Hello! Over the last few months of my junior year, I have been starting to tour schools and form my college list. I have had a really easy time picking reach schools, but I’ve had a lot more trouble finding safety or target schools that are good matches for me. I am looking to major in international relations or political science in college. A major problem for me is cost of these schools. I don’t financially qualify for much need based aid at most schools, but my parents still don’t have enough money to pay full sticker price at any school. Therefore, I will be relying on merit aid for my non reach schools. The safeties/targets that I’ve found so far, besides American and GWU, have all been schools that don’t give merit aid. I really need some help finding more safeties and targets that could be affordable for my family. For reference, I am an NY State Resident (I’ve looked at SUNY Binghamton and Geneseo: both were ok, but I didn’t really like either too much) with a 4.0 GPA and a 1550 SAT score. I also tend to like schools that aren’t too large (over 20,000 students) or too small (under 2,000ish students). Thank you all so much for your help!!
I’d look at Miami of Ohio (guaranteed $20-36k/year for your stats) and Tulane which gives large merit awards (up to $30k/year to a large number of high stats kids).
How much are your parents prepared to pay each year for you?
Would qualify for, say the Rice Incentive? Did you run some sample NPCs on your reach schools? Are your parents willing to pay more for those than less selective schools?
A safety for you would be a college with either of the following:
- Admission assured, list price is affordable.
- Admission and any scholarships needed for affordability are assured.
A college where admission is assured but the scholarships needed for affordability are competitive should be treated as a reach.
In category 1, you may find colleges like SUNYs, Truman State, University of Minnesota - Morris, South Dakota State.
In category 2, you may find publics in Arizona, Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, Wyoming, and other mountain west states; Tuskegee, Prairie View A&M.
@cptofthehouse My parents could probably afford a maximum of about 25-30k a year. I just checked the Rice Initiative and I do qualify for the upper end of it (130–200k). I’ve run the NPC on all of my reach schools. Some would be affordable for my family (ie. Stanford and Princeton), but there are others where the NPC is too high for my family to afford (Yale and UPenn). However, my parents have said that if I got into one of my reach schools they would try to make it work financially.
American and GWU don’t offer much merit aid (up to about $25K) and that would just substitute for need-based aid rather than add to it, so the cost may still be around $50K pa. My S18 with similar stats to you got into both with max merit aid (for polisci/IR), but we couldn’t justify paying that compared to our in-state flagship costs (fortunately we are in CA).
I think you should look further afield. A high stats student who is interested and involved in political science with ECs to match should consider applying for cohort-based programs such as the ones listed here: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2146201-cohort-based-competitive-merit-scholarships-p1.html
They are in no way safeties (though the degree of competition varies significantly), but the level of support in these programs is great (in some cases including introductions within the political world), and what they are looking for in the first place is aligned with what a strong politically engaged student can offer.
GWU considers “level of applicant’s interest”, and American lists it as “very important”, meaning that they do not want to be “safeties” for “overqualified” applicants who are applying to more selective colleges like Georgetown. If you appear to them to be such an applicant, your chance of admission goes down.
Neither GWU nor American are safeties if OP wants to pay no more than $30k a year. I don’t think they are even possibilities. With private colleges running $70k+ a year , we are talking $40k in aid. Just about full tuition awards. Those are not easy for anyone to get. Some serious thinking and discussion about the reach and match schools in order for OP and parents as to which schools they are willing to break the budget.
The safeties are an easier list since, like them or not, the SUNYs are there and even at full price will come under budget. Some other state schools like UMD-CP, USCarolina,have merit money that can bring the price down. Not true safeties because getting that kind of merit, is never a slam dunk, but the OP has the stats to be a strong contender for some of those awards.
Yes, American and GW may be admission matches if OP shows serious interest— his planned majors are a good start, but gonna have to clear them with parents because they are not $30k schools even for the best students. Perhaps Fordham, UDenver, Tulane
A list or googling full ride , full tuition awards is not useful because this is a moving target. You need to check out each school to see if they even give out awards large enough to bring the cost down to affordable level and then what to do to get it. Also if info is current. I’m finding a lot of my standbys are dated and gone. Cc
Tulane, at a 1410-1510 SAT and 31-33 ACT for their 25%-75% ranges, along with a 13% admit rate, I don’t think would be a “safety” for the OP. If the OP shows serious interest, she has wonderful stats and would be a very good candidate for admission to Tulane. I do not have knowledge of Fordham and U. of Denver so I cannot comment on their respective policies regarding applicants who fall in the top 25% of their admit ranges. For Tulane, the OP should be sure to emphasize the highly interdisciplinary approach to undergraduate education, the focus on undergraduate research, and the intense involvement in community service in New Orleans. I would also make specific references to the academic offerings, mentioning departments and even faculty members, as long as the interest is sincere. In the end, congratulations to the OP on amazing academic success. Follow your heart (and your wallet) and you will undoubtedly do great things in life!
Try the U of Miami. My friend’s son received the Stamps Scholarship.
My family member received a full tuition scholarship to GWU, as did a student from our HS. Neither of these awards was based on financial need. GW may state what their maximum merit award is, but what they neglect to say is that they will give more money to those students who they really want.
Is Pitt too big?
Will you have siblings in schools at the same time?
@twogirls Pitt would probably be the largest size I would consider. I do have a younger sibling, but we are 4 years apart: she will enter college the year I graduate.
Take a look at Elon.
On the small side for you but more than 2000 students (and I’m not sure about the merit aid) but Dickinson College is strong in International Studies. Not IR specifically, but it offers different clusters of emphasis that might fill your needs. Might be worth looking into. Dickinson also offers an impressive array of foreign languages (and foreign language houses) for such a small school. I think Dickinson is ambitious about attracting high-stats kids so you might have a good shot at merit aid.
Dickinson is great but will it give $40k in merit money? Wash &Lee, Davidson have the money to give but it’s a long shot to get any.
Yes, I don’t know…but I thought it might be something worth checking out for the OP. I visited the school recently and it’s just buzzing with an emphasis on study abroad, international business, International studies, and global issues in general that seem to permeate many of the majors…
U of Denver offers good merit. Madeline Albright’s father, Josef Korbel, got this school on the map for international studies-
https://www.du.edu/korbel/
Elon’s total cost of attendance is $52,000 a year. If you are an Elon College Fellow, the top award seems to be $13,500 (?) a year. This award, combined with the $5500 student loan that you can use…means that the school comes in at the upper end of what your parents can pay.
Somebody from our HS (same geographic area as you) was in this program and loved it…you seem to be a competitive applicant.
Check out the schools in the “colleges that change lives” consortium. They offer excellent merit aid. Since they are Liberal Arts Colleges they tend to be a bit smaller. Allegheny and Knox offer excellent merit for high stats kids.
The caveats for GW and AU probably apply to UDenver as well (although it is otherwise a good suggestion.)
You may wind up with lower net costs at a SUNY (with more student diversity and broader course selection to boot) than at either UDenver or most of the CTCLs.
See whether your family is in the income range for Colby’s Fair Shot program.