Rising senior looking for help building college list [California resident, 4.0 GPA, psychology and/or business/marketing, <$30k]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Senior, lives in California, US citizen, public school (highly academically ranked)
4.0 UW/4.5 Weighted - 2 dual enrollment college classes
6 APs, 4 honors, Not submitting SATs or ACTs. Top math is AP A/B Calc, in AP Spanish 4,

Competitive rock climber 7+ years (hoping to climb in college but not competitively)
Lots of volunteering both locally and for national organizations
Very involved with clubs at school
Very good leadership (but didn’t cure cancer or take major projects)
Teaches (job) at Sunday school
No major awards outside of student of the semester 2x

Majors - Psychology and Marketing (could double major or major minor - depending on school and offerings). Plans to go on to MBA. (does volunteer work for both of these interests including running social media for a national nonprofit focused on mental health issues)

School doesn’t rank but if maintains all A’s will be valedictorian along with all the other A students. Confirmed to be top 9% of class (could be higher but school doesn’t share data).

Essays and LOR will be very strong.

GOAL - Find more school options that would give enough merit to get it below 30K w/ room and board - annually. Or that could potentially grant full tuition or full rides to get the price even lower. More than likely will not qualify for any financial aid - so all merit / school scholarships.

Ideally school has a campus and 4000+ students and not too far from a city or suburbs. Rural is not as appealing to them. But weighing merit vs location - getting us on budget would win.

Staying away from states that have taken away reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights. Not an LGBTQ kid but strong supporter.

Will be applying to the UCs and some Cal State schools. Looking for suggestion outside of California that we should get to know with their stats and our budget. Schools we are considering - with the understanding that a number of them won’t come close to our $ goals (we are aware).

Safety
Carthage College
Clark University
Fordham University
Miami University, Ohio (will go for honors college)
Michigan State University
Ohio University
Quinnipiac
University of Richmond

Target
American University - know that $ will probably be too high but otherwise seems like it could be a good fit
Bryn Mawr College
University of Colorado Denver
University of Connecticut
University of Oregon
University of Washington-Seattle
University of Toronto - Scarborough

Reach
Scripps College
University of Chicago
UCs
Cal Poly

1 Like
2

I don’t think U of O will come in under budget as they don’t offer WUE. Utah does though, and sometimes even more. My son was offered one year tuition free followed by three years in state. Some get all 4 years of tuition waived. As a place to be outdoorsy. You’d be hard pressed to beat it. For an avid rock climber, Oregon State, especially the Cascades campus is very close to Smith Rock, one of the best climbing destinations in the world. Good luck!

7 Likes
3

I believe Salt Lake City has a climbing gym that is used for national training.

Maybe St Olaf or University of Minnesota?

2 Likes
4

I’ll add that my liberal, atheist Californian D enjoyed her time at Utah immensely, and had a great group of climbing friends, both in the gym and outdoors. They were members at Momentum (https://momentumclimbing.com/millcreek/) and a couple of them worked the front desk part time. It is a short drive from campus and I believe the climbing team practice there.

There’s plenty of climbing in the Wasatch but their favorite was Joe’s Valley which is an easy weekend trip from SLC:

Just to add, a 4.0/rigorous schedule student should get better than WUE (which itself is about $30K for tuition, room and board), the top Presidential scholarships now incentivize you to get residency after the first year (by staying for the summer) and then cover full tuition plus $5000 towards housing (in the first year you pay a little over $10K towards OOS tuition but get the $5000 housing subsidy). So net cost is around $25K the first year and $10K after that. D stayed every summer anyway, even during the pandemic, due to the outdoor opportunities.

3 Likes
5

Colorado State has WUE which will get you to $40K - also offer some merit, but I’m not sure how generous it is out of state. Tons and tons of climbing in CO.

2 Likes
6

Not a fan of your list because you have a target and you’re not choosing schools to hit it. Or that meet your own desires.

I don’t see Clark, Fordham, Michigan State, Quinnipiac or Richmond coming in at $30k. Miami and Ohio U are possible but both are rural. Sure you can be in Cincy and Dayton in less than an hour. Miami is $57k and promises at least $15k. And you must not have checked the anti lgbtq bias in Ohio.

Your matches are also a no go financially except CU Denver which is WUE. You might like AU but you don’t want $55k plus. Btw their biggest cross shop according to admissions is not GW but U of Denver. It will be in the 40s. Cheaper than AU.

Same with Chicago and Scripps unless you have demonstrated need.

So the issue will be a lot of the schools to hit your budget will be in states you don’t want to be in.

U of Arizona will be mid 20s. Tucson is blue. There’s politics at play but there’s a Democratic Governor and Attorney General. It’s a merit chasing school when you have a 4.0 and the Honors dorm is awesome.

Kansas is another to look at ( KU). It has a democrat Governor but the house/senate are right. While I can’t say they are lgbtq friendly, they had an abortion access vote and it’s now embedded into the station constitution.

I’d also run costs (with merit) for Binghamton, UMaine and URI which are all aggressive. None are in the sticks - not even UMaine.

Lastly WUE will be your gift. Colorado State - a bit high. NAU. Hawaii. UNR and UNLV. Portland State. WWU would all meet your city and cost desires. UNM didn’t show up on WUE but would likely work too.

If you want to chase $30k, you have to change gears.

You have a great list but not a $30k list.

Good luck.

3 Likes
7

Michigan State honors can get really close with close to 1/2 tuition, mentoring, research and $5,000 for study abroad. They also have the ability for full tuition waiver but that’s not easy but I am not sure where they climb there?

3 Likes
8

I agree that the list in your first post is not a list with many schools that will make a $30k budget, nor do all the schools meet your state criteria.

Below are some schools that would generally be extremely likely admits that would have either a chance or a guarantee of meeting budget.

  • Binghamton (NY): About 14k undergrads. Price has gone up significantly on this one, as it’s now almost $46k/year. But they’ve been trying to get more out-of-state students with merit aid, so it’s at least worth looking into.

  • Bradley (IL): About 4k undergrads. Sticker of around $60k, but your D may get sufficient merit aid to bring this within budget as none of the net prices by income are over $30k.

  • Grand Valley State (MI): About 19k undergrads. This school will be right around $30k sticker, but merit aid is a definite possibility here. It’s just outside of Grand Rapids and I believe there’s a free shuttle or bus pass that allows students to get back and forth.

  • Loyola Chicago (IL): About 12k undergrads. There net price has been going up each year, but they do offer generous merit aid, and it could be worth an application to see how much your D would get.

  • New Mexico State: About 12k undergrads. With WUE this would be well within budget (about $23-24/yr).

  • Salisbury (MD): About 6700 undergrads. About $35k at sticker, but there’s a definite shot for sufficient merit aid.

  • Seton Hall (NJ): About 6k undergrads just outside of NYC. Your D might get sufficient merit aid here to bring it within budget.

  • Siena (NY): About 3500 undergrads just outside of Albany. Your D might get sufficient merit aid to get this in budget.

  • SUNY New Paltz (NY): About 6100 undergrads. At all the SUNYs (outside of Binghamton), students from California can attend for the same price as tuition at UC-Berkeley.

  • U. of Minnesota – Duluth: About 8800 undergrads and sticker would be just under $30k, with merit aid also a possibility.

  • U. of Nevada – Reno: About 17k undergrads and sticker would be about $27k with WUE.

  • U. of St. Thomas (MN): About 6100 undergrads and the net prices look very favorable to getting this school within budget via merit aid.

  • Western Washington: About 14k undergrads and would run close to $29k with WUE.

2 Likes
9

I expect you know that Scripps won’t get down to 30K on merit alone. Best-case with max merit is in the low 50’s.

My first thought when reading your post (before I got to the budget part!) was Northeastern. You can do a Business+Psych combined major there, and they have a recreational climbing club as well as a club team. The Business+Psych major is also available on the new Oakland campus, a.k.a. the former Mills College. There’s merit to be had - not enough to get down to 30K, but probably comparable to Scripps.

Not “outside of California” but U of San Francisco tends to give merit to match UC costs for strong CA students. They have both marketing and of course psych majors, and I’d expect (but don’t know for sure) that you could combine them. They also have a climbing club that is well-connected to the larger SF climbing community. My kids’ friends who have gone there have had very good experiences. (And they’ve all been LGBTQ kids or strong supporters.) Almost 6K undergrads so it fits your desired size. There may be similar schools outside of California, in addition to Fordham - maybe Seattle U would work? U of Portland? (Not Jesuit like the others so possibly a little more conservative, but nothing in Portland is that conservative!)

U of Puget Sound is good for both liberal arts and business. Pretty generous with merit. Smaller than you want but maybe worth a look.

WWU might work - WUE is competitive there but possible.

U of Denver - maybe too expensive but good size & location and excellent undergrad business.

Good luck!

2 Likes
10

You could apply for the Stamps Scholarship at University of Oregon and it would cover all tuition and fees, but it is very competitive (only five awarded per year). Otherwise, I agree with @eyemgh that Oregon State is a better bet for your budget. That assumes you are awarded the WUE scholarship that is granted to approximately the top 10% of out-of-state applicants — apply early if interested.

3 Likes
11

A student with that concern may want to pay attention to what is happening in Ohio state legislation.

4 Likes
12

I’m having trouble determining if “target” is target because there’s a decent chance of getting in but not getting to a point where you’re spending <30k/year, or if you’re just looking at them as targets from a pure admissions standpoint. But if the latter, then I think CU-Denver and Oregon should be safeties. With the apparent rigor of your high school schedule and a top 10% of the class standing at a good school, you’ll have no trouble gaining admission to those schools. No idea what CU-Denver’s costs are like. Oregon’s pretty pricey for out of state students so you’d need to receive some significant merit aid to get to your target price.

13

That would mean that it is only a “target” / “match” if the sufficiently large merit scholarship is a “target” / “match”.

14

Yeah, that’s what I was trying to get at. If the list is truly “get in and attend for less than $30k/year” then I guess UO could be considered a target, but if it’s just a list of potential admissions outcomes, I’d say it’s a safety.

15

It’s a reach (at $30K) - Stamps or bust I believe.

16

My daughter was one of the 36 finalists for the Stamps this year at U of O. The night of the dinner they told the kids that they doubled their original merit scholarship. So, if they weren’t picked for the Stamps they would still get a larger scholarship. COA for OOS was going to be closer to 40K with the additional money. Also, honors college adds a few additional thousand per year if you are interested in that.

2 Likes
17

So one of 36 out of how many? That’s why I say reach.

OP is looking for $30K - so $40K reach.

And your Honors College comment - are you saying they get a few more in scholarship or the Honors College has a fee of a few thousand (like ASU does).? I wasn’t sure.

Either way - Oregon is an admissions safety but a high reach overall - in my opinion.

Congrats to your student. That’s an awesome accomplishment.

18

Honors college costs an additional few thousand. I agree an admissions safety…it is the final COA that makes it a reach if the Stamps is required to attend. Never hurts to toss your name in for the Stamps. It was a great experience for my daughter even though she didn’t end up one of the final 5 OOS selected. She loved U of O.

2 Likes
19

Another thing about Stamps at UO is that it seems really focused on leadership and that is one of the OP student’s strengths — so maybe worth a try.

2 Likes
20

Yes, the finalists had participated in lots of leadership opportunities which were tied to making an impact on their communities.

1 Like