Starting the College Search

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello everyone, I am a brand new member to this forum but I have seen some very useful posts in my recent browsing. The time has come for me to wholeheartedly begin the college search. Any input as far as colleges to consider or advice on things to do to get accepted in more places is greatly appreciated. I am currently a junior at a public school in PA with interests in three business majors, finance, actuarial science, logistics (supply-chain managment). My qualifications are as follows:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.7 (w), expected graduate in 3.8 range
3.5 (uw), also expected to rise</p>

<p>Honors/AP classes:
Honors Algebra II (B's) 10th
AP English (B's) 11th
Honors Trig. Pre-Calc (A's) 11th
AP Statistics 12th
AP Economics 12th
Honors Accounting II 12th</p>

<p>In my freshman year Spanish II hurt my GPA significantly with two C's and a D. Passed Latin I, and on route to pass Latin II with B's (Latin III scheduled for 12th grade). Other than Spanish II I have never gotten lower than a B in any course. I have taken multiple business courses so far which led to an interest in a business major.</p>

<p>SAT:
560 Critical Reading
540 Math
530 Writing
1100, 1630</p>

<p>SAT results are below my personal standards and were taken once so far with no preparation whatsoever. I am signed up to take them May 5th, and already have begun studying in multiple SAT prep books. Aiming for a 1200, and 1800ish.</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
National Honor Society Member
Math League
4 year varsity lacrosse team (3 as a starter)
4 year inline hockey
Latin Club
Spanish Club
20hr/week part time job @ BestBuy. Hours cut during lacrosse season</p>

<p>Class Rank: Top 20%, a figure that is outdated, will check asap</p>

<p>Attendance: 2 days absent, none in junior year</p>

<p>If any more information would allow for better input I would be more than happy to add it. Overall I am just looking for some colleges to consider as well as tips to help me until I begin applying in the fall. I have looked at Penn State so far and have a good bit of interest in it, but don't hesitate to throw any college out there. Looking to become a 6 figure man someday so I will definitely continue to work very hard. Thank You</p>

2

<p>Have you talked with your parents about how they expect you to pay for your education? You need to know now what your budget limits are.</p>

3

<p>They’ve told me as long as I get the grades they will make it work, I will most likely take out student loans, as well as pay my parents back whatever they provide me</p>

4

<p>Have you visited any colleges, even local ones that you aren’t really considering, just to get an idea of what you you and what is important to you?</p>

5

<p>Welcome to the forum.</p>

<p>The first thing you have to do is figure out what you are looking for in a college. I would recommend that you go here first.</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)</p>

<p>It will give you a starter list. When you get this list, begin to research some of the schools on it. Your criteria may change over time, and if they do, you can change your search.</p>

<p>Then (though you can do this first) visit a few schools – What you should try to determine is what do you want. Big school, small school, urban, rural suburban. Modern architecture, more classic. etc. etc. etc.</p>

<p>If youre Northeast, btw, Boston is a good place to look. (Sadilly’s idea of visiting local ones is excellent, btw). At this early stage, you may not even consider the actual colleges you visit, but you should try to detemine what appeals to you, so you can make your list work accordingly.</p>

6

<p>I did the college search, and it ended up giving me a lot of results. Also, it didn’t really deal with anything post college such as job placement and starting salaries etc. I have yet to visit a college, but plan on doing so in the summer.</p>

7

<p>See if the colleges you’re considering post the names of employers who interview there. Or after you’ve narrowed down your search, call the placement office and see if they can provide this informtion.</p>

<p>Some schools make this available, some don’t.</p>

8

<p>The main general criteria I have seen regurgitated in this forum for selecting a college are:

  1. Affordability - can you realistically afford to pay for these schools? Only you and your parents can determine this as financial ability varies significantly from family to family. You can start by looking up some of the Net Price Calculators (NPC) on the schools’ website - they’re required by law to have one posted. Keep in mind WHEN those figures correspond to. Some have been known to be a couple years outdated so tuition may have increased over those years and now and it may also increase from this year to the next, when you plan on applying for. If you plan on using loans then you will be limited on Federal Stafford loans: $5500 for Freshman year, 6500 Soph, 7500 Jr and Sr. So $27,000 total over 4 years.</p>

<p>As soon as you can after January 1st of the year you apply, go online and file the FAFSA so you can determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) as determined by the Gov’t that will signify if you are eligible for need-based grants such as Pell. So between Jan 1 and whenever applications are due you can narrow or eliminate from your list some schools that might have been questionably affordable. A different type of EFC determination is made by private institutions for institutional need-based aid (grants and scholarships given directly from the school).</p>

<p>It may be suggested to save as much as you can from your part-time job (and possible summer work) to go towards your educational expenses like books, food, transportation - not just tuition - that should all be indicated in the NPCs mentioned earlier. Another way to minimize college cost is living at home vs living in dorms or in your own place. If your parents are willing to let you live for free at home whole going to school, then that saves you a bundle on living costs and possibly even food.</p>

<p>Do you know if you want to stay in state, or are you willing to go somewhere else in the country? This will mostly affect your financial situation as public out-of -state (OOS) is more expensive than in-state (IS), as well as public vs private.</p>

<p>Once you’ve been accepted to schools, and you’ve done all your research thoroughly, it will take about 5 minutes after you receive their proposed Financial Aid awards to determine if you can afford that school or not.</p>

<p>It is strongly ill-advised to take out private or PLUS loans to fund an undergraduate education. It is a hard fact for students to come to grips with, but you are setting yourself up for financial hardship if you do not carefully tread the student debt waters. Try to accept this now if you konw that you may not be able to afford your dream school, though it would still be worth applying to see if they will give you enough intitutional need-based aid.</p>

<p>Meet full need schools are also worth looking into if cost is the biggest factor. A list of them can be googled. Be advised that schools that claim to meet full need can still do so by applying student loans to your FA package as well as any scholarships. Uusally you don’t get a scholarship ON TOP OF your FA award - it is included so it takes away from the gap the school will try to fill between your EFC (determined by FAFSA or them) and the Cost of Attendance (COA) that you can also find on the NPCs or listed on the school’s website.</p>

<ol>
<li> Fit - Would you want to go there? In the early stages scour the websites and get as much information as you can about the schools that you’re interested in. If it may help, create a list, matrix, or folders (like I did) that list out the pros and cons of each school, the application requirements (like a checklist to make sure none were missed if they use different application systems like Common App vs school’s website), and programs you’re interested in. THIS GOES FOR SAFETIES AS WELL. It’s mentioned far too often on this forum that a student was not accpeted to any of their “matches” or “reaches” and have to settle on their safety eventhough they know they will not be happy there. This may be attributable to the fact that they are just overall dissapointed that they did not get into their dream school/s, and many eventually learn to like their safety, but a word to the wise would be not to even apply if you REALLY would not want to go there.</li>
</ol>

<p>Compare the schools. Try to contact current students, faculty, and visit if the distance is feasible and not a financial burden. You can try emailing the faculty as some schools post their email addresses online. A lot of this can be done before you file your FAFSA, but again, you may be able to narrow your choices once you get that financial awareness.</p>

<p>You may also take into account if you would want to end up working in the area of which you attended college, or if you plan to move to another location for work. Sometimes it can be determined that graduates find work locally more easily than they do throughout the country, but this will mostly be determined by major respective to that area. For example, engineering majors in Silicon Valley may find easier work in that field for attending school there and finance majors will be the same in New York.</p>

<p>Find out if you want to live and work in PA after school. It’s also easier to get summer internships if you can stay in the area where you attend school for the summers as well as during the schol year.</p>

<p>Other factors to look at: school size (both geographically and in population), student services (career center, computer labs, cafeteria/meal halls, clubs), academic opportunities (research options, study abroad, faculty contact and collaboration, alumni outreach, campus recruiting), and religious affiliation, if it matters to you.</p>

<p>IMO, you are compettitive for many schools and the 1 D won’t hurt you. I too had a D in French II my Sophomore year and I was accepted to all but 1 school that I applied to. Besides, your continuing Latin reflects a commitment to still learn in that area. Increasing your SAT scores can make you more competitive, but those scores are premature for where you are is HS currently, though I think some schools require you to submit all your scores taken as opposed to the most recent, so pay attention to their application requirements if they specify this or not.</p>

<p>UPenn may be on your radar, but you may also be interested in Carnagie Mellon University. CMU is known a little more for it’s sciences, but I’d bet doing Business there will be respectable as well (Tepper School of Business).</p>

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<p>wrxsti95 -</p>

<p>It is good that your parents want to make your education possible, but do try to get a dollar figure out of them. There are big differences in how much colleges can cost, and you don’t want to be looking for scholarships at the last minute next year!</p>

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<p>Wow thank you everyone for your information. I did consider CMU as an option, but it seems as way too far of a reach for me. A figure they said was 40k, but I previously questioned about CMU and they said if I get in they will pay. Also, relatives are willing to help pay especially for CMU.</p>

11

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<p>It may be a reach for you now, but this may change in the future depending on your more recent SAT scores and some other factors. I would suggest to still keep it in mind if you mildly or significantly improve your SAT and/or GPA, then you can make the decision if it is worth applying (spending the $ on the app fee vs how lickely of a shot at acceptance you have), and then if you’re accpeted you can wait for the FA offer to see how it compares to your other acceptances.</p>

<p>I chose not to apply to Stanford because it was twice as much $ as any other application I was submitting and felt it may not have been worth it based on my chances, but I kept it on my list up until the app was due because it fit the above criteria.</p>

12

<p>Would taking AP Government or AP English my senior year have a large enough impact to get me into a better school such as CMU compared to PSU/Pitt.</p>

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<p>^It certainly wouldn’t hurt your chances. I would be careful not to overload on APs in an single year as you’ve signified planning on taking a few in Senior year already (depending on academic commitment needed for each). If you think you can handle it, then by all means. You should also always be focusing on ECs. Have you thought about looking into a business related internship during the coming summer to be able to put it on applications come Fall/Winter next academic year? Or starting a business related club next year? Starting the club might be a hit or miss since you would only have it’s first year to do something with it, but if you feel you can meet a certain goal or accomplishment, then it may reflect positively in applications.</p>

14

<p>Your SATs appear a bit low for CMU</p>

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<p>

This has already been established, but since the OP is a Junior currently and is scheduled to retake them next month, then IMO it’s almost the same as saying they haven’t taken them yet. If they study great and/or overall apply themselves better, then there leaves room for tremendous improvement. Until they retake they won’t know if CMU is out for the count or not.</p>

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<p>SATs seem to be low for UPittsburgh and PSU.</p>

<p>If you are interested in business you may want to check out James Madison U. A little easier to get in to than PSU and very affordable for business.</p>

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<p>An increase of about 100 in each section would put the OP in the 75th percentile for PSU and UPitt.</p>

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<p>Even with increased SAT scores I don’t believe I can reach CMU standards. Although I intend to give it my best shot, it doesn’t seem to be in the cards</p>

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<p>^You would know this best.</p>

<p>UPitt and PSU have great programs with an affordable cost.</p>

20

<p>Work on those SATs. If you get them in the 1200/1800 range you will have no trouble getting into Pitt and will probably also get into PSU. Temple is a potential safety for you.</p>