look into the Western Undergraduate Exchange. I don’t know the details but I know people who have saved a LOT of money through it!!! There are applications due every year in the fall, and essentially you can pay max 150% of what you would pay for in state at any one of the participating schools if you get it.
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i’m not unfortunately ): east coast here haha. but thank you for the suggestion! i’ll go diving and see if there’s a similar type of thing for the east coast. <3
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I also will recommend that you try Middlebury and a few other “full need met with loans”. Middlebury in particular is both really strong in environmental science, and is trying to increase minority enrollment. So if you are accepted, there is a good chance that they may meet all need without loans.
While your family is likely making too much for you to qualify for Questbridge, is your city a Posse city (Boston, NYC, DC, or Philadelphia and Newark for the virtual program), and is your school a public school? While you usually have to be nominated by your school, you can always ask your counselor to get your school nominate you. It only covers tuition, but full need met college which are Posse partners will usually cover the rest.
my school is a public magnet school, but we are not a posse city from what the website shows me ):
i have been looking into outside scholarships similar to questbridge that offer large sums of money/full rides based on merit, like the bryan cameron foundation. i’m just worried maybe my grades and ECs aren’t competitive enough for such a thing; my school focuses on career technical education since its vocational, so APs are basically only available junior and senior year.
bryan cameron’s EA application isn’t due until may though, and i am currently working on other projects related to my current ECs in order to keep building that “spike,” so i hope that can help my application. they’re also test optional which helps a lot seeing as my SAT was cancelled twice.
Posse has also added a virtual program which works with Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Memphis, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, some cities in Minnesota and Virginia. The process of selection and precollegiate training is online for these locations.
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Apply to a school with a Stamps scholarship. Its very competitive, but its another avenue for you.
https://www.stampsscholars.org/our-program/criteria-and-eligibility/
Also NC State Park scholarship(another competitive scholarship) you can ask your school to nominate you.
have you heard back from Thrive/SCS Noonan?
I’m confused about your description as a first gen latina: black, white, asian aren’t really part of the latino cultures (unless the AA part of your background is hispanic-based). The Hispanic scholarships, that my children applied to, had cultural requirements.
Typically, a number of these scholarships require strong participation in cultural events. The scholarships are competitive and can’t be relied upon.
those are my racial backgrounds, not my ethnicity.
and i know, i’m not trying to rely entirely on these cultural scholarships. i’m applying to a lot of merit & community service based ones and after making this post i heavily expanded upon my safeties list, so i feel a lot more confident about being able to actually afford going somewhere i like.
no, we hear back the 20th of this month!!
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any news on Thrive?
There’s a lot to see on here.
The first thing I’m concerned with is that you are looking at many schools that offer need based aid only. Don’t confuse your parents won’t contribute with that means you have need. It doesn’t. Colleges base on your family, etc. If one could say anyone can contribute, everyone would say that.
So you’ll need a CSS. With 110K and 4 dependents, there might be some need but not as much as you think. So applying to the Stanfords of the world will not pay off for you.
Secondly - your rigor is low - although I can’t say that for sure. Does your school offer a ton of APs and you took a few. Or you are taking all you can.
It would help for you to establish a weighted GPA - using .5 extra for Honors and 1 for AP. Most use that and it will help people see your rigor.
Just my opinion - but I don’t see you with any possibility to Stanford or Colby. Mt. Holyoke will be tight.
It’s interesting to me the mix of schools you have - Colby - LAC in the middle of nowhere. A Kenyon would be a reach for you; a Dennison a target. Macalester would be another good one if you want to be in the city. Mt. Holyoke is within range. Oberlin another.
If you don’t say what state you are from, we cannnot steer you away. Every day kids that are not yet out post on here - so you have zero risk of being found.
Here’s a list that may help you.
Top 50 LGBTQ Friendly Schools | CollegeChoice
You may also look at the Colleges that Change Lives (Kalamazoo would be a good one).
Good luck to you.