I have a 3.97 unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale, and my weighted GPA is 3.9 as well because I didn’t take any AP or honor classes. Although this year (my senior year) I’m taking three AP classes. My SAT score is 1250 (I’m taking it again in November), and my SAT essay score is 6-5-6. I’m thinking about taking Psychology as a major. I want my safety schools to be in the Northeast part of the US. I live in NJ, my family can afford to pay 10k annually and might have to take loans. So I think less than 20k.
I am applying to NYU, Rutgers, Uni of Washington, UIUC, UC Irvine.
Do you think James Madison and UMass Amherst will be a safety school for me? I’m just scared what if I don’t get into any of the colleges I apply to. Can anybody suggest some good safety schools for me?
Thank you very much to everyone for your time.
So you need to take University of Washington, UIUC, and UC Irvine off your list. You are out of state for those schools, and they will give you little or no aid. UMass-Amherst is likely the same. NYU also gives poor need based aid; you should run the net price calculator on their website. If it isn’t affordable, drop it.
Run the net price calculator at Dickinson and see how it looks. It is a match (they are test optional), and they meet 99% of need.
My guess is you were looking at cost ranges on Naviance and not running the NPCs on each school’s financial aid page, right? I think Naviance is showing what most at that income level who are instate for public colleges would pay.
I don’t think a SUNY would be under $20k for out of state either. Maybe you would get lucky with merit. My understanding is that University at Buffalo has the most available merit.
Have you run the NPCs for other instate public NJ colleges besides Rutgers? Those are going to be your best bet for safety schools.
Not a safety, but University of Rochester might work as a reach… maybe more than a reach. They are test optional and meet full need (as defined by them)
I think that your chances of being accepted at UMass Amherst is very good. However, the chances of it being affordable is probably very low. As such it cannot be a safety because a safety needs to be affordable.
Based on the people that I have known who graduated from Rutgers, I have been very impressed. I think that it is a very good university. Since you are in-state it should be relatively more affordable than most schools, and your GPA should help you a lot in terms of admission. Based on what I see from prepscholar your SAT looks okay for Rutgers also. To me it looks like your most likely choice, and a very good one.
All of the Universities of California are going to be unaffordable for you. Most out of state public schools would also be unaffordable.
Have you tried the net price calculators on all of the New Jersey public universities?
Out of state public universities are unlikely to be affordable, unless you earn their top level merit scholarships, if any. Most of the few remaining ones that do for stats are in the south (and you probably need significantly higher SAT or ACT score for those scholarships).
To be sure you are clear on this, each college has a link to a net price calculator on their website. Usually it is on their financial aid page. You need to run them for every college suggested here. But if you are looking at public schools in states where you are not a resident, the cost is much higher for you as an out of state (OOS) student. Public universities are supported by their state’s taxpayers, so the kids of this taxpayers pay a lot less to attend. Hence suggestions of NJ public’s for you up above.
Some private schools “meet need” or close to it. So if your family is low income, you could get a lot of aid from them. Of course — they are harder to get into. One reason I suggested Dickinson is because they fly a little under the radar because they cover 99% of need (by their definition of “need”), so aren’t on the list of meets need schools. Run their calculator and see how it looks.
You might look at College of the Holy Cross and Vassar as well. Assuming you are female, Bryn Mawr is another one that might work. These are more feasible if you can boost your SAT score, so study as much as you can for it. But Bryn Mawr & Dickinson are test optional, so even if your SAT score doesn’t improve, strongly consider them if the calculator looks good.
I’d run the calculators on every suggestion made, since you really need to rebuild your list with affordable choices. Note that the calculators aren’t as accurate if you have divorced parents, or if they own a small business or rental properties.
Good luck - I know it is tough to find out now that your list isn’t affordable. But you have some time to adjust — better to find out now than in the spring. Come back and tell us what the calculators showed.
I think you have a lot of good advice here. forget NYU and all those OOS public schools, you won’t get enough aids to make it affordable. Please make sure you include all In State publics in your list as they will be the lowest COA. TCNJ NJIT and William Patterson, for example should be on your list. Since psychology most likely need to get more advanced degree, where you go to Undergraduate is not as important.
What to do: You get a great education in your home state that is affordable and after graduating with little to no debit, you can go anywhere in the country to work.
Lots of kids want to go out of state, but can’t because of the cost. You are not alone. Have you run the NPC at College of the Holy Cross, Vassar, Dickinson and Bryn Mawr as @intparent suggested?