My parents have said that they would pay for Bama, and I’m really happy with it as my safety.
I would probably pick Bama over other safeties or matches, but I’d rather go to a reach even though I know I have a low chance of getting in, and I still want to apply to more safeties/matches because I don’t know if my feelings will be the same when I actually have to decide. I just don’t know if I should focus on applying to reaches or matches since either way I’ll probably end up at a safety.
Maybe Sewanee (a.k.a. University of The South) would be an appealing match school. It is a drop-dead gorgeous southern school, 90 minutes from Nashville, that is a perfect match for your stats (not a safety but definitely a solid match), and it has had an established collaborative agreement with Vanderbilt for 14 years now. https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2004/04/16/sewanee-and-vanderbilt-sign-agreement-on-collaborations-59682/ Sewanee’s education major gives you a head start on a direct pathway to a masters and teaching credential from Vandy. http://www.sewanee.edu/academics/education/ (Not sure if you’d qualify for merit $ or not, but there are a good number of merit scholarships offered at Sewanee, and the “sticker price” is around 60K which less than the OOS cost of UVA.)
I said this in the last thread but I just want to remind you again (since previously you mentioned it being important)… Greek Life at the Capstone is more expensive than any of the other schools that you are indicating you would apply to. Sorority dues will run $6500-$8000 for first year (just basic fees, not including fun extras like jerseys, zaps, party tees, your badge, etc). If being in a sorority is something you need/want for your college experience at Alabama, then make certain to add that to your COA when talking to your parents.
That being said your stats are strong for your in-state, Alabama and UFla, and possibly Baylor and UGA (but GA is starting to be like UNC and UVA where majority are from in-state and only top from out of state because of their lottery promise), but weaker for Vanderbilt, Brown and UVA.
Wake Forest is very holistic and you could be accepted there if there is an EC or volunteer experience that is a stand out or you write a great essay (they have a thing about service!). My D18 was accepted to Vanderbilt, UVA (OOS), Wm&Mary, URichmond, Furman, but wait-listed at Wake Forest and denied at UNC-Chapel. We visited Wake twice, she had an excellent interview, has great ECs (President of a service club and the environmental club; 6 yr Varsity Letter Swim Team and Sr Captain), she wrote a fantastic (IMO) set of essays (their application is fun but very different-lots of writings!), and she has very strong stats - IB Diploma with Chem HL, ranked 10th out of 352, GPA 4.5wt/3.93uwt, ACT 33, Natl Merit Commended. A friend with lower stats got in ED to Wake; D18 had to apply RD because we needed scholarship (friend could pay). On the other hand, friends with better stats than my D were wait-listed at Vanderbilt … sometimes you just never know what they are looking for and they do like a mix from all states and across all majors.
If Vanderbilt is your dream school you have nothing to lose by applying ED and just seeing what happens. My daughter will be attending Vandy in the fall, in the Peabody school as a double major Chemistry/2ndary Ed and minor in HOD. Good luck to you! If you are concerned at all about parents paying, apply to several that you love and see which ends up being cheaper!
Re: #5
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21089443/#Comment_21089443 indicates that 3.6 GPA and 30 ACT would give automatic full ride at
Tuskegee
Alcorn State
Jackson State
Mississippi Valley State
Prairie View A&M
Verify on school web sites in case of changes.
Texas Tech would waive the out of state portion of your tuition & give you a scholarship to cover almost all of the rest of tuition. Nebraska would likely give you a $14,500 per yr scholarship, bringing tuition down to about $10,000 per yr.
Thanks!
I like Sewanee but I’m not sure if I’d like going to a school that small, but I’ll definitely consider it.
I’m pretty sure I’ll apply to Bama, Illinois, Baylor Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt, and I think I want to apply to at least one other high reach and one other match.
I could apply to an automatic full ride school but I just can’t see myself ever actually going to one of those schools. I could maybe see myself at Nebraska or Texas Tech if I had to though.
Vanderbilt Peabody ED is obvious, since it’s your dream school, but Brown RD or UVA are pointless apps. Find other reaches
Make sure you’re on-board with the religious character at Baylor.
Tulane would be a nice reach.
So they have explicitly stated that the net price of about $31k (increasing in later years) per year ($50k cost of attendance minus the $19k automatic scholarship your stats will earn) is ok and that they will pay all (or all minus direct loan and a few thousand dollars of your work earnings) of that amount? Seems contradictory to them completely refusing to give you any information about what your college budget needs to be.
If they will assure your Alabama with the automatic scholarship is affordable within what they are able and willing to contribute, then it is a safety, and you need not apply to any other school less desirable to you than Alabama. However, if they are unable or unwilling to give any assurance that they can pay for Alabama, then you need to add an automatic full ride safety to your list, just in case.
You can also retry the ACT (for a 33) and SAT (for a 1490) for a bigger automatic scholarship at Alabama (reduces net price to about $25k) and perhaps improve your chances for scholarships at other schools.
If your parents reveal in April that they can contribute $0, would you rather have a full ride at one of those schools, or no affordable college admission offers at all?
If your parents say none of your schools are affordable, would you be ok commuting to a local college /community college, or would you take a gap year?
How about you apply to one or two from Iowa State, Ohio State, Penn State, Mizzou, Truman State? These may not be in the South but they’re safer for you than the other matches you listed.
@MYOS1634, Penn State seems like a wasted, expensive application. OP lives in IL. OOS COA to Penn State is over $50k.
I agree wrt costs… But it’s a safety for Education that op finds more palatable than Illinois. TOSU would also be very expensive and is another possibility. Both Iowa and Iowa State, plus Truman state and Mizzou, would be safeties and would include some scholarships.
UKentucky + Honors college would be another possibility to consider.
If in April my parents suddenly tell me that they will spend $0 on my education, I’d go to community college. But that’s really far from my first choice.
The way they put it, they keep telling me things along the lines of “you can go wherever you want, but you don’t want to be in debt, so you should try to get scholarships.” And then they refuse to get specific about what we can actually afford, so I don’t know.
I like Penn State a lot, so I’ll probably apply there.
Nebraska and Truman State are Midwest Exchange schools, so the baseline price before any merit would be quite affordable. (~30K for Nebraska and an amazing ~20K for Truman State, with additional merit likely at both)
Other possible MSEP schools include all of the U of Wisconsin schools except Madison (Eau Claire is good, but it’s almost Minnesota and that’s kind of not the direction you’re hoping to head in climate-wise, I think, lol)… Kansas State, which I know little about but those with direct experience of it are some of the most enthusiastic fans of a school on CC, Missouri State, and more… but it does seem as if Nebraska and Truman State are the ones that stand out, for your preferences.
Truman State even has an estimated-merit calculator, based on which is looks like your out-of-pocket would be something in the neighborhood of $17/year. This is a stunning deal for a well-respected school. Maybe not a bad thing to have a financial safety like that in your pocket, even if you don’t bother visiting or giving it serious consideration until you knew what your final choices were going to be. You can add it to your Common App for free, with no writing supplement so… just sayin’.
And yes, Sewanee is definitely smaller than the schools you tend to like. Still, between the quintessential southern-college vibe and the pipeline-to-Vandy, it might be worth having in mix as a backup to Vandy and Wake. If you fell in love with it after a visit, great, and if not, go to 'Bama for half the cost. (Or Truman State for 1/3!)
And yes, Tulane and Richmond are still both worth realistic-reach alternatives. But it seems like you have looked at them repeatedly and ended up at “Nah, I don’t love them enough.”
So honestly, it would be a great thought exercise for you to rate all of these school on a how-much-do-I-love-it scale of 1-100, where Vandy is 100 and, say, living at home and going to community college is zero. (Not that it should be zero or would be for someone else - just seems like it is for you.) Put these numbers, and the estimated cost-per year for each, into an Excel spreadsheet, and have it plot the data on a graph for you. (Or do like my generation and use graph paper and a pen, but I digress, lol) Print it out, take a ruler, and draw a nice, thick line through the Vandy and 'Bama data points. Note that you wouldn’t have to love Truman State all that much for it to still fall on or above the lower-cost end off that line. But probably the reason Tulane and Richmond keep falling off the list is that they’re way below the line, as expensive schools you don’t truly love. And that’s okay! No need to waste time and effort on schools that are below that line by more than a small margin. (Except for maybe Sewanee, which maybe hasn’t had a fair chance to earn your love yet, and which could get you to Vandy if the direct-application route doesn’t.) If nothing else, this exercise in using a visual representation of data to aid in decision-making is something you can teach your students someday 
My D who is instate and had similar stats (UW GPA -3.5 around a 4.0 weighted and a 31 ACT) was rejected from UGA.
Keep in mind they op is applying for Education, which is usually an easier major/college to get into.
If you want a semi-solid formula to develop your reach, safety, and target schools, I would recommend taking a look at their 25th percentile, average, and 75th percentile SAT/ACT scores. It will help you get a good idea on what level of people get accepted. From there, you can take a look at rankings (US News or similar) or acceptance rates to develop an idea of what colleges are right for you. Just take it all with a grain of salt–there is no end-all-be-all situation in applying to college.
Also, as some other people have mentioned, keep in mind how much you and your family are willing to spend on college. It can probably help you eliminate many options.
Take into consideration how much you can realistically expect to earn as a new teacher and that some of the best schools of education are at local, “directional” colleges and universities. Where you want to settle after you graduate should be considered as well because schools frequently hire student teachers who are often coming from local programs.
You can see the range of accepted students at all the schools you’re considering (along with a cost breakdown) here:
https://www.collegedata.com/
Penn State isn’t even the preferred school for teachers here in PA; I can’t imagine paying that kind of money out of state unless my parents were richer than God, and the fact that your parents are warning you to avoid debt should tip you off there there ARE limits to what they can pay.
I think the tension is that op wants a prestigious school that also offers education - ‘teacher’s colleges’ are rarely ‘prestigious’. In the previous thread, OP expressed preference for ‘reputable name/prestige’ over attending a cheap or ‘teacher’s college’.
The bigger tension may be the financial uncertainty, since it still is not clear what the OP’s parents can and will pay.
Thanks everyone!
I have this now as an updated list:
Alabama, Illinois, Baylor, Georgia, Florida, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Sewanee, Kansas State, Penn State
But I’m still not sure about it. I don’t know a lot about Sewanee or Kansas State so I really don’t know for sure if I’ll want to apply.