<p>This post is going to be really long…I have some updates, I guess. </p>
<p>I got my mom to help me use a couple net price calculators, and basically the costs of private schools are alarmingly high compared to the costs of Ohio State (which is affordable, so I don’t see the point in checking at lower-ranked state schools). Apparently my father’s savings will keep me from getting good financial aid, and it’s unlikely I’ll get that money until after he dies. Sometimes he acts as if he’ll help, and sometimes he says he didn’t work all his life just so he could waste his money on me. So he’s pretty inconsistent and I don’t want to have to depend on him too much. (This is just the way he is…we’re not fighting and there’s nothing I can do to make him change.)</p>
<p>So these are my questions, about OSU and probably giant mediocre state schools in general:</p>
<p>a) By the end of senior year I’ll have passed seven AP tests and taken eight college-level classes at another university in Ohio. Will this help me escape from a lot of gigantic intro classes, or do the classes never really get small?</p>
<p>b) Are research opportunities hard to get?</p>
<p>c) I’m essentially spending five years in college because of my full-time dual enrollment senior year, so I’ll probably take graduate-level classes and I hope to do research and internships and such. Will I be able to be competitive at top graduate schools if I start early and work hard and everything? I always read threads about this and some people say undergrad matters and some people say it doesn’t. I worry that I won’t be able to form relationships with faculty because of the size of the school, or that I’ll be overwhelmed all the time. And I realize I might not end up going to grad school.</p>
<p>d) Will I get into the honors program based on my stats here?:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1514251-university-michigan-out-state-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1514251-university-michigan-out-state-chances.html</a>
The Net Price Calculator predicted I would get the Maximus scholarship. </p>
<p>e) Will I have a harder time getting hired outside of Ohio? I don’t want to stay here all my life.</p>
<p>f) Is there really any point in applying to other places? Because applying to selective colleges is a lot of work, with supplement essays and interviews and all, and I don’t see the point of applying to somewhere I couldn’t attend without some kind of miracle.</p>