Suggest me some schools!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm currently a rising senior and I need help with my school list. I have a list in my mind but I haven't done THAT much searching for schools. I can only go to schools in NJ, CT, NY or Mass. (Don't ask) Preferably, schools with good financial aid or tuition (before fin. aid and room/board) is under 20,000 a year. If you could suggest some for me, that'd be great! </p>

<p>Here's my stats and interests and such
Disclaimer: I know my stats aren't wonderful. I'm certainly not aiming for ivy league schools or even schools with low acceptance rates. </p>

<p>My interests are either journalism/writing related majors, or marketing/communications. </p>

<p>I've only taken the SAT and ACT once each; I will re-take in the fall as I think I can do better.
Sat: 1960 combined, Cr+M 1220; 740 writing, 610 math and reading
ACT: 29; 32 reading, 32 english, 27 sci, 26 math</p>

<p>My GPA for sophomore year was only 3.94 weighted. However, I took only one honors class that year, the rest were regents classes. My GPA is, according to my guidance counselor, much higher this year due to my grades and course load, but I don't know what it is yet.</p>

<p>My classes this year were:
AP U.S History
AP Language and Composition
AP Chemistry
French 4 Honors
Alg 2/Trigonometry (Regular)
Newspaper
Band & Marching Band
Photography</p>

<p>I've been on the high honor roll every quarter and have been student of the month multiple times.</p>

<p>EC's
- I work at a library and play a large role there in both adult and children's sections. Also serve on the board of the library (I'm the only non-adult on it.) These two things take up the majority of my non-school time hence I am not involved in that many other activities.
- I volunteer every summer at a church camp, so I've accumulated a lot of hours from that. I also volunteer at a nursing home periodically.
- I'm on the school Newspaper and have been for 3 years now. Am currently copy editor, will most likely be editor in chief next year.
- Completed a journalism-related internship (8 weeks)
- Sign language club- have done several performances at large events in my area completely in ASL
- was on academic challenge/quizbowl 9th and 10th grade- had to leave because I started working in 10th grade
- French National Honors Society
- I've had poetry and essays published in contests and my journalistic writing has been published in local magazines.</p>

<p>Schools I've thought about:
Marist, Trinity, CUNY Baruch (maybe?), Hamilton, Quinnipiac, Fairfield, Boston U, U of Bridgeport and U of Hartford, William Paterson, Vassar?</p>

<p>If you read this far, THANK YOU! I was really hesitant to join C.C and post but I really need help and advice.</p>

2

<p>Hamilton, Vassar and Trinity are excellent LACs and expensive. But they do claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need. You/your family will have to pay some of it, you’ll maybe do work-study, and the school will take care of the remainder through grants and subsidized loans. That’s what they say, at least.</p>

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<p>Yeah, that is why I haven’t ruled them out. Thanks!</p>

4

<p>@vegfry - your stats aren’t as bad as you make them sound. In fact, except in the world of CC, they are pretty damn good. You should have chances at several excellent schools, and it is a shame you are geographically restricted or you would have many more, but it happens. I am assuming you have ruled out your state school? Which one(s) would that be? Also, not that I think it should be that much of a factor in your decision making, but what major are you considering?</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks! I’m a NY student, and I’m considering either journalism or marketing/communications. </p>

6

<p>Syracuse and Boston U apparently have very good Journalism programs. If you could get aid to help cut their per-year price in half(ish), you’d be in range of your $20k budget. To boot, both are decent all-around schools, so if you changed your mind – which happens to a lot of students during this time of exploration – you’d have plenty of options.</p>

<p>An additional point in favor of Boston U (aside from being in Boston…) is that it is part of that Boston Consortium… so you could take some classes at schools like Wellesley, Boston College, Tufts, and Brandeis. Pretty neat.</p>

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<p>Huh, I didn’t know that about Boston U. That is pretty neat. Good point about how they are all-around decent schools; I can be a little indecisive and I like schools that have at least some leeway in terms of majors.</p>

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<p>check it out:</p>

<p><a href=“Boston Area Consortia (Cross Registration) | Office of the University Registrar”>http://www.bu.edu/reg/registration/cross-registration/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@prezbucky hit it pretty much on the head, I think @vegfry. Syracuse might be tough to get into, because (I think) the competition to get into their journalism school is much tougher than for the school overall. Along with Columbia U and University of Missouri, they are considered the top journalism programs in the country, along with a couple way out west (USC and ASU). But worth a try for you for sure. I am less familiar with the BU program, I don’t think it carries the prestige of those others, but frankly that is neither here nor there. It is a very good school overall and I am sure the J school program is strong, even if not as famous. And Boston is a GREAT college town.</p>

<p>If I think of other schools in your geographic area that are decent choices, I’ll post back. Are any of the SUNY schools known for a decent journalism program?</p>

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<p>OP, each school has a net price calculator. Gather your parents’ financial information and plug into the NPC all the data they ask for. It will provide you with a fair estimate of what each school will cost your family. There’s no way for us to know what schools will only? cost your family $20K. I strongly suggest looking at your state universities first to find out what they can offer you. </p>

<p>It isn’t where you go that matters (esp in marketing) so much as what and how well you do there and where you summer intern.</p>

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<p>Check out the SUNYs</p>

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<p>“Along with Columbia U and University of Missouri, they are considered the top journalism programs in the country, along with a couple way out west (USC and ASU).”</p>

<p><em>cough</em> Northwestern <em>cough</em></p>

<p>For the OP: Considering that even the grads of elite J-schools like Mizzou currently have trouble landing anything but low-paying jobs where they can barely support themselves (if they find anything at all), my advice to you, if you are intent on journalism/communications/writing, with your stats, is to just find the lowest-cost school. I’m not too familiar with the region, but something like the Maryville University (which is in StL) of the Northeast (Maryville has an automatic $14K scholarship for an SAT of 1250–I assume M/V–bringing cost down to about $11K). If you keep costs to $10K/year, you can tell your parents that you saved $40K which you’d like to bank for a master’s at a more renown 1-year program later on.</p>

<p>I had in mind SUNY-New Paltz (which brands itself as SUNY’s liberal arts college), though their cost (without aid) seems to be $17K.</p>

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<p>How about Holy Cross in Worcester? or Fordham in NYC? Fordham gets pretty creative with financial aid if they want you. Fairfield, too. Hobart and Roger Williams? St. Lawrence?</p>

<p>I think you should go for it with Syracuse. Even as good as Newhouse is, your stats are decent and it may be do-able. </p>

<p>Northeastern does a lot with co-ops so that is an opportunity to earn money to pay for school.</p>

<p>The whole scholarship/financial aid thing is a total crap shoot so you have to give it a try and see what comes out in the mix.</p>

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<p>@PurpleTitan - my total bad. Of course Northwestern, at least as good as any of them. Just a brain freeze on the fly. Apologies. Also great school overall, to say the least.</p>

<p>@grandscheme - I was also thinking Fordham but wanted to check out their journalism or communications major, if they even have one. You have any insight there? I hadn’t thought about Northeastern for this, but it is an interesting thought. St. Lawrence is way up in the boonies near the Canadian border. Charming school (we actually visited on our way back from seeing McGill), but not sure how strong it is for this kind of student. Hard to say, certainly easy enough for him to look into.</p>

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<p>@fallenchemist‌:</p>

<p>I was just joshing ya.</p>

<p>As for Northeastern, I’d be a little wary of the co-op there because they evidently charge you tuition even when you are on co-op, so even kids who get scholarships and work during co-op manage to graduate with a good amount of debt.</p>

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<p>@PurpleTitan‌ - Oh, I know you weren’t upset, but it was an oversight on my part.</p>

<p>If that is true about Northeastern, then it is something to check on before going in. But of course, one should have a pretty firm grasp of total cost to degree and resulting debt, if any, for every school being considered. No doubt that NE’s fairly unique co-op strategy is another wrinkle.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys, I got a lot of useful info from this. @purpletitan I agree with you about not spending much on the bachelor’s if I go into that field. I’ll definitely look into SUNYs, I just have to research which one(s) are best for those majors. @Fallenchemist to my knowledge Fordham doesn’t have a Journalism major per se but their strongest related program is the communications and media studies major. That might be worth a look.</p>

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<p>@PurpleTitan‌ Northeastern does not charge you tuition when you are not taking classes. This is why many people opt to do co-op because they can earn money while getting experience in the field. You will, however, have to pay for room and board wherever you do decide to do your co-op at. It has one of the most strongest co-ops in the country, but I’m not sure how it applies to journalism. One guy who writes for my local newspaper did journalism and went to Northeastern, but I’m not sure how good their program is. On the flip side NEU does offer some good merit scholarships (up to 25,000 for the most exceptional) and that combined with need based aid may help cover some of your costs. Again, not sure about their journalism program though, but I imagine with co-op will allow you to work at some unique places in Boston.</p>

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<p>I echo the thought about being absolutely sure you want to do journalism before you enter the field, as it can be quite expensive and competitive to find a job. It seems like it is a strength of yours, but you may also want to combine it with another degree you mentioned such as marketing, in which case you should also look into the strengths of that school in the field.</p>

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<p>@PurpleTitan; Northeastern does NOT charge tuition while on coop. You should do some research before posting your comments.</p>