My daughter is a rising senior in Texas; I posted about a year ago when she received scores from her first ACT. But now it’s time to get serious!
She has taken the SAT once and received a 1470 (770 reading, 700 math) and today received results from her second ACT – 34.
She will be a National Hispanic Scholar, has 4’s and 5’s on the 4 AP tests she took after her freshman and sophomore year (waiting on results from her most recent tests). She will be auto-admit into UT Austin and will definitely apply there; but we haven’t yet explored any other schools.
We will be full pay – and can’t spend more than 35,000/year, including room/board. She is not sure what she wants to study – but not anything in math/science. She’s thinking maybe political science, government, urban studies, etc. She prefers a school in an urban or suburban location – nothing rural or remote; does not want a women’s college;
She would love to spend this summer doing as much college prep stuff as she can since her fall is super busy! – we won’t be able to visit many schools; and she has only visited UT (she did visit Hendrix, Southwestern, and Austin College when her older sister was looking – but did not like those)
Thoughts on a school for an introvert who would prefer a school not centered around Greek life, with an easy commute (either by car or plane) – would need merit, unless total cost would come at or below $35K.
Thanks for all suggestions!
How about SMU, TCU, Baylor, Trinity. Not sure about costs, but with those stats, I bet she qualifies for scholarship! Good luck!
We have friends at the University of Arkansas with similar stats and their children received nice merit scholarships. I think they have some type of agreement with Texas schools? You might check it out!
There are a number of schools that treat NHRP like NMF including Boston University, Northeastern and Fordham University (NYC). I believe there is a link somewhere around here.
Start here:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
and visit the individual school that seems interesting and see if they treat NHRP the same.
Also check out this sub-forum for Hispanic Students: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/
If she likes UT Austin and other Texas automatic admit publics (including for her major), then the college search is a lot less stressful, due to having desirable affordable safeties already.
St. Edwards in Austin? She would be a lock for a Presidential Scholarship of $22K which help get you close to your budgeted amount. https://www.stedwards.edu/admission-financial-aid/undergraduate/new-freshmen/scholarships
About 23% of Texas A&M students are Hispanic.
Consider Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Central Florida University and Florida State University. I believe all of these schools would be under budget for you. I’d also look at the University of Tulsa where your daughter should get a large scholarship for NHRP.
But IMO, it will be hard to beat UT Austin for the price and range of programs. Can she arrange a visit to UT and Trinity very soon? I have heard so many nice things about Trinity if your daughter prefers a smaller school.
Thank you! @txstella - will take a look at those; and I agree - if she gets into the major she wants (she’s not even sure what that is right now) at UT - does she even need to look elsewhere?? We have not visited Trinity, but want to try and get a trip in later this summer. I think she’s feeling like she needs to look out of state at elite private schools, but with UT, I’m not sure if that is really necessary?
@cheerchoirmom Did you run the NPC for schools like Rice? As you realize, keeping the COA to under $35,000 is difficult at private schools.
My son has had a good experience at GW but it would probably cost more than $35,000. My guess is closer to $45,000 under the best scenario. Another school to consider is Fordham for its generous NMF/NHRP scholarships. These scholarships are competitive, but you need to watch the required GPA to keep merit scholarships. I believe Fordham’s GPA requirement is high if I remember correctly.
I would find out about picking majors within the UT College of Liberal Arts and have your daughter look carefully at the offerings and read through the degree plans.
It may be helpful to get more specific about location and climate. Are there places on the east coast or Midwest that are easy enough to get to from home? If she wants a private liberal arts education, her profile might be more unusual and attractive (and therefore garner more $$) if she’s further from Texas. How does she feel about snow?
If UTAustin is her safety, and it suits her as fine, I’d look at the highly selective schools that have merit money, like Duke, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, UCh, Emory, BC, BU, etc. maybe some DC schools like GW and American for great DC possibilities.
A smaller school I really like is Davidson College. Maybe Claremont McKenna if they still have merit money.
@Lynnski - she’s not sure if she would/could go that far from home; she thinks if there is an airport close to the school, she would be fine. We are in the D/FW area, so she has several options for airports close to home. She has never been around snow. In theory, it sounds fun! 
@cptofthehouse - and that’s just it - if UT is a for-sure thing, how much value is there in submitting tons of more applications? But I feel like she needs at least a couple more options, maybe not? I think I’ll have her research the list you sent, and see if there is one or two that she may further want to research. Thanks again!
There is only value in applying to colleges that she may choose over the sure thing safety.
Note that urban studies and international relations are somewhat restricted majors at UT Austin; changing into them has some requirements as listed on departmental web sites:
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/geography/undergraduate/urb/urb.php#adm
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/irg/prospective_students/internal_transfer.php
Other restricted majors in UT Austin College of Liberal Arts are listed here:
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/student-affairs/Prospective/Internal-transfer.php
For a National Hispanic Scholar with 34 ACT, 5’s & 4’s on AP, top 10% of class, preferring mild climate and a reasonable distance from Dallas, no care for Greek life, full pay needing merit, likely humanities or social science major, auto-admit to UT, preference for urban/suburban area … odds are great.
She should focus on Texas for her undergrad, specially UT, Rice, Baylor, A&M, SMU and UTD. Rice is the only highly selective college in Texas so no guarantees there but she should be a shoo in at all others and should get enough merit scholarships as well.
With given data from your post, I think I would go with A& M or Baylor, unless Rice miracle happens with some merit or aid. For that show them some love, write heartfelt essays, visit, email.