Sorry if this is posted in the wrong spot, this is my first post. Feel free to move it if needed.
I’m a junior in high school interested in pursuing a degree in psychology. I live in California but I would prefer to go to a school out-of-state. I got a 1870 on the SAT but I’m planning on taking it again, and I have a 3.7 unweighted GPA. I’d like a school where students are academically motivated but they also do other things besides studying (but I’m not really a party sort of person). I’d prefer a medium-sized school, so about 5000-20000 students. So far CU Boulder is my top choice since I think I can get in and they have a strong psychology program from what I’ve heard, but the out-of-state tuition is intimidating and I’d like to keep my options open. Is it unrealistic to want to find a school with $20,000 tuition and decent academics? Cost is the most important thing to me, but I’d like to find a school that will transform my life for the better as well. Thanks!
There are lots of colleges that have a strong psychology department, but the thing to remember is that most good to excellent colleges also have good to excellent psychology departments. The other thing to remember is that as an undergrad, you aren’t really choosing a “program”. You are choosing an institution. Even if you major in psychology, you’ll take about 1/3 of your classes in that department and about 2/3 of your classes outside of it. You also have to think about the student body, resources, atmosphere of the college that you attend as well.
Also, if cost is the most important factor to you, you should seriously consider staying in California and attending a CA public university. Out-of-state public universities are very expensive for non-residents and are the least likely to give you any significant financial aid. There are some public universities that give out some merit aid, but with your test scores the amount they will give you is modest (for example, the University of Alabama offers around $4,000 a year to OOS students in the 1200 range on the SAT CR+M. There are many strong Cal State universities that will give you a great education in psychology - like SDSU, SFSU and CSU-N for example. And frankly, the UCs have some of the best psychology departments in the world. They are all excellent - including Merced’s.
But if you really, really want to go out of state, you might consider some public universities in the WUE - where you can get discounted tuition (at most, 150% of resident rates) at universities in the exchange. Some examples of universities in the WUE are Arizona State (their downtown, polytechnic and west campuses); Colorado State; CU Colorado Springs; University of Hawaii-Manoa; Portland State; Western Washington University; and Washington State University.
Also, consider some privates at which you are a competitive student; they might offer you some merit aid and are likely to offer you better financial aid than your average OOS public.
Take a harder look at UC 's and csu 's.
Forget CU Boulder : extremely expensive and not so extraordinary in psychology that I could conceive wasting 120k of your parents’money to go there.
Look at lmu - LA, Chapman, Occidental, uredlands, and run the net price calculator on each.
I second wue and western Washington u in particular. U Wyoming would be a cheap safety similar to csu 's.
As for out of state, look at Clark and their leep scholarship. Run the NPC and see if you’d possibly qualify.
What’s your parents income - under 75k, under 150k, more than 200k?
Your other thread states your dad is out of work and you have limited $ for college. Look in-state, or at the automatic scholarships link on that other thread.
You need to go to a CSU or UC, preferably a UC.
Since money is a big deal, UC Boulder is out.