<p>This is my first post so please be kind. My D is a rising senior and we are looking for her to apply to 9-10 schools. She is a first time, aa from low-income single parent household who wants to major in animal science or biology but must have animal science classes. Gpa 3.2 unweighted, 3.5 weighted, ACT 22 (she will take again in September, hoping for a 24/25). 4 Honors and 4 APs (this year 2 APs). She did not score well on AP tests this past year. She works 18-22 hrs/wk, manager for girls varsity 2 yrs, 150 volunteer hours, Beta Club, Student Government Treasurer, rides horses and volunteers at stables. Florida resident and she would like a middle to large school with more of a traditional university feel.</p>
<p>So far she is applying to:</p>
<p>Auburn University-her first choice
University of Florida
North Carolina A&T
Barry University
UC Davis (I believe this is a very big reach but she loves California)</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculators on each school?</p>
<p>In particular, UC Davis will meet in-state need with financial aid, but will not cover the $23,000 out-of-state additional tuition with financial aid. For a student from a low income household with federal EFC = $0, the ESC and in-state net price will be about $9,000 (Stafford loan plus work study) per year. However, adding the $23,000 out-of-state additional tuition will give a net price of about $32,000 per year.</p>
<p>Thank you ucbalumnus1 I have. She will get 5k in scholarships through her employment and father’s union. Other than that we are applying to many, many scholarships offered locally, state wise, private, nationally etc…</p>
<p>Can you think of any colleges to add to her list? If she gets into Auburn, I am pretty sure she will go there.</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalum that Davis might not fit the financial bill, particularly when you have to add in travel.
What state are you in? Do any of your state schools have animal sciences? How about neighboring schools, which may have reciprocal tuition discounts?</p>
<p>Other schools to think about (since you seem to be in the South) with good animal science programs would be:
LSU
Mississippi State
Oklahoma State
Tuskeegee
U Georgia</p>
<p>[CollegeData</a> - College 411 - College Match](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml]CollegeData”>College Search & Match with our College Finder | CollegeData) finds only 62 schools that have animal science or agricultural and domestic animal services majors and are large (10,000+ students). However, nearly all of them are non-Florida public schools, which tends to mean limited financial aid, which may be an issue for a low income family – run the net price calculators to see. The only private ones in the list are BYU Idaho (low list price, but said to be the most conservative of the BYU campuses) and Cornell (claims to meet 100% of need, but not realistic for a 3.2 HS GPA / 22 ACT applicant).</p>
<p>With no size preference, the list expands to 137 schools.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! I will tell her to look at the schools mentioned. We have visited Tuskegee and she was not interested at all. She liked the school but not the environment outside of the campus.</p>
<p>Not only that, but I tried searching using words like “animal” and “veterinary” and got no results. Also no results for biological and physical sciences at the bachelor’s level.</p>
<p>Where’s that list of schools with automatic scholarships? Likely that she would ahve to dramatically raise her ACT…hope she is really prepping for it!</p>
<p>Cross-posted: there they are! :)</p>
<p>Has she thought about Berea College at all? It looks like she could put together a major or minor in animal science. It would seem like a great school for her, and her stats are in line. The price can’t be beat.</p>
<p>Can you pay the out of state costs at Auburn? You need to check that. The school does not guarantee to meet the need of all accepted students…and they don’t. Merit aid for OOS students would be highly competitive. </p>
<p>Are you looking at all of the instate options for your daughter? Does she qualify for Bright Futures? As a Florida resident…and if she gets Bright Futures, you will have a hard time matching the costs elsewhere. My guess is she would be a welcome addition to one of the many instate publics in Florida!</p>
<p>The costs for out of state students at most public universities is about double what instate students pay. So…check the costs at these OOS publics on your list and recommended here.</p>
<p>You can try the Net Price Calculators for these schools…and see how they line up. But because you have a non-custodial parent/divorce situation…the NPC may not be totally accurate.</p>
<p>Be aware that most outside scholarships are highly competitive and it’s not uncommon to be shut out completely. Also, many of the more accessible local/state scholarships are only for one year and not renewable and/or have restrictions on which colleges they can be used at (generally IS publics).</p>
<p>UGA doesn’t give much money to in state needy kids, let along out of state kids. I don’t think Auburn is very generous either.</p>
<p>Have you figured out the financial side of this yet? Going out of state is generally cost prohibitive for kids who have financial need and don’t qualify for large institutional merit awards from the University itself.</p>
<p>I think your daughter needs a 29 on her ACT to qualify for the most basic scholarship at AU. (We toured there a few weeks ago.)</p>
<p>This is meant to be taken in the most constructive manner. Your D is an average student. Not a judgement, just the facts based on her stats. She is not going to garner much merit $. So, the plan should be to shoot for as much need based aid as possible. You may find that private schools offer more need $ than the flagship and other publics you are considering.</p>
<p>Consolation- We will check into Berea. I have never heard of it.</p>
<p>thumper1-So far she will qualify for a bright futures scholarship.</p>
<p>entomom- Thanks! So far I have 40 on my list that she could qualify for due to race, major, need etc. We have a few locally that give for 4 yrs. No matter what we will make it happen for her to attend a 4 year that she gets into.</p>
<p>lastminutemom196-Thanks for that on UGA. We toured AU, NC A&T, Clemson and Spelman during spring break. She fell in love with AU. NC A&T will give lots of money based on her current stats and she would be happy there as well.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus-Thank you for all the links and information. You have been extremely helpful.</p>
<p>I am feeling better about this now. I know her major makes looking at colleges harder, as well as her ACT score (which she has been intensely studying) but she really has no other passion in anything else. By the end of this school year she would have taken 5 maths, 5 sciences with labs, 2 years Spanish, 1 year Latin.</p>
<p>I am a single parent not divorced and her father is not in her life but legally she has his union benefits, if this helps anyone’s understanding of the situation.</p>
<p>Check out Prairie View A&M, Florida A&M and other HBCUs especially in the South. If she can improve the test scores she can get automatic scholarships. She may need to strategise to improve gpa because they may count unweighted gpa.</p>
<p>thumper1-She took the SAT and didn’t do well at all. She said she liked the ACT better. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>The truth of the matter is I believe she is more than capable of increasing her ACT to a 26 or 27 if she continues to study the test. She is the type of kid that gets As and Bs with little effort but with significant effort she would be a straight A student and have higher SAT/CT scores. The town we live in is mostly about CC and trade work so she has a very small group of friends who search higher than that. Also I am horrible at Science but great at Math so I can’t really help that much on the science end.</p>