Safety School Suggestions?

College Search & Selection
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You need to find schools that offer merit to great kids like you at your statistical range. Check out the university of Alabama. But also private schools like quinipiac Fairfield. Union providence college st anselms In by Plymouth state in New Hampshire Marquette temple Xavier. Duquesne in Pittsburgh. Also check out a school called Washington and Jefferson in pa. Mt Holyoke in mass. And I just read about university of Mary Washington in va. Been around a long time 4K students and 27k per year on average. So many. Just start the list and get into it. Pick a few states. Start with some names you know and read these threads

You need to chase the merit opportunities The schools all vary in size and vibe but all can be great experiences.

Treat this very seriously. Make a list. Sit at the computer and go through each one. Look at merit options on line if you like the school. Run the calculator on that’s schools site specifically.

Develop a list of 10 to 20 that you love. Look at the admitted student stats and look at realistically. Break them into yes maybe Hail Mary. Look at how much you want to spend on application fees and get to work on your favorites that are. Affordable. Definately a few in each category and do your best.

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If you want to go “out of state” you must go to a private university. Out of state public universities (like UMass, UC Irvine, etc) will not offer you financial aid or enough financial aid to make it affordable for you. However, many private colleges and universities will offer enough financial aid or merit aid. Look for schools within driving distance or accessible by public transportation so you don’t have airline costs.

The good news is that every college has a psychology department.

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“You might look at College of the Holy Cross and Vassar as well.”

For a safety or to apply in general? Seems odd to recommend those colleges as safeties, as others have posted, safeties are typically affordable, local, in-state public universities.

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I’ll second Washington & Jefferson in PA as worthy of looking into as well as trying Dickinson. You could also try Susquehanna, York College of PA, and Franklin & Marshall, but none of these are safeties (esp financially, but some admissions wise too). They’re just worthy of trying.

Have you run your EFC? Is that part affordable for your family? What you think you can afford and what the gov’t feels you can afford are often two different numbers. If you’re ok with your EFC, then look at bit at good need aid schools. If that number is out of reach you’re going to have to really try for merit or consider cc first.

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@autumnleaves1 With your family budget and test scores, unfortunately it will be difficult to find out of state options. As mentioned above, public universities out of state will not offer enough need-based aid to be affordable. Private universities or colleges might be more generous but it will be hard to get below 20K. This is probably not what you want to hear, but it’s good to figure this out now so you have time to identify alternatives.

Is 10K what FAFSA says for your EFC or is that what your parents can afford? If you don’t know your EFC, find out. That is your starting point - it does not mean, however, that is the amount that you will be asked to pay. Often schools bridge the gap between costs of attendance and EFC with loans, not scholarships or grants.

@intparent has given you good advice about how to use Net Price Calculators. Dickinson is a fine liberal arts college in PA with a lot to offer and a great suggestion.

I am helping a friend who lives in NJ with the college application process. Her child is Pell eligible and has very similar GPA, course rigor, and test scores to yours. Here’s what I have learned about financial options on a budget:

Rutgers was the most generous in-state public option we found. However, Rutgers NB has become increasingly competitive. Your SAT places you just below the 25% based on last years admissions statistics. I would consider the other campuses as well.

If your family income is 60K or less, Rutgers-Camden covers full tuition.

https://admissions.camden.rutgers.edu/paying-for-college/bridging-gap

A 1220+ SAT will qualify you for merit scholarships at Stockton and Rowan.

Out of state options:

At U Maine Orono, your stats would earn you the equivalent of their instate tuition (Rutgers) to attend in Maine. Room and board are about 4K less than Rutgers.

https://go.umaine.edu/apply/scholarships/flagship-match/

You might run the numbers for Ithaca College.

Ohio Wesleyan or College of Wooster might be possibilities as well.

Good luck!

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@theloniusmonk In general. The OPs list is pretty much out the window due to cost. They either need to get into a school that meets need (possible if their SAT in Nov is better, and also assuming they are low income — it isn’t entirely clear), find a cheap enough in state public (maybe one they can commute to), or look at the community college route.

The problem with the merit suggestion is that getting down to 10K (or even $10K plus federal loans) is really hard. Like Mount Holyoke won’t get you there on merit. But they might in need based.

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If you really are desperate to go OOS, have a look at the University of New Mexico. You would qualify for the Amigo scholarship (an OOS fee waiver), but total COA would still be ~22k so still over budget.

Another poster up thread mentioned Alabama. Unfortunately, OP wouldn’t be eligible for any merit there. OP would get $5.25k merit from Ole Miss and $8k from West Virginia, but that doesn’t do much in both of their $24k OOS tuitions.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1651944-very-low-cost-oos-coa-universities-less-than-25k-coa-for-everything-p1.html
Have a look at this thread. A fair warning, some of these posters went off of semester tuition, not annual tuition. Another thing to note is that very few are on par with your in-state options like Rowan, Rutgers, TCNJ, Montclair State, with the exception of maybe the South Dakota schools, Minnesota-Morris, Truman State, Wyoming, and BYU (which, as an alumna, I would definitely not recommend unless you happen to be a latter-day saint).

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We would all like college experience that checks off all the boxes; exploration of a new part of the country, amazing academics and cheap. Unfortunately this is unlikely. For budgetary reasons, consider the in-state matches. You can explore the world later…